Paul McMorrow, who writes for the Globe and CommonWealth Magazine, is a very smart guy. He sees what Boston needs to do to truly embrace an innovative urban culture, rather than just paying lip service to it. And that's what he does in today's Globe, discussing the importance of residential development downtown (specifically the new 600-foot Millenium tower), which is kind of a no-brainer. But he also has a good point about the opportunity to build really big down there, for one reason: no residents means no old cranks to complain about shadows. Let's take the chance to get as much approved as we can down there, before there are people living in these tall buildings, who decide to complain about the addition of other tall buildings (a la Harbor Towers residents deciding their 400 foot towers are just great, but any other new towers would be terrible).
He is right about this, but he should be careful about being so sure it will work. I remember going to a public meeting about a tower at the Government Center garage, which is in a total no-man's land, and it was filled with Beacon Hill and North End residents who were acting as if a large building there would ruin their lives, even though they lived about a mile away.
No comments:
Post a Comment