Menino's idea of a green Government Center!
Nov 20, 2008 16:29
First, the
Mayor tried the "let's move City Hall to revitalize
the waterfront" trick. But people want to keep
access to their government building; and anyway, it's
well known that office buildings don't exactly liven
up a neighborhood. Now, he's trying the
sure-fire environmental ploy: "let's make it a
green redevelopment
district." The real
purpose of this move? As Menino's BRA
uber-"planner" Kairos Shen says, it's to "unlock
the development potential of the middle of
downtown" -- that is, to replace Govt. Center with
profitable private towers. But Menino gave
City Hall Plaza to the Boston Redevelopment
Authority, free of charge, in 1996, so it's the
BRA's bloated bureaucracy that will collect the
fat land-lease profits from developers --- while
the taxpayers pay to dismantle the huge concrete
bunker and build his new palace elsewhere.
In sum, Menino is doing land clearance at
public expense, to benefit the BRA and the
real-estate developers who profit from its magic
zoning. He feeds the BRA; it feeds his
favorite developers. There will indeed be lots of
green in this district, but who will be getting
it?
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