Stories We’re Following

VIDEO: Conservation Law Foundation Discusses Challenge to Downtown Waterfront Municipal Harbor Plan

Peter Shelley of the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) provided an update on the non-profit’s legal challenge to the Downtown Waterfront Municipal Harbor Plan. After the State approved the Municipal Harbor Plan last year, CLF and abutting Harbor Towers, filed separate lawsuits to challenge the plan’s legality. After reviewing the history and intended MHP scope, Shelley and CLF are highlighting three specific concerns.

→Source: North End Waterfront

City Announces New Capital Funding For Cutillo Park Study, North End Library and Columbus Playground

The city funding is dedicated to public community spaces. It is worth noting that all three new projects respond to needs highlighted by local residents through various non-profit “Friends” groups, such as the recently formed Friends of Cutillo Park, Friends of the North End Branch Library and Friends of Christopher Columbus Park.

→Source: North End Waterfront

Beyond the glass box: Architecture in the Seaport is just starting to get interesting

A little over two years ago, developer Michael Phillips told architect David Manfredi to his face that the biggest liability of Boston’s Seaport District was “uninspiring architecture.” … [T]here have been similar critiques for years that the Seaport is full of cold, glass boxes — and it’s starting to be more openly discussed. At least some of the developers of the remaining blocks of property in the neighborhood aim to tackle the critique head-on.

→Source: Boston Business Journal

Non-Profit The Harborkeepers Begin Year Of Boston Harbor Cleanups

Community activists helped to clean up Boston Harbor’s coastline this weekend. The Harborkeepers, a non-profit, began their year of cleanups Saturday at LoPresti Park in East Boston.

→Source: WBZ NewsRadio

7 American cities that could disappear by 2100

One in six homes in Boston, Massachusetts could be flooded regularly by the turn of the century. … NOAA has also said there’s a near-certain likelihood that Boston will see at least one flood above 6 feet by 2050.

→Source: Business Insider

Public, but hidden: Boston needs to call out its secret spaces

Privately owned public spaces: What could be more oxymoronic? But Boston is full of seemingly public places — like Post Office Square Park, or the popular “adult playground” called the Lawn on D — that are actually controlled by private developers who can restrict them at will. And there are many seemingly private spaces — like office lobbies and rooftop decks — that are actually open to all. Welcome to the ad hoc, hodgepodge, public-use puzzle that is Boston.

→Source: The Boston Globe

City sets out a ‘bold vision’ for Moakley Park

The Moakley Park of the future would include a new berm to protect against coastal flooding, the elimination of the section of Day Boulevard that runs along Carson Beach, and the creation of a new track and football stadium under a conceptual plan unveiled by city of Boston officials and presented by representatives of its design team last Thursday during a community meeting in South Boston.

→Source: Dorchester Reporter

Seaport ferries get a boost

Nonprofit Boston Harbor Now is gearing up to pitch state officials on Thursday about two ferry routes: one linking several inner harbor docks, including Fan Pier in the Seaport, and the other making a beeline for Quincy. All this is good news for the traffic-congested Seaport. The South Boston Waterfront has been served by just a single commuter boat, one that visits only a few times a day. The additional service could bring hundreds of additional commuters daily over water, instead of by car or bus.

→Source: The Boston Globe

Public meeting to focus on Moakley Park ‘vision plan’

The fourth community meeting for the Moakley Park Vision Plan, scheduled for Thurs., March 21 in South Boston, will feature a “concept” plan and a discussion of what comes next toward implementation, according to city officials. In three previous sessions, community members were invited to help re-design the park by identifying how they use it and what features they would like to see at the site. The final meeting will deal with the final concept and invite the public to give feedback.

→Source: Dorchester Reporter

$25 million in private funds to help build waterfront park in SF’s Bayview

One of San Francisco’s long-elusive recreational goals — a large and lively waterfront park on the city’s southeastern edge — is $25 million closer to becoming reality. The grant from the John Pritzker Family Fund, a local foundation, will pay for environmental remediation as well as design and partial construction of an 8-acre park along India Basin, in the Bayview district.

→Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Recurring events