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Volume CCXXXVI, Number 152 December 22, 2006 

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Back to the Future:

MENINO PLANS
TO REDO HUB

By Alvin T. Fuller
Boston Bureau Chief

BOSTON, Mass. – Eager to leave his mark on the city that he serves as Mayor for Life, Boston's syntactically-challenged supremo has embarked on his boldest urban-renewal initiative since his unsuccessful effort to save the Enchanted Village.

The mayor, fed up with endless complaints about the brutal, uncomfortable City Hall and bleak windswept plaza foisted on Boston by an earlier generation of redevelopment geniuses, now proposes to blow up the whole thing and start again.

Under Menino's plan, a new City Hall would be built at the far end of the South Boston waterfront, accessible only by the Toonerville Trolley known as the Silver Line. At least he'd get a water view.

But the boldest and most controversial aspect of his plan is the future of the urban wasteland he'd be leaving behind.  The enormous parcel, located at the heart of downtown and the confluence of the city's four real transit lines, is perfectly suited for dense urban development. It would doubtlessly fetch enough jack to pay for Menino's new palace on the waterfront, even accounting for the 30% of the cost of any Boston-area project allocated to commissions, bribes, no-show jobs and repairs of collapsing ceilings.

The Mayor believes that City Hall Plaza should be torn up brick by miserable brick and replaced with an urban grid of narrow streets. Under his rendering, Hanover Street would once again extend to Cambridge Street and Washington Street into Congress Street. Sources close to the Mayor explain that rebuilding the city blocks would allow for a pedestrian-friendly warren of narrow streets lined with small stores and restaurants.

Explained one Boston Redevelopment Authority planner: "The real genius of the Mayor's schemes is that the new construction would be mostly four and five story buildings that would house retail on the ground floor but have room upstairs for moderately-priced offices and apartments."

"This would ensure a steady flow of foot traffic at all hours and contribute to the feeling of urban vitality we associate with the North End," the planner continued. "Our studies show that traffic moving slowly on narrow streets actually helps pedestrians feel safer and improves customer access to the stores and restaurants lining the street." The planners are considering widening Cambridge Street near the current Government Center T station to emphasize the importance of the urban node. They also may move the bunkerlike station entrance to a simpler open staircase in the center of the new square.

BRA officials and the Mayor's office promise that the new buildings would eschew the dismal stained concrete panels that mar the current Government Center behemoths. "Instead, we'd expect the new structures to exhibit a variety of building styles, many featuring brownstone facades and mansard roofs," the planner said.

But some of the new buildings would be on a larger scale. "We expect to put out tenders for new moderate-price hotels and theatres, to make sure the area is busy at night," said one source in Menino's office.  "There could also be room for fast-food restaurants that would be open 24 hours a day," mused City Hall insider Joe N. Nemaugh.

Planners are still wrestling with the fate of City Hall, unloved by all except a few architectural windbags responsible for the brutalist-concrete structures that mar the streetscape of Boston and Cambridge. Some suggest that the structure should be blown up. "That would be wicked awesome," said Dorchester resident James T. Burke, as he hurried across the plaza to escape a bitter December wind.

Others, however, want to explore possibly reusing the building. "City Hall could be used to house a series of small stores, restaurants and nightclubs. In addition, the City Council chamber could be rebuilt as a theater/cabaret for live entertainment," said BRA planning director Ole Howard. "We could even use such a theater to attract more visits from U.S. and foreign navies, which would pump more money into the economy."

Among the many questions planners must debate is what to call the bustling new neighborhood once City Hall and its uninhabitable plaza are no more. Some have suggested naming the area "Kelly Square," in honor, and soon to be in memory of, moribund rock-thrower and City Council President Jimmy Kelly.

Others, recalling the revolting racial attack on Boston executive Ted Landsmark on City Hall Plaza at the hands of Kelly's mouth-breathing acolytes, suggest that the city should "hide the ball" by coming up with a name that rhymes with Kelly Square. "If anyone has any ideas, even just a sort of rhyme, let us know," Howard said.