This morning Bob Oakes started reading copy on wbur's Morning Edition reporting on Menino's idea to sell City Hall and City Hall Plaza. The plan was outlined at a breakfast meeting today (and missed the print dailies deadlines) with the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. It would be excellent to see the brick and concrete wasteland that is City Hall and the Plaza disappear – but what then would Boston residents have to complain about? Fashion and the T are starters.
The Herald put up a web bit and the AP tossed a story on the wire with more details. Menino's proposal would sell the current Plaza parcel – likely to a buyer who would raze City Hall and construct something a little more attractive to civic and commercial interests. The seat of Boston government would relocate to the waterfront in the City owned location the Bank of America Pavillion now leases. Just yesterday, Bostonist was wondering if the ICA opening was going to be the catalyst that will spur a real boon to the seaport district – Menino thinks building a City Hall there will secure that fate. We'll agree completely with the Mayor – the corner office overlooking the harbor and the Boston skyline would be quite a reward for the fifth term after spending his first four gazing out on Center Plaza and the JFK federal building.
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Rebuild Scollay Square!
The Mayor's office actually looks out on the Quincy Market and the Harbor.
City Hall itself has actually grown on me. I think the main problem is that the plaza is completely dysfunctional.
It seems like a shame to bulldoze part of our history just because we don't like it at the moment. (Isn't that what happened there in the first place?!) Just like the area surrounding the Prudential was very uninviting when it was built, that has since been improved. The current location of City Hall is very accessible, both to residents and to the other government buildings in the area. I think the focus should be revitalizing that plaza: adding benches, trees, and perhaps a fountain... places where people want to actually sit and relax. Get some pushcarts in there like there used to be. It just needs more things to pull people in.
I would say if you're going to bulldoze the whole thing, including City Hall, build a new one in the same location, but make it a place which is actually pedestrian friendly and do whatever possible to eliminate the vast windswept wasteland that is there now.