Welcome to the neighborhood! Some helpful advice for would-be gentrification whores

By Paul on Wed, Aug 8, 2007 6:11 pm

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We're sure you already saw this story in the papers today - the Herald, as has long been promised, is selling off its newsroom and physical plant and heading for the hills. (Some say downtown, but aren't the rents a little high? Isn't saving money the whole point of this thing?)

Obviously, there's nothing overly shocking about the news, given the dismal newspaper climate we're all, masochistically, living though. What is surprising is how quickly, and quietly, inevitability came to fruition.

And what we're really floored by is this last paragraph from the Globe's writeup: "Other developers are also looking at the neighborhood. A city official who requested anonymity because no official action has been taken said developers have shown the Boston Redevelopment Authority a preliminary proposal at a neighboring site, at 275 Albany St., to build a 25-story complex with 290 housing units and a 150-room hotel." The Herald story talks about "We mixed use development" on "a terrific gateway location."

Now here's the thing. Both Herald Square and 275 Albany can be seen from the filthy windows at Dig HQ. Our windows are filthy because the neighborhood is filthy. And yeah, SoWa is wicked hot now and all. Several people have been conned into buying million-dollar condos down here. But trust us: the place is a shithole. Literally. It's not unusual to see human waste puddling on the streets. If the trash on Albany street is ankle-deep, it's a good day. You know that big self-storage place with the whales on the side of it? That's our neighbor. It abuts both up-and-coming properties. The other day, somebody over here looked out the window and caught sight of a dude talking a dump in their parking lot. Just, you know, squatting and whatever. No big deal.

I'm not trying to shit all over our neighborhood. (Other people do that quite nicely.) I love where we work. And I'm sure that the top floors of whatever monstrosities eventually get built next door will have some stunning views of the South End and Back Bay. They'll also, however, have eyefuls of the traffic and car fires clogging the Expressway, the rail yard that lies beyond that, the Pike, which borders the Herald's property, the Pine Street Inn and the dudes lying on the sidewalk next to the shelter, and the hugenormous billboard that I'm staring at right now. It ain't a pretty sight.

The would-be developers' thinking, I assume, is that the neighborhood's changing, and in ten years, everything will be shiny and new. Hell, maybe we can ship all the homeless out to Long Island, bury this stretch of I-93, and replace it with some shiny new parks. At the very least, the developers seem to assume that, not only will the old Teradyne building across the street get flipped, developed, and filled up, but that Columbus Center will get built, and spawn more decked Pike development to cap the chasm that lies between Herald Square and the rest of town. I don't know about you, but if I'm in the market for a new condo or some office space, if given the choice between John Hynes's waterfront properties or a building that's hemmed in by the Pike and the Expressway... it doesn't seem to be much of a choice.