The second annual Curbed Boston Cup, our award for the Hub neighborhood of the year, is under way with our original field of 16 whittled down to the Elite Eight. We'll have one match-up a day this week 'til Friday, and voting for each pairing ends after 24 hours. Let the eliminations continue!
Now the last match-up in Round 2: Somerville vs. Charlestown.
Somerville handily dispatched Allston in the first round. The win was largely due to 2012 realities like SomerVision, the 20-year master plan for the city introduced in May, with its plans for 6,000 new homes. Or the ground-breaking for the Green Line extension to both Union Square and Medford. Or! Mayor Joseph Curtatone's April call for techies and hipsters to move to town.
Will it, though, be enough to eke past Charlestown, which scored an upset over No. 2 the North End in Round 1? For Charlestown, 2012 might be remembered as the year that Whole Foods said it was coming to (the) town. Indeed, the chi-chi food emporium represents the sort of line-in-the-sand-drawing that residents either love or loathe. Also, in March, news dropped that the former Terminal Storage Building at 267 Medford was—after 17 years of wrangling—becoming apartments. That wasn't the only big development announcement in Charlestown. Check out Warren Green and what's happening at Parcel 39A.
· SomerVision Sees 6,000 New Homes, Lots of Green Line Riders [Curbed Boston]
· The Green Line Extension Is Really Happening [Curbed Boston]
· Somerville to Board Tech Train as Mayor Praises 'Hipsters' [Curbed Boston]
· When Whole Foods Comes to Town [Curbed Boston]
· New Charlestown Apartment Building 17 Years in the Making [Curbed Boston]
· A Big Dig Deal in Charlestown: 17 Condos, One Public Park [Curbed Boston]
· Charlestown Navy Yard's New Civil War-Friendly Apt. Building [Curbed Boston]
· Our Curbed Cup 2012 archive [Curbed Boston]