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Can Locals Make 'Wharf District' Happen as a Neighborhood?

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The Wharf District. Ever hear of it? No. Well, some of its residents are trying to change that. The roughly half-mile swath of waterfront from Long Wharf to the new Atlantic Wharf complex, westward over the Rose Kennedy Greenway into about one block of downtown Boston, has come into its own, they say. Developments like the Harbor Towers and Rowes Wharf, both luxury condos, plus new businesses, including restaurants, spurred the creation last year of a neighborhood association, the Wharf District Council.

"We in many ways are still working on our mission statement and vision,” Justin Wyner, a council leader who lives at 20 Rowes Wharf, told The Herald's Greg Turner. "What we have learned is that the neighborhood is growing as a real neighborhood ... for both residents and workers in the area."

The council's biggest marketing target so far is Broad Street, which it wants to remake as a restaurant row not associated in the public's mind with the Financial District.

Chef Jason Santos recently agreed to start plugging the “Wharf District” brand for Blue Inc., a restaurant he opened seven months ago on the Greenway end of Broad Street. That echoes an eatery’s marketing stunt that turned part of Downtown Crossing into the Ladder District in 2001. “Truthfully I don’t care either way,” said the blue-haired Hell’s Kitchen runner-up, “but I think it’s a little more eloquent than the Financial District.”

What'd you think?

Poll results

· Waterfront Pulls Together [Herald]

[the India Wharf area]