It can seem that everything that’s going on locally—and certainly nationally and globally—is bad or negative.
But there is plenty to be optimistic about in the Boston area as the calendar flips from 2018 to 2019. Here are 11 things.
Construction galore
The region Boston region continues to host a wave of new condo and apartment development.
That’s positive news for prospective buyers and tenants hunting in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets. The only real way that costs are going to come down significantly is if there’s more market-rate supply to satiate demand.
All together now
In early October 2018, leaders of 15 municipalities in the region—including those in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, and Medford—announced a joint effort to facilitate the construction of tens of thousands of new homes at different price points during the next 10 years.
Such regional cooperation is essential if the Boston area is to address its housing shortage. Besides, Boston proper by itself hosted a near-majority of new-housing permits in 2017—not a good look for a region with dozens of municipalities.
A more equitable, faster, and modern T
There is a push afoot to reduce T fares for the region’s less affluent riders, something that would make the region’s mass transit that much more user-friendly.
And the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority added 282 bus trips per week starting in September 2018 to boost transportation options for riders who work late, in particular lower-wage workers trying to get back and forth from Logan Airport.
Meanwhile, the MBTA is also putting in place a tap-and-go fare system similar to the one in London that is designed to speed up entering and exiting. And! The T is set to get a slew of modern trains, starting with the Red Line, and that long-(long-)awaited extension of the Green Line through Somerville.
Monuments to diversity
Boston is moving forward with a monument to one-time resident Martin Luther King Jr., and Cambridge is advancing a monument to women who helped pass the 19th Amendment granting suffrage regardless of gender.
The efforts are timely reminders of both the region’s demographic diversity and its positive progress in embracing that.
Decent sidewalks for all
Boston is committing millions to fixing up sidewalks in areas of the city where they’ve been neglected. A 2018 analysis, for instance, found that 65 percent of Roxbury and Dorchester sidewalks were in no better than fair condition. In downtown Boston and Back Bay, 68 percent of sidewalks were in good condition.
The so-called sidewalk equity push is likely to spill over into surrounding municipalities as the sometimes overlooked conveyances get their due.
Boston City Hall Plaza reset
Speaking of streetscape renovations, perhaps the biggest of them all is due to get underway in downtown Boston during 2018-2019 winter. The city is overhauling its much-maligned City Hall Plaza with plans that include a seasonal fountain and tree-shaded gathering spots.
The city also intends to renovate the North Side entrance of City Hall, which has been off-limits to the public since just after the turn of the century.
Recycle, reuse: Boston garages edition
The public and private sectors are re-purposing several Boston garages, often as titanic mixed-use developments that include housing.
Perhaps the most prominent of these garage conversions is the 690-foot tower underway at the former site of the Winthrop Square Garage (rendered above). That spire will be one of the city’s 10 tallest buildings when it’s finished in 2022, and, along with the others, it will be proof positive that old Boston buildings can learn new tricks.
A downtown rezoning that prioritizes people
The Boston Planning & Development Agency in the spring of 2018 launched an approximately two-year initiative to devise a new master zoning plan for downtown Boston that will emphasize public space, affordable housing, and transportation. Imagine that.
The plan is also an acknowledgement of how much downtown Boston has changed in the past few decades—for the better, in most cases.
Bike-shares go boom
When 2018 started, there was one bike-share option in the Boston area aside from the odd pilot program: Blue Bikes. At the end of the year, Blue Bikes was but one of a handful of bike-share options in the region.
New arrivals such as LimeBike and Ant Bicycle dropped thousands of new vehicles in Greater Boston—never mind new technology such as pedal-assisted electric bikes and dockless bikes (those you can lock and unlock with an app, and leave pretty much anywhere).
Meanwhile, Blue Bikes announced a major expansion set to really get going in 2019.
We didn’t land the Amazon HQ
Face it: The arrival of a ginormous new campus for the e-commerce colossus and the resultant influx of tens of thousands of new residents would have further strained the region’s already-strained infrastructure.
Plus, the housing market is competitive enough as it is. And look at how New York City is turning itself in knots over the subsidies and sweeteners that elected officials engineered to land Amazon in the first place.
Besides, it’s not like the Boston region doesn’t already have its share of Amazon employees.
We’re part of the national conversation
On myriad matters—climate change, business relocations; heck, pro soccer—the Boston region is very much on people’s minds, here and elsewhere. Nearly a quarter of a millennium after we got the whole America ball rolling, we’re still relevant.
- Where to cry in public in the Boston area, mapped [Curbed Boston]
- Boston housing prices: Why they’re so high [Curbed Boston]
- Boston developments to watch in 2019: 11 key ones, mapped [Curbed Boston]
- Boston’s best idea of 2018: Build new homes, and lots of ‘em! [Curbed Boston]
- Reduced fares for the T idea receives boost from New York City [Curbed Boston]
- Boston area’s late-night bus service extended to aid off-hour workers [Curbed Boston]
- Boston’s Logan Airport: The ultimate guide [Curbed Boston]
- All-electronic fare collection on the T: MBTA moving toward London model [Curbed Boston]
- Red Line replacement: MBTA to phase out current cars [Curbed Boston]
- Green Line extension groundbreaking signals monumental project on its way [Curbed Boston]
- Bike-sharing boomed in the Boston area in 2018 [Curbed Boston]
- Boston bike-shares: A guide to the rides in the city and its surrounding region [Curbed Boston]
- Boston sidewalk repairs to focus on previously underserved neighborhoods [Curbed Boston]
- Boston City Hall Plaza overhaul to include seasonal fountain, trees [Curbed Boston]
- Boston developments to watch in 2019: 11 key ones, mapped [Curbed Boston]
- Boston’s parking garages are becoming a thing of the city’s past [Curbed Boston]
- Downtown Boston master zoning plan to prioritize transit, affordable housing, open space [Curbed Boston]
- Boston’s Martin Luther King Jr. memorial will include Boston Common monument [Curbed Boston]
- Yawkey Way to become Jersey Street again following city commission’s vote [Curbed Boston]
- Cambridge monument to women’s suffrage movement gains momentum [Curbed Boston]
- Amazon’s second headquarters not coming to Boston and that’s okay [Curbed Boston]
- Amazon’s HQ2 deal with NYC, explained [Curbed NY]
- New Boston development rules aim to mitigate climate change effects [Curbed Boston]
- North America’s World Cup win revives talk of Boston soccer stadium [Curbed Boston]
- Boston Revolutionary War monuments: 11 key ones, mapped [Curbed Boston]