BandA wrote:Boston 2024 was going to build a stadium in Widet Circle. Commuter rail is supposed to build storage tracks in Widet Circle. Both using eminent domain or purchase of private parcels. Was wondering how both were going to happen.
Well, theoretically you can pack underneath the deck with any transit goodies you want. Train storage. Combine Cabot + Albany + Southampton garages into one bus super-yard for strictly storage purposes, then have a proper maint building with lifts and whatnot in the sunlight a block away down Haul Road. Or a little bit of both big bus storage and big train storage. Seriously...you could store 400 buses and a Readville's (12 layup tracks) worth of nuthin but circle-T logo vehicles neat and tidy under the deck of JUST the Food Market properties inside the loop track. We haven't even breached the subject of the BTD lot acreage and all the other nooks and crannies. As long as there's ventilation stacks strategically placed up top it's potentially the best of all worlds to have yard storage tucked underneath, development all on top.
That wasn't what they were planning. There was absolutely no thought whatsoever to how they were gonna do it. They thought they could do all parking on the lower level...not figuring out exactly how one was supposed to get that insane a number of cars in and out of there via that dank little access road. They shoved all the decking costs on the single developer they wanted to build the entire site, making it so that it would take 20 years or longer to recoup the up-front money. In a
good economy, nevermind periodic bad ones. Which scared away any potential developers from taking on the risk. They never even inquired with MassDOT if that massive undergrade easement sweetened the vehicle storage pot enough that they'd be willing to underwrite some of the decking cost to defray some of the risk. Especially when some of the properties they'd be consolidating under there, like Albany garage, are worth big $$$ for redevelopment...and horse-trading property for easements + decking money moves enough liquid assets around to get the decking job done at little sunk cost and little risk. But absolutely no one posed that question.
They thought they could deck over the entirety of Cabot Yard, including the Red Line maint buildings that stick up
above the would-be deck level. It said nothing about exactly where Red Line maintenance was going to be done with said decking (and oh, BTW, all this was gonna dump a kajillion new Red riders on Broadway and SS...so Red kind of needs optimal maint facilities to be up to that task). It said nothing about how they were going to replace the maint functions of Cabot garage. Or the commuter rail building. They thought of nothing but pretty pictures on PowerPoints. And it convinced no one and was one of the primary reasons for the bid's downfall.
BIG inter-institution communication failure here. And I'd lay the blame primarily with Boston 2024, City Hall, the BRA, and absolute bupkis steering from the State House. MassDOT had the liquidity to offer to close the funding gaps. But it's not their responsibility to step forward and initiate. They have no self-interest to be Boston 2024's savior. But somebody coming to them and talking deal? Hell...for the vehicle storage they could get under that deck, modernized facilities they could get, money they could get for redev parcels like Albany, and political capital they could net by being the saviors of the Olympics offering tradeable assets at
no net loss...yeah, you better believe they're gonna listen and think deadly seriously about playing their leverage for a win (or, rather, win-win).
But nobody asked.
That's everything you need to know about what bubble Boston 2024 was living in. They had no awareness of the world outside their clubby circle. And this lack of awareness failed them...hard.
