March 10, 2022 | less than a minute read

A plan for East Boston is great. But we need one for downtown too!

Get in touch

Jeff Porter

Member/ Chair, Environmental Law Practice

Get in touch

Jeff Porter

Member/ Chair, Environmental Law Practice

Kudos to Shirley Leung of The Boston Globe for concisely recounting the past 15 years of Boston waterfront planning, where it has and hasn't gotten us, and where we need to get in the foreseeable future. Mayor Wu has great aspirations for our entire City. Hopefully she will be able to soon build and manage the resources necessary to develop and implement transformational 21st century waterfront plans for the entire City that meet those aspirations.

For those keeping score at home, developer Don Chiofaro has been trying to redevelop the Harbor Garage since 2007. Everyone agrees the hulking building must go, but three of the last four mayors have been unhappy with Chiofaro’s billion-dollar-plus proposal to put a soaring tower so close to the water’s edge. But this isn’t about Chiofaro. Far from it. This is about how government should be able to deliver both. This is about how neighborhoods shouldn’t be pitted against each other. This is about real estate investors remaining bullish on Boston rather backing away because development becomes unpredictable.