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Some places are building this. Assembly Row in Somerville is a prime example. Usually it's called transit oriented planning.

asmithmd1 10y ago
I have walked around assembly row and it isn't terrible but it certainly doesn't feel like downtown Boston. Check out what standing at the intersection of Grand Union Blvd and Artisan Way feels like: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3948862,-71.081131,3a,75y,117.79h,86.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sV_lg0VZpTEZqZ_VnM6JsAg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1 https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3948862,-71.081131,3a,75y,11...
- djrogers 10y ago
  >I have walked around assembly row and it isn't terrible but it certainly doesn't feel like downtown Boston. A new development shouldn't feel like the downtown from one of the oldest cities in the country. Age, architecture, construction materials, land and building re-use, and about a thousand other things can't be faked. That doesn't mean they didn't build with these principles in mind.
- drivers99 10y ago
  So one side of the street is big box stored with giant parking lots, and the other side is parking garages with 1st floor businesses. Looks 1000% for cars and not transit.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    I wouldn't conclude much from that development which is largely a retail and restaurant development in a long rundown industrial area (former Ford plant). [1] It was basically cut off from most of Sommerville by highways. There was long a plan to put an Ikea there but there was a lot of pushback from various groups and Ikea eventually walked. Much of Sommerville away from the highways is essentially a gentrifying, historically somewhat downmarket, version of Cambridge. Generally low-rise houses and some condo complexes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_Square https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_Square
- drumdance 10y ago
  That feels like it could be anywhere. I was in Boston last weekend in the Copley Square area, which I liked very much but my impression is it's very expensive.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    Most of Boston is very expensive--and certainly the Back Bay. (Which is actually urban planning on landfill from the late 1800s--hence the streets that don't look like cow paths.) The new development (including highrises) is mostly clustered around the Seaport but that's actually apparently even more expensive these days.
MiddleEndian 10y ago
I honestly don't get the appeal of Assembly Row. It reminds me of Bellevue, WA or the new developments in northern Virginia. Sprawling parking lots and boring outlets. Not really what I want the Boston area to become.

asmithmd1 10y ago

I have walked around assembly row and it isn't terrible but it certainly doesn't feel like downtown Boston. Check out what standing at the intersection of Grand Union Blvd and Artisan Way feels like: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3948862,-71.081131,3a,75y,117.79h,86.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sV_lg0VZpTEZqZ_VnM6JsAg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1 https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3948862,-71.081131,3a,75y,11...

djrogers 10y ago
>I have walked around assembly row and it isn't terrible but it certainly doesn't feel like downtown Boston. A new development shouldn't feel like the downtown from one of the oldest cities in the country. Age, architecture, construction materials, land and building re-use, and about a thousand other things can't be faked. That doesn't mean they didn't build with these principles in mind.
drivers99 10y ago
So one side of the street is big box stored with giant parking lots, and the other side is parking garages with 1st floor businesses. Looks 1000% for cars and not transit.
- ghaff 10y ago
  I wouldn't conclude much from that development which is largely a retail and restaurant development in a long rundown industrial area (former Ford plant). [1] It was basically cut off from most of Sommerville by highways. There was long a plan to put an Ikea there but there was a lot of pushback from various groups and Ikea eventually walked. Much of Sommerville away from the highways is essentially a gentrifying, historically somewhat downmarket, version of Cambridge. Generally low-rise houses and some condo complexes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_Square https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_Square
drumdance 10y ago
That feels like it could be anywhere. I was in Boston last weekend in the Copley Square area, which I liked very much but my impression is it's very expensive.
- ghaff 10y ago
  Most of Boston is very expensive--and certainly the Back Bay. (Which is actually urban planning on landfill from the late 1800s--hence the streets that don't look like cow paths.) The new development (including highrises) is mostly clustered around the Seaport but that's actually apparently even more expensive these days.

MiddleEndian 10y ago

I honestly don't get the appeal of Assembly Row. It reminds me of Bellevue, WA or the new developments in northern Virginia. Sprawling parking lots and boring outlets. Not really what I want the Boston area to become.