Boston 2024 officials are outlining their "Bid 2.0" version of the proposed 2024 Olympics in Massachusetts. Current Boston 2024 Chairman Steve Pagliuca says the plan still calls for buying out the existing businesses in Widett Circle and building a temporary stadium there - and then turning the land after the games over to a private developer, who would build a whole new transit-oriented development with 4,000 apartments.
Pagliuca says the plan will mean lots of new tax revenue for the city - and 590 units of affordable housing and 15 acres of new parkland.
US Rep. Steve Lynch has vowed to fight the Widett Circle proposal.
Pagliuca estimated a budget of about $5 billion, which he said could be covered entirely privately. However, he said that does not include the $1.2-billion cost of a "pad" on which to build the Widett Circle stadium. He said that's considered an "economic development" cost, not an Olympic cost, because it would be assumed by the developer given the land for rebuilding after the Olympics. He said there's a similar issue with the proposed Olympic Village at Columbia Point, which would be left as 3,000 apartments and about 1,000 dorm rooms for UMass Boston.
The budget also does not include roughly $760 million in upgrades to the T and roads - such as Kosciuszko Circle in Dorchester - that the state has yet to budget for.
Architect's rendering of proposed Midtown neighborhood in 2044:
Franklin Park will still get horsey events and the Pentathlon, but pentathletes will have to go elsewhere for their swimming race - after residents complained nobody was asking for a pool in Franklin Park, Boston 2024 took that out of its plans.
Boston 2024 CEO Richard Davey said the T should be able to handle the anticipated Olympics load based on already planned improvements in cars and signaling on the Red, Orange and Green lines. However, he called for a new commuter-rail station at Widett Circle and is still counting on upgrades to the JFK/UMass Red Line stop that the state has not planned for.
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Are you serious? Have you
By Citygirl
Mon, 06/29/2015 - 3:04pm
Are you serious? Have you been to the rotary at rush hour down there? You can't get anywhere near it. It will ruin that whole area for local residents.I would like to know where South Boston's local elected officials are on all of this. I have not heard a word from Senator Forry or Rep. Collins. Are they in favor of the stadium and the massive development at Moakley Park?
Traffic is a bogus reason to oppose development next to a T stop
By Ron Newman
Mon, 06/29/2015 - 4:53pm
Something should be built on all that vacant land. Whether the Olympics are the best way to achieve this, I'm not sure, but it makes no sense to have parking lots and empty land surrounding the station.
As I said earlier, I have no objection to a "land grab" if it will genuinely improve the neighborhood without displacing any residents or businesses.
Joe Moakley Park is all you got.
By anon
Mon, 06/29/2015 - 5:49pm
And that is staying put, despite cavalier thoughts to the contrary from Somerville Auslanders.
This is what Citygirl is talking about, bless her. It speaks volumes to the 2024 stupidity and is also a neat concentric pattern. https://goo.gl/maps/bco1W
I was there in late April to cover the last part of Harborwalk from Castle Island to the Dorchester Border.
If that vicious, crazy intersection was a rafting element it would probably be a class 5 rapids traverse. I'm speaking as a pedestrian. I have no idea how mush it most suck for everyone else, bikes, cars, trucks, you name it.
When I encountered it and thought about 2024, it was a striking instance of rich asshole bubble think.
You can figure it out, with some study, but feeding hapless auslanders into its maw would be cruel
By "empty land" I didn't mean Moakley Park
By Ron Newman
Mon, 06/29/2015 - 9:17pm
I mean the ex-Bayside Expo center and its adjoining parking lots, the Star Market parking lot, the vacant TV and radio station buildings between Star Market and the Globe, the parking lot in front of the T station, etc. etc.
There's no such thing as "empty land" here.
By anon
Tue, 06/30/2015 - 2:20am
U Mass owns it and may already have something in the works.This may be the parcel set that has a project approved and signed off.
It was a source of early hilarity over at BMG that 2024 seized on it like a grasped straw without a sense of its provenance, so you aren't the only one in the dark.
The wiki entry looks like it's been sleazily goosed by 2024 to make it seem like it's really theirs. With luck someone at No2024 ou UMB can fix that weasel sleazery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayside_Expo_Center
What do you want to bet that grand assumptions about land parcels are probably useless because everything is spoken for?
UMass would beg to differ.
Source https://www.umb.edu/the_university/masterplan/bayside
It's not the worst piece of
By chaosjake
Mon, 06/29/2015 - 5:27pm
It's not the worst piece of urban planning I've ever seen, but I don't love it either. If you look at the renderings, it's a lot like the South Boston Waterfront... Lots of big towers, not much human-sized detail at street level.
Man! I got dizzy just
By The Fox 915
Mon, 06/29/2015 - 4:00pm
Man! I got dizzy just scrolling all the way down to the end of the comments!
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