Ready or Not, More Major Towers May Mean More Traffic

How will our city look in 10 years?

We might think things change slowly, but if you look at photos of Boston in 2001 and in 2011, you see lots of changes. There's been an influx of residential housing and mid-rise and high-rise office towers. And more are on the way.

At least 20, and possibly more towers will spring up in and around the Back Bay. Let's break it down: 

• Two new towers on the
• Two new towers on the
• New towers at
• The tower
• A student dormitory rising about the YMCA in the Fenway, and the massive, billion-dollar Fenway Center project. 

To see how all this comes together, see the map on right, or click here for a larger version. 

Traffic

How our quality of life will be affected is the obvious question. Traffic, for me, is the number one concern, even above shadows and wind.

I don’t own a car but the effect on all of us of congestion caused by cars is clear. Our streets aren’t built for the additional pressure that new residential and commercial development will bring. Sidewalks need to be widened, streets need to be flattened. Why are there puddles of water at the curbs wherever there are crosswalks?

The subway is already overburdened, even on a good day. Our public transportation system must become more reliable. The actual journey on the subway isn’t unpleasant but the inconsistency of schedules and the bunching of trains are what bother people the most. And seem easiest to fix.

Access to the major highways should be improved. Yes, if you build more roads then the demand will grow, exponentially. But, the traffic is already there. A new plan is needed and, since many of the roads are owned by the state or state-run agencies (e.g., Massachusetts Turnpike Authority), a “regional” plan is needed.

I’m sure I’ll be dead long before it’s done, but the Bowker Overpass near Storrow Drive and access to and from the Mass Pike must be improved. If traffic can be re-routed off the main streets of the Back Bay, by going under and/or around the neighborhood, we’ll be better off.

Traffic should be moved off Storrow Drive and onto the Mass Pike. The existing off-ramp at Prudential works but what about another east-bound off-ramp to Chinatown and a west-bound off-ramp from the Pike to the Fenway / Back Bay, perhaps near the new Fenway Center? (There is the “slingshot” at the Allston/Brighton tolls but I don’t think anyone knows about it and fewer people use it.)

Housing

Finally, if residents truly want students out of their neighborhoods then they need to accept (high-rise) dormitories built all around the city. Just this week, hundreds of challenging Northeastern’s plans to build a 720-bed dorm off Huntington Ave. Letting Northeastern build would go a long way to resolving the issues that neighbors have with the school.

It’s an “either-or” situation. Either you accept new dorms or you accept kids in the neighborhood; there’s no other choice. (I fear what residents truly want is for the colleges to stop expanding.)

I like residential towers being built, and not for the obvious reason that I can make commissions. To me, residential housing reflects a growing city, one where people want to live. I want to encourage that so that we're moving forward, not stopped in time.

But, we need to work to persuade people to consider neighborhoods outside the Back Bay and Boston Proper. Today, it's nearly impossible to convince new arrivals to even look at rental and condo properties in the outer boroughs. Residential developments for dense housing in neighborhoods such as South Boston and Dorchester should be promoted. Projects such as these are a logical way to grow the city while not putting additional pressure on the downtown neighborhoods.

In my opinion, the city seemed ill-prepared for the changes it endured during the past decade. We've gained more than 10 percent in population since 2000 and we're bursting at the seams. If we're going to continue to grow, and I think we will, we need to plan now for the future.