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liberal_hack t1_j2cph62 wrote

Reply to comment by Yak_Rodeo in This fight near Shawmut Station doesn’t bode well for easing Boston’s housing shortage - The Boston Globe by soxandpatriots1

Building housing helps the middle class. Restricted housing just leads to highest bidders getting limited stock, pricing out people down the income scale disproportionately.

We shouldn’t arbitrarily decide what size city we want, we should just build enough housing to meet the demand. Otherwise people end up priced out and suffering low quality of life with long commutes.

We could build 150,000 units and still be nowhere near a “metropolis”. If every one of those got filled we’d still only be the 18th most populous city in the country.

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Yak_Rodeo t1_j2cpv89 wrote

because city land is far smaller than most other cities in the country, we are like the 8th biggest metro

i never said that i am against building housing, just that a blanket “build” policy is not conducive to building neighborhoods and communities. the seaport is a perfect example of building soulless neighborhoods

take care of boston residents before enticing more and more biotech and life science startups here

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Codspear t1_j2d7es4 wrote

> i never said that i am against building housing, just that a blanket “build” policy is not conducive to building neighborhoods and communities. the seaport is a perfect example of building soulless neighborhoods.

Nearly all of Boston was built out under a blanket build policy. Ever notice how cities in the Northeast suddenly had housing shortages and stopped growing right after they instituted zoning laws? What if zoning laws were implemented in 1890 instead and Boston was stuck at half its current size but at twice the price? What if everything south of Melnea Cass was single-family housing only instead of the neighborhood you know now? Would that have been better? And if it wouldn’t be, how do you know that where your neighborhood is now is the best it could be? Why wasn’t it better when it was only farms?

Also, the Seaport was centrally planned by the city under community-directed zoning. Boston prioritized jobs back then because it was still largely working class in the 90’s. Seaport is intentionally a second downtown. That’s what was voted for.

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