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With GE moving to town, city might be able to find $100 million to fix the Northern Avenue Bridge
By adamg on Wed, 01/20/2016 - 12:12am
Vague talk about doing something about the rusted out old Northern Avenue Bridge one of these years has suddenly become a more focused goal of city officials now that GE is moving to the South Boston Waterfront; the Globe reports officials made fixing the bridge part of their pitch to GE and seem confident they can come up with the money to fix it up.
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Comments
We've heard this before
Except it was the T instead of a bridge...
"oh we'll fix it"
Gee and the article was even written by Shirley Leung.. we could almost replace "GE" with "Olympics" and "Bridge" with "MBTA" and it would read the same.
How about GE use some of those big tax break savings they got to fund it themselves. Oh wait, then moving here wouldn't be as attractive.
So we're at what.. ~300 million in tax breaks and "promises to fix" things so far for GE
Edit; And before folks jump on me, I'm well aware that bridge would make a great bike/pedestrian crossway (as it was before, but rebuilt) and I agree that it should be fixed but once again city leaders, rather than just doing it for the sake of doing it, they are grouping it with a development promise for a private entity.
A few tax breaks are worth
A few tax breaks are worth adding hundreds of jobs.
ummm
600 jobs.. 300 of those will be moved up from CT.
Then of course 200 jobs will be lost by a GE plant that is closing (or has closed) in Avon.. so the state has only netted 100 new jobs.
Wake me up when we are adding 1-2k new jobs....
Very few companies have the
Very few companies have the capacity to create 1-2 thousand new jobs in any one location. That's just not how it works. But you have to start somewhere. The more companies (and universities) we have the better our economy will be.
Yes
However, 130mil = 433k per job (using my 300 'new' job number from above). That's just excessive and plain old corporate welfare plain and simple.
How does that improve or economy? it doesn't. You'd have an argument there if all 600 jobs are new jobs, but it's not.
I also feel that 1k is very achievable. Look at some of the rapidly expanding tech companies here in MA.. I just read HubSpot and Wayfair are expanding rapidly. They will produce MORE jobs than GE will, way more. And that's just two companies.
it seems no one is happy about this, right, left and center.
That's nice, imo. Spread the word, GE should help pay for things.
Spend less on ped only bridge
Restoring existing bridge is ridiculous, and I work for a firm that would get probably get shortlisted.
Knock it down and spend $15 mil on a nice fixed , higher, bike and pedestrian bridge. Spend rest of $85 million on public transit.
Also, anyone who thinks it should carry cars again has never looked at a map of the area. Right turn only access into the problem road. And 93 will still back up onto Moakley. The car discussion is not worth debating... If we widened the 93 tunnel to 12 lanes, your still stopped in Somerville or Dorchester. It's the choke points stupid!
ONABridge is worth keeping!...
No. Demolishing that bridge would be shortsighted, and Mis/uniformed. It has tremendous character and should be restored for pedestrians, cyclists and HOV service, and as an access centerpiece on the Boston Harborwalk. There.
Here's a suggestion
All those who believe that this rusted hulk of scrap iron that is unsafe to use as a bridge has tremendous character and historic value - why don't YOU raise the money to restore it.
Oh wait. much better to put it on the government's dime, or to extort money from a private company to do the work.
Funny how we had no problem demolishing a useful elevated highway (and spent a huge amount of money building its replacement) that represented a historically significant period in highway construction because people considered it a blight, but now we want to spend money restoring an old bridge that will serve little, if any, valuable purpose and is clearly a blight because somebody considers it historically significant.
Hey! Long Island Bridge? Guys
Hey! Long Island Bridge? Guys?! Hey!
Don't you wish
homeless could get millions in relief and a new bridge to Long Island. Sorry, too bad you didn't go to some Connecticut country day school instead of BPS.
What you said
My thoughts exactly. Is this really the most important infrastructure project that might get funded?
Sorry.
The homeless don't rate.
Long Island
Put the homeless shelter and methadone clinics next to GE's headquarters and you will see how fast they come up with money to build a bridge to Long Island.
Maybe homeless can sleep under GE's bridge
as a consolation prize for not getting the Long Island bridge, and pols get to claim they did something for them.
But-but-but- evil
But-but-but- evil nontaxpaying corporations!!!
Wait, you mean GE coming here might be a good thing? Wow, who'd have thought? </sarcasm>
$100,000,000
The building GE is moving into probably didn't even cost that much. For context, the entire Brighton Landing development (including the commuter rail station) is expected to be $500 million.
Too bad GE employees didnt
Too bad GE employees didnt want to take the T to work, then Charlie and Walsh might have invested some money in public transit. GE said they wanted to move from the burbs to the city, but they seem to want the city to resemble the car-centric burbs.
bridge to nowhere
it would be nice to see this bridge preserved. How about leasing the space that holds the decrepit building on pilings for a restaurant or club to help fund the bridge? Also, vehicles coming off the bridge can only go right on Atlantic to where?
Seaport Blvd Bridge
The Seaport Blvd bridge is right next to the Northern Ave bridge and has a high capacity. It handles all the traffic (only backs up because of the ramps to 93 on the greenway). This *new* bridge removed the need for the Northern Ave bridge to carry vehicles.
Evelyn Moakley Bridge
The haters call it the Seaport Blvd Bridge.
It never ceases to amaze me what really motivates
city officials to find an extra $100 million when they have to find an extra $100 million. Hope they can deliver on their promise.
Oh well, just gut further some of the programs that help the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill, substance abusers and the like - few will notice, few will care.
A cunning entrepreneur would convert that Bridge
into Condos.
An article in Yale Daily News
An article in Yale Daily News on this caught my eye
TL;DR: It's a crisis in Connecticut. Whether it's a new crisis or a continuation of the same old one (as for instance when Pfizer banished some workers to Cambridge for one), they didn't say. The article cites hiring, retention, and innovation as big factors, but the experts seem to acknowledge it was the business climate in general and taxation in particular.
My take: Connecticut's population is arranged very similarly to Massachusett's, lots of small to medium cities spread around the state, interspersed with rural towns and suburbs, except for one notable difference. Connecticut lacks a Boston, in this context meaning a city big enough to be able to make tax breaks rich enough to entice them to move. The mayor was able to afford a gift that no Connecticut city could have and that the Connecticut state house just never got around to.
CT is double plus broke
CT is double plus broke compared to MA when it comes to owing money to prop up overgenerous underfunded public pensions.
Considering MA's debt load that should tell you how boned CT is whenever their tax base is significantly eroded.
Cities in CT are nothing but...
...big toilets.
Bridgeport, New Haven, Danbury, Hartford....all garbage. New London is.....okay, but still not great. Some cute, quaint towns in CT for sure but the cities basically all suck.
I'm adding my voice to the
I'm adding my voice to the pro bike and ped connection. Cars aren't backing up because there aren't enough bridges, it's because the streets in downtown are already full, especially Atlantic. Rehabbing it to that weight level (bike and ped) should be relatively easy, quick, and cheap, right?