When will Boston start building more homes and using space more efficiently (Worcester: apartment complexes, new home)

[qwertyytrewq01943]

I don't mean to be a hater but I think Boston needs to be building more homes double time. More people seem to be moving to the city and homes prices are going through the roof. I want homeowners to see their properties appreciate in value but not to the point where new homeowners can't afford any homes. Once you move past I95 and I93 there are large open areas that can easily be developed and made into subdivisions and apartment complexes. Building more T stops and commuter rail stops in these areas will make commuting into the city easier for people who are willing to move past the interstate to buy a home. I don't want to see Boston turn into a San Francisco 2.0 in terms of home prices. Boston should learn from metros such as Dallas-Ft. Worth and begin planning better. It is possible to have a large city and affordable housing.

[OyCrumbler]

Basically, make the North-South Rail Link happen and then the more distant areas (but still close by, just difficult to get around because of the old layout of the cities which this would circumvent) become short trips for work and living and all those areas then become sensible to develop higher density housing.

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by qwertyytrewq01943

I don't mean to be a hater but I think Boston needs to be building more homes double time. More people seem to be moving to the city and homes prices are going through the roof. I want homeowners to see their properties appreciate in value but not to the point where new homeowners can't afford any homes. Once you move past I95 and I93 there are large open areas that can easily be developed and made into subdivisions and apartment complexes. Building more T stops and commuter rail stops in these areas will make commuting into the city easier for people who are willing to move past the interstate to buy a home. I don't want to see Boston turn into a San Francisco 2.0 in terms of home prices. Boston should learn from metros such as Dallas-Ft. Worth and begin planning better. It is possible to have a large city and affordable housing.

Learn from Dallas? Why would we want a sprawling suburban environment with a thousand subdivisions that all look the same and strip malls every mile? Also, downtown Dallas is a joke and doesn't even compare to Providence, let alone Boston.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Parsec

Learn from Dallas? Why would we want a sprawling suburban environment with a thousand subdivisions that all look the same and strip malls every mile? Also, downtown Dallas is a joke and doesn't even compare to Providence, let alone Boston.

Seriously, its one on the worst large cities for living in the Country. Not something to emulate. And we can't emulate it, as we don't have places to sprawl to.

[Whatsnext75]

There's not a whole lot of space!! seems like everyone in the state wants to be right near boston and this is already a congested area. Look at the roads, look at the MBTA. I dont want this place to be the next China.

[gf2020]

If homes are built beyond I95 and I93 then they are not in the city of Boston, are they? Where, in particular, are you suggesting? I can assure you that if a residential developer believes there is money to be made by building homes in a particular location, then they have already considered it or it is under current consideration.

[GeoffD]

If you draw a semicircle extending about 5 miles beyond Route 128 and within 5 miles of the limited access highways up to 40 miles outside of the city, Boston is pretty much completely built out. If you want more housing, you have to tear something else down first. That's not how you get affordable housing. Anything you tear down is going to be replaced with something much more expensive.

The problem with Boston is that public transportation is a hub. If you're going to Back Bay, South Station, or North Station, fine. That doesn't help if you have a job on 128 or a job that's more than a mile from those three transportation hubs. At a minimum, Boston needs elevated light rail running down the median strip of 128 so you can get the people to where the jobs are without needing a car. You then need to dramatically improve commuter rail so the trains largely run 120 mph. That extends the hub out to 60 miles and brings places like Worcester, New Bedford, and Fall River into play as places where commuters can live without having a soul-crushing commute.

Since that's not going to happen, all we're going to see is continued gentrification of the iffy parts of metro-Boston that are on the major inner commuter arteries. I remember when Somerville was a dump. Not today. The trend is that anywhere that isn't public housing is going to gentrify because it's the only way you can get to work.

[missionhill]

One thing that comes to mind is replacing older, less dense housing with newer, denser housing. That used to happen routinely, up until the Depression of the 1930s. All those 3-story walkup brick apartments around Coolidge Corner and Allston, or in the Elm Hill Ave / Grove Hall area of Roxbury, or in Cambridge, were built on already developed sites. The builders bought up older houses, tore them down, and put up buildings. Most of them aren't even high end buildings, just regular apartments, but at the time the economics worked without any governmental assistance or tax incentives or anything. Same in the North End-- in the 1890s-1900s, all those brick walkups were built by private builders for immigrants, and they all replaced older smaller dwellings. Now we're in a very different place and no one wants to see older frame houses give way to apartment buildings, especially in the more choice locales. One thing that can work is to redevelop shopping centers, which use huge amounts of space very lightly, and there are so many of them. Like the little Nobscot center in northern Framingham-- the 1950s era sign came down recently; don't know what's in store for the place but a site like that could easily accommodate residential plus shopping plus parking.

[Whatsnext75]

I agree on the gentrification. I know we've seen a lot of it over the years and while i continue to be surprised at some of the areas that have gentrified, it still surprises me that certain areas still haven't gentrified.

It will not be sustainable to continue to just stack more houses in the already nice areas. Personally I dont think that's fair to the people that already live there.

[Cliff Clavin]

Originally Posted by qwertyytrewq01943

Once you move past I95 and I93 there are large open areas that can easily be developed and made into subdivisions and apartment complexes.

Please, no. If you can't afford the Boston metro, look elsewhere. But leave the open wooded areas alone.