In case you haven’t heard of Boston’s big plan to renovate the city, it’s definitely time you do. Officially known as the “Imagine Boston 2030” plan, the aim is to renew infrastructure and consequently attract investors and create new jobs.
The plan was presented by the Boston city government and was received positively by its audience. Even more so, not only were residents ask to participate, but their answers were also added to the plan itself. In fact, Boston asked around 15,000 of its residents what they thought were the most important aspects of the city they wanted to see fixed.
The answers were many, but one of the most popular had Boston’s waterfront in it. The residents expressed their wish to see a more developed waterfront, with water taxis as well. Therefore, new ferry lines are being added to the existing ones, and will see a new connection between Downtown and Seaport, Charleston and East Boston, and a separate water taxi perusing the Mystic River and the Charles River. Furthermore, because the waterfront was mentioned by 1,700 residents in theirqueries, the waterfront itself will also be revisited. With new homes, offices, and recreational centers, the waterfront is looking at becoming a vital meeting point for both Bostonians and tourists.
With the waterfront as one of the project goals, another equally important part to the redevelopment plan is improving Boston’s public transportation. One of the many problems that surfaced with the public transport is the poor connection to Boston’s outskirts- making it hard on commuters. In fact, back in a study presented in February 2018, the INRIX found that Boston is 14th in the world when it comes to traffic congestion. Due to the subway and bus lines not being able to meet the public’s demand anymore, the city has given major precedence to the issue. One of the first solutions was presented with the extending of the current Green and Orange subways lines; the Green line to Hyde Square, and the Orange to Roslindale Square. What’s more is that Boston is also adding a separate bike lane and preferential public transport lanes. All this, and the cherry on top is that Boston has said it aims at having no house more than 10 minutes away from either a bus or subways stop.
With so much redevelopment coming Boston’s way, companies and corporations have also started paying attention to the project. With such a positive outlook, Boston sounds like it’s a place where you would definitely want to invest. In fact, Boston is one of the leading cities that Amazon is looking at to base their new headquarters in. Known as HQ2, the investment would mean the possibility of creating 50,000 jobs along with a $5 billion investment over the course of the next 15 years if Boston were to be crowned the new city for Amazon’s HQ2. With the redevelopment project presented, Boston is leading the race. With so much positive change coming to the city, what else could Amazon want?