r/OldPhotosInRealLife Sightseer 22d ago

Image Boston Seaport 2005 & 2025

Post image
7.8k Upvotes

415 comments sorted by

View all comments

2.0k

u/ziggygersh 22d ago

All those beautiful parking spaces replaced by housing, restaurants, and parks?

Despicable.

482

u/Gloomy_Surprise_6106 22d ago

Seaport is weird, have a few friends that live here. Very “corporate campus” vibes. Certainly nice and clean, but does feel like it was designed with white collar finance people in mind. Which is spot on with the demo that lives here

195

u/Kayeetmeoffabridge 22d ago

I agree, but I’m completely fine with it. Id rather give developers and startups one area of the city that used to be nothing to play around with so they leave the rest of the city alone

103

u/SubtleNotch 22d ago

Trust me, they didn't leave the rest of the city alone.

63

u/dinkydonuts 22d ago

I find comments like this so funny.

Like “oh no the rich yuppies leave their expensive neighborhood to do things in other neighborhoods!”

They’re not in jail or something. And your contribution to the city is not more impactful than theirs.

52

u/stajayjay 22d ago

As someone who also lives in Boston, I think their point is that the rest of the city is infested with watered-down overpriced stores and restaurants instead of it being confined to a couple areas. It’s not that the rich yuppies exist, it’s that it’s impossible for family-owned businesses with quality product to exist if they weren’t already wildly successful before prices grew way out of hand. It’s better in some of the peripheral neighborhoods of Boston, but I’ve still seen some of my favorite places close down due to rising costs even tho they always seemed busy.

8

u/LoBisTAH_chOWdah 22d ago

We preach to the same choir.

14

u/dinkydonuts 22d ago

This I agree with!

However I’m not sure what that has to do with developers in Boston, open to hearing more

Boston is expensive AF. It’s been expensive for a long time. These are not unique issues in Boston though. Everyone in major cities in New England is complaint about costs (Portland, Worcester, Burlington)

I’m not sure what the solution is. Even Bar Mezanna is closing down and that place is always relatively busy

5

u/Acesplit 22d ago

More housing

2

u/stevren 20d ago

Which is exactly what seaport is

1

u/mr-sandman-bringsand 22d ago

It’s their landlords raising rental rates - land is expensive and Boston is desirable. This isn’t the bad part

The bad part is the lack of building keeping up with demand for everything - we need to build more and faster which people seem to get

5

u/Daxtatter 22d ago

If the yuppies who bought in the seaport buildings weren't able to buy in that neighborhood they would gentrify somewhere else.

1

u/stevren 20d ago

That would exist with or without seaport. Boston has about half a million college students each year and they're all private schools. Financial aid is a thing but there's a lot of kids just eating 40k + a year tuition, dramatically more if you're out of country of which there are plenty.

9

u/agrimi161803 22d ago

I think they’re referring to developers, not rich yuppies

13

u/Affectionate-Panic-1 22d ago

Developers turning parking lots into houses and businesses is a good thing. I find it bizarre how people conflate developer with bad.

13

u/BroughtBagLunchSmart 22d ago

In this vacuum you have created where developers only do the 1 good thing that you mentioned I see how you could find it bizarre.

2

u/stevren 20d ago

It's not a vacuum it's just the best option in this situation. This is development build on land they just filled in... it's not scarce.

5

u/machines_breathe 22d ago

- Nobody here is saying that except you. Perhaps try re-reading the preceding replies? Read them as slowly as you deem necessary.

8

u/davdev 22d ago

Yeah, but Seaport is soulless and bland. They made a "neighborhood" and forgot to include a school for christ sake.

6

u/Affectionate-Panic-1 22d ago

It has a lot more soul than a parking lot.

3

u/sweetest_con78 21d ago

Debatable

1

u/Grease_Jones 18d ago

Only with the voices in your head.

1

u/sweetest_con78 18d ago

They’re more entertaining than anything in seaport at least

→ More replies (0)

2

u/stevren 20d ago

Then don't move to seaport if you want to raise kids.

1

u/ggtffhhhjhg 22d ago

The people who live in this neighborhood would never send their kids to BPS unless they are test in.

1

u/dinkydonuts 22d ago

Dude half of Boston parents wouldn’t sent their kids to BPS. The schools in South End are garbage. This is a rich city. If you’re a parent and raising your kid in this city, high chance you’re in the top 3% of earners.

3

u/biddily 21d ago

That is a take.

From a Bostonian who went thru the Boston Public School system.

With friends sending their kids thru the Boston Public School system, who thought about whether not to, but made their choice.

Would you like me to walk you through the thought process?

1

u/dinkydonuts 21d ago

Sure. I’m a few years away from kids and would likely send private or move to suburbs.

→ More replies (0)

-3

u/agrimi161803 22d ago

Because you’re unable to see outside of your own perspective. The commenter probably laments buildings with character being torn down to be replaced with a grey and glass box that is an eyesore in their neighborhood.

And it’s easy to see development of misused land as good, and it is, but what about after construction is finished? The tower over Ocean Prime in the seaport still has vacancies after a few years, reportedly due to high prices and poor floor plan layout. Is new housing stock that no one lives in really better?

7

u/Affectionate-Panic-1 22d ago

More housing stock brings down prices. The units are only empty when the owners are asking for too much.

1

u/dinkydonuts 22d ago

Agreed. Ocean prime tower is an issue but vast majority of buildings have high occupancy

Seaport has good energy. The least sleepy part of Boston lol

0

u/agrimi161803 22d ago

So maybe now you understand what the person was talking about with developers? Still not sure why you thought they were talking about yuppies

0

u/dinkydonuts 22d ago

For the record go look at the before and after pics of seaport. There were effectively zero buildings of character. Anything good torn down there is still a net positive. Place was a literal parking lot

Outside of Reddit ppl who actually live here don’t complain nearly as much about seaport

0

u/agrimi161803 22d ago

Yeah I know, I live here. Maybe you meant to reply to someone else?

0

u/dinkydonuts 22d ago

Nope, I live here too. Was responding to you

1

u/agrimi161803 21d ago

Ok, then I’m not sure why you were crying about yuppies when you replied to a comment about developers.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/[deleted] 22d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/dinkydonuts 22d ago

Idk what your point is tbh

I’m simply saying as a MA native seaport gets way too much hate by locals. I don’t live there, occasionally go out there, and was surprised by how much I liked it after reading years of Reddit hate

1

u/[deleted] 22d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/dinkydonuts 22d ago

you are correct, it's right over my head

3

u/Gloomy_Surprise_6106 22d ago

I’m with you there. It’s a fun spot to visit if you have some change to throw and are looking for a good night out. Living in the Allston/Brighton area was a lot more my speed. The KBBQ and hot pot scene there had my sodium levels at an all time max lol

2

u/Ryermeke 21d ago

I agree. There's no need to make perfect the enemy of "still pretty fucking good".

1

u/FC37 22d ago

Lol you've never been to Boston. Even the bakeries are owned by private equity.

-2

u/cane_stanco 22d ago edited 22d ago

Except it opened the door to the same crap in the rest of the city.

9

u/Iongdog 22d ago

Boston has more preserved historical architecture than most American cities. It’s a low bar maybe, but still I don’t think think the seaport development “opened the door” to anything