So, does that mean the city is going to stop constantly rejecting permits/approvals for places to be open late?

Because that's what's been happening to date.

That globe font threw me off for a second. A24 Hour neighborhood, where they screen a different A24 movie each day

A 24 hr neighborhood needs a 24 hr MBTA.

This is a really great idea. Most office workers have been priced so far out of Boston they were commuting 4+ hours a day to the Financial District. The pandemic and remote work showed us all how unnecessary it all was. The cat's out of the bag and there's no going back to that.

I just hope they actually go through with this plan. Part of the problem with these "reports" is they never actually get implemented. But the future of downtown depends on completely re-imagining it.

Mayor Michelle Wu unveiled a plan Thursday to revive a downtown hammered by the pandemic by making it less reliant on office workers, with ideas that include helping convert office buildings to housing, encouraging a wider variety of retail uses, and turning some city streets into pedestrian ways.
“This report ... reflects what we want downtown to be: a 24-hour neighborhood that is open to everybody,” said Segun Idowu, Wu’s chief of economic opportunity and inclusion.
The report, done for the city by Boston Consulting Group, echoes many of the themes of an action plan the Wu administration released in March, aiming to address the empty offices and dark storefronts caused by the shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. But challenges abound.
Many office towers don’t lend themselves to residential conversions, and downtown remains an expensive place to build. The city will likely need to wrap up a broad downtown plan before making substantive zoning changes. There’s no huge pot of money to help. And success hinges on a rapid transit system that is often slow and unreliable, and largely beyond the city’s control.
Foot traffic downtown remains about half of its prepandemic levels, with far sharper declines seen in the Financial District than in other parts of the city. The rise of remote work is a big reason why downtown office occupancy levels are still at about one-third of prepandemic levels.
“I feel a significant sense of urgency about this,” said planning chief Arthur Jemison, who leads the Boston Planning & Development Agency. “Downtown Boston is a critical asset for the city and the region. ... There’s so much to love about it that I really want to make sure we are moving with urgency to take steps to make it easier for people to achieve their development goals downtown.”
Much of the discussion has focused on adding more housing, and thus residents. There have been a few examples of office-to-residential conversions in recent years, including along Winter Street and Temple Place. Suffolk University successfully remade the former Ames Hotel into a student dorm, while two former Suffolk buildings on Beacon Hill have been converted into luxury condos. City officials want to explore whether other institutions, such as Massachusetts General Hospital and Emerson College, can tackle conversions as well.
But the physical conversion of existing offices to residential space is a tall order. A recent study by design firm Gensler found that just 10 of 84 buildings in downtown Boston would warrant closer review to see if they could be converted. Owners have to be willing to make the investment. Jemison declined to name the downtown spots where city officials would like to see these conversions.
“We think that there’s targets and opportunities, and we think we’ve got good relationships with owners who were open to it,” Jemison said.
But Jim Rooney, chief executive of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, expressed skepticism about relying too heavily on reviving downtown via residential conversions.
“I don’t hold out much hope for that, though I’m sure there are some [properties that could work],” Rooney said. “If it was financially feasible, we would already be seeing it happening.”
Rooney applauded the efforts to bring a more local flair to the ground-floor spaces, including at Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
“One of the complaints ... is when you see ground-floor retail, it’s Anyplace USA,” Rooney said. “There’s something there to try to activate the ground floor retail and at the same time provide local businesses with opportunities.”
Toward that end, Idowu said the city has set aside $9 million of federal recovery funds to provide rent subsidies for retail businesses across the city. The focus of this program, which launches in December, will be on encouraging diverse business ownership, particularly downtown. Up to $150,000 could be available, over a three-year period, for as many as 60 small businesses.
The report recommends broadening retail zoning to include nontraditional uses such as child care, co-working spaces, and “maker spaces” where artisans work on their products and sell them. Jemison said he would prefer to hold off on zoning changes until the Boston Planning & Development Agency completes its downtown plan, but it’s possible some might be advanced at an earlier date.
The report dedicates a page to “reimagining” Faneuil Hall, the historic marketplace overseen by landlord Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. under a long-term lease with the city. But the details are scant other than expressing a desire to shift the emphasis away from national chains to local entrepreneurs — a long-held goal for the market — and to improve the marketplace’s physical condition. When Jemison was asked if city officials are negotiating with Ashkenazy to accomplish these goals, Jemison simply said “we talk to all of our tenants frequently” and declined to expand on the bare-bones description in the report.
Michael Nichols, president of the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District, said he likes the report’s suggestion to test programs that reserve specific streets for pedestrian use. He also backs the concepts of making empty upper floors available at low-cost or no cost to startups, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs of color, and filling vacant storefronts with pop-up, or temporary, stores to try out new business ideas. The report even floats the idea of the city leasing or otherwise acquiring spaces in attractive locations to offer short-term leases for pop-ups; city officials have already identified certain locations that could work for this.
“Anytime you have a shock to the system like this, it creates an opportunity,” Nichols said of the pandemic. “The owners don’t want to have that space sit empty forever [so] they become more flexible.”
As with the Wu administration, the BID hopes to hold more event series that can draw crowds downtown and gradually change the area into a full-fledged neighborhood as opposed to a forest of office towers that goes dark on nights and weekends.
“I think the tourism, the students, the theater traffic, that stuff is back in large measure,” Nichols said. “The city is right to say we can throw gas on that fire and make it even stronger instead of waiting for an office worker who may never return given the change in the future of work.”

I was hoping for a district where bars don't have to close

Can someone informed share what specifically makes commercial-residential conversions so difficult? Are the building standards different to the point of safety concerns or is it mostly about noise concerns? Traffic/parking?

High rent has killed small businesses. Night life is non existent in this city. Pathetic for “world class city”. The MBTA shutters way too damn early.

Does Wu address these issues?

“though concrete steps remain a work in progress.”…..ie: not happening

(30/35+) dimly-lit after hours lounges please. Places where one doesn't have to yell over blaring music to have a conversation with others.

Love the idea of more nightlife and non-traditional retail. Do it!

So the Ts gonna run all night right?!

The report directly from the city: https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/file/2022/10/Revive%20and%20Reimagine%20-%20a%20Strategy%20to%20Revitalize%20Boston's%20Downtown%20-%20Oct%202022.pdf

I hope things change for sure. There's less to do in the city than there should be. The more people who come back, or live there, the more likely it is to actually have a night life.

Still sad we only have one gay bar now.

How about everything not closing at 9 pm, that might help

Yesssssss do it Wu. Do ittttt

Bring back late Coffee spots/Cafes.

Also, you know what are great businesses that work well late at night???? Taquerias, aka Taco shops!!!! Bring em to me babey!!!!!!!

I'd love to but I have work in the morning.

From what i gather from the headline only because of the pay wall this is genius and much needed.

Crazy idea but maybe convert some of the office spaces into schools? So many BPS buildings are crumbling trash heaps. I’m sure some of the colleges would want those spots too. Idk but every time I go downtown now it’s depressingly empty and sad.

Open some goddamn clubs.

[deleted]

Kinda need 24h public transportation to be a 24h city, mayor.

24hr neighborhood isn't going to happen without mbta on board with late night service, which won't happen until there is a 24hr neighborhood to service. So it will just never happen.

Do it, please. Make DTX more like the central areas in lively European cities

I’d settle for just “A Safe Neighborhood “. I work in downtown crossing and lunch hour is filled with meth heads shouting in the streets

Yes please.

Now we need a 24 hour MBTA.

Fix the T so it can run 24hrs

oh great, just when i'm 36 and too tired to enjoy it. thanks for nothing.

Imagine Boston being open 24 hours per week!

Make it cheaper to live there, and I'm in.

The linked source has opted to use a paywall to restrict free viewership of their content. As alternate sources become available, please post them as a reply to this comment. Users with a Boston Public Library card can often view unrestricted articles here.

Boston Globe articles are still permissible as it's a soft-paywall. Please refrain from reporting as a Rule 5 violation. Please also note that copying and posting the entire article text as comments is not permissible.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[deleted]

Oh good!

> while two former Suffolk buildings on Beacon Hill have been converted into luxury condos

… great start, i guess.

Everything else aside, I think she picked the wrong neighborhood. Downtown Boston is mostly just a weird mix of weekday business areas (eg. the financial district) and tourist attractions. There are lots of restaurants in that area that aren't even open on weekends, much less late into the night.

I think she should instead focus on the Allston/Brighton area. It's populated primarily by college students and young adults, plus plenty of the restaurants and other businesses are already open late at night.

I don't understand why Mayor Wu picked a half-dead neighborhood that's going to be an uphill battle to even add daytime appeal to when she could've instead just framed Allston/Brighton as the "new downtown" and maybe added some late night T service.

Downtown was on a respirator before the Covid panic…now the plug has been pulled…and the damage will probably never be reversed.

[deleted]

So she had a bunch of high paid consultants come up with a broad study suggesting uses for downtown... well, problem solved

I hate the Globe bc I have to pay for it. :(

[deleted]

Nah we’re good thanks.