Dear Boston Globe:
I can’t deny that losing a cherished view is a sad and wistful occasion, but it is not, as Ric Kahn implied on Sunday (“A Patch of Blue”), a good reason to slow or halt development, even high-rise development. Given the Globe’s ongoing coverage of the regional housing crisis, he should know better. Even in non-real-estate news, like Scott Kirsner’s article in the Ideas section (“Innovation City”), it’s apparent that one of the area’s few major problems is the high cost of housing. If we are to bring housing costs within reason, we need to increase both housing density and volume, and that means taller buildings.
Development does have some negative impacts, but Boston and the surrounding areas have strict regulations to mitigate them, and we need to make sure that anti-growth sentiment doesn’t keep us from housing everyone. Those high-rise buildings Kahn laments are not just for the wealthy, especially since they include subsidized apartments just like the ones he profiles. The fact is that we need a dramatic increase in the supply of housing, and that means compromises. Nobody wants obscured views, increased traffic, or yet scarcer parking, but they’re better than an economy that collapses under the weight of its unaffordable housing market.
Yours,
Verbal
Secretly Ironic Dot Com
Secretly Ironic 