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| Planning for Quincy's redevelopment | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | UPDATES | |
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UPDATES
DAY 1 STORIES
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MAYORAL OBSESSION
From Hannon to Phelan, all have tried to pump new life into downtown
Unlike most places, Quincy actually boasts three certainties in life - death, taxes and a mayor with a downtown redevelopment plan. Since the city’s decline as a shopping powerhouse three decades ago, almost every mayor has pitched a plan to reshape and reinvigorate Quincy Center. The ideas have often been bold in their vision but most were eventually found to be lacking in pragmatism and ended up collecting dust on a city hall shelf. Mayor William Phelan acknowledges the limited success of past efforts, but says a number of forces are now combining to make it a perfect time to implement a downtown redevelopment that becomes reality. “People are ready to embrace this. They’re not scared by it anymore,” Phelan said. “I really think people are just tired of looking at Quincy Center the way it is now.”
A major overhaul of Quincy Center was envisioned as early as 1970 when a group of Harvard University graduate students predicted Quincy Center’s retail decline and suggested that the city start attracting more residents to pump new life downtown. In the years that followed, Mayor Walter Hannon worked extensively on multiple downtown redevelopment efforts, and his plans were among the first to envision a major development at the Hancock parking lot. In 1977, Mayor Joseph LaRaia unveiled a plan that was probably the most ambitious downtown proposal by any mayor before or since. His $300 million plan called for a mall on Hancock Street that would be surrounded by large office buildings and an open-air market. LaRaia’s plan also put on paper the prospect of building a road from what is now Burgin Parkway through Quincy Center. Today, the Quincy Center Concourse remains far from complete. “In retrospect, I guess it was sort of a grandiose plan for the city,” LaRaia said, acknowledging that even today a dramatic overhaul of the downtown would be highly unlikely because of the difficulties in getting property owners to cooperate. Mayor Arthur Tobin had his own plan, and Mayor Francis McCauley followed him by going in his own direction without a comprehensive plan. McCauley focused on specific projects that were realistic in the short term. Presidents Place happened under McCauley, as did the extension of Burgin Parkway to South Quincy and Interstate 93. “You just have to do what you can do, and not go chasing moonbeams,” McCauley said by way of advice to Phelan. Mayor James Sheets in the 1990s again revived talk of a dramatic new downtown, and hired a Watertown company to produce a detailed document that called for a number of small steps and completing many of the ideas first broached by earlier mayors. Christopher Walker may be reached at .
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