Metaboston

Yarn-bombing Boston

Yarn-bombing Back Bay Station (via MeFi)

Image:  Crochaine 

Debate: Whether We Need Storrow Drive?

With the renovation of Storrow Drive being discussed including the option to divert traffic onto temporary roads through the Esplanade, Paul Levy, President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, poses a big question:  do we need Storrow Drive or would the city be better off if we just got rid of it?  Alternatives are discussed.  What do you think?

Boston Apple Store Update

The Apple store being developed on Boylston Street in Back Bay is slowly coming along with work now being done on the foundation.  You can check out the webcam at Birth of an Apple Store to watch the progress in real time as well as to find out construction trivia like the name of the company doing the earthwork.

The John Hancock Building at 30

A detailed and entertaining history of the John Hancock building, currently for sale.  The early history draws heavily on the building's architect Henry Cobb but the article doesn't shy away from the problems that made it a local joke for a long period, like its sway in the wind that sickened tenants and falling windows that imperilled passersby, before it became a landmark.

Rats! Back Bay Rats!!

First graffiti.  Now rats.  What plague will visit the Back Bay next?  Sightings of the little beasts seems to be up but they always seem to be pretty common in Back Bay so perhaps it is just a seasonal cycle.

Back Bay's Graffiti War

A funny story from the Globe about Back Bay residents infuriated by graffiti and their syssiphean struggles against its presence.  "Almost every day, John Wadlington, an anesthesiologist who lives on Commonwealth Avenue, totes a bucket and scrub brush around his street and cleans off smaller markings he finds on lightposts and walls." Working against them, notes the Globe, the fact that Back Bay "attracts thousands of tourists and shoppers, which makes it attractive to taggers, who want people to see their tags. Unfortunately, the aesthetic inclinations of the photographer resulted in a picture of quite a nice-looking work.  The residents might have come off better with a photo of magic marker squiggles or a scratched window.