THE HEIGHTS
Thursday, February 28, 2013
B9
Plans emerge for new skyscrapers along Boston’s skyline Skyscraper, from B10 glass tower with two asymetric sloped rooves. Trinity Place, if approved, will be yet another representation of the recent commercial building boom taking place downtown, not only in Back Bay but also in places like the Seaport District. Over the past few years, the Seaport District has been well on its way to transforming its South Boston waterfront location into a start-up and tech company breeding ground full of new, large residential complexes, deemed the “Innovation District” by Mayor Thomas M. Menino. Gary Saunders, chairman of the Saunders Hotel Group, told Boston. com that he is looking forward to working with the city and the community “to bring an exciting new locally-owned and operated hotel and residences to the heart of Back Bay.” The hotelier hopes to start construction next fall. Boston Properties, which owns both the Hancock and Prudential Towers, is additionally in the planning and proposal stages of erecting an office skyscraper in place of a 2,000-car parking garage at 100 Clarendon St., which would be mere steps away from the developer’s Trinity Place hotel project. The building would join the
60-story Hancock Tower and the 52story Prudential Tower in dominating the Boston skyline. It is projected that the building would be at least 40 to 50 stories tall in order to accommodate the number of tenants needed for the rent to support the cost of the development, especially since a torn-down Clarendon St. garage would involve loss of revenue. Approval of the new office tower, however, might not be granted so easily. Since about one-third of the existing parking garage is above ground with the remainder hovering over the Mass. Pike, the project will require substantial infrastructure requirements , as the turnpike is a major Boston roadway. Boston Properties has not officially filed plans with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and a building of this scale and visibility is likely to face critics. A Back Bay neighborhood panel of residents and business leaders, for example, recently indicated that the impending office-building site and the newly acquired hotel site are not viable hosts for significant redevelopment. The panel argues that the properties, which would accommodate building heights of at least 30 to 40 stories, or about 400 ft., exceed the 125-foot limit
allowed under existing zoning laws. To qualify for the additional height, Boston Properties must prove that the developments will follow guidelines established by the panel, including that the buildings will not increase wind in the area nor cast shadows on nearby parks or historic structures. It is also unclear as to why Boston Properties is seeking approval for another office building when it was grante d approval in 2008 for a 17-story, $192 million office tower at 888 Boylston St. that has not yet been built. The development company has explained that it would not begin construction of the B oyl ston St. building until they can secure a tenant.
Though the Back Bay skyline is already renowned for its beauty and appeal, the majority of its construction dates back before the 1980s , which leads many to believe that these new high-rise developments just might modernize a familiar part of the B oston skyline.
plains, “There is strong consensus that the planning for any future event has to address the evidently widespread belief that Winter Bash is a time to get outrageously drunk and go to a classy Boston hotel.” Do students drink more because of the level of hype surrounding this kind of event, or are they just exposing an only slightly intensified version of what essentially are their habits in the dorms back on
campus? It seems that it is the latter, with bad track records at many schools both on and off campus. In agreement with Reitman’s editorial, The Tufts Daily editorial board printed their own editorial, titled “Winter Bash behavior merits serious reflection.” It approved of the need for changes, but also added that “the problem isn’t alcohol consumption so much as it is a small group of people who abuse it.” Statistics seem to agree with this asser-
PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES
Intoxicated Tufts University students were hospitalized after an event at the Westin Copley Hotel.
tion in the editorial: though many college students drink, it is a minority that overdoes it. This is reflected in what some may find to be a surprising study by researchers at UCLA, which found that the reported rate of underage drinking in college has reached an all-time low of 33.4 percent, down from 73.7 percent in 1982. Furthermore, only 13.7 percent of students in the study claimed to spend six or more hours a week at parties, a significant drop from the 63 percent who claimed to do the same in 1987. This could be due, however, to students involved in the study choosing to lie. The questions regarding what can be done to prevent even a small number of students from endangering themselves and others remain. A recent study by Boston University researchers titled “Brand Specific Consumption of Alcohol Among Underage Youth in the U.S.” found that the drink of choice among those not able to drink legally is Bud Light, followed by Smirnoff malt beverages, and then regular Budweiser. It is generally assumed that college students, who are on a budget, would buy the absolute cheapest type of alcohol available, but while Bud Light is not the finest lager on the market, it also is not the least expensive. The study suggests that alcohol choice has more to do with the emotion and meaning
however. It has already been suggested to increase ticket prices from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. This would only increase revenue to the city, rather than putting money into the cab companies’ pockets. The MBTA should also consider only offering overnight hours in select, heavily-used stations. This way, funds are not wasted keeping under-used stations open. With some creative scheduling, this would also still allow for track maintenance, another problem cited by the MBTA, according to Boston Innovation. In addition, there could simply be fewer trains running. This would save energy costs and allow fewer workers to be on the clock during these less popular hours. Finally, the T does not need to be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Customers would even be satisfied with extended hours solely Thursday through Saturday. The T is the cheapest and most convenient way home from work for many professionals who work late hours. There is a city full of bar-crawlers and students—sometimes one and the same—who would like to use public transportation beyond 12:30 a.m. Yes, right now the MBTA cannot afford to keep all of the trains running all night. There are, however, many unique solutions that could be implemented in order to make this a possibility.
With Facebook, Twitter, email, and smart phones, there is no denying the fact that technology is making our world smaller and smaller everyday. Taking this into account, it would make sense that education should be approached from a global perspective, right? In order to compete on such a global level, the pioneers in education reform, such as Michael Gove, have been looking around the world for ideas to improve their own education systems. Gove, who serves as the Education Secretary in Finland as well as rising Asian economies like Singapore, highlighted our very own Massachusetts as a leader in initiating a type of core curriculum. Massachusetts instituted its legislation of “Common Core of Learning” in 1993 in order to accommodate for an increasingly global society and “reflect what citizens highly value and see as essential for success in our democratic society.” It established broad goals and emphasized that teaching and learning must be interdisciplinary. A commission of 40 members held hearings around the state to decide what should be included in this core canon of knowledge, with an estimated 50,000 people taking part in the debates. Developing the parameters for the Common Core was only the first of three steps taken by educators in the Commonwealth. Secondly, specific and rigorous curriculum guides were developed in seven academic areas to assist teachers. Finally, a comprehensive performance evaluation system was piloted to assess the performance not only of each individual student but also of the schools. Gove, with support from now retired educator and literary critic E.D. Hirsh, asserted that students should have a core of knowledge and a set of basic facts and information as a foundation for more advanced work. Both posited that students possessing a broad base of key knowledge are much better prepared to understand advanced ideas. In the world of education, where people tend to focus on what is wrong and who to blame, it is refreshingly uplifting to hear that Massachusetts is at the forefront of global education and is serving as a model for other countries. However, we should hold the applause because, as with all statistics, they should not be trusted at face value. According to the Pisa test rankings published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Massachusetts has been performing well compared to the U.S. average and is creeping up closer to the top science and math performing countries in the world such as Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan. The value of these comparisons, however, is called into question when one learns that Massachusetts is being compared to other states against a background in which the U.S. has become an “educational underachiever.” In fact, according to the OECD, the U.S. represents the only industrialized country where the next generation is not going to be better educated than the previous one, a trend coined “educational downward mobility” by BBC News. It is a safe bet to assume that students in Massachusetts are no longer just competing with students from New York, California, and Texas. Instead, they are competing with students from China, France, Stockholm, and all over the world. For this reason, this sobering trend cannot be dismissed, especially now, when there has been a surge of interest in such international education comparisons.
Maggie Powers is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.
Jacqueline Parisi is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.
associated with a particular brand, which implies that some of the responsibility may lie with alcohol-producing companies which may subliminally appeal to an underage consumer market. There is even a vaccine in the production stages at the Universidad de Chile by Juan Asenjo that will theoretically simulate the impact alcohol has on a naturally alcohol-resistant individual, which means it delivers an extremely severe hangover after only one drink. According to Asenjo, alcoholic mice reduce their intake of alcohol by an average of 50 percent for 30 days following exposure to the vaccine. While introduction of such a vaccine may be seen as an extreme, it sets the tone for society’s desire to address the prevalence of binge drinking, especially among inexperienced, often impulsive underage drinkers. Although statistics suggest that this is no longer a problem that plagues the majority of students, those who abuse alcohol have proven themselves dangerous enough to merit the attention of administrators responsible for setting the regulations that provide boundaries for the student body’s collective and individual drinking habits.
THE ISSUE:
With the MBTA currently in talks regarding whether or not to extend hours for the T, the MBTA released a group survey to receive feedback from the community regarding whether or not this would be a desirable chage and whether or not consumers would be willing to deal with potentially increased costs. If extended, should the T keep running on weekends until 2 a.m., or should it also include the hours between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.?
Running all night too costly PARISA OVIEDO While many can agree that the MBTA should, indeed, reevaluate closing at 12:35 nightly, another question needs to be addressed. Considering the MBTA’s already limited resources and lack of funding, a curfew at 5:00 a.m. simply cannot be accommodated, whereas a 2:00 AM one can. This extension may warrant a small increase in ticket prices, but it will be an increase that those enjoying Boston will be willing to dole out in exchange for greater experience of the city’s nightlife. While in an ideal world the city has unlimited resources that would enhance public transportation, the reality is that such finances are simply unavailable. In an email to BostInno, Joe Pesaturo, MBTA Spokesman, recognized the “enormous strain on the MBTA’s limited resources.” These resources, Pesaturo said, make it impossible to consider an extension. In other words, the MBTA is already financially limited, and trying to extend a 12:35 a.m. curfew by about another hour and a half is already a very difficult task, but asking to extend it until 5:00 a.m. simply does not consider the city’s lack of resources. Governor Deval Patrick did, however, recognize the need to increase state revenue for public transporta-
tion, but lawmakers still need to decide whether or not they will pass his proposed transportation plan. In an article for Boston Innovation, author Steve Annear notes that the plan, if passed, could have “bar crawlers [finding] themselves skipping the cab rides home, and using the MBTA until 2 a.m. on weekends”—but only 2 a.m. Nowhere is it stated that, even with Patrick’s plan, the MBTA will physically be able to fund maintenance and operations past 2 a.m., let alone extend that time for another three hours. As for college students, many clubs close at around 2 a.m., so leaving 15 minutes before closing time in order to catch the T is not too much to ask for. If you plan on staying until sunrise, then find a place to stay overnight. As much as I’d wish for the MBTA to extend its hours until 5 a.m., it is simply impossible unless some extremely generous donor decides to pump money into Boston’s transportation sector. 2 a.m. is only an extra hour and a half or so past the current curfew, but it is still a reasonable compromise that fits the needs of most Boston residents while still respecting the MBTA’s limited resources.
Parisa Oviedo is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.
The T should run all night MAGGIE POWERS There is no denying Boston is a major city. A major city packed with professionals, young people, and the students of 11 major colleges and universities, who are not tucked into bed by 12:30 a.m. All of these people need a public transportation system that meets their needs, day and night. The MBTA needs to answer customer demands by staying open all night, especially on weekends. This argument has recently been re-opened by the MBTA Rider Oversight Committee. An “independent think-tank dedicated to ‘the improvement and expansion of public transit in the Greater Boston Area’’,” according to Boston Innovation. While the Rider Oversight Committee is independent, it is still affiliated with the MBTA, providing a glimpse of hope to T riders who are asking for all-night service. Boston is often compared to cities that have trains that run all night. For example, the New York subway system runs 24 hours a day. If New York, a city larger and more active than Boston, has made this possible, why can’t the MBTA? The MBTA has sparse resources that are stretched to limited—this is why the T does not already run over night. There are still ways to make all-night service a possibility,
A look at globalized education
JACQUELINE PARISI
Statistics on underage drinking paint surprising picture Underage Drinking, from B10
MASSEDCHUSETTS