If nothing else, the redevelopment plan for downtown Quincy is optimistic.
Let me count the ways:
1. That there’s enough demand for a dozen new office buildings, retail stores, full-priced apartments/condos and parking garage fees to rival those in Boston.
2. That the roadways designed to support this colossus are adequate to handle the anticipated deliveries, traffic and pedestrian flow.
3. That real estate taxes can continue to increase by $600 per household per year.
Indeed, the artist’s rendering is beautiful and much more attractive than what’s there now. But drawings aren’t real life and can’t airbrush away that we are in (or on the verge of) a worldwide depression, despite the best efforts of President Obama to magic it away.
This notwithstanding, the proposed project might be an asset to the city, but should be regarded as a goal – a master blueprint – with a completion date of perhaps 2025, the 400th anniversary of the Settlement at Mount Wollaston by Captain Wollaston.
JIM MILESKI
North Quincy