John's Thoughts on the Completion of the Concourse and Downtown Revitalization - 2007

There is a petition being circulated asking people to sign in opposition to the new concourse in downtown Quincy.  The Concourse is a road linking downtown Quincy with Burgin Parkway to the west, and with Route 3A to the east.  The westerly section of the road, from Burgin Parkway to the Parkingway, has been completed.  The easterly portion, from Route 3A/Southern Artery to Washington  Street, has been funded by the Commonwealth and is due for the start of construction this fall.   The middle section, from the Parkingway to Hancock Street on the west, and from Washington Street to Hancock Street on the east, has reached been designed and funded.  Landtakings have begun, with the "Tanline" building having already been taken and demolished to make way for the road.

The petition being circulated does not provide any facts relative to the Concourse, or the state of the downtown area.  Given this, I thought I would take the opportunity to offer some observations and thoughts relative to the status of the downtown area and the role the proposed Concourse may play in the future of Quincy Center/Downtown Quincy.

My first observation is that the present condition of downtown Quincy to me is unacceptable.  In this regard, I  offer the following:

• The first four signs you see upon entering Quincy Center at Granite Street are "For Lease".
• On Hancock  Street between Granite Street and School Street there are at least eight (8) "For Lease" signs.
• On Hancock Street between Granite Street and School Street there are 16 vacant storefronts, 4 nail salons, 8 hair salons, and 2 Dollar stores.
• At least one store has a metal grate protecting its front door; other stores have metal grates behind front doors and windows.
• The second stories of many buildings are vacant or used for storage, which is unsightly from the street.
• The only residential use between Granite Street and School Street on Hancock is the rooming house at the corner of Cottage Avenue and Hancock Street, which has been a police call hot spot for several years.

 Further, as to the present buildings in the downtown area:

• 84% of the buildings are 45 years or older, yet are without any historical or architectural significance. 
• Only 14% of the development in downtown Quincy over the last 40 years has occurred in the area bounded by Granite and School streets, Washington Street and the Parkingway, and 1/3 of that development was the expansion of the Quincy Mutual Insurance headquarters on Washington Street.
• The properties within the downtown district account for approximately 5.4% of the gross building square footage in the City of Quincy, yet only account for approximately 3.3% of the City’s total assessment.

Photographs which I took back in December 2005 are attached.  I would update the photos, but for the fact that eighteen months later they still accurately depict the condition of downtown Quincy.

What the above and the pictures clearly indicate is that the downtown is old, and is dominated by vacant storefronts and existing uses which are not optimum in a downtown area.  Also, the downtown has not attracted significant development, and therefore does not contribute to the new growth revenue which is vital to the City’s finances.  With a business/commercial tax rate that is nearly double the residential rate, it benefits the residential taxpayer to have as much commercial/business property as possible.  The logical location, so that it does not adversely effect the neighborhoods, is in the downtown area.  Because the downtown's gross building square footage as a percentage of the City's overall gross building square footage (5.4%) is greater than the area's percentage (3.3%) of the City's total assessment, it is clear that the downtown continues to be a financial burden to the City’s residential taxpayers.  Simply put, every dollar in business/commercial tax revenue we lose because downtown parcels are underdeveloped and undervalued must be made up by the residential taxpayer.  Additionally, the downtown demands a disproportionate amount of tax dollars in police presence, street sweeping, trash pickup, health inspections, and the like.

As to the appearance of downtown Quincy, vacant storefronts and "For Lease" signs predominate.  There are several outstanding restaurant options available, and a few courageous merchants have survived, but overall, varied retail, commercial, service, business and living options are lacking.  A few weeks ago, on a beautiful spring night, I sat outside a downtown ice cream shop with my son.  On such a night in a vibrant downtown you would expect a crowd at the ice cream shop, people visiting the restaurants, people window shopping or visiting stores; instead, on this beautiful night downtown Quincy was essentially deserted.  We watched the comings and goings at the rooming house, refused the request of a woman who offered us money to buy her lottery tickets because she was banned from the corner store, saw two men loitering, and witnessed what can only be described as suspicious behavior.  I asked my son what he thought, and he responded, "I may be eating my ice cream, but I see what's going on."

So, what is the answer?  The answer is downtown revitalization.  To this end, the City has passed legislation creating a district improvement financing (“DIF”) plan, a tax incremental financing (“TIF”) plan, and an urban revitalization district (“URD”).  Design guidelines have been drafted, ensuring a pedestrian friendly, aesthetically pleasing mixed use district.  Combined, these programs will help attract new development in the downtown area.  The other key to the downtown is access.

Traffic studies have shown that without the Concourse, traffic in the downtown will continue at unacceptable levels of service.  Further, the Stop & Shop Company, a national business with headquarters in downtown Quincy, retained a development consultant to review Stop & Shop’s investment in Quincy.  The conclusion was that without major improvements in the downtown area, Stop & Shop’s Quincy property would lose value, and any new investment by Stop & Shop would not be worthwhile.  Only with new development downtown would Stop & Shop’s present investment grow, and only with major revitalization in the overall downtown area would new investment by Stop & Shop be worthwhile.  According to the consultant, vital to the possibility of that new development is completion of the Concourse.

Stop & Shop has conveyed to the City that without completion of the Concourse, its continued investment in downtown Quincy is not likely.  Given that Stop & Shop employs approximately 900 people in Quincy, any decision to leave the downtown area would have a major negative impact on the local economy.  With the completion of the Concourse, Stop & Shop sees the future viability of the downtown, and sees its investment protected.  An entity now associated with Stop & Shop, anticipating the completion of the Concourse, purchased the Granite Trust Building and the parcel to the rear of the building (also known as the Fleet Bank Building and now occupied by Bank of America) for approximately $8 million.  It is the land behind the Granite Trust Building upon which Stop & Shop tentatively plans to build a new structure, office space for nearly 600 new employees.  As stated, key to their plans is the completion of the Concourse.

Relative to the Concourse, it is not a four-lane highway, and there has been significant citizen involvement throughout the design process.  The buildings slated for taking and demolition to complete the road have absolutely no historical or architectural significance.  The City has retained a relocation expert to assist with the relocation of businesses.  Some businesses have not been contacted directly, as the City is required to deal first with the owners of the properties, some of whom have not been cooperative and initially did not offer access to their tenants.

Further, while several urban renewal projects throughout the country have failed, a great many have succeeded.   Locally, the removal of the elevated Orange Line in Boston’s South End, along the Washington Street corridor, was questioned as another “urban renewal” project likely to fail.  View the corridor today, look at the varied housing opportunities, the diverse architecture, and the vibrancy that has returned to the improved streetscapes.  Look at the City Square area of Charlestown.  To see exciting projects, some completed, some under construction, and others in the planning stages, visit the website of a company called Street Works (www.street-works.com) and look at what is happening.  I am personally familiar with efforts to revitalize downtown Stamford, Connecticut, West Hartford, Connecticut, Jersey City, New Jersey, and White Plains, New York, having dragged my family on side trips to each.  While some aspects of developments in these communities in my opinion are not a match for Quincy, several aspects offer exciting prospects.

One of my past jobs was as an attorney hired by insurance companies to combat automobile, property and casualty insurance fraud.  The work brought me to just about every city in Massachusetts.  In cities where the downtown had been allowed to exist, without improvement, where the status quo was maintained, the cities lost their viability.  The blight spread from the downtown to nearby neighborhoods.  Look at Holyoke, Brockton, Springfield, Lynn, Lawrence, New Bedford and others.  See what happened to property values.  See what the status quo wrought on those downtowns and surrounding areas.  Ask any civic-minded business person in any one of those cities what a new road or a downtown revitalization plan would have meant to their cities.  Ask them if they would prefer the status quo.

Change will not happen overnight, and the revitalization of downtown Quincy is not a short-term project.  Certainly, there is an element of risk involved in moving forward with the Concourse and revitalization, just as there is a risk associated with inaction.  We are asked whether we, the public officials, will ever learn.  What I have learned from visiting ,viewing and researching the projects taking place throughout the Northeast, and from visiting cities throughout Massachusetts, is one indisputable truth - without planning for and advancing change, nothing will happen, there will be no change, short-term or long-term.  If we do not learn this lesson, then we will likely repeat the mistake of inaction, a mistake that over the last thirty years has cost taxpayers of the City of Quincy millions of dollars and resulted in a downtown that is even less vibrant today than it was then.  Another thirty years from now we will stand on the end of a quiet, deserted Hancock Street on a beautiful June day, like I did a few weeks ago, and ask  “Where is the vibrancy?  Where are the people on this beautiful day?"  We will ask, “Why did we stand for the status quo?”  

It is exciting to see that people are interested in what happens in downtown Quincy, and concerned enough to express opinions and contribute to the debate - it bodes well for the future of our City. 

I am excited about a revitalized downtown Quincy, and enjoyed my involvement on the Concourse Citizens' Advisory Committee in the early 1990s, and my time on the Mayor's Downtown Revitalization Committee.  I am proud of my role as chairman of the Council's Business and Economic Development Committee between 2004 - 2006, during which the City Council passed sweeping financial programs and zoning changes to spur development in the downtown area, and I look forward to contributing to the debate and making the plans a reality. 

John F. Keenan

Councilor at Large