RIGHT ABOUT NOW Mayor Menino expected to be breaking ground for a new "architecturally magnificent" Boston City Hall on the South Boston waterfront. That, at least, is what he predicted back in December 2006 while addressing local business leaders.
In fact, there will be no groundbreaking this summer or any time soon for a new City Hall. But the Menino administration persists in this misadventure. John Palmieri, the new chief of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, says that the 1960s-era City Hall in Government Center "is at the end of its useful life" and "needs to come down."
Menino's plan to decentralize and realign municipal government in Boston is otherwise sensible. The latest thinking places human services - including the school department, public health commission, and office of neighborhood development - in the underdeveloped Dudley Square area of Roxbury. Building, inspection, and property management departments would operate from the city-owned building at 1010 Massachusetts Ave. in the Newmarket area.
Granted, a new City Hall on the waterfront, with platinum-level energy and environmental features, could be an appealing showcase for hearings, community events, performances, and ceremonial functions. The current City Hall, built in the unpopular Brutalist style, doesn't attract many fans.
But it is structurally sound. What it lacks in charm, it makes up for in location. Government Center is an easy walk to four transit lines, and close to major state and federal office buildings. Menino's new site, a parcel on Dry Dock 4 in South Boston, is in the middle of the Gulf of Maine by comparison.
The day may come when public transportation serves the South Boston waterfront as well as it does the city's core. And online activity may replace waiting to pay property taxes or order birth certificates at City Hall. But that day hasn't arrived.
Much better is the mayor's plan to shift municipal offices and employees to depressed Dudley Square, site of many failed development promises. The school department and neighborhood development offices now housed in a city-owned building on Court Street are not used much by the public. The workers could function just as well in Dudley Square's Ferdinand Building, acquired by the city in 2006. And local store owners would welcome the foot traffic.
It's a waste of energy and $1.2 million to study whether the dry dock can support a new City Hall. Instead, the mayor should ponder if the city would benefit more by leasing the Court Street property than by selling the asset. It might be a good subject, in fact, for a City Council hearing - in easy-to-reach Government Center.
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