Master Planner
Boston is one dense city. It's up to John Palmieri, new head of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, to figure out where it can grow.
You worked in planning and development in Providence, Hartford, and Charlotte, North Carolina, before being named director of the BRA last fall. What challenges does Boston share, if any, with those other communities?
There are lot of similarities. Inner-city neighborhoods all resemble one another, especially those that are vulnerable, that have undergone a downturn and need to be renewed. The approaches that you use are very similar in every city. Now, Boston is different in one very major regard and that has to do with the downtown development.
What's so different about Boston?
In Boston - and this is probably only shared by a few major cities - the development community wants to build. In many other cities, especially second-tier cities like Hartford and Providence, people in my position typically are doing everything they can to get the development community to pay attention.
The mayor said recently that he wants you to "think boldly to empower Boston" by working with the private sector to create economic growth. How are you doing that, exactly?
Financial services is a critical employer in this city. The hospitals and life-tech sector, they're enormous employers. And what the mayor has asked me to do is understand the needs of these various sectors. There is still a need for space. We've got like a 6 percent vacancy rate in the corporate sector in the city, which is very, very low. Well, we've got to make room.
So how do you create space in a city that's already so densely populated and small to begin with?
Boston does have certain advantages. There are air-rights opportunities that exist here, which I think is pretty special.
How would a new skyscraper affect the city? Are you in favor of that?
There's room in this city for a few iconic structures, if I can use that term. I wouldn't dismiss the idea of towers working in the city.
The concern in the proposed move of City Hall to the South Boston waterfront is about access. Why do you think that's a good place for the city's headquarters?
Transportation is an issue. We'd have to deal with that and provide access. But having a presence on the water - a new City Hall, a bold, new building - would really make an enormous statement to the city and the country that Boston is moving into the future.
What's one thing about yourself that you don't like people to know? Like, are you an American Idol fan?
I guess fighting to remain fit. At 56, I want to look trim. It's not so much a matter of vanity as it is really wanting to be healthy. And I have some trouble with that.
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