If built, Chiofaro estimates the towers would provide 4000 construction jobs and 3800 permanent jobs. They would provide the city with $19 million in annual taxes and a one-time linkage fee of $13 million. Massachusetts would stand to garner $2 million in hotel taxes and $20 million in income taxes each year. In addition, Chiofaro has offered the city $50 million for neighborhood improvements — to either the harbor front or the Greenway.
With the city facing several years of squeezed revenues, which will hit libraries, schools, parks, and public safety hard, it is difficult to understand how a prudent official can not at least talk.
We know the mayor has more on his mind than worrying about what this newspaper wrote about him nine months ago.
But many voters took Menino at his word when he said he had turned over a new leaf in the listening department.
Come next winter and spring, the city will most likely be facing another season of austerity. Menino should be moving now to deal with that. And consideration of the Chiofaro project should be part of his thinking.
Chiofaro is expected to release another draft of his plans some time in the next week or so, reflecting feedback from a number of sources, That would be a perfect opportunity for Menino to allow a sit-down.
We have seen the mayor at the top of his development game, as he invested himself directly in moving an often-stalled process forward in the Fenway, where the Phoenix has been headquartered for almost 25 years, for the good of everyone — the neighborhood, the developers, and the city as a whole. It is time to get Boston moving again, and we believe that together Menino and Chiofaro can jumpstart the improvement of the Kennedy Greenway for the benefit of all.
