The City announced last month a new citywide planning process called “Imagine Boston 2030.” Expected to take two years, Imagine Boston is the City’s first comprehensive planning process in 50 years.
Imagine Boston will be a multi-phase initiative, starting with a survey of present conditions and then expanding to a public visioning process in the fall.
Imagine Boston will address at least eight key themes, including housing; mobility; environment; parks and open spaces; prosperity and equity; arts and culture; design; and health, according to the press release. A final plan is slated to be adopted in summer 2017.
“It’s been 50 years since we had a comprehensive plan for Boston,” said Mayor Martin Walsh in a press release. “In 1965, people were looking for the confidence to believe that the city’s decline had ended. Today we’re a thriving, healthy and innovative city. Now is our chance to set the course for the next generation.”
Mayor’s Office spokesperson Laura Oggeri said in an email to the Gazette that the City is spearheading the planning process “in close coordination with the Boston Redevelopment Authority.”
When asked how the Olympic plans will factor in the process, Oggeri responded, “While these are two separate processes, the goals that will be developed by residents for the citywide plan should play a role in informing and influencing any Olympic planning as we move forward. Additionally, if Boston is selected to host the Olympics in 2024, it will present an opportunity to accelerate some of the planning and development that is within our vision for Boston in 2030.”
The Gazette also asked how independent Boston 2024 and Imagine Boston 2030 are considering the Olympic organization was using for a time the Twitter hashtag #ImagineBoston in its promotional items.
Oggeri only noted that the City is using a slightly different hashtag, “#ImagineBos.”
For more information, visit Imagine.Boston.gov.
View Comments (1)
Yesterday, in their weekly report on Boston2024 related events, the Dorchester Reporter revealed that a municipal employee was used to contact merchants and have them put pro Olympic signs in their windows. So I think the value of the Gazette questioning the independence of Boston2024 and Boston2030 is well established.
My question is if the City intends to engage a professional facilitator to manage the public participation process or is this going to be an endless series of cattle calls to attend public meetings through which nothing gets done. There are many methods to engage the public in the urban planning process that produce real input from citizens in a manner that would be difficult for the City to ignore.
I believe that if anybody currently employed by the City has the expertise to oversee such a process, we who respond to requests for participation from the Walsh administration would know. I myself am not interested in anymore of these public meetings which consistently fail to produce results. Unless you consider stalemates and a citizenry that views their municipal government with contempt to be a result.