Fighting development in Copley Square

For some reason, there are people who throw the "obstructionist" label at people in Allston and Brighton who ask reasonable questions and have reasonable concerns about development in our neighborhood. Here is a real example of neighbors trying to stop development.

Writes Steve Bailey in Trouble in paradise:

"Boston Properties wants to build an ugly 30-story apartment building at the Prudential Center that will block the views and cast shadows over their ugly 18-story Trinity Place. The urban millionaires are beside themselves.

"To approve their project as is would be nothing short of criminal to those of us who live in this neighborhood," William F. Thompson, a founder of Boston Ventures, fumed in a letter to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

And on and on. The Trinity millionaires have launched a letter-writing campaign in hopes of blocking Boston Properties' proposed 200-unit apartment building on Exeter Street over the Prudential garage and just beside the Lenox Hotel. They worry about traffic. They worry about shadows and wind. They worry about their property values. They worry about the character of their neighborhood.

Tom Menino never met a big building he didn't like. The mayor's reasoning is straightforward enough: Big buildings pay more taxes than small buildings. Menino has spent years systematically killing the character that makes Boston so special by planting big, ugly buildings everywhere."