Boston - Most Embarrassing Blight That Tourists See

[bigpicture7]

I think the Hynes Convention T-station and bus shed require special mention on this thread. I get that this station is planned to be replaced during the adjacent Viola development - but it's like they've just completely given up on even attempting to maintain this in the mean time.

Pieces of flooring are coming up. There are trip hazards. There's rusty water leakage. There's signage and maps that have such a thick coating of dirt on them that they are no longer legible.

It seriously seems like someone at the MBTA said: "OK let's just completely shed any responsibility for this place until it gets replaced"

...well, the problem with that is that God knows when it's going to be replaced.

In the mean time, it gets special mention on this thread because this is in a signature location, where tons of out-of-towners pass through. It is a serious embarrassment.

[tangent]

Originally Posted by bigpicture7

It seriously seems like someone at the MBTA said: "OK let's just completely shed any responsibility for this place until it gets replaced"

It is a common problem, especially with government maintained infrastructure... if there is any mention of replacing something in the next thirty years then it gets bumped down to the very bottom of the maintenance priority list... which seems to make sense from a resource management and prioritization perspective and coincidentally (not coincidentally) bolsters the case to replace the infrastructure.

Often a patch here and there and a few cans of paint would go along way to just keeping things from being an embarrassment during those intervening decades... but purposeful neglect to the point of being an embarrassment is supposed to increase political support for getting the replacement project done.

I wish we just had more certainty in the longer term planning. If everyone knew that at a date pretty certain 30 years out there was a replacement planned, then in years up until they have a contract in place to replace the facilities then there should be proper maintenance.