Categories: Editorials

Hanover Street, Again

An article in Saturday’s Boston Globe has once again suggested, as we have many times, that Hanover Street needs a makeover in order to meet the challenges of the future.

More and more, Hanover Street becomes busier and busier, more crowded with tourists, visitors and with residents, some who prefer that Hanover Street does not change.

Hanover Street cannot remain the same.

It is presently choking on its own success. In fact, Hanover Street is becoming a victim of its success unless some major changes are made.

The Globe has suggested a possible one way Hanover Street – and maybe that might work.

We tend to be more revolutionary than the Globe when it comes to what fits for Hanover Street in the future.

Hanover Street, as we suggested more than two years ago, should be traffic free.

It should become a pedestrian friendly walkway during the winter months.

During the spring, summer and fall periods Hanover Street should look like a European city setting – something akin to Florence – where hundreds eat outside while musicians play and children run about as the parents dine and talk in a fabulous surrounding.

Hanover Street is a fabulous venue for tourists and for everyone who loves what Boston has to offer.

Hanover Street’s days as a purely residential backwater for old time families has been gone for 25 years. It will never go back to that.

The future will be about the growth of numbers coming to visit the neighborhood and to partake of its wonderful aspects.

Business is not going to shrink on Hanover Street, it is going to marginally expand – and for those already in place and operating, business will inevitably grow.

We tend to agree with North End Chamber President Frank DePasquale.

Mr. DePasquale is not just a businessman. He is a businessman with vision who does things the right way. His numerous restaurants and outlets are models of the way others should be.

It is to everyone’s advantage that Hanover Street be remade to meet the imperatives of the future.

The future of Hanover Street can be made better by giving it a heavy dose of added European charm.

Get rid of the automobiles ruining the place.

Make it Boston’s most extraordinary, charming, well maintained and orderly neighborhood attraction.

No one’s life is ruined by making Hanover Street the best place to congregate in the city.

North End Regional Review Staff

View Comments

  • I am going to assume that the staff member that wrote this article has never lived here. This is a residential neighborhood, not just a place to conduct business or congregate.
    Living here is hard enough without the main street being pedestrian only, many of the side streets off of Hanover would be inaccessible to cars if you made Hanover a pedestrian thorough fare.
    That would make it very difficult for residents to bring food home from the grocery store, or furniture delivered or work done on a building or unit. its already pretty hard to get anything delivered to the north end. this would make it that much worse. I don't even drive and know that my life would be that much more difficult. Just think of how hard it would be for the businesses on Hanover to get deliveries.
    There's a reason this hasn't happened yet.

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North End Regional Review Staff

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