Boston Waterfront pulls together – Residents set up group, eye future growth

The Boston Wharf District - Photo by Chitose Suzuki

The Boston Wharf District is growing up.

Residents and businesses between Christopher Columbus Park and Congress Street are stepping up efforts to turn their waterfront home — born a decade ago as the Central Artery came down and the Greenway became their front lawn — into a bona fide Boston neighborhood.

“The Wharf District was defined more in a planning context, as opposed to a branded name and destination,” said Richard Dimino, president of A Better City, a business-backed planning group based there. “It’s going to take some time … for the name to become more a part of the public’s understanding and recognition.”

Over the past year, residents of the Harbor Towers and Rowes Wharf luxury condos have formed a neighborhood association, the Wharf District Council, to look out for their interests.

“We in many ways are still working on our mission statement and vision,” said Justin Wyner, a council leader who lives at 20 Rowes Wharf. “What we have learned is that the neighborhood is growing as a real neighborhood … for both residents and workers in the area.”

The district is roughly defined as a half-mile swath of Boston from Long Wharf southward to the new Atlantic Wharf complex — including the waterfront properties and extending to the west, across the Greenway, by about a block into downtown.

“We’re kind of filling a gap between the North End and the Financial District,” said Bud Ris, CEO of the New England Aquarium, an institutional member of the council. In monthly meetings, “We’re trying to figure out what we can do to make sure that new developments or open spaces are compatible with the character we’d like to see.”

The Wharf District is winning over Broad Street, which city planners are reworking into a tree- and cafe-lined “crossroads,” even though the street has long been associated with the Financial District.

Chef Jason Santos recently agreed to start plugging the “Wharf District” brand for Blue Inc., a restaurant he opened seven months ago on the Greenway end of Broad Street.

That echoes an eatery’s marketing stunt that turned part of Downtown Crossing into the Ladder District in 2001.

“Truthfully I don’t care either way,” said the blue-haired “Hell’s Kitchen” runner-up, “but I think it’s a little more eloquent than the Financial District.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1401533

By Greg Turner |  http://www.bostonherald.com