Good show, Don Chiofaro. But what in the world are you doing?
The antics of the colorful International Place developer certainly make entertaining reading.
Faced with staunch opposition from City Hall and influential neighbors, Chiofaro has taken to the streets, literally, to promote his bold plan to build a pair of twin towers overlooking the Greenway.
He’s orchestrated a write-in campaign to flood the Boston Redevelopment Authority with letters of support, put up a banner on the ugly garage he wants to demolish, and has even taken to showing up at various development events starring the mayor to chat up city officials and and neighbors on the merits of his plan.
I’m not one for developers who feel they need to hide in the shadows and shirk the public in order to get things done in Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Boston.
Yet surely Chiofaro knows the more he squawks, the higher he rises on a certain list, mental or otherwise, of our leading citizens that, let’s just say aren’t exactly in the good graces of City Hall.
I haven’t talked to Don in a year, but let’s just say, based on some subjective, but pretty convincing evidence, that he is pretty high up on that list, if not topping it now.
He’s a pretty sharp guy, so I suspect that he knows that. I suspect he also knows that those generate ill will on the fifth floor of City Hall are going to have a hard time moving their development plans forward.
Given his sky-high approval ratings, the mayor is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Maybe Chiofaro’s decided that if his plan is destined to go down, it won’t be without a fight.
Then again, the guy who managed to build International Place in the teeth of the early 1990s recession has a few more tricks up his sleeve.