What is it going to take to put Revere on the same road to success taken by Malden, Medford, Somerville and Everett?
Revere’s mayor posed that question in the form of a challenge last month during his state of the city speech. “There is no reason it can’t happen here,” Arrigo said and he’s right — Revere is poised to explode with success, depending how fast planning for the renewal of Suffolk Downs and Wonderland Greyhound Park proceeds.
Both tracks were dealt a bad hand when an anti-racing referendum question sounded the death knell for Wonderland and a casino siting decision passed over Suffolk. Wonderland today is a sad, deteriorating hulk. Suffolk is keeping its hand in horse racing, but a brighter and bigger future looms for the horse track and Wonderland if development plans reach fruition.
With its 161 acres positioned perfectly between a road straight into Boston and Blue Line subway stops, Suffolk offers massive opportunities for development. Under a perfect scenario, the magnificent track could be preserved for future generations to enjoy with development built around it.
Suffolk Downs’ and Wonderland’s development potential is grand enough to boggle the minds of developers and architects. The tracks’ potential to redefine Revere economically and put the city on the same course of Somerville and Medford has captured Arrigo’s imagination.
He is a young mayor who has already won a political victory by defeating a proposed slot parlor referendum last November. Arrigo argued that the slot proposal represented a narrow-minded idea disconnected from the city’s evolving development visions.
By contrast, future plans for Suffolk and Wonderland allow Revere to think regionally in ways potentially benefiting Boston as well as Lynn.
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Developing the 34-acre Wonderland site allows city planners and investors alike to look across North Shore Road to the construction accelerating along Ocean Avenue. A nearly 10-year-long effort to develop parking lots into residential development is taking shape with state support in the form of the beachside pedestrian bridge and the commuter parking garage.
If Suffolk gets developed and Wonderland follows suit, then it is barely a hop, skip and a jump down North Shore Road to the Saugus River and the Lynn waterfront. The link between Suffolk, Wonderland and Lynn’s yet-to-be-developed waterfront is the Blue Line with its Suffolk Downs stop and Wonderland terminus.
Situated between the commuter rail line and Wonderland station, the former dog racing park is a diamond in the rough for a visionary transportation planner committed to igniting a regional economic boom.
Sound arguments for extending the Blue Line to Lynn gather even more momentum when the logic of initiating transportation-related development at Wonderland are laid out in black and white.
There was a time when the two tracks were economic hubs attracting thousands of racing fans and providing employment for Revere as well as North Shore residents. That time has come and gone. But the track sites, with their acreage and mass transit connections, are sleeping giants when it comes to imagining their future economic potential.