I don't think City Hall should even be a thought in his mind right now. The money could be better used at the moment. Opening Pleasant St would be great, but until we get decent stores and more business down there then spend the money else where. Money needs to be invested in more patrole.

Good point. But perhaps more businesses might give it a go if getting into the center was a little easier. Just having City Hall sitting there like a giant behometh makes the center a wasteland. And I do agree about the patrols too. You have to show those who want to act out that you mean business.

why cant they build a road around city hall? around the right side,. Seems a lot cheaper. A temporary solution, but it could work. I have not seen the grand plan though. Are they going to build more low income high rise to replace it? Guess we will find out more next week

Pleasant Street was the main thoroughfare in Malden up until 1975 when the construction of City Hall turned into a Dead End. You will not get decent stores until it is opened. "Commerce is like water. It follows the path of least resistance."

I am not compeletly against the plan in the future. Right now I just think until we can get crime reduced, then any additional money should be spent on that. In the future it might be a great plan, but first things first which is make Malden safer.

What business in their right mind would want to move to Pleasant St. or Malden for that fact if we don't reduce the crime in this city? Open it up all you want but if we continue to grab headlines with the drugs, shootings, break-ins and robberies it won't attract what the intended demographic is. It would be a lot cheaper to reconstruct that driveway around the building. Take some of those millions needed to move City Hall and the DPW and put it into the first responders here. In the meantime, get the Sherrif's office to supply some personnel, even if we have to "rent" them until we can identify and eliminate those "impact players" we are cursed with.

How many more apartments are in the pipeline and we are not increasing our security? Who do you think will want to live in these places if they know we have so much crime and the people who live here don't feel secure? What will it take before this admin and Council do something? Hello? Are you listening to us or the jingle in your pockets??

That "driveway" is the Pedestrian Walkway between City Hall and the Florence Street and Heritage parking lots. Who owns it is a good question. It's also a Blind Drive

Creating a road alongside City Hall is a good thought, but people aren't going to shop in Malden Square if they have to pay to park in a garage, then walk up a hill in possibly inclement weather.

A road around City Hall sounds well-intentioned, but I think the point is sort of lost with that - meaning that traffic won't exactly "flow" onto the other side of Pleasant Street and it will create a snarled traffic nightmare.

Projects in the city don't have to be done one-at-a-time -- why can't the teardown of City Hall happen concurrently with other projects?

Hey look , the mayor is using a computer, something the last mayor did not know how to do.... That explains a lot about the Howard administration and how he city is in the mess we are in. Wonder how a city manager can manage a city without computer skills

Sorry I can't follow the on-line forum today because I will be in a meeting at work. I 100% support the mayor on both efforts to fix City Hall / Pleasant Street and build the new baseball stadium.These are two core efforts that will only benefit our city. I hear everyone about the crime. I've been here almost 25 years and my house was broken into last winter. I'm as concerned as anyone else but I'm not giving up hope and the mayor doing exactly what any leader should be doing in this situation. You won't fix Malden by flooding the place with police and forgetting everything else. You have got to fix what is fundamentally wrong with our city which includes opening up our downtown so that light, traffic, business and residents will come back. Same with the baseball field - a unique asset that will set Malden apart and reap many economic and goodwill benefits to give this city a real future. If we build both of these efforts - they will come.The mayor cannot spend all day on crime. He is right to give our economic future which is finally being addressed after decades of avoidance the front burner status it needs. Doing nothing for decades has got us where we are. Malden either makes a few bold moves or we resign ourselves to what we have now and maybe it gets even worse. The mayor is the CEO of our city.If a CEO in any business had a one-issue platform he'd be fired for having no vision and he'd fail. Give the mayor a break, have some faith, he's on the right track.

There is no other issue he should be focused on than crime as nobody is coming here with their family if crime is bad. Why not ask Brockton or Lynn how those non affiliated baseball teams have worked out for them. Don't bring up Lowell as they are an affiliated team. Crime Crime Crime. How many additional cops we going to need for this? As for City Hall been here whole life and it needs to move but when we can afford it and who the heck would lease a city hall. I saw a thing online that says not one city in MA does. Head in the clouds as the animals take control.

I've been thinking out the box for a long time. We missed an opportunity to move Malden City Hall to Canal Street where the Medical facility now resides. It still is a State of the Art Building and sat unused for five years. Not being taken into consideration is that city hall is a dump (people are getting rained on) a waste of space (with Transitional Assistance having to move out there will be even more empty space) and it's in the middle of the street. BTW because the DOE is in the square there is supposed to be an Evacuation Route and doubling back to Main Street via Exchange is not an option.

Did I ever tell you about the time Neil Kinnon and I went horseback riding, but there weren't any horses around? Anyway, Kinnon throws a saddle on my back and rides me around Wyoming for three days. Well, wouldn't ya know it, my stamina increased with each day, and I developed tremendous leg muscles.

So anyway, Kinnon decides to enter me into the Breeders' Cup under the name "Turkish Delight". And I'm running in second place, and I'm running, and I break my ankle! So anyway, they're about to shoot me. Then someone from the crowd yells out, God bless him, "Don't shoot him! He's a human!!"

Brocton and Lynn do they still have teams? What is the success level of these non affiliated teams? Anyone out there know? Guessign its not to high.

That's great news about the 10 new officers.

I agree wh should have moved city hall to Canal street years ago..If I was an outsider who had to do business in the current city hall my first impression would be what a filthy barren place to do business. No greeter, no one will give you the time of day and not to mention why do all the malden city hall employees smoke at the entrance of the building, real classy...

Re: the ballpark, you cannot use Lynn and Brockton as valid comparisons. First off, location, location, location. The other cities hard to get too, Malden on the edge of Boston, major T and commuter rail access and in the heart of Red Sox nation. Second, this park looks state-of-the-art, no comparison to the dilapidated, poorly managed ones you cite. Third, this developer I'm sure has done a comprehensive market analysis, if there wasn't money to be made I highly doubt the Bok group would have picked Malden. They know it is not just viable but highly profitable to locate here. And most importantly, there will be construction jobs, permanent jobs and long-term revenue plus an incredible facility for the city to use for its own sports purposes and other large draws like concerts, city celebrations, etc. Success like that raises property values and buys a lot of cops and municipal services that you are complaining about lacking. I can live with them shutting down Canal Street a few times a year to accommodate games and special events and I will be one of the first to buy season tickets for my family when they open. I've lived here too long, seen too much, and continue to stay optimistic that this city can turn around. This is a golden opportunity and I hope our community rallies around the project.

What about 300 Centre Street (Ruderman’s Site)...that would be a great place for city hall an also you can put the school department in there and we would have to rent there property.. We can just make a deal with combine property and do a rent to own deal.. BUT wait we won't that make sense...just like we shouldn't move the DPW we own the property. Why should we spend the money to buy boston steel...? Just to spend money.... Any ideas

The corner of Canal and Medford has and is still vacant for well over 10+ years. ....

That's a good idea... How about this we don't jump into a project because we want a new city hall..we have been talking about moving city hall for at least 10-15 years and look we haven't done it yet so let's hold off mr mayor and city council and really put some real thought into this one cause in the past we seem to jump into something and after its done say did we make the right move......

Everyone out there knows I am no fan of Neil Kinnon. It makes me wonder why he is so opposed to these plans and why he doesn't feel the numbers are correct in this "pros and cons" info sheet the Mayor has put out. The Mayor needs to show Neil where he is wrong and the Mayor is right.

The other question I have is when we are to get these 10 new police officers the Mayor said we are getting?

AnnieO I agree I also wanna know why we are considering buying boston steel when we own the land where the Dpw is.

Did anyone know that boston Capitol met with the mayor and discussed the dpw property.

I'm just wondering why it wasn't posted cause everyone in this city seems to know what happens when it happens just wondering how the meeting out come was...

Personal opinion keep the dpw where it is and lets try and save money and build a fire house in the maplewood area..

I will go to the games.. lot cheaper than the 10 Plus games per year I attend at Fenway... Seems like the plan is to have restaurants too, hopefully not a Dockside... Wish we where also getting a minor league hockey team / rink too... GO BRUINS!!!!

Looking at the picture above, it looks to me like the Mayor is in a chat room :(

Hey gene saw your post about city hall in 1975 making it a dead end... Did you know that original plan was to have a road go underneath city hall but when it came time to build it they realized that it was to expensive and just put it in tbe ground in stead of jacking up... If they build it how they planned on it then like you said " water would be able to pass through it " just food for thought

I had to laugh when I saw that erroneous revenue increase of $2.75 million to lease the City Hall building. If the building is as bad as Mr. Christenson & friends claim, then where in the world do they think the building, in it's current state, would be inhabitable for anyone to lease? Leaky roofs, outdated elevators, etc. The city would then become a landlord, and would be responsible. Ask yourself this, Mr. Mayor....take a long look at the Cambridge Court House where the jail resides. 17 floors unoccupied for a reason. No one wants to buy the dump, so why would you think someone would want to lease in the city hall building?

What about what used to be D'angelo between Walgreens and Blockbuster/
What about the what used to be Boston Market by Radio Shack/
What about the empty Furniture store space at corner of Rte 60 and Ferry/

Too many vaccant spaces that never filled up...Whats the point of having these empty spaces? Any plans to attract businesses to these places that is not a dollar store.
We can't fill the empty spaces that we already have and all these talk about developing more section 8 housing will only worsen the crime situation.

Why can't Lynn and Brockton be compared to Malden when talking about ball park. Weren't those parks state of the art when they were built? How is Brockton not an easy commute for the southshore people and lynn not an easy commute for northshore ppl. Look at those cities now, they are at the bottom of any one's list.

We shouldn't be building more apartments but tearing them down. Do we want to follow Everett/Revere or should we strive to be more like Melrose/Wakefield???

Holy Smoley 46 Main street Malden Armed Robbery maybe shots fired victim hurt. 8:30 tonite. See wee need more Police.

Mr. Mokal...we don't need more police. What we need to do is sit these career or future felons down, get them a cup of coffee, maybe even a bagel with cream cheese, and just reason with them. Although, if they are counting carbs, give them a multi-grain bagel. I would also recommend low fat cream cheese, as they may be watching their cholesterol. Personally, I'm far less likely to commit a felony after a free bagel and coffee. :>)

You are correct Justin. traffic was supposed to pass underneath city hall. Unfortunately there is a tributary of the Malden river there. They should have stopped there.

Acme Canvas building corner of Medford Street and Canal right beside the Malden River. Bike path is across the street, Its an awesome building well kept and vacant. Toss in a Canoe-Kayak ramp in the back. Plant berry and fruit trees for the wild birds.Have it GEEEEZER acessible so it will be easy to walk to pay our bills.