Long before I started blogging for WheelsTV. Long before I went to college. Long before I had any inkling of a career in writing, there was my love of cars, and there was the Expo. The Bayside Expo Center was one of a collection of locations that any sort of major exposition of exhibition could be held. Other options included the Heinz convention center and the fleet center, however Bayside’s location, near south Boston and Umass Boston was just enough outside of Boston to make it accessible to those coming from outside the city, especially points south and west.
I can remember going to my first Auto show at the expo center with my brother when I was in 6th grade. My brother and I are competitive about everything, and back then, that included outsmarting each other when it came to facts about cars. Born out of that was a love of cars that brought me to where I am today- having the privilege spend every day researching, writing about, and occasionally test driving cars as a vocation. Who would have thought that wandering around the bayside, checking out what at the time was a novel continuously variable transmission, that I would be back there, but being paid to do so!
Looking across the massive main hall of the recently opened Boston Exposition and Convention center at can be described as a car-lovers all you can eat buffet, I thought back to the previous location of this auto show and almost grimaced. According to Einstein everything is relative. Ergo, our perceptions of everything this world are judged relative to other experiences we have had, and seeing the pristine gargantuan beauty of the new exhibition center that made me realize what a prehistoric dump the old expo center was.
Looking back, the Expo center had a layout worlds apart from that of the massive exhibition center, that bears a resemblance to an airplane hangar or what one might mistake for worlds largest airport terminal. The expo center on the other hand had a layout that was more like that of that outdated mall you stopped going to. There were no main halls, or rather the construction of expo was such that I have no memory of a main hall. There was a mass of disjointed mediocre halls, and many exhibitors were constrained to the confines of conference rooms adjacent to these sub par concourses.
The outdated expo also suffered with regards to the upkeep the facility received. When attended auto shows in the past, I can remember a patched together exterior that looked like a shingled house after a hurricane. Upon entering the center I can remember the drop ceiling having exposed panels, with wires hanging out of said panels. Carpets were patched together, and considerations to concession facilities, or the products that they were peddling, all seemed out of date.
Perhaps the expo does not deserve this sort of verbal laceration and at the time it could have been state of the art, however after spending a day at Boston’s newest expo center made such an impression on me that I had to rant about the shortcomings of the expo center of old. Take this rather as a vote of confidence in the new center and the considerations towards quality and ergonomic planning that it had received. There were many wonderful features of this new convention center had never even crossed my mind.
First was the fact that only knowing the New England auto show, I had only known a layout that bore more of a resemblance to an outdated mall. It had very few large rooms, rather, many poorly lit smaller rooms that winded through the facility. The new Exhibition Center (they should probably come up with a short and catchy name for the center, see- Cobo Hall) has a massive center concourse where all the exhibitors set up their stands. This center concourse can have areas shut off to accommodate smaller events. All of this is flanked on either side by two batteries of conference rooms and outside of that are the hallways/ ticketing arrears that span the length if this monstrosity. It has the proportions of something like a storage area for multiple dirigibles- simply massive.
Considerations towards ease of use of this facility have clearly been taken into account- not just for those passing through the Exhibition center, but for the exhibitors themselves. From looking at schematics, it appears that there are power outlets and an array of multimedia connections build right into the floor. No running wires across the open floor here- everything is right in the floor for easy access. And apparently they have quite a support system! If you are trying to run a display that requires the internet, there is wired and wireless internet connections that have been run throughout the hall. This was an update that the Expo would have much difficulty achieving.
At the end of the day, I am not completely disgusted with the Expo center. It had served the city of Boston for a number of years, and will continue to do so for an untold number of years to come. The New England Convention and Exhibition Center, however, is without question, the future of exhibition halls for Boston. I predict as recognition and popularity shifts towards the new center, the Bayside will be phased out and be torn down. Fret not, however, as the location of the Bayside Expo center, nestled between Columbus Park, Umass Boston, and the oceanfront, would make a terrific location for any number of projects. Until then, however, I implore you to check out the new Boston Exhibition and Convention Center. If your like me, you’ll forget all about Bayside!
Why do some people think that by purchasing a luxury automobile, they are granted an extra rights that the rest of us are unaware of. Like by owning a Lexus, they are entitled to more in life? Obviously this is not the case, but it always seems like a big joke that they are not in on.
Yea, I own a Lexus, but I know that it is just a Toyota Camry with leather seats and a new emblem on it. I also am aware that the damn thing is almost 15 years old! I keep it in good shape, and the car looks great, but I don’t count it as any better than any other car on the road (perhaps, save for the rolling sardine can otherwise known as the Ford Fiesta). I don’t drive with an air of pretension or entitlement. Sure I give the finger here n there. As a matter of fact, the only time I take full advantage of the sun roof is when I stick my arm through the opening to flick the bird.
The point is, I am just your everyday, slightly perturbed driver. However there are some people who think they are royalty. There are a number of things they do, change lanes without looking assuming you are aware of their god-like presence. They won’t stop for your at a crosswalk, because in doing so, they could spill their Caffè macchiato. However the most common offense of back-road bourgeoisie is the straddle-park. (double park was already taken) They do the unthinkable and park across two spaces- sometimes parallel to the other cars in the parking lot, but sometimes they go even further to put us in our apparent parking place by parking across the two spaces either diagonally or perpendicular to the rest of us.
Now what gets me is the arrogance and sense of entitlement. I know they don’t want to have someone scuff their wonderful new Infiniti M45, and that’s fine. But instead of being genuinely concerned for the safety of their car and park it at the far end of the lot, they would rather show off that they have a vehicle that is worth protecting, and take up two valuable spots near the building. I have actual evidence of this occurring in our own WheelsTV parking lot! We share an office building with a few other businesses, so there are probably 30 cars in the parking lot at a given time. I noticed one day that a green Mercedes S-Class sedan was committing the aforementioned cardinal sin. Needless to say, I was unimpressed, but something about seeing that car every day really got to me- straddling the white line that was ever so courteously put there in order for us to have some sort of rhyme or reason.
Later, I discovered that there was a car very similar to this one in our parking lot as well. This was a newer Mercedes S-Class. It was pretty much the same care only a few years newer, however this kind car owner was courteous enough to park his car like everyone else, and simply turn in his fold-away mirrors. Not only was he not drawing attention to his car, the mirrors were folded, giving people extra room to open their door. This is how you care for your car, while avoiding looking like a complete show off.
When you try to go to great lengths to avoid incident with your car, you may actually increase your chances of said incident occurring. If I were a pissed off member of today’s youth and I was set on going into a parking lot to key a car, and I saw someone parked across two spaces, you know that car would be the first to get keyed. Now what if that person had parked like everyone else, perhaps I (playing the part of the disgruntled youth) may have gone after the slightly newer S-Class. So this message goes out to those who don’t realize their Mercedes S-Class isn’t a self-propelled howitzer- park like everyone else! The lines painted by Biff are there for a reason!
Tags: Gkenns
