Long before the country voted in a strident president, the city of Boston had its very own strident mayor (though the similarities pretty much end there). Though the late Mayor Thomas Menino may have been famously controlling of the process, his passionate vision for the city he loved cannot be denied.

His legacy continues to grow in Boston’s Seaport District. Banker & Tradesman has been a resident of the district for nearly two decades – the offices of The Warren Group moved into the seventh and eighth floors of 280 Summer St. long before “the Seaport District” was even a thing; it was still lowly Fort Point back then.

With a seat on the front lines we’ve seen the neighborhood transform in a few short years from a grungy, industrial backwater, known only for the Children’s Museum and, for a slightly different city demographic, the federal courthouse, to a teeming, vibrant neighborhood. Along the way we’ve also pretty much lost our view of the harbor, but that’s progress.

Many of the towers now blocking our view have luxurious amenities available only to residents and workers, zealously guarded against outsiders. (We assume. Most of the towers aren’t actually open yet.) One supposes this is to be expected in the amenities wars of luxury living, but it smacks of exclusiveness – and not the good kind.

Fortunately, while the soaring luxury high-rises and shiny glass offices are transforming the skyline, down on the city streets something no less transformative is taking place. Offices and condos do not a neighborhood make – there must be entertainment, amenities, opportunities to interact with the neighbors that, by definition, form a neighborhood.

The restaurants were the first to fill that need – in part to feed the workers by day, but also to entertain the workers, and now residents, by night. And now others are starting to pop up.

The pace of neighborhood development has accelerated in recent weeks. Most prominently, the block of retail in Watermark Seaport on Seaport Boulevard opened earlier this month; the thousands of workers and hundreds of residents now have a local pharmacy. Moreover, CVS has staffed the location with employees who are truly curious about the area and willing to go above and beyond for its people (shout out to Pharmacy Manager Hannah Baram!).

Also in that block of retail is a nail salon and a community bank. Blue Hills Bank, after some internal debate about the need for more physical branches in its network, committed to the Seaport and opened its 12th location just down the street from the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion (which it has been sponsoring since 2014). Boston doesn’t lack for banks – and indeed neither does the Seaport – but another community bank in the area adds to the neighborhood feel.

The Seaport may never be as tight-knit as the North End, but it doesn’t need to be. In time it will have its own identity, recognizable and distinct from its older, more established cousins. The flashy upstart is here to stay.