Bring all of the Green Line UNDERGROUND and throw away those stupid Bretta cars. I feel like im on a haunted mine ride everytime I sit up front.
Yes! That quote was so good I'm inspired to add to the (I'm embarrassed to say) 6 dream projects I jotted down in January...
There're some great ideas we've come up with: I like the
Urban Ring/improving transport/trolleys ideas; the
beer garden on the Greenway -- about the only thing IMO that could redeem that space without developing a number of the parcels; and
reclaiming the lost spaces of South Boston along the Fort Point Channel. I'd extend that idea to pretty much any area that has been rendered useless by highway infrastructure -- the area around
Nashua St between the Monsignor O'Brien and 93; the mess that 93 creates around
South Station/Chinatown/the old Wang Building;
93's environs in E Cambridge, Charlestown and Somerville; and the sad, sad, sorry entrance to Boston that is the
cracked-out railway yards near the Mass Pike/tollbooths in Allston. Imagine turning those dead zones into
densely-built "green" communities heated geothermally, washing dishes and flushing toilets with recycled water, solar-powered and connected to a robust public transportation system of hybrid buses and trolleys. ...
Anyway...
7) Reclaiming the
West End. Start by junking Charles River Park. Then rebuild the West End's street grid, and build a normal, functional neighborhood of small-footprint, 4- to 7-story townhouses, shops and businesses that would once again be open to the city.
8) Kicking the feds and city pols out of
Government Center, reconnecting the area (once again) to the pre-Logue street grid and rebuilding
Scollay Square as much as is possible. As much as I've railed against it all my life, I now think it'd be great to leave City Hall and convert it into a funky, maze-like rabbits' warren of shops, small businesses, daycare, etc. Paint it Scandinavian colors, install garage doors on the ground floors for open-air cafes and bars, plant gardens on it, make it relevant and attractive to creative businesses and people.
I will personally remove the bricks from the Plaza myself, one by one. Get rid of that failure and build on it, preserving a smaller square for the neighborhood ... with a beer garden, perhaps? Not sure whether to try to make the most of Gropius' JFK or to raze it. O'Neill, Hurley, Leverett Saltonstall and the area's 7 parking garages get the axe, bringing in green residential townhouses and shops on the old street grid to plant the seeds of a real neighborhood.
9) Finally, there are areas meant for parks and areas not meant for parks. I think the Greenway is not meant for a big, long park but for a tightly built neighborhood. What IS meant for a
park are some of the
North End wharves currently used for parking lots and the island/peninsula jutting out from Charlestown
under the Tobin Bridge.
The Tobin Bridge island in particular is pretty big and ideally suits a copycat version of the La Ronde amusement park on the Ile Ste. Helene in Montreal. A bawdy, fun amusement park with things for kids and adults -- more Coney Island than Six Flags.
An amphitheater or outdoor concert venue/park with some outdoor cafes would be a much better use of some of the wharves in the North End than the parking lots there now, as would a museum (history, design or ecological -- again stealing from Montreal, something like the
Biodome) or small zoo.