Can Philanthropy for Boston's Parks Break Through the Grass Ceiling?

[Pierce]

Grand civic gestures courtesy of entrepreneurial public-private partnerships and some deep-pocketed donors are pumping new life into some old guard cities, among them New York and Philadelphia, where urban parks are "in" and planners speak of the "Highline effect" as they once did of the "Bilbao effect."So, what's happening in Boston, home of The Emerald Necklace, a system of parks and parkways designed by a succession of Olmsteds and almost certainly the world's first urban greenway? The situation in Boston is akin to the absurdist Waiting for Godot or the amusing Waiting for Guffman ... in Beantown it might be called Waiting for Parkman.

http://tclf.org/blog/city-shaping-v-can-philanthropy-bostons-parks-break-through-grass-ceiling

 

[JohnCostello]

I worked on the Swan Boats in the late 1980's. Lee would come by from time to time. Granted he did do a lot for the Public Garden and the Common, but he also seemed to have a swagger about him that it was his park and everyone else were just guests of his in his front yard. I really feel that the Teddy Ebersol Fields on the Espanade isn't a good thing. The City got money with the caveat that the ballfields can really only be used by "kids.", shortchanging everyone else in this "public" park.