Charles River Park | West End

Chester Square was basically obliterated when they extended Mass Ave through the South End in the 1950's. There was talk of putting the square back together by building a tunnel for Mass Ave in the 1990's, but there was no money for it.

But we can probably combine these two statements:
Has a Boston park EVER reverted to any other use?
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People often talk about the loss of the West End as the root cause of NIMBYism in Boston.
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No park has EVER reverted to any other use since the backlash to urban renewal began in the 1960's.
 
I'm pretty sure they built the new CRP developments on existing parks, but they also improved the remaining parks, making them more untouchable
 
Ron Newman said:
Also, didn't Madison Park High School replace a park with that name (as well as lots of neighborhood streets and houses)?
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I-695 - later Melena Cass Boulevard, Campus High - later Madison Park H.S., and various housing projects (particularly Madison Park which is stupidly suburban) obliterated Madison Square in lower Roxbury. Prior to this mess the South End from Mass Ave to Hammond Street was the Harlem of Boston, and Lower Roxbury officially started on the opposite side of Hammond Street. The entire area had similar architecture and density of the South End with strong continuity to Dudley Square. Now it is a horrible wasteland full of awful project, ill sited government buildings, empty lots, office park style industry, and other fair suburban typologies.
 
^ All true. I thought I was the only one to remember that far back.

Yep, all true. The stupidest public works program in Boston's long and disgraceful history. It counts with the West End, the Government Center, the Seaport and the Greenway.
 
Are those landscaped areas between buildings in Charles River Park so sacred though compare to something like the Greenway? I'm probably wrong, but it doesn't seem like there is a loud neighborhood association cock blocking everything in CRP. Isn't it mostly renters and owned by one development company?
 
ablarc said:
It counts with the West End, the Government Center, the Seaport and the Greenway.
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Ablarc -- in considering your list, is the annihilation of Wood Island Park (referenced above) and the Neptune Road neighborhood acceptable collateral damage in the name of economic development?

A good book that covers this sad history by a former colleague at Radcliffe.
 
I would love to see photos of the old South End/Lower Roxbury that Lurker described but haven't been able to find any online. Does anyone have any suggestions where I might be able to find some?
 
The new towers in CRP were built on parking lots and parking garages. The 3-story villas replaced similar structures made out of wood.
 
Why anyone hasn't raised holy Hell about the undeveloped lots sitting along Melena Cass Boulevard for decades now is beyond me. It is a lingering reminder of REAL RACISM/ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATION (when the South End started to gentrify in the 1980s someone got the idea of deliberately maintaining the separation of the neighborhood from lower Roxbury/Dudley through the preservation of the I-695 corridor as part of the Big Dig's Mass Ave connector.) in city policy and urban planning, yet nothing has been done to remedy the situation. It's pretty insulting to Melena Cass's legacy that a roadway very intentionally designed as a barrier has her name on it. It's like naming a center for counseling rape victims after a notorious rapist, absolutely horrible.
 
I agree it's a shame, but what could be built there to remedy such a gap? Luxury housing? Mixed-income? Do we wait for gentrification to come along and effectively expand the South End, or should the government force some sort of reintegration? (BTW, are those lots privately or publicly owned?)
 
Lurker said:
It's pretty insulting to Melena Cass's legacy that a roadway very intentionally designed as a barrier has her name on it. It's like naming a center for counseling rape victims after a notorious rapist, absolutely horrible.
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That's a pretty great quote right there.
 
Aren't those empty lots all part of the Newmarket industrial area? Most are being used for industrial purposes. Contractors' yards and equipment repair shops might not be sexy, but they do provide middle class jobs in the city.
 
the empty lots and contractors yards could just as easily provide jobs in everett or malden...poor use of resources.
 
At the risk of sounding like a jerkass, its Melnea Cass, not Melena.

This may very well be the worst disconnect, or "no-man's land" in the city. The urban core could stretch from the South End into Roxbury if it was developed right. But much of it is already badly developed, with crappy rowhouses just south of Mass Ave....
 
I look at the Boston area as a region, so no, I don't think it much matters if your job is in newmarket or Everett or Malden or Hyde Park. There was a time when the wholesale markets were located in Boston at Quincy Market. Now a much larger facility is in Everett. I don't think that matters one bit from a middle class jobs point of view. 99% of the people who work at Newmarket et. al. have cars. They could just as easily drive elsewhere as they drive there. There is also sorts of industrial wasteland in this belt of the city that could be turned into vibrant neighborhoods with strong tax bases to support city services.
 
Industry might actually generate more taxes than residential. Here in Somerville, some people are concerned that too much industrial land has been (or is being) turned residential.
 
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