Franklin Park

[FK4]

Well, after writing up an extremely lengthy response, I got logged out. Basically, my feeling about the park is it's been butchered by the stadium and especially the zoo. The golf course doesn't help either. But - none of those are going away, and the problem is that the remaining parkland exists along Olmstead's designs yet we are missing the open space and the promenade (locked inside the zoo), so we really lose the overarching vision of the grand, engineered promenade-type park on the one hand, and left only with the woodsy and wild side. This leaves the whole public part of the park feeling lopped off and abandoned. The best thing would be for the city to pump in a lot of money on a new design team to reconsider the whole layout, allowing better accomodation of the stadium, golf course and zoo but restoring some greater vision of what the park is meant to be.. because right now, that's what it lacks most.

In my dream world, a subway would run up to the park and terminate right at Blue Hill and Columbia. This would literally put it on the map at every station and make the park a very visible and accessible destination that would in turn bring in more flow and help clean up the area. Subway or no, that intersection ought to be made the next community focus and rezoned, with the goal of much larger buildings and a district geared toward entertainment, eating and nightlife. Make it a district. Make it have a real sense of place.

In terms of road improvements..
- Seaver, I believe, is the most needlessly wide road in the city. It also has zero feeling of connection to Franklin Park. Narrow it, put in cycle tracks, get rid of the fencing on the park side and make the walking path within the park run along the entire periphery of Seaver (it now forces you out into the road about halfway down). Make Seaver a boulevard by planting trees on the cityside.
- More trees on Blue Hill Ave. Narrow the lanes on that road, and widen the sidewalk on the parkside - maybe a cycletrack, too.
- restore the original Circuit Drive entrance (there's an image on the Casey thread).

 

[Scipio]

Boston is spinning some Franklin Park planning out of Imagine Boston 2030. I can't find any info on how the first meeting last week went, but the city posted a long survey for people to take: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeZl2aG_XoOThc9kRwL8mHGJIOU7TsvIcfRdyNJ0AH7JBhJlg/viewform

 

[stick n move]

Extensive revamp proposed for Franklin Park


WBUR reports on proposed upgrades released by the city yesterday.

Much of the money for the work will come from the roughly $150 million that Millennium Partners paid for a condemned city parking garage in Winthrop Square downtown, which it razed to make way for a mixed-use 55-story tower now nearing completion. Some $56 million of the money was earmarked for upgrade work at Franklin Park and Boston Common.

https://www.universalhub.com/2022/extensive-revamp-planned-franklin-park


Franklin park action plan page:

Home page
Full document

 

[themissinglink]

Gorilla who has lived at Franklin Park Zoo since 1998 dies after serious health crisis, officials say - The Boston Globe

His health problems include “a chronic cough, loss of weight and muscle mass, increased lethargy and trembling,” the zoo said.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[FK4]

Franklin Park Action Plan

Working with the Franklin Park Coalition and in close collaboration with the local community, the City of Boston has created a strategic vision for the future of Franklin Park. The Action Plan provides a roadmap for investment in Franklin Park to restore landscape cohesion, support uses desired...

www.boston.gov

Lots of great ideas here, best of them all is to close off the part of Peabody Circle that handles Blue Hill Ave-bound traffic.

I also didnt know that the golf course was closed for many years before re-opening. I get it, I get it, it fills a role for people locally, but the park suffers so much because of all the shit that was never meant to be there. At least the zoo, sad as it is, is something anyone can go do or visit. Getting rid of the golf course would allow for much more activation of the whole park.

 

[KCasiglio]

At least the zoo, sad as it is, is something anyone can go do or visit.

I've been there a lot the past two years because my daughter loves it, but man that place is  sad. All I can feel is that I'm in the depressing relic of a place that was awesome 100 years ago.

If we're going to have a zoo I really wish we would invest in it and do it right. As someone said on here recently, it's not a place I'd ever recommend someone traveling here to visit, which is a real shame.

 

[FK4]

I've been there a lot the past two years because my daughter loves it, but man that place is  sad. All I can feel is that I'm in the depressing relic of a place that was awesome 100 years ago.

If we're going to have a zoo I really wish we would invest in it and do it right. As someone said on here recently, it's not a place I'd ever recommend someone traveling here to visit, which is a real shame.

I went today and last visit was a couple years ago. It’s worse than it was in 2022 and it was worse then than it was a few years before that. I think it was probably never a great a zoo in my lifetime, but as a kid, while I might have just not noticed, i don’t think it was run down to the extent it is today. Today it was pretty intense how loud the disinvestment screamed. But ditto for all of Franklin Park. It’s just not cared for well at all—especially the parts close to mattapan and roxbury. Just so obvious the city doesn’t give a shit.

Even so I still go every other year. It’s a nice thing to do in the middle of a weekday, I get discounted library passes and go. As depressing as it is, I still enjoy it.

 

[Stlin]

Generally, I don't oppose the zoo in the same way as the golf course. Its an attraction, an amenity for folks in Boston, one that is fairly common among large cities and something Olmstead actually intended for this site, even if the format is different as the times and sensibilities changed. That said, while it's been a hot minute since I've visited, I will say that Franklin Park Zoo feels.... Primitive, and not in a good way.

Their other zoo, Stone Zoo, despite being smaller seems to have gotten the lions share of investment from Zoo New England over the past couple of decades. With a few exceptions, it feels much more like a modern facility with most exhibits having been built this century, despite its small "collection." Its themed Sierra Madre bit and naturalized habitats are quite decent. Granted, it needed the rebuild after its closure in the 90s, and I don't know if was a fundraising thing, but just in the past decade Stone got its Welcome Plaza, Discovery Center and more years ahead of what ZNE's 2015 redevelopment plan projected - Their Caribbean exhibit wasn't even part of the plan, and all of it was built by 2017/18. I don't know if it came by fundraising in a wealthier local community, but by comparison, Franklin Park Zoo only saw substantial investment in the new Children's Zoo, and Gorilla Grove and upcoming Africa Experience only saw funding after the Stone Zoo upgrades were complete - Per Wikipedia, most of the exhibits date to the 90s or earlier and it shows.

The other interesting thing... Roger Williams Park Zoo is widely considered to be the best zoo in New England, but Franklin Park is physically bigger, has more animals, and has a lot more money - like twice as much more in 2023. Sure, ZNE is maintaining two zoos, but if that trend continues and they can keep building new exhibits and generally improve the physical plant in Franklin Park? I can see Franklin Park Zoo ultimately overtaking Roger Williams. It'll never be the Bronx Zoo or San Diego, but best in region should be doable.

 

[Arenacale]

The other interesting thing... Roger Williams Park Zoo is widely considered to be the best zoo in New England, but Franklin Park is physically bigger, has more animals, and has a lot more money - like twice as much more in 2023. Sure, ZNE is maintaining two zoos, but if that trend continues and they can keep building new exhibits and generally improve the physical plant in Franklin Park? I can see Franklin Park Zoo ultimately overtaking Roger Williams. It'll never be the Bronx Zoo or San Diego, but best in region should be doable.

"Quality vs. Quantity" is definitely a thing when it comes to zoos, museums and like. Roger Williams has two really stunning areas - the elephant/giraffe indoor gallery and the tropical rainforest building - and that makes up for it's lack of overall size. The other thing it does really well is have an expansive kids area that doesn't have any animals and thus less upkeep, but still is a blast for the little ones (my son used to love it there). But beyond that I don't think there's as much distance between the two as everyone else does. If Zoo New England focused on a couple of marquee exhibits and then fluffed-and-buffed the rest of the zoo, I think it would go a long way.

Then again, I'm also in Central MA now, so I'm more used to the very old-school Southwick's, that is nice enough but makes either of the urban zoos seem modern in comparison.