Rose Kennedy Greenway

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/10/greenway_events.html

Greenway events go forth despite rain
E-mail|Link|Comments (0) October 4, 2009 04:52 PM
By Beth Daley

If festivals were made on enthusiasm and effort, the ?Try Something New? event on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway was destined to be a success this weekend.

Yet a day after powerful rainstorms forced the postponement of the festival to a much barer bones version today, what constituted success had to be ratcheted down. Instead of the 10,000 people organizers had anticipated, estimates were in the low thousands.

?We are all drying out?.but we are still thrilled so many people spontaneously came today,?? said Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Greenway Conservancy, which put on the event with a suite of partners. ?This is in the natural order of things when you have a one day event in rain, sun or even monsoon.?

The non-profit conservancy took over control of the 15-acre park constructed atop the Big Dig in February and has been struggling to deal with shrinking private donations and the disappearance of $1 million in state funding because of the recession. The Try Something New event was designed to introduce the park to thousands while also help conservancy organizers mold what the park?s use would look like long term.
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Bubbybu said:
that is almost entirely hideous save for the eating venue and the skate rink
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At least the trees - and there are lots of them - are planted on the interior of the space, not alongside a roadway like in Boston's median strip.
 
Houston's Sesquicentennial Park reminds me of a prominent downtown park in Omaha my original hometown. In Omaha's case, after buildings were demolished in the 70's in the name of urban renewal, a large park was built with a man made lagoon. The lake was situated much lower than the surrounding street level and was surrounded by sloping terraces and lawns. The park provides a good photo op for with downtown building in the background but thats about it. Overall the park has not been a success due to reasons including perceived (or perhaps real) safety problems and lack of foot traffic.

Here's a pic for anyone interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OmahaNE_Downtown.jpg
 
Okay, nevermind re: that Houston park. Total boring crap, and clear it's only populated due to a lack of alternatives.
 
I really liked that Omaha park when I was there, my only regret was that the lagoon didn't meander it's way through more of downtown. It's quite walkable, as is the "Old Market" section of downtown (where the building weren't demolished). Actually, I liked Omaha as a whole, so long as you stay relatively close to downtown. Once you get out, it turns to depressing suburbia very, very quickly.
 
I like the Omaha park also,would perfer something like that mixed with some of what we got,I know you could'nt build waterways over highway tunnels but ours leak already!
800px-OmahaNE_Downtown.jpg
 
I've never been to Omaha's or Houston's parks, but the model Boston should be looking towards is much closer at hand: Providence. The parks along the small rivers are linear and narrow, but well-used.
 
These parks look a lot like the northpoint park
 
Ron Newman said:
I've never been to Omaha's or Houston's parks, but the model Boston should be looking towards is much closer at hand: Providence. The parks along the small rivers are linear and narrow, but well-used.
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Actually from all the praise these get from a design perspective they seem to be almost totally empty when Waterfire isn't going on.
 
Linear parks will always just be open-space fillers; therefore, we can accept mediocrity.

Wait, hold on, stop the presses:

la-rambla.jpg
 
so much sarcasm!!

considering Quincy Market is already our Ramblas..and neither of them are parks.
 
Good question!

Here are my half-serious answers:


Occupied Space: 66% nature?

Paved ground: <10%?

Density of Manmade Structures: 1 per square quarter of a mile?
 
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/10/05/sun_crowds_grace_greenway/
If festivals were made on enthusiasm and effort, the ?Try Something New?? event on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway was destined to be a success this weekend.

Yet a day after powerful rainstorms forced the postponement of the festival to a much barer-bones version yesterday, what constituted success had to be ratcheted down. Instead of the 10,000 people organizers had anticipated, estimates were in the low thousands.

?We are all drying out . . . but we are still thrilled so many people spontaneously came today,?? said Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Greenway Conservancy, which put on the event with a suite of partners. ?This is in the natural order of things when you have a one-day event in rain, sun, or even monsoon.??

The nonprofit conservancy took over control of the 15-acre park constructed atop the Big Dig in February and has been struggling to deal with shrinking private donations and the disappearance of $1 million in state funding because of the recession. The Greenway event was designed to introduce the park to thousands while also help conservancy organizers mold what the park?s use would look like long-term.

Those who came to the Greenway yesterday afternoon under clearing skies praised the effort of the conservancy workers, who scrambled until midnight Saturday to rebook vendors and get the word out via Twitter, Facebook, and other websites that the festival would take place yesterday.

Even though it proved impossible for a musical lineup and farmers? market to return because of other commitments, children still got their faces painted at a Children?s Museum tent while passersby tried out Nordic pole-walking and ice skating.

?We were going to go apple picking but we said we?d come here first. . . . It?s free,?? said Tiffany Jacob, as she watched her 19-month son Bodhi play on the thick green grass in front of a tent set up by the Children?s Museum.

Jacob says she usually uses the Greenway as a pleasant walking route to get to the Children?s Museum or to meet her husband after work.

?The only reason I don?t use it more is there are no gates?? or fences to prevent young children playing on the Greenway from running into traffic, she said.

A short walk away, Paul Antokolsky was teaching four people a new way of healthy living: laughing. With a mechanical laugh track in the background, he explained, in between jokes, even ?fake?? laughing can signal the brain to cut back on stress hormones and pump out mood-elevating chemicals like endorphins.

Brennan said the conservancy is planning other events and programs that are more ?aspiritional,?? given the lack of funding. One is tapping into technological expertise in Boston to put on a ?bright lights on winter nights?? event.

The group says it also wants to better understand how people use the park to create uses in it for them.

?No one has used this space before,?? said Linda Jonash, director of planning and design for the conservancy. ?We want to see how the city grows in and through it. We have such potential.??

Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com.
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So how would you classify the Paul Revere Mall (Prado) in the North End? It's 100% paved, but has lots of trees. It is linear and has no adjoining businesses whatsoever. It's quite well-used and well-loved. I'm pretty sure the Parks Department is responsible for its upkeep.
 
If we are going to take any lessons from a Texas city, let it be the riverwalk in SA. These Houston parks are awful.
 
Quincy Market is already our Ramblas
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Hahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha.

So how would you classify the Paul Revere Mall (Prado) in the North End? It's 100% paved, but has lots of trees. It is linear and has no adjoining businesses whatsoever. It's quite well-used and well-loved. I'm pretty sure the Parks Department is responsible for its upkeep.
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1. Before the Greenway and Harborwalk, there was almost no open space in the North End beside it, so it became well-used and will probably continue to be so due to inertia.

2. The Freedom Trail channels every tourist in Boston through it.
 
czsz said:
Hahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha.



1. Before the Greenway and Harborwalk, there was almost no open space in the North End beside it, so it became well-used and will probably continue to be so due to inertia.

2. The Freedom Trail channels every tourist in Boston through it.
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This board is going to implode one day from all of its caustic wit....

I didn?t say it was anywhere as nice as Las Ramblas! But it serves the same function, no?
 
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And do you consider Christopher Columbus Park to not be open space or to not be part of the North End?
 
It's part of the North End, but didn't open until the late 1970s, about 50 years after Paul Revere Mall. You could consider it the very first part of the Harborwalk to open.
 
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