Rose Kennedy Greenway

Governors Island is a fantastic, transcendant spot; it reminds me of Bowdoin College's campus plunked down next to Lower Manhattan. The closest thing the Harbor Islands have is George's, which is also pretty interesting. But Governors Island is bigger, and more beautiful. Shepard, I'd highly recommend a visit.

While you can't help but notice the sightlines to the Statue of Liberty there (given that it's a few hundred yards away), I've never heard any "patriotic music" being piped in on Gov's Island (not like it'd really be so awful if there were some Sousa-esque march piped in on, say, July 4th). Quite to the contrary, you're more likely to find Bushwick vegans, hipsters who border on Dungeons and Dragons types, and Dutch performance artists than heartlanders there. Hell, the new design is exciting people because of its wooden bikes; I haven't heard a peep about how "patriotic" it's supposed to be ... so while I think it's fair game to criticize on "cultural grounds" the caricature-inducing people who do frequent Gov's Island, they sure aren't the type that well up while listening to Toby Keith.
 
I think Shepard drew parallels to the "From Sea to Shining Sea" song. It's certainly struck me to that chord (no pun intended), but not in a negative or overly-Ah-murr-ih-ken way.
 
What do you all think the chances are that nothing ever get developed of any significance on the Greenway for at least the next 5-6 years? I think it's pretty high.
 
Lots of shadows on the Greenway today. Maybe Menino can open his fat mouth and blow them away.
 
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway should be a 21st-century complement to the Boston Common: A gathering place, a town center, public ground. It can assume whatever form Bostonians choose. An emerald necklace. A grand boulevard. A waterfront lawn.
It is now none of those things. The progeny of the disastrously mismanaged Big Dig, the Greenway lacked proper planning when construction began more than two decades ago, and was short of resources when the project staggered to finish just over two years ago.

Even those who care about the Greenway are disconnected, victims of a dysfunctional process. The players ? the state government, the mayor, the nonprofit Greenway Conservancy, the owners of abutting property ? are reading from their own maps. However much they care about the space, they are letting down the public. What could be a monument to Boston?s collective spirit is instead a victim of the region?s parochial rhythms.

The state led a planning process that designated sites for a museum, an arts center, a YMCA, and an indoor garden; but Peter Meade, chairman of the Conservancy, calls these plans a ??pipe dream?? that never should have reached the drawing board. Officials of Governor Patrick's administration point to the failed stewardship of previous governors while disclaiming responsibility to lead on their own. The mayor, meanwhile, is engaged in a years-long feud with the leading property owner over a proposed tower along the Greenway. Their pettiness casts as much of a shadow over Boston?s newest park as any skyscraper.

And yet there are good ideas coming from all camps. There are no villains here. Each player's attitude seems less obstinate, and more understandable, in the context of a failed leadership structure. That structure, above all, should be clarified. The Greenway desperately needs a nurturing hand, and all the parties must come together to provide one.


A place to visit in all seasons
A mile-long ribbon of grass bracketed by surface roads, the Greenway is the land where the elevated Interstate 93 once slashed its way through the city. The Greenway repairs that wound and provides 15 acres of open space for pedestrians. It should be a magnet drawing people out of four neighborhoods that never used to connect to one another: Chinatown, the downtown business district, the North End, and the South Boston waterfront.

Mayor Menino?s administration is moving ahead on plans to create wider streets and sidewalks to attract people from the neighborhoods. Those improvements should be a first step toward opening up the Greenway to all who live and work nearby. But the Greenway must also be a destination for people who aren?t in close proximity. It must be a place to visit in all seasons, with attractions for all types of people.Continued...

It must be more beautiful, with trees and flowers to draw those who seek a comfortable spot to read a book.

It must be more compelling to children, with spaces to play and intriguing amusements. The summer carousel has been a significant attraction, and should be complemented with street musicians, jugglers, puppeteers, and other performers.

It must be lined with stores and cafes, which are sadly lacking. Most of the buildings along the Greenway were put up when the space was a highway. Places that should be doors and windows and storefronts are currently brick walls.

It must be more open to the water. In some places, out-of-towners might be excused for not realizing Boston was built on the ocean. There are openings at Columbus Park and Long Wharf. But buildings ? some shiny and attractive, others shabby and in pressing need of rehab ? block the harbor at most junctures. A concerted effort is necessary to provide more public access to the water.

It must have at least some of the destination attractions envisioned in the original planning process. One that should be easy to build is a public market above the Haymarket T stop, with open stalls along the Greenway. Its pricetag is a relatively cheap $10 million in state bond money, and it would be a boon to local growers and consumers alike, soon paying for itself in tax revenue.

Of the more ambitious projects, the two that are unique and should not be sacrificed are the Boston historical museum and the Garden Under Glass. The museum isn?t going to emerge overnight, but should remain a priority. There is no place else where the Boston story is told, no gathering point for the millions of visitors who come to learn about the city?s rich past.

Boston played a central role in the founding of the nation, but its Revolutionary-era sites are not as well presented as Philadelphia?s, where the federal government operates a giant visitors center, dozens of sites, and 45 acres around Independence Hall. By contrast, the National Park Service has given Boston short shrift. Securing federal funds for a Boston history museum should be a priority for the state?s congressional delegation. The Greenway, or property abutting it, is the logical place for such a museum, in walking distance of many of Boston?s most historic sites.

The Garden Under Glass, to be built on a spot near the South Station end of the Greenway, was assigned by the Legislature to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which has proven itself unable to do the job. Yet such gardens have been hits in many cold-weather cities, and the Greenway needs a festive off-season attraction. The Greenway?s overseers should raise money for the garden themselves.

Of course, fund-raising will be a major challenge. But it should be less of a problem with a clearer leadership structure and division of responsibilities.


Tapping a new source of funding
The Greenway is short on funds because the state, understandably eager to stop the bleeding on the Big Dig, did not provide enough money to see the Greenway to completion. Frugality is wise, in the face of rampant cost overruns. But to pay $592 million in annual debt service for the Big Dig, as a Globe analysis calculated, while ponying up only $2.6 million to develop the park that was a prime benefit of lowering the highway, is self-defeating.

Other players have been slow to do their part, as well. Mayor Menino has expressed a willingness to help operate the Greenway ? but only if the state pays for it. His attitude is too dismissive, as if the vast new park were a Superfund site to be cleaned up. At some point, it behooves the taxpayers of Boston to make a greater contribution for what is an enormous benefit to them.

Private funds were supposed to come pouring in once the Conservancy was set up, largely through the intervention of Senator Edward Kennedy. But its board hasn?t raised enough, and is caught between the various business and government actors.

While the state and city should provide more resources, the most promising source of funds is the abutting property owners, who?ve profited mightily from the removal of the highway. Little-utilized sites such as the James Hook lobster company property have suddenly seen their assessed property value soar, with sites abutting the Greenway increasing 767 percent (as compared to 241 percent at comparable sites) between 2000 and 2009, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Those owners should contribute more of the cost of running the park by creating a Business Improvement District similar to one that helped fund the successful Millennium Park in Chicago. The Conservancy is already pushing for such a move, and estimates it could add another $2 million in annual funds. But any effort to enlist the neighboring businesses should be broader than just assessing fees. Including the local owners in the planning process would speed the creation of cafes, ground-level retail stores, condominum units, and other necessary private development.

Businesses could then join a new public council to oversee the Greenway. The current Conservancy could morph into such a council, with a remaking of its board. Meade, the chairman, is now doing double duty as CEO of the new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate, a vitally important job that should command most of his attention and fundraising acumen. The Greenway needs a leader focused solely on its needs. A remade board, with a mix of members reflecting the major players and the ability to draw on the BRA?s planning resources, should review the work of Executive Director Nancy Brennan and her staff to ensure that they are doing all that?s possible to bring the Greenway to fruition.


Open more access to the water
Development in places surrounding the Greenway is largely controlled by Menino, who was slow to come up with a comprehensive plan. In the meantime, the leading abutter ? Don Chiofaro, developer of International Place ? leaped forward with his own. He and his partner Ted Oatis purchased the Boston Harbor garage beside the New England Aquarium and began drawing up big plans.

Acting, they say, on their informal soundings of Menino?s BRA, they launched plans for a project roughly the size of the John Hancock building. Their 690-foot landmark would, they say, help solve the lack of retail stores and restaurants, provide both a new hotel and hundreds of condominiums, and still have room for a separate office tower, to boot. Commerce and traffic would grow. The open space on the Greenway, they argued, creates an opportunity for greater density of development on their 1.3-acre site.

As these plans developed, Menino?s own vision began to take shape ? and it was radically different, imposing a 200-foot limit on buildings on the harbor side of the Greenway. Now, Chiofaro and Oatis are claiming that the mayor is trying to block them. They?ve offered to trim the size of their proposal somewhat, but Menino isn?t playing ball.

While overly rigid, Menino?s vision is sound. It sees the Greenway as a connector to the water, and not as the centerpiece of a new downtown. It steers potential development toward places like Chinatown, the North Station area, and the South Boston waterfront ? essentially leveraging the Greenway to enhance the attractiveness of abutting neighorhoods, rather than be a neighborhood in itself.

Boston shouldn?t be like a party in which everyone crowds the kitchen: The opportunities created by the Greenway extend across the city, opening new places for development. If a revitalized Chinatown, West End, and Seaport District emerge as the ultimate legacy of the Big Dig, it could begin to look like money well spent.

Chiofaro?s concern for the Greenway is genuine, and his enthusiasm is palpable. His plan for a major development in the crowded Long Wharf area is out of whack, however. Ideally, his garage would be moved underground and the top grassed over. That, more than any other gesture, would open the Greenway to the water. But having already paid $153 million for the garage, Chiofaro and Oatis aren?t about to spend the money to move it underground without building something very valuable on top. Leaving the garage as it is ? the default position of Chiofaro ? isn?t desirable either, since the building is an eyesore that separates the Greenway from the harbor.

Menino should explore ways of buying out the garage owners, but the pricetag doesn?t seem feasible. Better for the mayor to show a measure of flexibility. Menino should at least explore compromises, with a bottom-line goal of creating more access to the ocean and a new lineup of stores and cafes. Chiofaro?s ambitions would have to get much smaller, but Menino could afford to give a little on the height question ? especially to the extent that greater height could mean a smaller footprint on the ground. (The next-door Harbor Towers are already twice the height limit Menino is seeking to impose on Chiofaro.)

The mayor is right when he says the Greenway won?t emerge overnight. Meade makes the same point. The goal going forward shouldn?t be to solve every problem, but rather to win broad support for a vision, a process, a budget, and clear guidelines for organic growth. Future generations of Bostonians will be grateful.
 
Re: Globe editorial: I like the part about putting the parking garage underground and "grassing it over" as "ideally" a solution.

No taste at all. The author probably buys clothing at "Dress Barn".
 
Rifleman, you've been here long enough to know the drill.
Cite the source and post a link please.
 
tobyjug said:
Re: Globe editorial: I like the part about putting the parking garage underground and "grassing it over" as "ideally" a solution.

No taste at all. The author probably buys clothing at "Dress Barn".
Click to expand...

maybe after that, the city can buy the harbor towers and grass them over as well.
 
The Globe aspires to be Boston's voice of cultural and aesthetic refinement. Perhaps its "superiority" is relative, proven only in comparison to the Herald and the Metro. Idealizing a grassy plot, to be attached to the existing long grassy plot, is a very crude outlook.
 
The Greenway needs wider sidewalks and massive openings to the water? That's worked wonders in the Seaport District! With massive sidewalks, ample parking, wide streets, and nearly unrestricted views to the harbor we already have the critics' vision realized in one part of the city. Don't they notice it doesn't work?
 
On the other hand, Day Boulevard in South Boston features wide sidewalks and a largely unimpeded view of the water (Carson and L Street and City Point beaches) -- and most of us would call it an urban success.
 
That's funny - I've often thought that the city should promote South Boston beaches to tourists and residents much more than they do currently, as a way of extending Boston's waterfront brand without sacrificing prime downtown land. An extended Silver Line trolley down L Street would help.
 
Carson beach is a 6 min walk from JFK T stop,L st another 15 mins,the Sliver line could hit these two beach's and then turn around at JFK station
 
I think the beaches get overlooked a lot because everyone thinks of Boston as the complete opposite of a place where you go to hang out at the beach. Cape Cod? yes. Boston? No. In fact, I bet people from out of town don't even know we have beaches here.

But boston has some nice beaches for a northeastern big city.
 
Boston Globe - April 19, 2010
Greenway funds fall short as costs rise
Directors look to taxes, other revenue sources

By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | April 19, 2010

Only two years into its existence, the nonprofit conservancy that manages the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway does not have enough money to complete and maintain the high-end park system, prompting its directors to appeal to the government for new taxes or other funding sources.

The Greenway conservancy is evaluating ways to raise an additional $2 million a year for its operations, and to offset an expected reduction in funding from the state for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Massachusetts officials say the state cannot afford next year?s $3 million appropriation, part of its pledge to pay half the Greenway?s annual maintenance costs.

The reduction would come as the Greenway?s maintenance costs continue to rise and would make it more difficult to buy and plant hundreds of trees or install public art that was promised as compensation for 17 years of Big Dig construction.

One-third of the 20-acre Greenway is unfinished, with some parks lacking basic furniture and signs, and parcels that were slated to host museums and cultural institutions remaining barren. Moreover, some of the amenities that distinguish the Greenway, including elaborate fountains and more than 50 lighting systems, are proving to be more costly to maintain than expected.

The conservancy had already planned to increase its budget by one-third, to $8 million, but with the recession hurting its other big source of money ? private donors ? officials said they have to find a new way to fund the parks.

?We need a more appropriate and stable financial structure that can withstand these cycles,?? said the conservancy?s executive director, Nancy Brennan. ?Deferring maintenance will just drive up costs, and the Greenway will begin to look poorly.??

Brennan said the conservancy must have a new funding source by 2013 or the Greenway parks risk significant deterioration, and more than $550,000 in tree plantings and other planned improvements from the North End to Chinatown will be delayed even longer.

She said the conservancy is looking at the fund-raising practices used for several other modern urban parks, including Discovery Green in Houston, the High Line in New York City, Millennium Park in Chicago, and Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle. Those include getting a portion of the revenue from parking garages in the city, renting out space to restaurants and cafes, selling naming rights, or levying a special tax on commercial property along the Greenway.

The latter idea would be accomplished through the creation of a so-called business improvement district around the parks.

Tax funding would need approval from both the city and the state. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he would back an improvement district because building owners would be helping to maintain a park system that has dramatically increased their property values.

While supportive, aides to Governor Deval Patrick declined to comment on specific measures for now. Conservancy members said they expect to propose potential new funding sources by July.

In the meantime, the organization?s budget crunch is creating political tension, with Menino urging the Patrick administration to abide by the legislation that created the conservancy and required the state to provide 50 percent of its funding.

?These are state parks and they haven?t finished the job yet,?? Menino said. ?There is silence from the state on what they are willing to do over the next several years, and that?s a problem.??

But Massachusetts officials said that at a time of budget cuts across state government, they simply cannot afford a $3 million appropriation for the Greenway.

?We are going to be taking a hard look at [the conservancy?s] budget because of the need to be careful with the dollars that go into any public facilities right now,?? said Jeffrey Mullan, secretary of the state Department of Transportation. Mullan would not say how much might be cut from its budget.

While the Greenway is a vast improvement to the strip of downtown Boston once covered by the old elevated Central Artery, it remains devoid of the public art and cultural institutions that were promised by the legislation that created the park system in 2008. The legislation envisioned the Greenway as a showcase civic space, with museums, unique landscaping, decorative lighting, and other features.

But many of the cultural institutions that were planned for the Greenway have either died or are stalled, including a so-called Garden under Glass near South Station and a local history museum opposite Faneuil Hall. The institutions have had trouble raising money, especially to cover the higher cost of building over the newly submerged interstate and its ramps.

Moreover, some of the high-end features already on the Greenway are expensive to maintain. For example, on the plaza near Milk Street is a fountain that uses compressed air to shoot a minigeyser of water, surrounded by a bank of LED lights. The display is run by computers and other specialized electrical equipment in an underground vault directly above the Interstate 93 tunnel.

Steve Anderson, director of operations for the conservancy, said the temperature inside the vault needs to be strictly controlled during extreme winter and summer weather to keep the equipment from malfunctioning. That means higher utility costs, along with additional employee hours to operate the specialized equipment.

Above ground, some of the Greenway?s plants, such as bamboo planted in the parks in Chinatown, are high-maintenance.

?It?s very aggressive,?? Anderson said. ?You have to work hard to keep it contained in its space.??

Brennan said these costs contribute to the squeeze on the conservancy?s budget, which does not have a capital reserve to pay for equipment failures. This summer, the conservancy will offer free wireless Internet service along the Greenway, but it may have to delay plans to install 150 trees and other landscaping along Atlantic Avenue and Surface Road.

?We need to stay within our budget, and will do that work as soon as we have the money,?? Brennan said.

Casey Ross can be reached at cross@globe.com.
Click to expand...
 
LOLOLOLOL!! I SOOOOO hope that Chiafaro capitalizes on this one. Instead of giving $50 million to the city, how ironic would it be if he were able negotiate giving a certain amount every year to the Greenway conservation fund? Imagine the egg on the face of the mayor if he became the white knight to the park that everyone is saying he'd destroy. Afterall, what are the estimates that this building would collect, in terms of property taxes?

I'd love to see the Greenway flourish but not with the anti-development, sacred cow mentality that has suddenly appeared. Maybe some sort of levy on any new development to fund the Greenway, in exchange for relaxed rules regarding new construction zoning.
 
I love these political $hitheads that talk about JOBS, JOBS, JOBS. But instead want to tax, tax, tax. It might be time to write to the Governer and the Senator to find out what the HELL is going on in BOSTON. Our Mayor is beginning to look like a economic idiot.
 
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