Rose Kennedy Greenway

I walked along the Greenway from North to South Stations today and it seemed somewhat lively for a Sunday. I only pass through town a few times a year so every time I see it it gets a little bit better I think. At the least, the trees are a bit taller each time I see them.

I realized upon returning home that I didn't see any homeless people around the Greenway, do they come out at night? Maybe I just live in the crappy part of Portland but I get asked for change at least 4 times a day, more so around park areas. Seems like the Greenway area would be a good place for Boston hobos. Does the BPD keep them in check?
 
they're not there cause they're no people to beg from,go to the South station area for the beggars
 
I don't give it very long before the novelty of the Clover truck wears off. And let's not forget that a permanent solution to the Greenway problem is never going to arrive (and stay) with wheels attached.

Plus, whatever this is in high summer, it will revert to wasteland status come November.
 
Anybody read this crap yet?

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas..._for_greenway/


Gaga for Greenway
By Yvonne Abraham
Globe Columnist / June 20, 2010
E-mail this article To: Invalid E-mail address Add a personal message80 character limit) Your E-mail: Invalid E-mail address
Sending your articleYour article has been sent. E-mail| Print| Reprints| Yahoo! Buzz| ShareThisText size ? + Maybe it?s the pea soup talking, but I think I?m falling in love with the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

I?m standing by the new Clover Food Lab truck in Dewey Square, shoveling down a gorgeous chilled green soup with pistachios. If I could put down my spoon for a second, I would kiss Enzo, the delightful guy in the big glasses and orange Crocs who takes orders at the food truck with the cult following. A dozen people are lined up for Clover?s cheap chickpea sandwiches and rosemary fries. Nearby, a farmer?s market is buzzing, with people strolling around, buying heirloom tomatoes, lemon curd cakes, hot sauce.

Office workers and others hang out at tables in the center of the market, eating and chatting. A few loll about on the lush grass by a garden bursting with bee balm, tickseed, and hydrangeas. A cheery group from the Steppingstone Foundation arrives, setting up cones on the grass for staff training exercises.

Eating the soup, watching the people, I feel emotions for the Greenway I hadn?t expected.

Sure, I?ve had a thing for parts of the mile-long string of open spaces for a while. The Chinatown and North End parks ? beautiful, lively extensions of the city?s two best neighborhoods ? feel like they?ve been around forever.

But I?ve despaired at almost everything between those two lovely bookends. I?ve lamented the disconnectedness and emptiness of the spaces, the dearth of people and food.

I?ve looked at that chain of parks and seen only the ways the Greenway has fallen short: The museum and the YMCA that didn?t materialize; The Garden Under Glass that couldn?t get off the ground.

It was impossible for me to walk that mile without wanting to throttle the people responsible for it. After all, this open space was the whole point of the ridiculously expensive and disastrous Big Dig, and everybody acts as if the Greenway suddenly fell from the sky. There is no money to make it great, and nobody wants responsibility for it. I thought of it as a giant monument to our own limitations.

Now here I am, standing where the indoor garden was supposed to be, thinking: This is pretty cool. Maybe, despite all the screw-ups, this place isn?t going to be a dud after all.

But I want to be sure, so I visit again on Friday.

Clover is packed again. Further up the chain of parks, people are lying in the sun. Wherever there is shade, there are happy lunchers, readers, and sleepers.

Office workers toss bean bags, and play tetherball and croquet. A couple dozen kids squeal at the flirty Ring Fountain. Two new food stands ? part of the group of vendors opening up on the Greenway for the first time this month ? dispense supremely tasty slaw dogs and steak burritos nearby.

I?m not the only one developing feelings for this place.

?It?s sad that all those plans fell through, but it?s delightful,?? says Helen Russell, of Steppingstone, who is back on the Greenway, this time for rosemary fries, on Friday.

So much has gone wrong with the Greenway. It?s nowhere near what it could have been. But despite all of the missed marks and dashed hopes, a new Greenway is taking shape. Lousy planning is leaving room for a more organic process, as people are starting to make little pockets their own.

They could use more food (not just more tasty food trucks, but some permanent cafes), and they definitely need more seating, and more shade until the trees grow (Greenway chief Nancy Brennan says both are coming). Some bubblers and bathrooms would be lovely, too.

Still, I can?t fight this feeling any more. With or without pea-goggles, the Greenway is a hottie.

Yvonne Abraham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at abraham@globe.com.
 
Yes. Ms. Abraham is obviously the female equivalent of a chubby chaser.
 
I honestly wouldn't recommend the Greenway park to a Blind Person. They would probably get killed.
 
AmericanFolkLegend said:
ACBF? How was it?
Click to expand...

Yes, and it was quite good. My biggest complaint was that the Duck Rabbit representative said they had no plans for expanding sales to this area. The Duck Rabbit Barleywine was one of the best beers I've ever tried. I even suggested he could find investors right in the crowd (ie, me), but he said he was trying to get bank financing, so put otherwise, he isn't looking for financing at all.
 
"Clover is packed again. Further up the chain of parks, people are lying in the sun. Wherever there is shade, there are happy lunchers, readers, and sleepers."

No, no, no...it's all wrong. Shadows are bad, m'kay!?!?
 
Banker & Tradesman - June 23, 2010
BRA Gives Go Ahead For Chinatown Park, Congress Street Bridge Projects


The Boston Redevelopment Authority's board of directors has approved project proposals to improve the Chinatown Gate/Mary Soo Hoo Park and the Congress Street bridge near the city's Russia Wharf project.

The board granted approval to seek construction services bids for improvements to the Chinatown Gate/Mary Soo Hoo Park. The new park design doubles the size of the existing park through the annexation of the southern-most portion of Chinatown Park. This park expansion creates visible connections through the site and physically connects the park with the Greenway.

The proposed park design serves as a backdrop for the sculptural elements that were designed to evoke a Chinese landscape and interpret Chinatown history and culture in the park. The park design accommodates community play spaces including chess and mahjong tables, a chalk art wall, and tai chi exercise spaces. It also includes upgraded park seating, expanded and enhanced landscape areas, flexible program spaces, and upgraded park lighting. The design was also developed to incorporate the use of sustainable materials.

The Chinatown Gateway Park was originally built in 1983 as a complement to the installation of the adjacent historic Chinatown Gate. The newly renovated park has a construction budget of $410,000 and is expected to be complete in June 2011.

The Board approved the transfer of $3 million in mitigation funds from the Russia Wharf redevelopment project, which is currently under construction with an expected occupancy date of February 2011, to Historic Tours of America for improvements to the Congress Street bridge and tender's house.

The developer, Boston Properties, is providing improvements to the area, including Harborwalk, a one-third acre public plaza and promenade that connects to the water transportation facilities at 500 Atlantic Ave., improvements to Children's Wharf Park, and the expansion of the Congress Street sidewalk.

However, the area surrounding the Congress Street bridge, which is owned by the city's Public Works Department, and the attached bridge tender's house, which is owned by the city's Public Facilities Department, cannot be restored and must be demolished and replaced, according to city officials. This is necessary in order to match the significant upgrades to the area's public realm and to accommodate the expected increase in pedestrian activity from those who live, work and visit the area, the BRA said.

Historic Tours of America expects the improvement work to begin this summer.

The board also approved a construction contract to Fleming Brothers Inc. to perform site improvements to Thoreau Path. Located in Boston's West End, Thoreau Path is a 20-foot-wide passageway that provides pedestrian connections to businesses and residences. The path knits together a block of residential high-rises known as the Charles River Park. The scope of work includes addressing drainage issues along the path, a multi-faceted signage program, enhancements to the existing landscape and structural and aesthetic improvements to the pathway surface. The work also includes installing police call boxes, benches, informational signage and plantings.

The improvement work is slated to begin in early July and be complete in early November.
Click to expand...
 
today lunch time!
103-1.jpg
the other side
104-1.jpg
some kind of art?
105-1.jpg
Once this opens the parks in front will live in up abit!
106-1.jpg
 
Good pictures of the "hottie" farmers market in La Place de Folie a' Deux .
 
Lack of shade trees and a comfortable place to sit is still an issue with most of the Greenway.
 
If SHIFTBOSTON and Common Boston wasn't too busy promoting silly Archigramesque garbage, a competition for, the design and implementation of, sail based temporary seasonal shading structures along the Greenway would be a good use of their time and resources.
 
Did they really need the South Station exit ramp coming from 93 there when the Purchase Street exit is 3 blocks back?
 
In my opinion, the CAT should have been purely an express tunnel, with exits only at South Station/I-90 and North Station/Leverett Circle/Storrow Drive. The distances are really too short to warrant the urban degradation that other on and off ramps create.

My real opinion is that there should not have been an (auto) tunnel to begin with. If the elevated artery came down and I-93 became discontinuous through Boston, I think our transportation planners would have been shocked at how many commuters would suddenly choose to drive only to their local CR station as opposed to downtown.
 
There's one big problem with your plan:

TRUCKS

Without a route through the city for freight and ramps for delivery trucks, there would be awful traffic problems on many of the feeder streets. Not to mention all the noise.

Of course the city could have everything passing through on rail freight and allow for smaller delivery trucks from freight terminals off of those rail. However a certain mayor and development agency decided anti-urban luxury tower in the park development (North Point), office parks (Fan Pier), and a land banking university (Harvard buying CSX in Allston) had priority over infrastructure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top