Rose Kennedy Greenway

CDubs said:
The complaining is about the order in which it is done. Why bring WiFi to the Greenway when you have no shade? They're going for everything but the shade, and it's maddening. Free WiFi is not going to bring the masses to the RKG if they're going to end up frying in the sun.
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LOL...........I almost died on that Median Strip last week of Heat STROKE.

The planning for the Greenway has been atrocious like everything else in this city.
 
Unfortunately trees don't get big overnight. Stupid trees.


State?s cuts leave Greenway wanting
Funding down 25 percent for unfinished park
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/07/21/states_cuts_leave_greenway_wanting/

How about revenue generating buildings on some of these parcels rather than useless parks that suck millions of our tax dollars away?

and this from the article....
The conservancy?s latest plan to put a tree nursery there is on hold because of money shortages, Brennan said.
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Tree nursery! This is downtown Boston, not Dover/Wayland/Weston/etc... Gah!
 
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I still can't figure out how our city government can't figure out a simple solution for funding. If they want to keep the Greenway entirely made of parks, they can easily get funding by allowing either side of the Greenway for development at a level where all the parties involved can make it feasible (over the 200 ft limit), with a clause stating that the developers and/or tenants must help pay to maintain the parks.

Menino is talking about a Business Improvement District but is putting a stranglehold on it at the same time. You can already see Chiofaro smiling as he knows that the mayor is slowly losing his grip on his position.

But I just want to comment, how sad this really is. The Greenway is a half assed park, far from it's full potential. The taxpayers of Boston paid decades to bring down the Artery and to create a park and are given a sorry excuse of it. The Mayor and conservacy are wasting time squabbling about how to raise funding, knowing that all previous fundraising attempts failed. It won't be surprising if all the fund raising ended up paying the SOBs who work for the conservacy and aren't doing anything until adequate funding is received. A simple solution such as the one offer above could help bost the BID that the mayor is vouching for yet his arrogant pompous ass would not budge because of a personal rivalry with another man in the city. The BRA hasn't done anything to improve it. The city has become a personal chess game for the mayor.
 
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The thing is, it wasn't just the taxpayers of Boston who paid for the Big Dig. It was the entire country. The reason the Greenway is unaffordable is because the federal government isn't chipping in anymore (except maybe for building the Harbor Islands pavillion, which, incidentally, is the only building to ever get off the ground on this thing).

The city, or maybe the park-worshipping Druids who control the development and planning process, never bothered to do the simple math to determine how they'd pay for a superabundance of parks in a city that's so hostile to new construction/tax revenue, particularly when that new construction tries to be located near and bank off the "attractiveness" of its very new amenity (and, supposedly, investment).
 
from the Greenway Conservancy today:

This week the Greenway welcomed two new enhancements: a free, public Wi-Fi system, and more tables, chairs and umbrellas.

On Tuesday, July 20th the Greenway Conservancy launched its free, public "Greenway" Wi-Fi network. Created by Anaptyx, LLC, the network is accessible automatically from laptops, iPhones, Blackberrys, and other internet-ready devices and is one of the largest free Wi-Fi networks in all of Massachusetts.

New tables, chairs, and umbrellas were installed on Thursday, July 22nd in the Rowes Wharf and Dewey Square Plazas. Five benches were also installed in the Wharf District Parks. The new furniture was made possible thanks to Massachusetts Horticultural Society, their donors and volunteers, Tishman Speyer, The Residences at the InterContinental & InterContinental Boston, Cushman & Wakefield of MA, Inc., and Peabody Office Furniture.
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State's response:
State Demands Greater Accountability From Greenway Conservancy

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
In a scathing letter to the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the State?s transportation department, MassDOT, has imposed strict conditions on the public funding it provides to the private, non-profit organization. The State will fund $2.2 million out of the $5.2 million Fiscal Year 2011 budget for the Greenway Conservancy. The Conservancy has not been able to raise the private money it expected, resulting in a budget that is a far cry from the $8 million originally proposed, but still up from the $4.8 million expended last year. In a time of tight budgets, the State is examining the Conservancy?s reliance on public funds, forcing greater accountability and disclosure. The MassDOT letter is dated July 13, 2010 and was released yesterday at a Conservancy Board meeting. (Click here to view the MassDOT letter.)

MassDOT?s ?Dear Nancy? Letter to the Greenway Conservancy?The Conservancy budget for core park operations must contain a cost structure consistent with its place among the public facilities in the Commonwealth,? writes MassDOT Secretary and CEO Jeff Mullan. Other comparable public parks include the State-owned Esplanade and the City-owned Boston Common and Public Garden. Those parks operate with a fraction of the budget allocated to the Greenway. For example, the budget for the Esplanade is roughly $400,000, or less than 10% of the Greenway Conservancy?s budget, for a comparable State park that is 3 times larger.

The State agency is also questioning the salaries of park workers where the Greenway Conservancy is paying nearly double what the State pays for equivalent positions. For example, the Director of Operations for the Greenway receives compensation of $131,993 as compared to a State Forest & Parks Supervisor at the same level making $69,160. The State found similar discrepancies for several positions in the Greenway?s maintenance and horticulture payroll. According to the latest IRS Form 990, the Greenway Conservancy?s Executive Director, Nancy Brennan, was compensated $223,000. (Click here to view the State?s analysis and salary comparison.)

In response to the Greenway Conservancy?s questionable cost structure, MassDOT has clarified in its letter that taxpayer money can only be used for maintenance and horticulture. However, MassDOT is still funding half of the total budget, including $1,786,500 million in cash and $443,500 through in-kind services such as plumbing, electrical, rent, fuel and equipment services. The other half of the budget will be made up from private contributions, prior year savings and interest from the Conservancy?s $13 million+ endowment, most of which was publicly funded.

In a list of conditions that could be interpreted as a ?slap on the wrist,? the State felt the need to explicitly direct the Conservancy?s use of the parks with regards to public access. In addition, MassDOT is demanding more transparency and accountability in the Conservancy?s limited disclosure.

?All spaces must be open to all people at all times,? the MassDOT letter states. While an obvious statement for most public parks, MassDOT could be responding to proposals and event guidelines that risk marginalizing public use or a de facto privatization of the parks.
?The Conservancy will seek only actual and reasonable cost recovery for services it provides and not through the use of the land itself.? This condition is likely in response to the Conservancy?s method of charging thousands of dollars to groups using the parks, including community organizations. Renting out the parks is frowned upon by the State.
Toward increased public disclosure, the MassDOT letter requires the ?Conservancy will comply with the Commonwealth?s open meeting law ? and public record?s law? as related to the use of public funds. ?MassDOT will require a full accounting of all sources and uses of revenue received from the use of the Greenway ? including the salaries of staff, payments to vendors and copies of all contractual documents. MassDOT will require revised financial reporting that clearly segregates the use of state funds from non-state funds.?
Yesterday, I attended the joint meeting of the Greenway Conservancy Board and the Greenway Leadership Council (GLC) where the Conservancy?s budget was unanimously approved along with MassDOT?s conditions. Interestingly, the Boston Globe?s Casey Ross was not at the meeting, yet published an article today, with a picture of brown spots on a Greenway lawn. The implication of sub-par maintenance was not a concern expressed by the Conservancy at the meeting. To the contrary, the comments were uniformly positive on the Greenway?s maintenance. Further, Conservancy staff touted an increase in programs and horticulture projects. More than anything else, Conservancy executives and Board members were particularly enthusiastic about the strong utilization of the parks this summer.

New signage should be installed later this year along the length of the Greenway. The six food vendors that started in June are seeing good demand. Adding to the food vending pilot, the Conservancy expects to install tables and chairs on several parcels along with 40-50 planters.

Plans have been shelved for the Conservancy to take over the operations for several acres on the outside edges of the Greenway corridor. The urban nursery for the North End ramp parcel remains on the agenda, subject to the Conservancy raising $250,000. Stay tuned for more posts on these subjects, as well as the disappearing chairs from the Greenway?s North End parks.

Update on Thursday, July 22, 2010 by Matt Conti
WCVB TV5 interviews both Conservancy Executive Director Nancy Brennan and MassDOT Secretary/CEO Jeff Mullan regarding the funding and salary issue.

Team 5 asked Brennan, who makes $200,000, how tight her budget really is. A review of the conservancy?s most recent tax filing shows the nonprofit spent $550,000 on consultants. ?The consultant figure is made up of a variety of smaller contracts. One of the things we have been careful about is not to hire too many full time staff,? Brennan said. But, among the full-time staff is a director of park operations who makes $131,000 compared to his state counterparts who make a little more than half that salary. ?Our head of park operations has a deep background in engineering, which is what you would want him to have to be on top this tunnel,? Brennan said. ?I think our colleagues at DCR are pretty highly skilled,? Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Mullan said.

Click here to see the full report and video clip.
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http://www.northendwaterfront.com/h...r-accountability-from-greenway-conservan.html
 
Accountability? Now? Haha.

Where was accountability when, in some closed-door fashion, it was decided that the artery would be replaced by a Rose Kennedy Greenway? Unlike most idiot commentators on the Herald website, I have no problem honoring Rose Kennedy... but why a Greenway? How did it come to be a greenway? The very word precludes any future development, and virtually in one fell swoop defines the space in the public domain... A sacred cow decided by committee, not by any democratic institution... and it's bad enough that this sacred cow represents a continuing scar on the urban fabric of the city... but sacred cows become easy refuges for the corrupt, for those who don't want to be held accountable. The sacred cow is a plush sinecure for those on the inside, and an eyesore for those who aren't.
 
Shepard said:
Accountability? Now? Haha.

Where was accountability when, in some closed-door fashion, it was decided that the artery would be replaced by a Rose Kennedy Greenway? Unlike most idiot commentators on the Herald website, I have no problem honoring Rose Kennedy... but why a Greenway? How did it come to be a greenway? The very word precludes any future development, and virtually in one fell swoop defines the space in the public domain... A sacred cow decided by committee, not by any democratic institution... and it's bad enough that this sacred cow represents a continuing scar on the urban fabric of the city... but sacred cows become easy refuges for the corrupt, for those who don't want to be held accountable. The sacred cow is a plush sinecure for those on the inside, and an eyesore for those who aren't.
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An elegant post, but . . .
It wasn't closed-door. It was announced with predictably populist zeal that when the artery was taken down it would be replaced with open space. I remember well the positive public reception. And if it had been put to a vote, don't you think most of Boston (or the State) would have voted for parkland. Isn't one of the biggest complaints on this board the fact that the vocal (voting) residents of the city always demand more open space?

And easy refuges for the corrupt? What's easier to illicitly glean money from, a park, or a series of incredibly lucrative real estate developments?

It's easy to play Monday morning quarterback, but people weren't complaing about the proposed Greenway in 2004.
 
... and most people aren't complaining now, either ... right?



Most people seem like chumps.
 
the Greenway Conservancy?s Executive Director, Nancy Brennan, was compensated $223,000.
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I heard yesterday that the President of the Artery Business Committee d.b.a. A Better City, d.b.a. "ABC," another tax-exempt non-profit, earns $400k per year.

Their mission: "ABC TMA is an independent, consensus oriented, nonprofit organization made up of employers, retailers, business owners, public sector representatives and others working together to address employee transportation issues and improve air quality and traffic in the downtown and Back Bay areas of Boston."

A City of dozens of inside players who are simply out of control.
 
Non-profits, which don't actually produce something, operate something, or provide tangible services to anyone, are great institutions for money laundering and patronage jobs. Even many 'reputable' non-profit institutions which actually do something typically have 11 vice presidents and assistants to non-existent managers whom are really leeching money from some crooked deal.
 
What a disgusting sham.

What the hell was the point of leaving a public park in the care of a publicly funded private group with little accountability in the first place? This whole thing just reeks.
 
You mean you don't think it's worth donating to these people?

The people I know who work for NGOs make a pittance. What's the point of paying a competitive salary if they're not performing - or capable of performing - at the level that salary would seem to suggest? Especially if it's depriving the actual goal of the organization from achieving its funding needs.
 
Lurker said:
Non-profits, which don't actually produce something, operate something, or provide tangible services to anyone, are great institutions for money laundering and patronage jobs. Even many 'reputable' non-profit institutions which actually do something typically have 11 vice presidents and assistants to non-existent managers whom are really leeching money from some crooked deal.
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Like, say, Habitat for Humanity?
 
Look at the MFA prior to the new director (or president, whatever his title is) cleaning house top to bottom. Patronage bleeds everything dry to the point that the original mission of the organization is cast aside in favor of ensuring the welfare of the employees. It typically occurs in government and well endowed institutions where there is no financial motivation to be efficient (it's easy to waste money in ample supply when it's not their own). But when the gravy stops, oh boy does the shit hit the fan.

It is absolutely criminal that a brand new non-profit is already acting like a worn out institution accustomed to resting on its laurels. Something tells me from the the start many of the people involved in the RKG Conservancy were either eyeing a patronage payout, or some bullshit title to puff themselves up amongst their fellow cocktail party assholes.

The Greenway should be broken up into a few special parcels (squares) which receive the Post Office Square treatment. A few key squares acting as focal points along the route between North/South Stations & the waterfront would be far better maintained and programmed. The remaining parcels could be developed to re-knit the urban fabric and provide proper edges to the newly created squares. The linear format is broken and problematic to begin with, why the hell no one else in any position of importance hasn't suggested anything similar as of yet is immensely disturbing in a region full of supposedly 'elite' institutions of higher learning.
 
That may be a good idea, but how do you solve the problem of making the ramp parcels economical to build on? The Greenway plan intended to cover all three of them with buildings, and that so far hasn't happened.
 
Ron Newman said:
That may be a good idea, but how do you solve the problem of making the ramp parcels economical to build on? The Greenway plan intended to cover all three of them with buildings, and that so far hasn't happened.
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If premium properties were available for $1, wouldn't that be sufficient in making the numbers work for building over ramps? This is Financial District and Quincy Market land with easy access to highway, public transit and (sigh) greenspace.
 
Perhaps, but giving away public property (as opposed to trying to maximize value for the taxpayers) has its own issues. Also, were the designated developers (YMCA, New Center for Arts and Culture, and Boston Museum) actually going to pay anything for the land?
 
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