Rose Kennedy Greenway

Are you judging that just from the photograph or did you go to the event?

This 'uniformity' may be the inevitable result when the event planners supply all tents to vendors instead of requiring vendors to bring their own tents.
 
I will admit that the event did feel very sterile. It had traffic, but it lacked a certain individualized life. Honestly, it felt like a brand new mall (that just happened to be outdoors) with standard size spaces and storefronts. There was no individuality in the spaces that they inhabited that spoke of the artists' and their works.
 
Safe and compartmentalized are the hallmarks of Menino projects.

I mean, just look at the absurd micromanaging of food trucks.
 
Since this event will last for six months of Saturdays, perhaps it will feel more 'individualized' later as the vendors become more accustomed to their spaces?

How does the SoWa market feel? (I haven't yet been to it)
 
Arborway said:
Safe and compartmentalized are the hallmarks of Menino projects.

I mean, just look at the absurd micromanaging of food trucks.
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Speaking of food trucks, you can see the Kickass Cupcake truck in one of my photos. If anyone who lives in Boston has never had a Kickass Cupcake (based near Davis Sq), you are missing out on a local treasure.
 
Took a little walk this lovely day.

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Well, at least bums are getting some use out of it.

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To be fair, there were folks enjoying the fountain and the merry-go-round further up. A couple of people were trying out the maze too. I didn't go up to the North End parks but I'm sure they were busy, as they usually are on nice days. CC Park was busy as usual too.
 
The southern parcels will be as dead as the Financial District is on weekends until that district is changed to include more people living in it. The whole area is completely dead after five and on weekends.

To be fair though, the whole city was pretty dead this weekend. College kids are gone and everyone's down the Cape/up in the mountains opening their summer houses.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
The southern parcels will be as dead as the Financial District is on weekends until that district is changed to include more people living in it. The whole area is completely dead after five and on weekends.
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Why keep apologizing for the Greenway in this manner instead of acknowledging the obvious implication of this statement? Some of these parcels should have been built on in order to provide the people to populate the others.
 
Saturday I used the ferry terminal to go to Spectacle Island, came back and got Emack and Bolios down by the fountain. Sunday I had dinner at Trade (the entire Atlantic Wharf building is such a great addition), then walked up the Green Way to get a beer at the Hideout, and went through the maze. Monday, went back to Faneiul Hall to get some jeans and check out the new visitor center. My two cents, the Greenway's looking great. People were everywhere. Anyone who thought the city was dead this weekend must have been somewhere else.
 
underground said:
Saturday I used the ferry terminal to go to Spectacle Island, came back and got Emack and Bolios down by the fountain. Sunday I had dinner at Trade (the entire Atlantic Wharf building is such a great addition), then walked up the Green Way to get a beer at the Hideout, and went through the maze. Monday, went back to Faneiul Hall to get some jeans and check out the new visitor center. My two cents, the Greenway's looking great. People were everywhere. Anyone who thought the city was dead this weekend must have been somewhere else.
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The only thing that bothers me about Atlantic Wharf is the big White Cap on the top of the building. Besides that i think its a good addition to the Greenway.

I still prefer the name Russia Wharf.

Maybe a solution might be to change the lighting in the Cap
 
czsz said:
Why keep apologizing for the Greenway in this manner instead of acknowledging the obvious implication of this statement? Some of these parcels should have been built on in order to provide the people to populate the others.
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I'm not apologizing for it. A bad park in a dead part of town will be a bad dead park. The North End parcels are bad too, but they're in a lively part of town, so they get traffic and they're deemed "successful".
 
underground said:
Saturday I used the ferry terminal to go to Spectacle Island, came back and got Emack and Bolios down by the fountain. Sunday I had dinner at Trade (the entire Atlantic Wharf building is such a great addition), then walked up the Green Way to get a beer at the Hideout, and went through the maze. Monday, went back to Faneiul Hall to get some jeans and check out the new visitor center. My two cents, the Greenway's looking great. People were everywhere. Anyone who thought the city was dead this weekend must have been somewhere else.
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Ok. I drove through downtown and back bay on Saturday at noon and it was d-e-a-d compared to the previous weekend at the same time. I'm around the city all the time and it was the quietest I've seen it in a few months. I couldn't figure out why until I realized that the students have gone in the past week, and this past weekend in particular is a big "open the vacation home" weekend. Maybe Monday was busier since it was the actual holiday, but I didn't go into the city so I defer to you.
 
Saturday, after coming back from Spectacle about 2:30-ish my girlfriend and I waded through a huge crowd of people between Christopher Columbus to Emack's. Then we waited in a ~20 person deep line out the door and watched the crowded-as-hell Ring Fountains. The coffee ice cream with oreos in it is worth the wait though.
 
How about having something like Somerville's Porch Fest along the Greenway some week end. Tokyo also has something like this every Sunday on a street they close for the day. Of course it wont be as great as New York would do.
 
itchy said:
My two cents.
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referring to Cz's
"Why keep apologizing for the Greenway in this manner instead of acknowledging the obvious implication of this statement? Some of these parcels should have been built on in order to provide the people to populate the others. "
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No -- the surroundings need to get used to having a park or greenway in their midst

In a few years the owners of the buildings or their successors will re-orient toward the park, new and renovated residences will proliferate

The best thing that could happen right now is to put that huge municipal parking lot on the market for intensive development on the fringe of the North End

The rest will occur on its own
 
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Sorry, where will all the new apartments proliferate? In the already densely-built cluster of offices that is the FiDi? And how can already-boring uses orient themselves to the Greenway in such a way that they will bring it to life that much more?

There's simply not enough room for the uses that need to be incorporated into this area to make such an extensive swath of grass an active space. Building active uses on top of useless open space solves this problem by introducing those uses and getting rid of some of the space.

In a nutshell, what needs to happen to the Greenway, in order of achievability:

1. Radically reduce the width of the surface roads on either side, or even eliminate one entirely.
2. Eliminate all ramps except for a set at either end of the 93 tunnel.
3. Build high density residential structures with a diversity of uses in their base on alternate Greenway plots, turning the empty band of parks into a succession of lively parks.
 
Figment and Open Market have been cancelled this weekend due to expected severe weather. Figment is rescheduled to July 28-29.
 
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