Rose Kennedy Greenway

Did Post Office Square open on a November day? I don't think so. We haven't had a single true warm weather day yet with these parks. This is why I'd like to hold off any judgement until May or June.
 
statler said:
^^ And in a 100 years Copley Square will be something different again.

I'm not say the Greenway will never change. Of course it will. I'm saying that they should strive to get it right the first time (re: P.O.Square).
They have not done this. It is not impossible to do this.
No one is saying that Millennium Park 'needs time' to develop. Why can't we hold the Greenway to the same standard?
Click to expand...

I must be a lot older than you. Long ago I gave up thinking Boston could get anything right the first time.

And I have very low expectations under Menino. I just hope he is gone in a few years and then maybe standards will be higher in Boston. As just one example, allowing a garage entrance on Washinton St downtown - Park Essex Apartments. The man has no vision. He doesn't know what to think until he reads the Boston Herald in the morning. He was for Lowes in Allston till he read the Herald and now he is against it.
 
^^ I'm not sure when P.O. Square opened.
However, it hasn't changed much from that day. And on this cold March day it is still an enjoyable place to walk through or even stop and chat for a moment, just like the day it opened. I'm not sure you can say the same for the Greenway (end parks excluded).
Yes, it will be better in the summer. Every outdoor space is better in the summer.
How it functions on a cold day in March is a better litmus test.

edit: How much does/did Menino have over the Greenway? My understanding is that the design decisions were more on the state level. How much input did he really have?
 
I often go to PO square for lunch during the warm-weather months. It's a great little oasis in the middle of the city. However, that said - I walked through PO square twice last week and it was completely deserted. Even people walking to and from other places weren't even walking through the park as they stuck to the sidewalks on either side of the street near the buildings. Point is, even a beautiful, successful park such as PO Square looks marooned in the middle of the winter. We haven't had any substantial time with the RKG during warm months. Though there are certainly short-comings, I'm willing to reserve judgment before calling it an utter failure.
 
statler said:
^^ And in a 100 years Copley Square will be something different again.

I'm not say the Greenway will never change. Of course it will. I'm saying that they should strive to get it right the first time (re: P.O.Square).
They have not done this. It is not impossible to do this.
No one is saying that Millennium Park 'needs time' to develop. Why can't we hold the Greenway to the same standard?
Click to expand...

Millennium Park is actually a redeveloped portion of Grant Park. It took 6 years to build, and it's not on top of a highway tunnel that cost more than 15 billion dollars. Also, the Greeway is larger than Post Office Square, so it's going to take longer to develop.
 
BostonObserver said:
Long ago I gave up thinking Boston could get anything right the first time.
Click to expand...

But we often get it right the second or third time. See the Prudential Center, Copley Square, and Holyoke Center. (And, I suppose, Christopher Columbus Park, though I never understood why it needed the recent redesign; it seemed fine to me before.)
 
Ron Newman said:
But we often get it right the second or third time.
Click to expand...

That was my point.

See the Prudential Center, Copley Square, and Holyoke Center. (And, I suppose, Christopher Columbus Park, though I never understood why it needed the recent redesign; it seemed fine to me before.)
Click to expand...

These parks had berms along the edge to keep the city and the city noise out. Instead they made the parks less inviting and increased crime, expecialy at Eliot Norton Park. It was the perfect spot for pimps to beat up their women.
 
I didn't mention Eliot Norton park at all. It still strikes me as a park that doesn't work. It may improve when the rest of the Theatre District does (W Hotel, Wilbur Theatre, the former ticket trailer lot next to the Wilbur).
 
after hearing the blurb about the greenway today and how just about everything there now is temporary, I actually have to give them some credit for not just leaving it as dirt piles and weeds if they redesign in the next 5 years tops. But then again even these temp parks seemed to take too long. I guess I just have to hope these aren't empty promises and they could really use some big corporate donors.
 
Boston Globe
Globe names new newsroom leadership team
March 10, 2008 01:14 PM

The Boston Globe disclosed major changes in its newsroom leadership today, including the departures of award-winning business columnist Steve Bailey, executive editor Helen Donovan, and deputy managing editor Michael Larkin, each of whom have been at the newspaper since the 1970s, as well as the elevation of page-one editor Caleb Solomon to the Globe's number-two editing position.
Click to expand...
Link
 
I don't consider that good news in any way. But we probably should open a new topic for it.
 
I only put in here as point of interest because his column sparked the latest discussion.
Not much to talk about otherwise.
 
^^ hallelujah!!

re. po square vs. the rkg: it's perhaps senselessly difficult to compare them. whether or not po square is a "success" 3 or 6 or 9 or 12 months a year is less crucial than with the rkg for the reason that po square is a fairly tiny park.

just like the central artery that preceded it and ruined a handful of boston's core neighborhoods, the rkg is a huge mass of land. in its place there could be entire neighborhoods, linking existing neighborhoods.

even if the rkg does finally get its museums -- a question that is still up in the air -- i imagine it'll be more like city hall plaza or montreal's place-des-arts than we would like. it'll still be a huge, isolated area with little commerce, residential or office space. i.e., people won't have any real reason to go there except during the summer or when going to the museums sprinkled throughout.

po square, by occupying a small plot, is fairly harmless. i personally think its fundamentals are sound and that it works better as a park. but the rkg's massive area means it leaves unrealized lots and lots of possible ways the city could've healed the central artery's wounds and improved itself as a vibrant, active place.
 
The park haters on this forum sure have nothing to good to say about any parks. I bet most of them have never really been in any city for any lenght of time let alone lived or worked in a city.
 
What I'm hoping to see once warm weather arrives: people using the Greenway as a connecting walkway between different parts of the central city, especially as a pedestrian feeder route to and from South Station.

(For comparison, a seemingly insignificant strip of green path, formerly a railroad right-of-way, has become quite a popular way to reach Davis Square station.)
 
BostonObserver: How are you so dense that you can't distinguish between "hatred of parks" and "criticism of the design/overabundance/placement/extensiveness/animation" of them? Has anyone here launched an attack on Boston Common or the Commonwealth Avenue Mall?

For the record, I live a block from Cambridge Common, which has its flaws but is on balance fairly active and pleasing aesthetically. I loved spending time in most of Olmstead's parks - Riverside, Central, Prospect - when I lived in New York.
 
czsz said:
How are you so dense that you can't distinguish between "hatred of parks" and "criticism of the design/overabundance/placement/extensiveness/animation" of them? Has anyone here launched an attack on Boston Common or the Commonwealth Avenue Mall?
Click to expand...

Given the oportunity to have been there when these parks were built, I think some people on this forum would have opposed those parks.
 
Nah. If we had been around in 1630, we would have needed someplace to graze our cows.

And if we had been around in 1880, where else would we have promenaded after the debutante ball?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top