Rose Kennedy Greenway

Shirley has no idea how expensive parks have become in Boston.

Harvard will pay $3.5 million to construct a one acre park (land is currently vacant) behind the library on N. Harvard St in Allston. Harvard has agreed to spend $220,000 a year for 10 years to maintain this one acre park.

The unfortunate fact is that the Mayor has financially shortchanged the city's Parks Department for years, and made it clear from the get go that the city was not interested in spending a penny to maintain the Greenway parks.

There are moves now afoot to have Harvard pay for upgrading and maintaining the MDC parkland along the Charles as part of its public benefits package as it develops more of its Allston land in the future. Given that, why not turn the Greenway over to Harvard to maintain as well?
 
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Whereas I wonder if the Worcester horticultural society would be a good replacement for MassHort on those parcels.
 
Ron Newman said:
Whereas I wonder if the Worcester horticultural society would be a good replacement for MassHort on those parcels.
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If we are going the public subsidy approach, I'd love to see a People's Palace type glass (Crystal Palace) pavilion that offered exhibition space to all of the museums in the state. For example, you could have the Higgins Armory in Worcester put on a suit of armor display in one space, the Clark Museum in Williamstown exhibit in another, the Museum of Transportation exhibit in another corner, State Archives, and so forth. It would be a nice museum and it would publicize the state's many cultural resources in one spot.
 
nico said:
Would not Gov't Cntr be the most ideal place for a bear garden?
Pleny of dead space (barring special events) and you've got plenty of public trans so people won't have to stumble far.
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Funny you should mention this. They do erect a temporary Beer Garden in Government Center Plaza for outdoor festivals like the Phantom Gourmet BBQ fest and the like. I have never been, and I have no idea if it is actually something that anyone would want to be permanent, but beer gardens HAVE graced that hallowed brick expanse.
 
This is definitely not relevant to the thread (maybe break it off?), but I personally cringe at the idea of a beer garden on CHP. Not because I don't wish for dozens of beer gardens in all of the city's public places (I do), but because putting a beer garden or public art or taking any half-measure to fix up CHP would create a reason not to put buildings on it. I don't think anything other than building on it can save CHP (just like buildings should've been built on the Greenway, instead of the backyard lawn we've got). If we can create a smaller plaza enclosed by a cluster of buildings at CHP, by all means put the beer garden in there.
 
on a side note.
the fountain today was PACKED ! ! !

no photos but did enjoy seeing all the kids running through it.

one girl (looked to be in her early 20's) took off her shirt and ran through the fountain.
too funny. . .
 
GMACK24 said:
one girl (looked to be in her early 20's) took off her shirt and ran through the fountain.
too funny. . .
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You're one of the best photographers on the forum, and no shots of this? You're slippin, GMACK...
 
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I drove along the greenway last saturday evening around 7pm and was really surprised by all the activity. the fountain, in particular, was very very popular. i wish they would extend similar attractions along the length of the corridor -- it would be nice to have something appealing equally near dewey square.
 
GMACK24 said:
one girl (looked to be in her early 20's) took off her shirt and ran through the fountain.
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I'm guessing it looked something like this? :)

(two girls wresting in the Copley Square fountain after the Celtics parade)

img1888ws6.jpg
 
GMACK24 said:
on a side note.
the fountain today was PACKED ! ! !

no photos but did enjoy seeing all the kids running through it.

one girl (looked to be in her early 20's) took off her shirt and ran through the fountain.
too funny. . .
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Too bad you weren't there around 7. I was down there with a group of my friends playing in the water. Wouldn't mind meeting you but I probably would be too wet to shake your hands.
 
from the Boston Globe:

GREENWAY VIEWS
Conservancy seeks beauty, not power

July 20, 2008

WE DISAGREE with Shirley Kressel's July 14 op-ed "A private power grab on the public's Greenway," concerning the Rose Kennedy Greenway legislation. Failure to pass the legislation means that this non-transportation responsibility will return to the cash-strapped Turnpike Authority.

The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy is a private, nonprofit charitable organization, the only model that can raise significant private support for operations and capital improvements. Our board was appointed by the city, the state, and the Turnpike Authority; meetings are and will be open to the public. We maintain financial transparency and public accountability. The legislation confirms the community's role in decision-making.

The Greenway is public open space where there will be no admission fee to enjoy the parklands. To suggest otherwise is a scare tactic.

The Greenway has five fountain systems, more than 50 specialty lighting features, polished granite plazas, walkways of granite pavers, and ornate planting beds. No state park is comparable in the complexity of design, or in the level of care required. And enhancing the park will fall to private-sector funding raised by the conservancy.

Rather than the power-seeking entity Kressel envisions, the conservancy is found by many to be a civic-minded nonprofit that works collaboratively with the neighborhoods, other nonprofit groups, and public officials, and cares deeply about the beauty, accessibility, and common ground of the Greenway.

PETER MEADE
Chairman
NANCY BRENNAN
Executive director
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy
Boston

? Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
 
I was on the so-called "Greenway" today by Rowe's Wharf and a tourist with her teenage kids asked me how to get to the Hard Rock Cafe. I told her and she was very nice, and then she asked me something that I found funny.... she asked what the large, 25 foot steel columns/fins were on the wharf parcel (the ones that light up at night) and I looked up at the one we were standing next to, sighed deeply, and said "those are the actual refurbished columns that held up the old highway, they were left here as a memorial, to remind us of the terrible skyway that cut through our city. That's why they're so ugly to out-of-towners such as yourself - to us Bostonians, we look at those gray steel structures with nostalgia, not horror. And you should see them at night, they light them up in red, yellow and white to simulate all the traffic that used to stand gridlocked above the streets."

So maybe that didn't actually happen, but you could imagine...
 
That's a pretty believable explanation actually! With that rationale, they seem a little better.
 
I would have preferred the existing structure to have been left up in some parts, "skeletonized" and had ivy or grape vines growing all over it. The fins are just so silly when they aren't lit up at night. And at night, they are only marginally not silly.
 
I would have liked to see a block-long fragment remain, too, with stairs added so that people could walk up on top. The pergolas in the North End section (not yet vine-covered) probably remind some folks of the demolished highway.
 
Yes, vines are starting to climb the verticals, but they're still a long way from reaching the top and turning the corner onto the horizontals.
 
Ron Newman said:
I would have liked to see a block-long fragment remain, too, with stairs added so that people could walk up on top. The pergolas in the North End section (not yet vine-covered) probably remind some folks of the demolished highway.
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I have a feeling, Ron, that your idea was bounced around at quite a few meetings but, in the end, ADA stipulations to provide handicapped access would have been either too costly or to complicated so they just took the whole thing down.
 
pelhamhall said:
And you should see them at night, they light them up in red, yellow and white to simulate all the traffic that used to stand gridlocked above the streets."
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I've asked this question before...how do the light panels look at night? Are the on regularly? I saw the U-Tube video of them many months ago when they were testing them and they looked great!
 
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