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Citizen complaint of the day: Would the mayor tolerate weeds like this?

Dorchester weeds

An irate Dot citizen complains from O'Donnell Square (the intersection of Neponset and Ashmont):

Weeds are growing huge! 2nd report on this ... let's compare O'Donnell Sq in Dorchester with another square, oh like Wolcott Sq in Hyde Park near the Mayor's house.

Yes, let's! Here was Wolcott Square around 12:30 p.m. today:

Wolcott Square

Oh, um, maybe the guy has a point.

Ed. note: After the Stevie Nicks fiasco the other day, you bet I was concerned about another prank. But compare the three deckas and that other house behind Mr. Thumbs Up and the ones in this Google Street View. Yep, he's in Dorchester.

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Comments

Naaah, picking up random citizen complaints from across the globe would be a good regular feature. "Where in the World is Citizen Connect?"

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Is Stephen Glass writing these entries

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If he asks the most from homeowners, he'd better be willing to deliver the most to them in return.

He'd be smart to outline what he plans to deliver.

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Let me get back when I stop laughing - my whole body hurts from that one. He plans to deliver the maximum in salary and bennies to the city employees who (along with their friends and relatives) will deliver the winning margin to him in the next election.

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that the Wolcott Square photo isn't a prank? I've never seen a city square that looks like that in Boston. Wellesley, however, is a different story.

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Try the Monument in JP.

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IMAGE(http://s3-media4.ak.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/ULxwRzy-r97znmg00n_RKQ/l.jpg)

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Actually, the Massport parks in Eastie look even nicer than that. Some even have sailboats or little league fields that look about as nice as a minor league ballpark.

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I think there's one in Lower Allston that's equally well-groomed, if not as nice. They're also redoing all of the median strips on Comm Ave slowly, so they're not big dirt patches covered in broken glass.

Weeds just say, "Eh, no one gives a f--k about this neighborhood."

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they're being maintained by the most highly-paid public employees in the Commonwealth.

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Adams Park maintenance is paid for by a local bank, just as an example. Many other squares/ pocket parks follow the same practice.

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Right up the street from my job.

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That thing in O'Donnell Square isn't really a park - more like a traffic island with plantings (for that matter, the "park" in Wolcott Square is completely fenced off, so no going into the Wolcott Square General Store - and yes, Readville is so small and remote it has a general store - or Olympic Pizza and getting something for an impromptu picnic in the park).

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Isn't one of those fence sections actually an openable gate? I have some memory of eating a picnic lunch inside that park, at the midpoint of one of Jessica Mink's bike tours.

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I believe St. Ann's, which is across the street, used to maintain the island. The monuments inside are to priests who used to be at the church mid-century.

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to that ubiquitous, hyper-manicured, high-maintenance, shorn-lawn look in Hizzona's neighborhood.

I live in Somerville, where many of the median strips have been "cleaned up" by planting lawn and closely clipped shrubs with annuals for summer color. That type of treatment generally requires the use of (potable) water for irrigation, plus pesticides & herbicides, and usually also noise-polluting mowers & blowers depending on the season - all to achieve the soul-less, sterile look of strip malls.

Do we really want that? I suspect there's an implementable solution somewhere between the two extremes.

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There's a medium between "hyper-manicured" and "completely neglected." We're all sick of decorative cabbage AND six foot high weeds.

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Phew, it felt good to get that off my chest.

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nice! if I used bumper stickers, I'd slap that one right on

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I'd prefer it if they landscaped with native drought-tolerant plants, rather than grass which needs constant mowing, water, and chemicals. These plants are about the size and shape as the weeds in the photo. The new park at Mass Ave and Main Street in Cambridge is landscaped like this.

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Just say "yes" to Switchgrass, Sporobolus & Russian Sage (& the like).

It's totally ridiculous to (have to) dump expensive, treated water in these places, just to sustain stupid turfgrass.

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I'm down with making more resource-efficient choices louielouie, but how about varieties that are actually from around here? None of the plants you mentioned are natives to the North American East coast.

When we were evaluating a new landscaping scheme at the Haley K-5 a few years ago, one of the things we asked the consultants to focus on was regionally-appropriate choices. From my notes: Switchgrass and Bluestem are ornamental grasses native to NE that are drought *and* salt-tolerant. And some good can't-kill-em local flowers are Purple Coneflower, Viburnum, Coreopsis, Eastern Blanketflower, et lots more.

Also fwiw, I believe that when they reseeded Adams park in Rosi last year, they did so with grass varieties that were suited for high traffic and low maintenance (ie less watering). And during the setting-in period, they used kid/pet-safe organic fertilizer from a local firm (not sure if they've kept that up or just do simple watering now).

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working definitions of "native", but you may want to check your sources, regardless of what definition you adhere to. There are multiple species of Sporobolus native to MA. Here's one source:

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SPHE&ma... (hope I linked that correctly?)

But: for what it's worth, I only included 3 genera, so mine was not an attempt at an all-inclusive list of traffic-island appropriate plants. Indeed, that wouldn't be possible without more site-specific info. Also, native plants can succeed, and I agree we should use many more of them, but we need soils & wildlife bio-diversity, not merely plant bio-diversity, for those plants to succeed. From that, we are a long way off, given that most of our urban sites lack those conditions. We live in a built world. I think we need to emphasize plants that perform in terms of ecological function first, and from there native where possible. To me, it just doesn't make sense to exclude non-native, wildlife supporting, beautiful plants, if they have the chops to perform well in a given site. (provided they are non-invasive, in case that needs stating)

To that end, I stand behind the undoubtedly non-native Russian Sage 100%, as traffic-proof, salt-tolerant, drought-tolerant, cold-hardy, and good-lookin', hence *maybe* able to sway a few more clipped-yew fanatics into thinking a little more broadly about how we plant out our public spaces.

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Thanks for suggesting that. Now if only someone would listen.

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Does this have an official Boston Parks sign on it anywhere? I always thought that since it was named for Father O'Donnell and was across from the church and the school that the folks at St. Ann's were in charge of it.

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Or maybe the people of the parish wanted to memorialize one of the leading citizens in the community.

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is a giant ragweed farm.

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I've been meaning to post photos on Facebook of the waist-high weeds growing out of the center island along the Arborway. It's disgraceful that a major roadway, that is part of the Emerald Necklace and that borders the beautiful Arnold Arboretum should be allowed to deteriorate like this. I don't care if it's a state road (DCR?), it makes BOSTON look bad and Boston ought to be doing something about it.

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We could always eliminate collective bargaining for state workers, and use the savings to pay for weed-wacker crews. Whaddya think?

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Or is that Walker?

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He might have been talking to President Soros or is it Goldman Sachs?

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Once you leave the rotary at the Forest Hills cemetery in JP, the WHOLE OF RT 203 - AKA Morton Street, Gallivan Blvd all the way to Neponset Circle is completely derelict, full of overgrown weeds, trash, branches, broken fences and 3 foot tall grass on either side of the road. Plus no code enforcement of trash receptacles which leaves garbage blowing around & easy pickins for vermin.

I called the state, i called the city, finally i called my council rep Frank Baker (he got the job done) but it was back to a jungle a month later.
I ride the VFW & Jamaica Way daily - which are lovely, constantly maintained, so wondering WTF with the Dorchester end of these parkways??????????

Anyone have an answer??? Plus thank the gent for sending in the proof of neglect, kept meaning to take a pic of Rt. 203 situation.

If anyone can post some pics of what I'm talking about please do!

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The answer is not enough people complain about it

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I drove that route today, and the high weed median strip continues all the way to the Centre St. rotary.

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What exactly is the point of all these little, itty, bitty green spaces all over the city? I've noticed this as a child growing up in NYC and Boston: They generally are a waste of space, BORING, not properly maintained [maintenance is always the first thing to go south during economic woes and budget problems, or simply for a politician in charge to show his/her displeasure with a particular area], and as some point out, too bland and suburban looking for an urban area. And these SAD 'squares' where they post the signs named after dead vets; WTF is up with that? I'd be insulted if if one were named after me! Even bigger spaces like the silly Rose Kennedy 'greenway' are a terrible waste of space and resources for something that really only looks somewhat nice from 20 stories or more above looking down. NO ONE uses this 'greenway' / park for very obvious reasons if you spend anytime at ground level.

NO MORE 'GREEN SPACES'. In fact, no more plazas in front of our surrounding buildings also. They generally make a place more dead than alive. A little 'green-Space' is no substitute for a nice, well maintained, good sized, not overly crowded park.

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Anyone ever bitch to the city about getting street cleaning in dorchester? I pay my taxes just like everybody else and my street has trash on it everyday that I pick up myself! It's bullsh*t!!

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i bitch and bitch and bitch and bitch and bitch and bitch and bitch
but I also weedwack, pick up the trash, and sweep the front sidewalk & gutter in front of my house.
I'm young though, and I have a weedwacker, not everyone is so lucky.

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