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Science Park station now in the West End
By adamg on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 1:48pm
MBTA and city officials gather at Science Park station at 4:30 p.m. today to commemorate the fact that the station now has a "secondary name" of "West End." In a statment, City Council President Mike Ross said:
"Tourists and locals alike will now be reminded of this vibrant neighborhood whenever they take the train. I'm grateful to Dan Grabauskas for making the change so quickly."
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vibrant neighborhood? All
vibrant neighborhood? All that's there is a prison, sandwich shop, and a bunch of (old and new) apartment buildings.
West End
There's that Pet Shop Boys song.
Culture-jam those racks of sight-seeing brochures in hotel lobbies, and Boston has a new tourist attraction.
What?
Wait, Science Park, the Green line, one stop after North Station? Vibrant neighborhood? It's in the middle of Leverett Circle. I work right by this stop, well closer to the end of the line Lechmere, and there is not much going on here to make me think of the West End. More like dead end. I hope there is a huge cost associated with this.
re-naming T stations?
But they still can't add "BPL" to the Copley station?
Sorry Charlie
Wait a minute. We're lectured that we can't call Copley a sub-name of BPL, because that's irresponsible and would cost a fortune to change all signs. And now, with no debate, no notice, and no real request, the T feels the need to sub-name Science park to West End??
There is a different. I
There is a different.
I think BPL wanted Copley/BPL similar to how it was Hynes/ICA or Kendal/MIT
This will probably be like JFK (Columbia) or Boylston (Theater District), only found on the signs in the actual station.
The idea however, feels like the onion.
Yep, you got it
This isn't renaming the entire station, which would require changing every single map in the T system (after 10 or 15 years, based on the system maps still up at Downtown Crossing), just adding "West End" underneath the station name at the station (apparently, they did that at Copley as well, with "BPL").
Real name change
Check out the picture - it's a proper name change, not a sub-name. So yes, all maps are now out of date...
Here's the MBTA press release in its entirety
'WEST END' ADDED TO SIGNS AT SCIENCE PARK STATION
The Boston neighborhood which is served by Science Park Station will now be properly recognized with its name added to signs at the 50-year old Green Line Station.
MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas will be joined by city officials and representatives from the West End Civic Association for a brief dedication ceremony at 4:30 p.m. today (Jan. 21st). Station signs reflecting the 'secondary name' have been posted at the Green Line station, which serves about 2,100 people on a typical weekday.
"For many years the West End community lived in the shadows of some of the city's better known neighborhoods, but residents here have always realized its contributions to our history," said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. "Today is an important day for the West End, as many more people will now understand and recognize its place as a proud neighborhood of Boston."
Among those participating in the celebration will be Boston Transportation Commissioner Tom Tinlin and Boston City Council President Mike Ross, who said, "Tourists and locals alike will now be reminded of this vibrant neighborhood whenever they take the train. I'm grateful to Dan Grabauskas for making the change so quickly."
Grabauskas said the MBTA is happy to accommodate such requests - when feasible. "That's why we added Peabody Square to the signs for Ashmont Station and Boston Public Library's name at Copley Station," he said.
So, how much will
another totally unnecessary dedication ceremony cost in time and money?
"Today is an important day
"Today is an important day for the West End, as many more people will now understand and recognize its place as a proud neighborhood of Boston."
Was this the proud neighborhood they seized and then razed to the ground to build those high-rise "If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home By Now" towers?
Yes. They razed the West End
Yes. They razed the West End - the community doesn't exist any more.
(West End)
Now that the West End has not only been torn down, but the second generation of building on its grave has been completed, the MBTA wishes to honor a once-vibrant neighborhood by parenthetically (not really) naming a station after it-- which station is in the middle of the river, not where the West End used to be.
Perfect!
An Insult
Its insulting to consider this T station and the area around it a "reminder" of the once vibrant neighborhood. There's no comparison between the new, sterile area, with the former. The West End was much more like the North End before being torn down in the name of urban revitalization. The only ones revitalized were the wealthy and well connected. Certainly not the many, mostly immigrant families, who called the West End home.
The residents were booted out of the West End!
It IS an insult. The West End residents were kicked out of the hood and their homes were leveled. Check out the West End Museum down there. It opened about a year ago by some former West Enders and has spotty hours, but it's worth a visit.
Absolutely an insult!
And the Science Park station is nowhere near what used to be the heart of the West End. Heck, West End Place, squished on as an afterthought behind the Longfellow Towers barely makes up for that 'urban renewal' debacle. It would make more sense for the Bowdoin station to have that designation, sitting as it does at the edge of the West End in Scollay Square. Of course, there had been talk of Bowdoin's being closed so that shoots that idea!
Pictures of former west end
If you would like to see what the West End looked like before it was razed and reconstructed into the tower in the park scheme that exists today, check out the pictures here
People live in the West End today
While I also cannot say a kind word about the decision to level the West End, it's important to note that many people live there today. Great people. As a Beacon Hill resident, I have met many who live in the West End that are among the most active citizens in the city.
While naming a T-Stop after the West End can't bring back the West End that existed many years ago, it can give a community feel to the people who live there today.
The decision by Mike Ross and others to press for this was a good one, in my opinion.
Ross Levanto
Beacon Hill
A question:
Why couldn't the old West End just been re-developed instead of just simply being bulldozed out of existence and replaced with these huge, not-so-attractive high-rises? Our family had friends who resided in the old West End prior to its destruction, and the character of the old West End, which was way different, was totally lost, and many, many people displaced. All of the above being said, I believe that this gratuitous destruction of the West End is part of why things got so explosive here in Boston during the mid to late 1970's, when busing came in.
Building tremendously out of
Building tremendously out of scale super blocks was all the rage then during urban renewal. The mentality for "slum clearance" was that narrow high density streets resulted in dirty, poor and unsightly neighborhoods. Of course, now we know that this is clearly not the case, nor was the former west end a slum. We are left with an out of proportion, characterless neighborhood that tried to bring the amenities of living in the suburbs into the city. Had it not been destroyed, we would have had another neighborhood much like the North End, a place with a uniquely Boston, almost European feel that can be found in few other American cities. I am sure that the "West End" is a fine place to live today, but it sadly does not fit in with the overall fabric of the city or have any personality.
It probably contributed to
It probably contributed to it. I know that the West End's demise had a lot to do with mobilizing South Enders in the mid 70s to keep the I-95 flyover construction from happening. They either saw with their own eyes or knew relatives/friends who had been displaced and knew the same thing could happen to their neighborhood. The city would have been the much poorer for it. Imagine what could have been in the West End?
Nobody lives in the West End today
The West End no longer exists. It was torn down. Today people might live in buildings built on the grave of the West End, but it's not the West End.
If they tore down all the townhouses around Louisburg Square and replaced it with a giant three-block project a la Bromley-Heath, would you call that Louisburg Square and pretend it's the same thing?
The West End isn't a neighborhood anymore. You should stop calling that area the West End, because it's not. It's disrespectful to the displaced. Find another name. Call it Tower Park or something.
why would you add BPL to Copley's name??
BPL isn't a neighborhood. if anything, you should add Back Bay to Copley's name. BPL a hulking concrete eyesore where homeless people hang out. were it not for its free internet service, no one would go there. I commend the T for not adding BPL to the name.
Wowsers
no shortage of pissy people around here today, is there?
what's wrong, sunshine?
Spend some time on the old half of the library. the courtyard is amazing, and even the guards are friendlier over there. And some people do still read - books - in the reading room. Srsly.
besides that, one stop over is "Hynes Convention Center" (not a neighborhood), formerly known as "Hynes/ICA" (not one neighborhood in there anywhere), so there is precedent.
Not so fast monkey boy
I go to that branch nearly every week. I even check out books and everything.
For the record, I'm not homeless and I have a job nearby.
Concrete Eyesore?
Are you kidding me? Have you ever looked at the building?
This clown must just be trying to bait people. If not, he or she should go take a look at the library, the building as well as the many many people who use it daily.
Watch your back
If someone named "the zak" shows up on your doorstep with a pitchfork, don't say I didn't warn you.
No pitchfork
Just a copy of the Massachusetts General Laws with multiple bookmarks for sections with laws pertaining to public libraries - which he will read word for word while anon writhes in agony.
And when he's done
He will read every single one of the Boston City Council's 197 rules.
so when do we see Government
so when do we see Government Center (Scollay Square)? State (Adams Sq)?
Harvard (Newtowne)?
The Government Center signs were
amended some time ago to include "At Scollay Square". (at least the signs on the Green Line level were, I don't know about the Blue Line.
The old Scollay Square signs
The old Scollay Square signs from the original location were uncovered and cleaned about three years ago when the false partitions were removed in anticipation of the new, longer trains. They are actually tile mosaic signs embedded in the walls. If you walk to the very furthest end of the Blue Line platform to where the exit to the old JFK Federal Building is (gated and unused)and lean into the tunnel a smidge, you can see where the original supports and platforms are.
Now that I think of it, the original wall mosaic signs were uncovered in the Green Line stations during the recent renovations, weren't they? I was pleasantly surprised to see them exposed when I was waiting at Arlington one day. Then I read somewhere that the MBTA was not going to incorporate them into the renovations, essentially hiding them again in favor of newer construction. That's one of the things I love about the Paris Metro stations. The older tiled station signs are all still there and look pretty neat. Why should these interesting pieces of art history be allowed to languish unseen?
+1 on the mosaics
The black-and-white ones at Arlington are great - there are even a few ghostly painted signs ("to Arlington Street/To Berkeley Street") that have those old-fashioned "pointing hand" things instead of arrows. They kept some of the mosaics at Harvard Square, so why not on the Green Line?
And yes, the Paris Metro should be a model in this, as in many other ways!
Paris And (dare I say it?) New York
One of the things I love about the New York subway (and elevated) lines is that the transit folk seem to go out of their way to celebrate their history and their historical artifacts. Wonderful frescoes and art can be seen in many stations, and there is even an old unused subway stop in Brooklyn that has been converted into a transit museum just so they can save all the stuff they don't have room for at the stations themselves.
Shame that the oldest subway in North America doesn't see fit to do the same concerning its treasures.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
It's all been a matter of
stripping everything resembling the "old" way of life in the name of progress. The "something old-Something new" program ain't working too well.