Rose Kennedy Greenway

What should fill empty Greenway space?

adamg — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:38:22 +0000

Karen Cord Taylor considers competing proposals for Parcel 9, next to Haymarket, which include a museum about Boston, a bunch of apartments and a hotel.

Greenway pillow fight

adamg — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:16:10 +0000

Mystery Pill gives us a taste of the Banditos Misteriosos pillow fight by the North End yesterday.

Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Once again, developers submit bids for Greenway parcel near Haymarket

adamg — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 13:08:55 +0000

NorthEndWaterfront.com rounds up the latest offerings, all of which would include space for Haymarket vendors and three of which the state previously rejected.

Are there any classes around here on how to use e-mail?

adamg — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:20:17 +0000

Because it sounds like the folks who run the Greenway could use one.

Love in Dewey Square

adamg — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:48:39 +0000

Cheryl Stober looked out her office window today at the Greenway in Dewey Square.

State wants to build more parks in area where it already ignores the park it has

adamg — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:09:06 +0000

They could rename it Pigsty Park.

The Globe today reports the state Department of Transportation has some ambitious plans for the land and air around the turnpike/93 interchange in Chinatown, which it hopes will eventually become a new gateway to the city, featuring new development and parks.

Parks, huh? The photo above is the latest on file with the city's Citizen Connect service from Mary Soo Hoo Park, the little plaza at the pedestrian gateway to Chinatown that is owned by the state Department of Transportation - or at least, that's what the city and the Greenway Conservancy keep telling residents in explaining why their crews can't pick up the trash that keeps getting left there. A couple of weeks ago, the city actually did dispatch a DPW crew to remove trash, but this latest complaint is marked "closed:"

Case Referred to External Agency. Mass dot jurisdiction. details forwarded.

Citizen complaint of the day: Why doesn't the Greenway do anything about trash-strewn park?

adamg — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:06:09 +0000

Right, not Dewey Square but Mary Soo Hoo Park in Chinatown, where a fed-up citizen complains:

Trash is not being collected by Public Works nor Greenway in the new Mary Soo [Hoo] Park. Has not been collected since the park opened. Trash is spreading all over sidewalk and plantings. Might be a misunderstanding about the maintenance agreement btw different agencies. Either way, the neighborhood needs help here.

Citizen complaint of the day: What died on the Greenway?

adamg — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:48:58 +0000

An alert citizen holds his or her nose with one hand and types with the other near the old turnpike-authority building in the North End:

2 days going now, walkway across greenway smells like something died in there .. Real bad stench

The city replies:

It has been confirmed that there is nothing decaying in the area. The odor is from the organic holly-tone fertilizer recently spread and will dissipate in the next few days.

Who died and made them king of the Greenway?

adamg — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 21:23:12 +0000

Mike Ball considers the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy's newfound reasons for wanting Occupy Boston off its land and finds them lacking:

The Greenway Conservancy folk apparently stifled their Brahmin impulse until they popped. They saw the courts refuse to clear Occupy's camp and the mayor deciding to hang back. At least Menino has the political savvy to understand the peril of smothering protest in the town that fomented the American Revolution.

In contrast, the Conservancy board has decided whom they will classify as public and what activities they will allow. Now they are stomping their feet.

Greenway now sick of Occupiers

adamg — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:33:30 +0000

The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy now wants the city to broom Occupy Boston from Dewey Square.

After much thought and discussion, we have come to the conclusion that, as fiduciaries for public use of the Greenway, we must request that you enforce our regulations and remove the occupiers from the Greenway.

We believe that the current use by Occupy Boston is not compatible with our obligation to ensure that everyone may enjoy the Greenway, and with the spirit and letter of the rules governing use of the space.

The conservancy board actually told the mayor that back on Nov. 8, but, in an apparent nod to Maureen Feeney, didn't tell anybody else until yesterday, after a judge barred the city from evicting tent-city residents at least until a hearing on Dec. 1. Well, unless there's a public-health emergency or violence erupts.

You think it's easy lifting people lying on the ground?

adamg — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:14:22 +0000

A BPD official tries to explain to BU students why people should stop looking at police as the heavies in last week's mass arrests.

ACLU: Police have some explaining to do

adamg — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:42:28 +0000

The ACLU of Massachusetts says it's looking into how people were arrested and processed following the "heavy handed" Greenway crackdown on Tuesday.

Boston officials have so far given conflicting and inconsistent explanations for the crackdown on Occupy Boston at the Rose Kennedy Greenway on Oct. 11. They cited public safety issues, even though the demonstrators remained peaceful; rules and permitting technicalities, even though these appear not to be enforced for others; and concern for the welfare of the Greenway's lawn and shrubs, even though the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy apparently did not ask for the police to remove demonstrators. In an interview with WBUR, Mayor Menino claimed that "civil disobedience doesn't work for Boston," ignoring the historical relevance of the practice to the City's "Freedom Trail."

In August, the ACLU sued Boston Police over its monitoring of local political groups.

Greenway food-truck festival postponed due to Dewey Square occupation

adamg — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:57:37 +0000

A mobile food festival originally planned for this Saturday has been postponed until at least this spring, the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy announced today:

The decision is based on the fact the attendees we're anticipating for the Greenway Mobile Food Fest, when combined with the Occupy Boston encampment on Dewey Square, would simply be too crowded to be considered safe for the public.

The conservancy says it was expecting 12 vendors, many of them in "large trucks." It emphasized Occupy Boston participants had not gotten in the way of the setting up and taking down of a farmers' market at the square, but that "the scale of Saturday's event is much, much bigger."

DA agrees to drop criminal charges against most protesters; some, however, insist on criminal trials

adamg — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:21:53 +0000

Most of the protesters arrested at Occupy Boston early this morning walked out of Boston Municipal Court today after paying $50 fines. However, eight protesters insisted on criminal trials, while 4 others will get criminal trials because of past criminal records, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office says.

Police move in, shut down one camp, arrest dozens

adamg — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:20:05 +0000

Arrest. Photo by Jtpouliot. Copyright Jtpouliot.

Boston Police moved into the new encampment on the Greenway around 1:20 a.m., giving protesters five minutes to retreat back to the original encampment closer to South Station or get arrested. They didn't move, and the police, who had been massing around the encampment since the previous evening, kept their word. Jtpouliot was there to record the arrests. Scott Eisen also took photos. An arrest photo. Open Media Boston posted photos as well.

Police Commissioner Ed Davis says anarchists, not a harrumphing mayor, forced his hand today (Ed. historical note: Anarchists were originally blamed for the Great Molasses Disaster as well; as we now know, the tank exploded due to corporate greed - an executive ignored warnings the tank was leaking).