DCR Commissioner Leo Roy at Camp Meigs Playground.
State officials held a formal dedication for the new playground at Camp Meigs Playground in Readville yesterday - complete with the ceremonial cutting of a red ribbon with large golden shears - but the kids in attendance mostly paid no attention at all, because they were too busy playing on all the cool new stuff. Read more.
Humans of Hyde Park interview Arielle Spivey and Lawrence Wyche, who have been leading an effort with the Southwest Community Development Corp. to transform
the fenced-off field of weeds and concrete on River Street across from Rosa Street back into the park it once was. Read more.
The recently finished DCR repaving of Truman Parkway in Hyde Park included the creation of a bike lane on the southbound side. But as Vivian Gerard discovered and photographed yesterday morning, motorists responded to the new lane by ignoring it. It's especially bad in front of the apartment building at 605 Truman, just before Fairmount Avenue, but a quick drive at lunchtime today showed both car owners and truck drivers ignoring the lane south of Fairmount as well.
A roving UHub photographer noticed DCR's announcement that it won't be emptying the trash receptacles on the Esplanade from now until April:
Looks like some slob has already started what will probably end up being a mountain of dog waste bags by April 1. What gives?
The Bulletin reports DCR Commissioner Leo Roy made a special trip to Hyde Park to deny that the state parks and parkways agency wishes Hyde Park would just fall off the earth, already. Sure, the Thompson Center remains a festering pit, but how about that impending Truman Parkway repaving?
The Lonely Wizard enjoyed meeting a pair of DCR rangers and their steeds at Smith Field in Hyde Park this morning.
The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports DCR has decided not to convert a street-hockey rink on Anson Street into a dog park because of opposition from street-hockey fans.
DCR is alerting pedestrians and bicyclists they better stay off Mem. Drive between Western Avenue and Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge this Sunday, because it will be open to traffic so that motorists don't have to be inconvenienced by the narrowing of the turnpike across the river.
Clayton Harper provides an overview of the changes DCR is proposing for the intersection of Parkman Drive and Perkins Street on the northern side of Jamaica Pond, such as installing traffic lights and new paths and narrowing the roads on either side of the intersection to force drivers to slow down.
Backers of a plan to turn a needle-infested, abandoned recreation complex in Stony Brook Reservation into a dog park get a chance to convince DCR to let them go forward at a meeting in Hyde Park on Tuesday. Read more.
Sure, Matthew Sisk wasn't looking too good after using DCR resources for a private party for Republicans, but the Herald reports what got his superiors to show him the door was the way he used the sirens and lights in his state car to blast through traffic on Congress Street.
It was a flashing green light, State Police say, that made a female DCR worker at Houghton's Pond in Milton realize somebody was videoing her - by way of a small pen camera. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that two Newton homeowners can't reclaim land once used for a rail line behind their houses because the federal government never formally declared the line "abandoned," even though it hasn't seen a train since 1972 - in part because the railroad tore out the rails in 1976. Read more.
Malia Lazu reports she went down to Carson Beach with a paddle board yesterday, figuring she'd get a little water exercise in. But, she continues: Read more.
The Patriot Ledger and WATD report DCR is looking at letting up to 240 hunters into the 6,000-acre reservation over a four-day period in early December to cull an expanding deer herd that officials say threaten both reservation habitat and public health. Read more.
State Bobcat clearing the sidewalk it had just blocked.
Last night, Vasant Marur was out for a stroll along Park Drive when he noticed guys in Bobcats clearing snow from the roadway by pushing it into mounds along the curb, where it promptly rolled onto the previously clear sidewalks, blocking them.
But rather than just take a photo and tweet about it, Marur looked for the supervisor of the operation - a MassDOT guy, since Park Drive is owned by DCR:
I had a friendly chat and indicated that all the snow was falling onto the sidewalk. He was nice about it, stepped out of the truck and realized the problem. They are now clearing the sidewalk as I type this up.
The Boston Cyclists Union reports DCR hopes to hold a forum on a review of the department's ice-removal policies for bicycle paths, last updated in 2006.
A DCR spokesman noted the number of bicyclists on state-owned paths, such as along the Southwest Corridor, has increased since then and that the state recognizes "the commitment" of year-round bicyclists.
State Police had to block a lane on Centre Street outbound just past Faulkner Hospital tonight when several boulders plummeted to the sidewalk and bike lane from the rock formation between Allandale Street and the Trinity Lutheran Church.
Workers from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation quickly joined troopers as they tried to figure out how to remove the rock slide and keep another one from happening on the ledge underneath Brownson Terrace, a small street normally notable only for the resident who lets all candidates perch their campaign signs on the outcropping above the parkway.
The Charles River Conservancy and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation will hold two public hearings - Sept. 19 and Oct. 10 - on current plans for the fabled North Point skatepark, which has been promised for land near the Zakim for longer than some skateboarders have probably been alive.
The people actually designing the skatepark - who have designed other skate areas across the country - will attend to hear comments and suggestions on the proposed design.
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