The big news in outdoor Boston lately hasn't been about any particular place -- it's been about the links between places.
- Harborwalk is getting 600 feet longer, thanks to a new walkway alongside Liberty Wharf in South Boston near D Street and Northern Avenue. Mind you, it won't have a speck of green on it, but it will feature "Brazilian hardwood," according to the Boston Globe, which means that it did involve a living plant at one point in its existence. In any case it doesn't seem to be open yet; perhaps it will grow a bit of algae for color but the public is allowed to trod its tasteful planks.
- East Boston residents are pressuring Massport to donate part of Logan Airport's underused Northwest Service Area to link Bremen Street Park and Constitution Beach. More power to them, I say--though exaggerated post-9/11 security concerns may make the plan a non-starter. If they succeed, though, you could walk all the way from Constitution Beach to Liberty Wharf...after a brief swim across the harbor. Come to think of it, Piers Park's shade structures always did look like giant diving boards to me.
- The Community Corridor Planning Advisory Team has released its report on the Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford. At the top of their list: "A strong need for multi-directional walking, biking, transit and spatial connections between the stations and the surrounding neighborhoods."
(I hope someone pays attention to what the community needs. The headlines this week on the Green Line extension have been all about--well, let's have the Boston Globe speak for itself: "Uneasy over the involvement of Parsons Brinckerhoff, the Department of Transportation’s Board of Directors on Tuesday declined to approve a planning contract that would have paid the firm that oversaw the Big Dig to help plan the extension of the MBTA’s Green Line into Somerville and Medford." Parsons Brinckerhoff, for those of you who don't pay attention to lurid local deaths, installed the ceiling tile in the Big Dig interstat 90 connector tunnel that collapsed and killed a woman in 2006.)
- In Milton, by contrast, residents are opposing a bike path plan to put the Neponset River Bike Trail behind their houses. The same darn issue comes up every single time a bike trail is opposed; that it will ruin homeowners' peace of mind and property values, and "those people" will arrive and commit crimes. And everyone seems to ignore the fact that the Minuteman Bikeway hasn't had any noticeable effect on crime and has increased property values along its route. Me, I don't understand why someone would prefer a no-man's-land behind their house to an easily-policed public park, but my town already has a bicycle path. Perhaps I don't understand the true pleasures of rotting railroad ties and ragweed. I guess this entry doesn't count as a green connection... yet.
- Finally, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is continuing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Southwest Corridor Park with an Open Garden Day this Sunday, September 12, 10am-2pm. You *might* be able to walk all 4.7 miles of it and see the gardens in four hours. Then you can take a quick dip in the Harbor and trot up Bremen Street Park to Bennington Street for tacos. I'd take a bike--and the blue line-- if I were you.
Hurricane Earl is due to hit Boston! Those of you who recently moved to Boston from states which experience actual weather should understand that "Hurricane" is a local term for "rain." Still, it looks like there will be some sunny pleasant hours over Labor Day weekend--just enough to make driving to the Cape, the North Shore, or even Walden Pond impossible. If you want to get wet, do it here, now, in a Boston park.
If you're not fussy about full-body immersion, you can go to just about any Boston park to hose yourself down. Special notice to parents; unless you have your children on a three-foot-long leash, you will need to bring a change of clothes this weekend if you visit the Freedom Trail (Frog Pond Fountain), Faneuil Hall (Rose Kennedy Greenway/Christopher Columbus Park) Chinatown (Chinatown Park, where you're not actually supposed to go *in* the water), Copley Square (Copley Square Fountain), or just about anywhere else. It's too much fun.
The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation lists all its pools, spray parks, and wading pools here. Some pools have already closed, but the spray parks and wading pools--that is, the wet places in public parks--are open through September 6. According to the DCR, "Wading pools have a water depth between one inch and two feet. Some have spray features. Spray decks have zero water depth and may spray continuously or on demand." (I've never known a spray deck that wasn't continuously in demand. If there's anything that's more fun than getting wet, it's pressing buttons to make water spray.)
If you're, say, a vampire or ghost and can't cross water to get to Boston, but still like sprinkle parks, the City of Cambridge has a map of its water parks, which "should still be open this time of year," according to a friendly receptionist at the Department of Public Works. I'm particularly fond of the spray deck at North Point Park, a lovely site along the Charles River near the Museum of Science -- but beware; despite its obvious plumbing, it has no bathrooms.
First of all, the really big news: the Big Hammock on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway opened at the Fort Point Channel park at Atlantic Avenue and Oliver Street on Friday, August 20... and was closed two days later due to rain. You might wonder how a hammock can close--I'd think it would roll up, really--but no matter; it is due to re-open again as soon as it's dry. After all, it's a hammock, not an umbrella.
The hammock is a 33-foot-long temporary art/furniture installation by Hansy Better Barraza, a Roslindale architect and professor at Rhode Island School of Design. Barraza's hammock proposal got the first $1,000 grant ever made by the Awesome Foundation for, well, being awesome. Rumor has it that Barraza originally planned the hammock for the Boston Common, but I haven't been able to confirm that. In the end, Barraza got 4,278 feet of polypropylene rope, four permits, a spot on the Greenway, and a story in the Boston Globe.
In the spirit of shared intergenerational lounging, the Hammock will host children's story times August 26-29 at 3 pm; the readings on Thursday, August 26 and Friday, August 27 will be in Mandarin and Cantonese.
In other park news, I am delighted to report that the Park Spark project was due to open on Wednesday, August 25 at Pacific Street Park, Cambridge (Sidney St. between Pacific and Tudor). As was reported in this space in April, Park Spark is "a scientific-art intervention that transforms dog waste into energy," as the City of Cambridge puts it. Throw your bagged dog poop into an on-site methane digester, and--surprise!--methane gas comes out. Why hasn't someone designed a chocolate digester? On second thought, perhaps that's not the wisest use of this material.
Right now, the gas is being burned in a street lamp-- but I'm sure all of you have better ideas about what to do with a gas flame in a public park (apart from lighting all the, er, "cigarettes" at the Boston Common Freedom Rally). Bring your brilliant concepts to the first Park Spark design meeting Wednesday, September 1, at 7 pm at the Livable Streets Alliance, 100 Sidney Street, Cambridge. After all, Hansy Better Barraza doesn't have *all* the awesome ideas around here.
The winners of Mayor Menino's 2010 Garden Contest have been announced! Unsurprisingly, a Fenway Victory Gardens spot won top prize in the community gardens category, and Trinity Church was recognized as a superior "Storefront, Business, or Organization Garden." But have you ever been to the third-place garden at "Presentation Nursing and Rehabilitation Home, 10 Bellamy Street, Brighton"? Or visited the Granada Park community garden hosted by the Chilcott-Granada Association, Jamaica Plain (third place, community garden)?
Seeking out these gardens--which must have involved hours or irrigation this droughty summer--is a way to acknowledge all the plant artists out there making Boston beautiful. Go take a look.
Meg Muckenhoupt
