A central, oval-shaped lawn made of state-of-the-art artificial turf is the centerpiece of a new redesign proposal for Beacon Hill’s dilapidated Phillips Street Park that was presented to the public on Wednesday night.

The turf-centered design was one of two new proposals shown at the meeting, the third in a series of public forums where Hill residents have had the opportunity to discuss the renovation with the designer and a Parks Department official. The artificial turf would be easier to clean and maintain than paved surfaces or real grass, said Angie Murray of the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, an important fact given that many use the park to walk dogs.

“Dogs like to be in it [the artificial turf], and it’s easy to water down,” said Murray, who added that a drainage system installed underneath the turf would connect to the city sewer, helping to keep the turf clean and relatively odor free with semi-regular sprinkling or watering.

The turf oval would dominate the southern half of the park and would be bordered on the west by a gently sloping and curved handicap access ramp, that would lead down to the north end of the park. At that end, the park would feature a corresponding brick oval amphitheater, which could serve as a gathering place and a venue for public events such as art shows and speakers.

The city council has approved approximately $400,000 for the design and reconstruction, according to Clara Batchlor of CBA Landscape Architects, who is designing the project.

The turf lawn is meant to rectify one of the major problems with the park in its current design — the smelly and unsanitary conditions caused by frequent dog walkers and mostly hard surfaces. However, not all residents in attendance were pleased with the idea of such a dog-friendly space.

Beacon Hill Resident Rob Whitney, who lives in a building adjacent to the park, expressed concern that the turf lawn would turn Phillips Street Park into “nothing more than a dog park.”

“It will become the dog park of Beacon Hill, even more than it is now,” said Whitney. “I think it’s inappropriate for the space. It’s supposed to be a park for everyone.”

Although Murray reassured residents that the space will not technically be a dog park — only leashed dogs will be allowed on the turf, and dogs will be fenced off from the green space bordering the park — many in the audience were not convinced that the distinction would be anything more than technical.
Whitney, for instance, noted that he often sees unleashed dogs in the park now and expressed concern for what the park would be like with an even more attractive space for dog-walkers.

However, the city cannot ban dogs from any park that does not contain a children’s playground, said Murray, who added that the turf — easier to maintain and clean — would at least make sanitation less problematic. “Right now it’s all hard surface,” she said. “[Dog urine] has nowhere to go.”

Murray and Batchlor also presented an alternate design proposal without the turf lawn. Similar to designs shown at earlier meetings, the alternate proposal features a steeper, raised handicap ramp with guard rails, running along the park’s west edge.

Also discussed at the meeting was whether the entrance to the park should have gates or not, and whether those gates should be kept locked at night. Some residents expressed concern over suspicious activity recently witnessed in the park during late hours, including drug use and homeless vagrancy. Keeping the gates locked overnight could cut down on this type of behavior, said one resident who did not wish to be named.

A fourth and final meeting will be held to finalize the plans for the redesign by summer’s end. A date for the meeting has not been announced.

credit: Courtesy photos



The Friends of the Myrtle Street Playground hosted local firefighters on July 10. They showed the children their gear, explained how they fight fires and let them tour a fire truck.


Eileen McCormack, West Cedar Street, tried on some fire gear.


Emerson Place’s Allison Charnin and her son George enjoyed the event.

The Beacon Hill Times follows the progress, or lack thereof, on Cambridge Street through direct observation and interviews with the project’s supervisor John Lepore.

Progress during the week of July 16 - 20

Traffic signals: Best Electric is on the job. You will notice new black mast arms at Bowdoin and at other locations as they work their way up the street.

Plantings: We continue to see trucks and guys with hoses watering the plants, most of which are perking up.

Street paving: Paving is ongoing. Striping will occur when the road bed is entirely dry.

Trash receptacles: When you see these go in, you’ll know the project is basically finished. There may be little things here and there to tidy up.

It looks as if Beacon Hill and the West End will be taking care of Cambridge Street’s greenery beginning next year.

“We’re in pretty good shape as to what’s going on and how we will deal with it,” said Ben Colburn, co-president of the Cambridge Street Community Development Corporation or CSCDS.

The CSCDC has agreed to spearhead a group that will hire a landscape contractor to water, fertilize and tend the plants on the median and the sidewalks and take care of the irrigation system. Colburn said he expects to sign a letter of agreement with the city by the end of the summer.

The cost is estimated to be between $100,000 and $125,000 annually. At this point, the group has pledges of $95,000 for the first year. The city will pay for the water, Colburn said.

The CSCDC, which began in the 1970s, is officially made up of Mass. General Hospital, the Mass. Eye and Ear and the Beacon Hill Civic Association.

But other entities, the Beacon Hill Business Association, Suffolk University and the Davis-Marcus Companies, have gradually become involved. The group meets monthly to hash out problems that may have arisen on the street.

The city, which historically has taken care of its own plantings, asked for help about five years ago, when Cambridge Street construction began. A precedent for local businesses and institutions taking care of plants and trees on a city street was Huntington Avenue, where Northeastern University took over most of the care of the plantings.
Colburn said that, in addition to participants on the CSCDC, other Beacon Hill institutions such as the garden club, have promised funds. Over the course of this year, his group will approach the bigger businesses on the street — Citibank, Bank of America, Verizon, Holiday Inn — for contributions over a three-year period. He will also ask smaller businesses, who benefit from the better look on the street, for contributions. After three years, plants will be established and the cost of maintenance should go down, he has been told.

The landscaper who installed the plantings is responsible for them for a period of one year, which ends on July 15, 2008, according to Colburn. That’s when the CSCDC takes over. But the group has already arranged for supervision of the current landscaper to make sure plants and the irrigation system are taken care of properly now.

He said that the group has heard from the Huntington Avenue group that one of the worst problems was vandalism, and it was completely unanticipated.

Who will create the visions?

Several years ago, Harvard Law School Professor Charlie Nesson moderated a panel of Boston leaders of Boston at the JFK Library. The audience contained other leaders, as well as a host of opinion makers and opinion-maker wanna-bes.

Beside the revelation that James Kerasiotis, then-secretary of transportation, did not know how much a subway token cost, the other important information elicited from that gathering was that no one could articulate a vision for Boston when Nesson pressed them.

But we need visions.

Visions would help when we consider such tough problems as how Storrow Drive should be fixed or how much of a public subsidy a project such as Columbus Center deserves. The visions have to be more specific than saying we want to have the best school system in America, or we want to improve the MBTA.

For example, the Storrow Drive community advisory process might have had a different outcome if the mayor or the governor had said at the beginning that every transportation project that takes place in the city must have as its primary goal reducing the number of cars entering Boston and making it possible for people to use other kinds of transportation.

Fewer cars would mean less pollution, less congestion, less frustration and a better experience for those who actually have to be in their cars.

Since that wasn’t the directive, there was an implied message that we must accommodate the cars at all costs. Is this really what is best for our city?

The MBTA, strapped for cash, and the Mass Pike, overwhelmed by the Big Dig, wouldn’t even participate in the process. With a vision, we might have thought of trading the money saved by building an at-grade road for free Storrow Drive shuttles — or some better idea than just continuing a mistake of the past.

Another recent cause célèbre has been Columbus Center. It is clear that Mayor Menino wants this project to happen, as does Governor Patrick. Most people we have interviewed say that covering the turnpike with a building and walkways that connect the South End, Bay Village and the Back Bay is worth something. We covered one roadway, the Central Artery, with public money and so far have little to show for it up above. If the mayor or the governor articulated a vision for the Mass Pike air rights — something like: we want the private sector to cover this gap in our city and we’re going to help out with government money in these ways — what is perceived now to be excessive begging by the developer and ad hoc arrangements with public money could have been a part of the understanding — or not — all along.

We give Mitt Romney, of all people, credit for allowing Doug Foy, who was for a time the secretary of the Office of Commonwealth Development, to articulate two of Foy’s ideas that still have legs. One was “fix it first,” a goal applied to roads and bridges. (Never mind that little has been fixed, but it was a good idea.)

The other was to encourage new development at transportation nodes such as subway and commuter rail stations. This vision has encouraged towns to change zoning regulations and take a new look at where building should take place. Over time, we should reap some economic benefits from this policy, as we also reduce traffic in those areas.

Both the mayor and the governor have recently been quite specific about saving energy in government buildings. Those were visions. The transportation secretary recently published an op-ed piece in one of the daily newspapers laying out what appear to be sound principles for moving forward. But there was still no vision of what we should be aiming for by 2014, such as connecting every Massachusetts town by rail, or making rail transportation available 24 hours a day.

Some visions are already in the works, pushed by urban planning nerds onto reluctant state agencies — the most important one is connecting points on the transportation spokes coming into Boston’s hub in the Urban Ring.

Specific visions make it easier for those planning projects to tailor them to achieve what’s best for the city.