GLOBE EDITORIAL

Hardening of the Greenway

September 24, 2007

THE FIRST PARK parcel dedicated on the Rose Kennedy Greenway isn’t a
park in the conventional sense, but a plaza intended to serve as a
gateway to Chinatown and a venue for dragon dances and other festive
events. Chinatown residents wanted a plaza of decorative – but very
hard – concrete with two raised swaths of greenery. That’s what they
got when it opened Sept. 12.

A different kind of hardening is taking place farther to the north in
the central core of the Greenway, on a small parcel between the North
End and Faneuil Hall Marketplace. If the Armenian Heritage Foundation
gets its way, a memorial will be established that will be harder to
alter than all the concrete in the Chinatown park.

A neighborhood meeting in the North End Wednesday laid out the
difficulties of designing this space. Less than half an acre in size,
it is supposed to be the pedestrian link between the new wharf
district parks to the south, the existing Christopher Columbus Park,
the North End, Quincy Market, and the proposed Boston Museum to the
north.

People at the meeting were happy that plans for the parcel no longer
included a building, as originally envisioned several years ago. They
wanted green space, even though the North End will soon have the
benefit of two new parks facing Hanover Street just north of the
museum site. These are scheduled to open in October.

The Turnpike Authority is in charge of building all the Greenway
parks, mainly because it had control of the space as it oversaw
construction of the Central Artery tunnels, and because the City of
Boston ducked an opportunity to take over the greenway once the artery
was finished. In 2000, the Legislature ordered the authority to find a
spot for the Armenian memorial somewhere in Boston, and with North End
residents clamoring for a park on Parcel 13, it seemed a logical
choice, especially since the Armenian Heritage Foundation would pay to
build it.

But in June, Ian Bowles, the state secretary of energy and
environmental affairs, said that the authority hadn’t followed the
proper procedures in selecting the foundation for the site, so the
community meeting was held last week as part of a new approval
process.

Based on remarks Wednesday, neighborhood residents like the memorial
concept, which would create a labyrinth in the center of the park
flanked by benches, a fountain, and an abstract sculpture
commemorating the Armenian genocide. Some thought it would be
attractive to children, others thought it would be a place for
reflection, and no one spoke in opposition.

Somewhere in Boston, there ought to be a remembrance of this act of
mass murder against Armenians in what is now Turkey. This need is
highlighted by the recent controversy over the refusal by the
Anti-Defamation League to acknowledge the genocide. (The national ADL
director changed his mind after protests by Armenian-Americans.) But
the issue of siting is another question. Parcel 13 is not the place
for this memorial.

As the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy suggests, an Armenian
memorial would set a bad precedent for any other groups that might
want to put their stamp on the Greenway. The conservancy, which will
take over maintenance of the parks in a few years, wants these open
spaces welcoming to everyone, not divided into enclaves.

There’s another reason to look twice at the proposal. For all the
support it has initially gathered, no one knows how the park on Parcel
13 will really be used, and how the Armenian Heritage Foundation
proposal will complement those uses. Will children play on the
labyrinth, or will it be just a shortcut from the North End to
downtown Boston? Will the proposed dodecahedron-shaped sculpture have
enduring appeal or come to be widely disliked?

How will the memorial fit in with the abutting Boston Museum, an
ambitious project to commemorate the history of eastern New England
that requires enormous amounts of fund-raising? And if that doesn’t
get built, what will replace it, and how will Parcel 13 jibe with this
alternative use? Once the foundation invests money and emotion into
this site, is it reasonable to expect it would welcome any changes?

Nobody was asking these questions at the meeting Wednesday. The
Turnpike Authority, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and the
Mayor’s Artery Completion Task Force are trying to devise a compromise
that will let the foundation build the park, but deemphasize some of
the Armenian elements. Before they strike a deal, they all ought to
remember that Parcel 13 and all the surrounding open spaces are a work
in progress. No agreement should prohibit the park from a
reconfiguration years or decades in the future if changes will result
in a better Greenway.

The Chinatown Park, with its durable surface, seems set for eternity,
and it is well designed to serve as a formal meeting space for the
community. But perhaps at some point the neighbors will prefer a more
conventional park. In the 1980s, the city took jackhammers to Copley
Square to replace a hard, sunken pit with a greener space. Closer to
Parcel 13, Christopher Columbus Park was rebuilt seven years ago to
make it more inviting. Parks are meant to evolve, and there are no
open spaces in greater flux than those at the heart of the Greenway,
just where Parcel 13 is located. The Armenian genocide should be
commemorated unambiguously in Boston. Just not here.

(c) Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Source: /editorials/articles/2007/09/24/hardening_of_the_g reenway/