Michigander in Mass

Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 17:22:43 -0000
From: "Bryce Nesbitt"
Subject: Report: Boston Harborwalk Association tours Charlestown Yard

Thursday May 12th, 2005

Today Sarah Kelly, new interim director of the Boston Harborwalk Association toured the Charlestown Yard path site. This where the MBTA is settling an EPA fine, by transfering a 3/4 mile long swath of riverfront for public access.

Janice Kearney of MBTA environmental set up the visit with bus repair garage supervisor Brian Hinds. We visited both the Assembly Square / Draw 7 park / Amelia Earhart Dam side, and the Route 99 / Harborwalk side. In particular we paid attention to how a person would travel from the existing Boston Harborwalk, through Sullivan Rotary, and then along the river behind the Charlestown MBTA facility.

The MBTA garage supes (several of them), greeted us warmly. That is, once we found them! One supe felt that a new path would be great for use during lunch breaks. We mostly looked at the layout of things. This was not a design meeting, just an opportunity to look at the site.

It is my hope that the Boston Harborwalk Association will adpot this segment as 'intended harborwalk', to give additional visibility to the project. If this is built as harbowalk, it would help ensure consistent branding and connectivity with the rest of the pathways along the harbor.

Bryce "just visiting for a week" Nesbitt

NB: Find background on the project at
http://www.pathfriends.org/lower_mystic/