A TALE OF TWO PARKS

Repair and Restore Copley Square

Copley Square is threatened because the City of Boston plans to bulldoze and replace the present design with a ”reimagined” park at a cost of $15.5 million. The City should not be wasting money and creating unnecessary carbon emissions by drastically reconfiguring a well-designed and much-loved space. Instead, the City should make necessary and less expensive repairs and the requested changes. In a February, 2021 survey with 1,244 online respondents, Boston Parks and Recreation Department reported that “25% favored upgrading the existing Square; 56% favored upgrading the existing Square with some redesign; and 20% favored completely reimagining the Square.” Inexplicably, the Design Team has repeatedly come back with plans to “reimagine,” demolish, and rebuild the Square, which only 20% of the respondents favored and 80% opposed. 

Purchase and Preserve Crane Ledge Woods

Crane Ledge Woods in Hyde Park is threatened because the current private owner intends to sell 14 of the 24 acres to an international development company that plans to construct luxury apartments. The Woods are the largest unprotected urban wild remaining in Boston and identical in acreage to the Boston Public Garden. The Coalition to Save Crane Ledge Woods is comprised of 14 local organizations, including 8 local neighborhood associations. It is also supported by over 25 allied groups on a sign-on letter and by over 3500 individuals on a Change.org petition. We support the objectives of the Coalition to Save Crane Ledge Woods for the health and welfare of the surrounding environmental justice communities—and, indeed, for all of Boston.

Support This Solution

Therefore, we propose that the $15.5M budgeted for the destruction and replacement of Copley Square be repurposed in this manner: (1) between $4M (an early estimate) and $5M to be assigned for repair and restoration of Copley Square; (2) the balance—between $10.5M and $11.5M—to be redirected toward a fair-market-value purchase by the City of Boston of the entire 24-acre Crane Ledge, protecting the Woods for public use in perpetuity. 

We will be sharing this petition with Mayor Wu, the City Council, City Departments, and with the BPDA (Boston Planning and Development Agency).

ON BEHALF OF BOSTON GREEN ACTION: Nancy Gertner, Back Bay, PhD; Lee Humphrey, Back Bay; Michael McCord, Beacon Hill; Jacqueline Royce, PhD, Back Bay; Martyn Roetter, DPhil, Back Bay.

Questions? Contact Michael McCord at mmccord@LearningProject.org