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Monday, August 10, 2020

Reconciliation

 Promised:



Delivered:




Yesterday, Cathy and I hopped into my car for a Road Trip! I wanted to see the results of the Park Service shifting an acre or so of soil in the Peoples' Park, last October. Perhaps you remember:


All that remained snarkily undisturbed was the tiny corner with the old bubbler, framed by the spruce and the veterans' flagpole, now
completely hidden by untrimmed trees and bushes.


Cathy and I walked the sidewalk in the first picture. The entire area was full, but not crowded, with people. There is ample parking in the lot on the right hand side of the first picture. The corresponding grassed area on the other side of the road actually is brown dirt and earth moving equipment. It probably is destined for more parking, but I did not verify that.

There were people taking pictures with the National Park sign. There were people taking regular pictures. There were people walking dogs. Lots of people and dogs. There were people with kayaks. There is a launch point into the Cuyahoga River behind the Boston Mill Visitor Center, the tan building in the first two pictures. There were people enjoying a lovely and warm August morning.

There were an abundance of millenials, and their children. Like my parent's generation, and my own, they were people who needed a place to park the car while they spent the morning or afternoon walking and enjoying the water, the woods, the trails.

I'm sure they appreciated a decent path to get from the parking lot, to their destination. 

I called the park and talked to a ranger today. I can not believe the tangle of weeds growing e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e is intentional. If they wanted to grow pollinator attracting plants, how could such an awful result have happened?

And the ranger said, the groundscape is a good idea gone bad. Apparently "Land and Resource Management" brought in many truckloads of dirt that was of poor quality and full of non-native invasive seeds. Actually, he confided, they have been pulling the invasives. The landscape department will have another go at it.

So yes, another chunk of Boston history is gone. No one cares except those of us involved.  On the whole, anyone who has title and ownership of anything can tear it down and do something different. The People never had legal title to the property, and the fact The People used and maintained it for over a hundred years is of of no interest to the government. And so it goes.





27 comments:

  1. Maddening. Just maddening. I'm surprised you aren't bald from pulling your hair out in frustration.

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  2. This is frustrating and discouraging. I'm glad that people are finding a way to enjoy it, in spite of that. Vision versus reality, why do they have to be so different?

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  3. This is so very sad.......I'm sure you have tried everything possible to fix the situation and nothing has worked. But it should not be this way.

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  4. The People had a victory here...
    The church in town was built in the thirties on land given to 'the people of the canton'. People gave materials and their own labour and it was a lovely building.
    In the nineties a big earthquake split the floor in two and it was declared too dangerous to use. The church authorities stripped everything of value and it was left to rot.
    When we arrived, the council wanted to demolish it and replace it with a state of the art glass sports and entertainment centre - and the church agreed.
    People, however, did not. Research in the national archives found the deed of gift, a court decided that the council was not 'the people of the canton' and the church is still there...maintained rather more than in the past.
    Perhaps when there are no longer people here who remember their grandfathers and great grandfathers working on it the council might get its way...but not for now.

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  5. The park is looking sad. That is so unfortunate about the dirt being full of invasive weed seeds. The Sonoran Desert is being invaded by buffel grass which burns hotter than the local grasses and causes the saguaros to explode from the heat. We got it on the bank, a small area, it took gallons of Roundup and months to kill it.

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  6. Hiss and spit.
    I am fast running out of spit.

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  7. Wow... makes one wonder, for sure. Wondering what happened to the people who initially put together the dream of a beautiful park and why their vision never came to fruition. So sad...

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  8. Sometimes not knowing is best. It saves a lot of aggravation.

    All the parks and trails are packed this year. Now if only people would wear a mask and keep their distance.

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  9. Things like this are SO disappointing.

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  10. That is a sad looking property. What a shame. I never thought of invasive weeds spreading through fill, but of course they do. I wonder if there's anything that could have been done to prevent that, like covering the soil the first year to smother them, or something similar.

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  11. It is discouraging to see lovely places like that being ignored or worse. I hope your call helps.

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  12. It does look sad and overgrown, I hope they get it tidied up at least. Shameful to have brought in poor quality soil full of weed seeds.

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  13. It's not been for lack of trying, especially on your part. I remember you telling us about this before. It is all so sad. It could have been so much more. That is good if you were able to let it go yesterday. You've certainly done all you could. I think as we get older we have to learn to let certain things go that we can no longer change or correct. It is hard though. I'm sorry Joanne.

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  14. At least it was a road trip and a chance to get out of the house for a bit!

    Betty

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  15. Hari OM
    I do recall your previous discussions on this 'park'... clearly there is a demand from users so I guess one has to think of the benefit to business of increased visitation... you've registered your concerns and they were noted. All one can expect I s'pose. YAM xx

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  16. Typical. Someone has taken money and now it's no longer of interest to them.

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  17. In this country you need a licence to shift earth from one part of the country to another. Most people ignore that rule.

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  18. And so it will always go on, especially if money can be saved by doing it on the cheap, or someone has pockets to line.

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  19. Oh, how sad that is. And they call it progress. Yeah, right.

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  20. Probably the biggest problem for this project is the overt action of the current administration to defund the national parks. It was one of the first actions, and four years later is forgotten in the crush of all the blatant actions of this administration against the citizens. I remember four years ago there was a park underground, determined to tell the truth. Does it still exist, against the weight of lies.
    I know and like most of the people who work for the park. I know Ken, the ranger I spoke with. He and others have been out in the terrible heat of last week, identifying and pulling the invasive weeds. They're as much victims as we.

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  21. leave it to management to fuck up a space that was just fine as is.

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  22. Any travesty doesn’t stay in the headlines very long because another takes its place. Itmust be frustrating to see the way things have turned out.

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  23. Yet again, the people own nothing. It's so frustrating. And so effing permanent. I've seen it over and over again.

    XO
    WWW

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  24. "Many truckloads of dirt that was of poor quality and full of non-native invasive seeds." It always baffles me how public officials who supposedly know their job can make such colossal blunders.

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  25. I agree with Nick....yet it happens all the time. I'm sorry.

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