Tag Archives: environment

DPW’s plan: Deforest the downtown

Go out and measure your sidewalk. Is it less than seven feet wide?

Measure the distance from your building to the tree pit. Is it less than 36 inches? Have the tree roots in front of your building heaved the sidewalk?

If your answer is yes to any of these questions, your tree will have to go.

That’s what the Department of Public Works has decreed without consulting neighborhoods that will be affected. The DPW proposed an unsuccessful, ugly plan for creating ramps that deface Beacon Hill’s brick sidewalks at a meeting in December. Eradicating the trees in downtown neighborhoods is the flip side of the ramp plan.

I’m predicting it’s never going to happen. Residents will climb into their trees just as they laid down on the bricks in 1947 on Beacon Hill. Continue reading →

How green are you?

The month of May, when the trees are finally green again, seems a good time to assess how green, in the currently fashionable meaning of the word, we are on Beacon Hill.

I didn’t want to do this on Earth Day since for many years I had a bad attitude toward that observance. I was provoked by celebrants who drove in from the suburbs, I guess, to attend a concert at the Hatch Shell. They clogged Charles Street with their cars, which seemed a bit contrary to Earth Day’s purpose. Thankfully, this year Earth Day was celebrated on the Esplanade with a cleanup of the Charles River. Continue reading →