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Citizen complaint of the day: Why doesn't the Greenway do anything about trash-strewn park?
By adamg on Sat, 12/10/2011 - 11:06am
Right, not Dewey Square but Mary Soo Hoo Park in Chinatown, where a fed-up citizen complains:
Trash is not being collected by Public Works nor Greenway in the new Mary Soo [Hoo] Park. Has not been collected since the park opened. Trash is spreading all over sidewalk and plantings. Might be a misunderstanding about the maintenance agreement btw different agencies. Either way, the neighborhood needs help here.
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Comments
Is this park
Is this park technically part of the Greenway?
Yes.
Chinatown Gateway Park, AKA the Mary Soo Hoo Park at the Chinatown Gate (or something similar), is the southern end of the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The Greenway Conservatory is responsible for its maintenance and upkeep.
Conservators too busy crying over Dewey
to do their job vis a vis the other parks, I guess.
What do you expect?
They're only paid six figure salaries!
Pay them more than roughly 200% of what a government employee gets to do the same job, and you might see better results.
The Director of Operations for the Greenway receives compensation of $131,993.
Greenway Conservancy’s Executive Director, Nancy Brennan: $223,000
That's just not enough to watch over Mary Soo Hoo park and all of the barren land covered in grass, shrubs, onramps and endless 4 lane cross-streets.
External reference
So I read several sites and it wasn't clear who is responsible for maintenance. This link, while not official, appears to be a press release, agrees the 02132.
http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthoritynews.org/20...
Its so ironic how the
Its so ironic how the greenway was abandoned by all leaders (the state, Menino, a line of governors) after so many promises of all the great things that were going to happen there, that all of a sudden when the Occupy Boston group came everyone suddenly cared about the greenway (or pretended to). Its like a child who only wants a toy when another kid wants to play with it. Now that the occupiers are gone, we can be assured that the greenway will remain a grassy wasteland with half baked, cheap ideas, but mostly just serving as a place for financial district workers to eat lunch and others to let their dogs shit. Thats fine, but that isn't the "world class park" we were promised. Now the most prominent feature of the Dewey Sq park section of the greenway is the hulking ventilation shaft that Occupies it.
Hear hear! Well said!
Hear hear! Well said!
A comment this good....
...deserves a recognizable author (even if a pseudonymous one). ;~}
Think this is bad?
Check out the park on Tai Tung Street. During the warmer months homeless people choose this park to live in, do drugs, conduct business (of a sexual nature), and destroy personal property (car windows). Children still play at this park. Never seen one without adult supervision. The environment is still nasty though.
At least the other two Chinatown parks/playgrounds are somewhat nice.
People are slobs
Just cause there's no trash can, or cause it's full, is no reason to litter. If I were in that situation, I'd bring my garbage home and dispose of it there before throwing my trash all over the place like a barnyard animal.
I'd imagine what happens is
I'd imagine what happens is that people put their trash on the top of the pile and then it blows over. Which isn't necessarily a slovenly thing to do: if the trash can is being regularly emptied and you just happen to catch it at the full end of a cycle, then it'll be cleaned out soon enough, and in such a situation it wouldn't have been blown away.
I do the same
That now makes one other person I know who does this.
trash along public ways
In some national and state parks, the signs are clear: "bring it in; take it out"..Can this be verified?
What does Singapore do as it is famous for its clean roadsides, streets?
Also in Chicago's Millenium Park at one point there were no outdoor trashcans. "Again: bring it in; carry it out". What is the effectiveness of this kind of policy? Maybe it should be tried in small parks!
Often along well used walkways, people try by putting the trash carefully around the bottom of the can.
Another solution would be to put three cans there, and empty each weekend day.
The solar Big Belly trash cans still need emptying..and are more a compactor.
Why not give "bring it in; take it out"?
Administrators need to think outside the box! Thanks to all who call/write the City and MA DCR!
Umm, Perhaps Not Singapore
Singapore relies for a great deal of it's cleanliness on the fact that their laws can be very draconian. Merely flicking a cigarette butt onto the ground can carry hefty fines or more.
The story continues today as
The story continues today as the trash piles up on this lonely can in Mary Soo Hoo Park. We contacted the Greenway, and they reported that they lacked authority to empty the can, only MassDOT can do it. Here's a new photo:
https://mayors24.cityofboston.gov:4443/reports/4ee...
Thanks Universal Hub for spreading the word.
We think this issue will work itself out, but residents on the block have decided that we'll clean it up ourselves if this doesn't get done soon. The park is too important to us.
"lacked the authority"
The phrasing is maddening.
On the bright side, MassDOT has a twitter. Flood that thing until they clean up the mess.
http://twitter.com/#!/MassDOT