Filed under: North End
NORTH END– On a recent weekday afternoon, a flood of college students and adults making their trip home from the North End shuffle through the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway around 5 p.m. But unlike bustling fall afternoons, these afternoon commuters don’t stop and mingle in the once warm stretch of green lawn that has now turned desolate in the cold Boston winter season.
At a time when other Boston parks begin the holiday season with winter activities, the newly built greenway faces its second winter season and struggles to find use for the greenway to benefit North End residents and visitors.
“With the park out here instead of the raised highway, people are coming in here a lot more often,” Christine Scanlon said, a server at local restaurant Mother Anna’s. “Tourists wouldn’t really walk under the highway before. But I don’t know how the winter is going to change that.”
In the summer, the greenway is draws visitors to the green lawn and fountains. The greenway’s conservancy recently finished the task of placing sea wall granite stones around the fountains in the park to protect the equipment in the winter months.
Other parks in the area, like the Boston Common, adapts to winter months by offering winter activities to residents like ice skating and draws visitors to the area with light displays. The Boston Common is also an integral part of First Night Boston, the citywide New Year’s celebration.
Some residents think even through the winter months, the greenway could continue to be a popular spot for North End residents.
“I don’t know if it really will affect residents in the winter,” said Meghan Robinson, a 21-year-old resident of the North End. “I always see people out there with their dogs so I think that will continue even when it gets cold out.”
While the cold weather has left the greenway void of visitors on most days, the calendar on the greenway’s website is also empty, with no events planned until January. Statements issued by the conservancy said that their main concern is planning for the upcoming spring season.
“The horticultural team has put the parks to bed for the season and we now turn our attention to lessons learned from our first year in operation, and plan for 2010,” the official Rose F. Kennedy Greenway Conservancy website said.
