Boston is developing “parklets” – small pocket parks out of parking spaces – throughout the downtown neighborhoods, according to the Boston Globe. The city has budgeted for multiple parklets, including one in the North End at Bartlett Place that is currently a wide alley space intersecting with Salem Street on the corner by Terramia Ristorante.
Boston is developing its parklets – as open to the public as any park, but removable in winter -at the same time officials are eyeing orphaned or awkward road segments to create larger and more permanent “pocket parks.’’ Joanne Massaro, Boston’s public works commissioner, said the city is hunting for similarly orphaned blocks, “areas that are not exactly no-man’s land but where we think we could create unique gathering places.’’
In 2010, local artist Nathan Swain painted this unused planter at Bartlett Place. The area now also has some artwork on the wall by Terramia, but remains mostly empty. The new pocket park at Bartlett Place would include benches and planters in a patio-type setup.
This is a really neat idea. Glad to see the City of Boston is making an effort to "greenify" itself in way beyond traditional methods.
Hi Matt, thanks for this timely piece. Parks seem to be a hot topic.Love the idea of transforming neglected eyesores into objects of beauty.
Thank City Councilor Sal LaMattina and North End resident Chris Young for the Barlett Place Park idea!
I think this is a fanstatic use of this vacant space. I am hopeful that it will include a garbage receptical simpilar to what is on Hanover St. There is a tremendous problem with patrons not having any place to throw their garbage after having a gelato or piece of pizza. We are constantly having to pick up this trash laying on our stairs, in our planters and on the sideway.