Let's Go to the Beach!

With what's looking like a great weekend of weather coming up, it will be a great opportunity to head down the the Charles and see the newly reopened Magazine Beach park. The reconstruction by DCR is part of a massive, ongoing transformation of the Mag Beach area that has been underway for years (with some aspects coming under a good deal of local criticism).

At Wednesday's CNA meeting, Cathie Zusy passed along some of the park's key summer dates:

• Magazine Beach is open. The big fence is down and Cambridge Youth Soccer is already using the fields. Only the large drainage basin has a fence around it; they are still seeding this area.
• The Magazine Beach pool will be open from Saturday, June 26 to Sunday, August 29th this summer.
• There will be a meeting on the imminent rehabilitation of the Memorial Drive pedestrian bridge at Magazine Street soon, details forthcoming.

Also at the CNA meeting, some folks from CDD presented a draft report as an update on the City's effort to improve our relationship with the river and the reservation parkland. Have a look at the report here.

Image from the 2002 DCR Charles River Masterplan of an initial idea of the reconstruction.

Marty Walz's "Anti-Shadow" Bill

A bill authored by State Rep Marty Walz (along with Rep. Byron Rushing and State Senator Anthony Petruccelli) slowly moves toward passage in the State House. It is known formally as H. 853: A Bill to Protect Certain Parks, but sometimes just called the "Anti-Shadow" bill.

The draft legislation proposes that "no permit granting authority shall take any action which would authorize the construction of any structure which would cast a new shadow on the Charles River Esplanade, Christopher Columbus Park, Commonwealth Avenue Mall, Copley Square Park, Magazine Beach Park, or Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway," though some of the specific locations are still evolving. Proposed nearly a year ago, a recent public hearing has stirred the news.

Though Walz is a primary proponent and C-port contains significant frontage on Magazine Beach, the legislation's impact on our neighborhood would be minor compared to other parks. Most of Mag Beach lies to the south of C-port's buildings (and future buildings), so shadows are primarily cast away from the park. Memorial Drive further buffers the park. The CNA Board of Directors has drafted a letter of support for the bill, saying in part:

Cambridgeport residents have been very upset by the construction of tall towers adjacent to green, open parklands, which interferes with the enjoyable use of scarce open space for the benefit of a handful of property owners willing to sacrifice the beneficial and historic use of parks for their own adjacent development plans.

The bill would have significantly greater effect on potential development near some of the other proposed parks. It's hard to imagine development of any kind occurring in the financial district that doesn't cast a shadow on some urban parks, which is why the Rose Kennedy Greenway was recently exempted from the proposed legislation. Some in the Boston development and design community have expressed serious concerns about the bill's effect as a de facto building moratorium. Preservation advocates in Back Bay and the North End have expressed support. Walz herself wrote in the Boston Courant to describe her and Rushing's motivation for the bill.

A public hearing on the bill was held on December 15th, but those wishing to comment can still send emails to the Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee Co-Chairs Anthony.Petruccelli@state.ma.us and Rep.WilliamStraus@Hou.State.MA.US (cc: Rep.MartyWalz@Hou.State.MA.US and Rep.ByronRushing@hou.state.ma.us).

Photo by Flickr user cosmocatalano. Used under Creative Commons.

ConCom Meeting on DCR Projects TONIGHT

magazine beach 3rd april 08
Originally uploaded by essygie

UPDATE: Links added for background.

Neighbor and Charles River watershed advocate Marilyn Wellons passes on information about tonight's (Monday) important Cambridge Conservation Commission hearing on the joint Cambridge-DCR projects and controversy at Magazine Beach/Memorial Drive. The hearing is at 8pm in the fourth floor conference room of 344 Broadway.

From Ms. Wellons:

Hundreds of us signed the 2008 petition to support the conservation of Magazine Beach and Captains Island as natural and historic green space—as untreated, multipurpose fields open to all. We supported Cambridge purchase of land for new sports fields away from the banks of the river, in underserved Cambridge neighborhoods; funding and proper maintenance for existing children and adult pools; restored access to the river for human activity and waterfowl of all kinds; and a natural history walk and passive information center on the history and ecology of the Charles River estuary. Now the DCR is asking the ConCom for an extension of the ConCom's Order of Conditions to allow the work to continue...

Please attend the hearing or, if that’s not possible, contact ConCom Director Jennifer Wright, at jwright@cambridgema.gov.

The Magazine Beach Transformation

Magazine Beach, Cambridge
Originally uploaded by radioflyer007

In the few years I've lived here, one of the more disappointing parts of C-port is the lack of a relationship with the Charles. Physically, the neighborhood's form is defined by the river, either by the sweeping curve of the water itself or by the street grid created by the four heavily used crossings in the Harvard, BU, River and Western bridges. For a variety of reasons, however, most of my direct experiences with the river occur either to the west and east, in front of Harvard and MIT. Our portion of the riverbank lacks a pedestrian connection (or even view) of the water. The Mag Beach park has been pretty run down and overgrown.

A variety of state and city-led projects are seeking to change that, guided by the DCR Charles River Basin Master Plan, created in 1999. The Magazine Beach portion of the document is a pretty interesting read, reaching back to the Olmsted design of 1899. Some projects, such as regrading and resodding the playfields to have more usable surfaces and drainage, began construction nearly a year ago, and are nearing completion. As is the new Riverside Park at the corner of Western and Memorial, at the former Mahoney's Garden Center site. According to the Cambridge CDD website, the park will be completely finished next spring. Helping neighbors get there is a project to repair and improve the Magazine Street pedestrian bridge over Memorial Drive.

Other projects, though long in the planning stages, are just beginning. As noted last week, the Memorial Drive Historic Parkways Preservation program's tree and vegetation removal have sparked controversy this summer. The last big project is the on-again, off-again BU Bridge restoration, a necessary project that has seen its share of bureaucratic infighting.

Once all these projects are complete, planners and state agencies hope to see constant activity at Magazine Beach, from continuous riverside paths to softball and soccer games. Some even have visions of recreational swimming returning to the Charles, a proposal not without its own problems, but one that takes the challenge of reconnecting the neighborhood to the river literally.

One More Time Into the Pool!

From the Chronicle:
State extends closing date for Cambridge pools... again

Sunday was scheduled to be the last day for swimmers to take a dip in the city’s public pools, but luckily for kids entering their last days of summer, that day has been extended for another week.

DCR now says the Swimming and Wading Pool at Magazine Beach will be open until Aug. 30.
(ht: Councilman Craig Kelley)