Considering that the Big Dig was initiated on the whim of politically
powerful friends of the North End, for the relatively trivial purpose
of reconnecting that neighborhood with the rest of Boston, is it any
surprise that the likely result will be a “disparate set of
neighborhood parks, shaped and constrained by nearby residents who
regard the space as their front yard”?
For $14.6 billion, Boston and the rest of the U.S. have bought some
community parks, a couple of condos, and political battles through the
next centurly, whilst sweeping all that unsightly traffic under the rug
(literally). Sure, we could have spent the money on reducing traffic
through developing better mass transit, but… nah.
The good news is that, since the Big Dig is such a natural terrorism
target, maybe the Department of Homeland Security is using it as the
nation’s larget terrorist mousetrap?
(Nah…)
