On busy weekends, zoo guests typically circle Franklin Park solely to surrender and go house. Throughout main occasions, vehicles double- and triple-park. Automobiles spill onto grass alongside park roads, slowly damaging turf, tree roots, and historic landscapes. Trash accumulates quicker than it may be collected. And that’s earlier than skilled soccer arrives.
Franklin Park is one in all Boston’s nice civic treasures. Designed by Frederick Regulation Olmsted, it was meant to be a spot of restoration, recreation, and public well being — open to everybody. At the moment, Franklin Park faces a problem not as a result of it’s failing, however as a result of it’s succeeding.
Extra individuals need to use the park. The zoo attracts a whole bunch of 1000’s of holiday makers every year. Cultural festivals, cross-country meets, Juneteenth celebrations, household reunions, and neighborhood gatherings proceed to develop. Deliberate enhancements via the Franklin Park Motion Plan will make the park much more engaging.
And now, an expert soccer venue at White Stadium would add as many as 20 giant occasions per season with live shows and different main gatherings more likely to observe.
The issue is easy: Boston has by no means performed a complete, park-wide parking and entry research for Franklin Park — and the present plans don’t reply the questions we now face.
The Franklin Park Motion Plan addresses parking in restricted, site-specific methods. It proposes rethinking Peabody Circle, finding out site visitors circulate at key entrances, enhancing effectivity in present tons, and relocating some parking to scale back conflicts with pedestrians. These are considerate and helpful enhancements.
However the Motion Plan didn’t embody White Stadium, as a result of the stadium is owned by the Boston Public Colleges and was explicitly out of scope. In consequence, the plan by no means assessed the mixed influence of stadium occasions plus present park makes use of — the zoo, festivals, markets, golf, and on a regular basis recreation — on parking, site visitors, and entry.
That hole issues. As a result of whether or not or not White Stadium is technically “in” the park plan, its parking and site visitors impacts land squarely on Franklin Park and surrounding neighborhoods.
The Boston Legacy FC transportation plan provides one other crucial piece of the puzzle — and reinforces why a complete research is required.
The plan proposes no devoted on-site parking at White Stadium. As an alternative, it depends on a mixture of transit, strolling, biking, rideshare, and satellite tv for pc parking with shuttle buses. However key particulars — together with the places, dimension, and routing of these satellite tv for pc tons — haven’t been recognized.
Which means the plan doesn’t eradicate automobile demand. It displaces it — into neighborhoods, onto park edges, and onto residents and small companies via new restrictions. Displacement with out measurement isn’t a plan; it’s a gamble.
The proposal depends closely on resident-only parking restrictions inside a delegated “stroll shed.” Residents would wish stickers to park on their very own streets. Every family would obtain just one customer move on occasion nights. If residents need a couple of visitor — for a household gathering, celebration, or spiritual occasion — they’re informed to use for a block-party allow.
That raises fundamental, unanswered questions. Will the Metropolis really problem block-party permits on main streets throughout stadium occasions? Will close by small companies be restricted to clients with resident stickers on sport nights? What number of further occasions — live shows, festivals, particular applications — will set off these similar restrictions?
With no complete research, parking guidelines turn into a blunt instrument, shifting the burden onto residents and native companies with out understanding or managing the implications.
Entry turns into unpredictable for on a regular basis park customers. Boston confronted a model of this query through the Olympics debate. Many residents opposed utilizing Franklin Park not as a result of they opposed sports activities, however as a result of the park would have been closed to the general public for almost two weeks.
Now we face one thing probably extra disruptive: 20 or extra large-scale occasion days each season, yr after yr, layered on high of present park makes use of. What residents rejected as a two-week lack of entry is now being proposed as a recurring situation — season after season.
Parks don’t fail as a result of too many individuals get pleasure from them. They fail when programs break down — when site visitors gridlock blocks buses and emergency automobiles, when overflow parking damages grass and historic landscapes, when sanitation and enforcement are overwhelmed, and when on a regular basis park customers lose entry. But nobody has outlined what “full” means for Franklin Park — or what occurs after we attain that time.
Some argue that Franklin Park’s historic standing makes new parking options inconceivable. That merely isn’t true.
Boston Frequent — additionally a historic park — consists of underground parking for roughly 1,900 vehicles, added many years in the past to stability entry with preservation. It didn’t destroy the Frequent. It helped defend it by lowering unmanaged floor congestion.
The query isn’t whether or not Franklin Park ought to add parking, however how, the place, and underneath what guidelines. A complete research ought to consider all choices objectively, together with underground or structured parking at acceptable edge places, off-site parking with dependable shuttle service on occasion days, short-term or pop-up parking for festivals, clear thresholds for when the park is “bought out,” and strict protections in opposition to parking on grass and parkland.
We are making main choices with out understanding the complete influence.
Who decides when the park is at capability?
Who prompts shuttles and site visitors controls?
Who pays for cleanup and enforcement?
Who’s accountable when restrictions hurt residents, companies, or the park itself?
The Commonwealth and the Metropolis of Boston ought to collectively fee a complete, park-wide parking and entry capability research — one that features White Stadium, the zoo, festivals, and on a regular basis park use.
With considerate planning, Franklin Park might emerge stronger — more healthy, extra accessible, and extra economically useful to surrounding communities. With out planning, we danger a everlasting cycle of congestion, battle, broken landscapes, and annoyed neighbors.
Ed Gaskin is Govt Director of Better Grove Corridor Essential Streets and founding father of Sunday Celebrations
