Charlie Brown and the South End

Ya know those "Peanuts" cartoons where Charlie Brown is going to kick the football and Lucy always pulls the ball away at the last minute?

Another new plan for the South End was rolled out this past week. Capital News 9 covered it here. There were lots of pretty pictures of what might be. But the longer the presentation went on, the more unlikely the whole thing became. The design looked pretty good, but the more the planners and architects talked the more they seemed unrealistic.

Some of the smaller parts of the plan looked like they made sense. But as the plan unfolded, it became more and more grandiose. It ended with an architect presenting a sketch of a new plaza looking toward the river. There was at least one thing missing. I-787. He actually said that he'd left it out intentionally because the rest of the view was going to be so nice that no one would notice it anyway. But then when he showed views from above, it was still missing and he made some weird remark that I didn't understand about what would happen to the traffic.

The architects who did the plan worked as volunteers. Nice of them, but what it really means is that they weren't working for a client with a budget. They had no reason at all to be other than pie-in-the-sky. The concepts such as greenways, traffic quieting, porches all make sense. But no one even tried to be practical. And the best proof of that is that no one even came close to estimating what it might all cost.

The Mayor was there at the beginning. He made absolutely no commitments. He's probably already figured out it aint' going to happen and he doesn't want to get the blame.

It all ended with some people worried about investing their money and time for years and not getting it back. Whether or not they knew it, they clashed with those who were worried about gentrification and rising property taxes.

Next up? SEAC will take a stab at making something happen.

Lucy can promise all she wants that she won't pull the football away again like she always has to leave Charlie Brown flat on his back again. So can Jerry Jennings. So can the planners and architects. Somehow, the folks in the South End look like Charlie Brown as they run up to another plan. What are the odds they'll be disappointed again?