bostonpatriot

When I was a kid, I would often go to “the woods” of Mary Cummings Park during the Summer with my friends.

I can remember the sense of excitement whenever I would come across a deer, or fox or saw a red tailed hawk soaring overhead. Even the wood frogs and toads held wonder for me. When I was even younger, I remember my uncle taking me to fly my first kite, red white and blue in the shape of an airplane. That warm feeling still washes over me when I walk through that meadow, which is next to Northeastern University’s Burlington Campus. I also remember that potent sense of loss when I flew that kite a bit too high and the string broke and it got taken away in the wind… lesson learned.

And when I was older still and out of College, not so so long ago, I remember a strangely warm December day (very much unlike this December), when I went on one last walk in the woods with my canine buddy, Spike. Just few weeks later his 15 year old body gave out.

I remember the smell of Fall, Spring and being chased by deer flies and knowing the deer must be near by. I remember wondering, with my friends, about who had built the old playground equipment and the balance beam near the campsite. And walking along the many stone walls that were older still. And I remember vividly one Summer day coming across a whole bunch of kids at the old campsite, with their bright t-shirts and many skin colors. This was maybe the YMCA Summer program, or “Kamp for Kids” or maybe it was the aptly named “Camp Joy”.

I wish I hadn’t been afraid to go over and say hi and make some new friends, but I was a bit too shy in those days and nobody told me that was the right thing to do. But those are sweet regrets. Going down one path over another, choices made to go into the woods or to catch frogs in the beaver pond or into a sunny field. The type of decisions a kid should get to make.

But all the while, when I was growing up and while the day camps continued every Summer and while we were enjoying our park, something strange was happening under the harsh fluorescent lights of Boston’s City Hall: someone had an idea. Not just any plain old bad idea, this one was a deuzy, someone decided they wanted to sell our park to the highest bidder.

The planning wasn’t started under your watch, Mr. Mayor, so it wasn’t your idea. And I don’t want to make it look like you are invested in it, because you are a busy person who probably has better things to do. But that idea has continued to grow, at least in the minds of the dozen or so people that knew anything about it. It grew until these people that work for you, work for the people, started believing what they were saying. That somehow selling Mary Cummings Park was really how they could make things better for the City. Cash can be spent, but public parkland just exists. So, in a strange move that boggles the mind, a public park was taken away from the Boston Parks Department like it never existed. How is it that you disappear a 200 acre public park? Well it takes time, it has taken almost 30 years. Of course, we didn’t know its name back then. It wasn’t until recently, from looking at the Boston Park Department files that we found out that it had been called “Cummings Memorial Park” in better times.

Even though the land was given to the City of Boston, in trust, nevertheless, to be kept forever open as a public park and playground. Even though generations of residents of Boston and all of Greater Boston have enjoyed Mary Cummings Park, the “Woburn Gardens”, the YMCA day camps and “Camp Joy”. Even though we need our public open space now more than ever. Even though City Hall never had the authority to do so. Still some people that work for you believe that they can sell this park and develop it for some potential monetary gain for City Hall.

Over the past 20 years, City officials have decided that they don’t want responsibility for this park anymore, which is fine, but did they consider letting the trust go to an organization like the DCR that would be in better position to fulfill the trusts mission? No. Trustees of Reservations and other charitable groups could help. Groups that have a track record of benefiting the public, as was intended. But no, the concern is always about what City Hall will get out of it.

Someone gave the public a gift, but one with strings attached. The choice you face now is do you give it back and let the public have their park or do you try to cut those strings and sell the park? Because if you choose the latter, then we all face years more of pointless litigation while the City’s lawyers keep a stranglehold on the park.

Don’t tell me it isn’t so. I’ve seen the appraisals for development, paid for with trust fund money. I’ve seen the plans and development proposals also paid for with trust fund money. I’ve seen how one week you direct your staff to investigate a sale to Woburn and Burlington or to the State, but a few weeks later the Boston Redevelopment Authority submits its plan for building a “high end” golf course with $50 greens fees… which doesn’t sound very “public” to me. And why is it right that the public should have to buy back their own public park? Municipalities hold park land open to all the public.

I’ve seen the many legal opinions from Palmer and Dodge LLP about how to convince the Attorney General and courts that selling this one massive park and using the proceeds to spruce up other smaller parks (including the Greenway) should just be considered Cy Pres, which is French for “little change”, of the Trust. And I’ve seen how your counsel wanted everyone at City Hall to stop calling it parkland “for the obvious political benefit”. I’ve seen it all and painfully read one insidious memo after another with one inescapable conclusion: What is wrong with them? I really can’t believe that a reasonable person would look a public park that has meant so much to so many and think of it as a cash cow. And, Mr Mayor, I can’t believe that if you knew the full story that you would support such an inherently dishonest plan. There is no “win-win” here, no noble compromise that sees such an important public park destroyed, the only “win” for the public is to keep our park and not to have to buy it back from our government.

Over 200 acres of valuable park land so close to the Burlington Mall, so close to all those offices and all those homes, has got to be tempting. And I understand how something can look good on paper, especially when it could provide an infusion of cash to parks which might be a little closer to your core constituents. Though the developers will make even more. And lets face it, when you work in a big concrete bunker it is easy to see how you would get a bunker mentality.

But when the City agreed to keep Mary Cummings park “forever open as a public pleasure ground”, I believe the City took on a sacred responsibility. And cashing it out wasn’t it.

Last time there was attempt to break the trust and sell this park, I was just a school boy. And from the AG’s records it looks like this effort was thwarted, not by legal polemics, but by pictures of smiling kids enjoying Summer camp. These simple pictures and the news article that went with it proved the AG all the evidence that was needed that the land could be used just as was intended and that the purpose of the trust had not failed.

Well, Mr. Mayor, your City Hall has successfully driven out many of those smiling kids… shutting down kids programs, putting up no trespassing signs, creating a climate of fear uncertainty and doubt dissuading people enjoying this public parkland. Apparently heeding the lawyer’s advice that you “must also demonstrate that the land is not suitable for a park”.

So, now there won’t be as many pictures of smiling kids this time to get in the way. Mission Accomplished. But is this really something you want to do? Is this why you were elected?

Sincerely,

Patrick O’Reilly

See the documents for yourself by following this link

Patrick O’Reilly is a member of Friends of Mary Cummings Park.  The views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the organization.