5. Add infrastructure to the park to support community uses $$
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Key Partners: Boston Department of Parks and Recreation, Friends of Geneva Cliffs The Geneva Cliffs Urban Wild and the adjacent Eversource parcel currently include almost no infrastructure to support community events and use of the park. If the designation of the Cliffs is changed to traditional parkland and the Eversource parcel is acquired as official parkland, infrastructure should be added to the site to facilitate more frequent use and accommodate activities that formerly occurred at the Community Hub in Central Bowdoin. Most crucially, the site does not currently have water or power hook-ups, making any event extremely difficult to put on here. Adding lighting along the access road and in the park itself will further increase the possibilities and help to improve the sense of safety in the park. That more fundamental infrastructure, as well as amenities like picnic tables, benches, sheds, grills, and possibly a stage, would be best situated in the open space at the top of the access road which, through clearing and grading, will become significantly more visible from the intersection. This more passive infrastructure might be further paired with the addition of sports facilities, such as goals for a small soccer field. In the ultimate vision, the plaza, road, and clearing will work as a continuous network of public open space for more intensive, active uses, while the current Urban Wild will remain a more “natural” space. This network will improve the feeling of safety and activity in the park while also drawing more people from the intersection into the park.
6. Relocate Home Depot Playground to the Geneva Cliffs Park and Plaza $ - $$ short
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Key Partners: Boston Department of Parks and Recreation, Friends of Geneva Cliffs The current Home Depot Playground at 151 Bowdoin Street, referred to as the tot lot, often goes unused because of safety concerns. The play equipment is set back from the street and relatively isolated from other activity in the district, making it an uninviting place to play. Moving the playground to the reconfigured entrance of Geneva Cliffs, alongside the entrance road above the plaza, will provide more visibility and connection with complementary uses, like the park, plaza, and the proposed community center (more on that below). The current site of the playground could then be sold for residential development to match the character of the surrounding properties, and funds from the sale can be used to support the playground’s reconstruction and expansion at Geneva Cliffs. 116 / RECOMMENDATIONS
View of Home Depot Playground
7. Plant additional trees on the southeastern portion of the park to buffer residential areas $$ short
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Key Partners: Boston Department of Parks and Recreation, Friends of Geneva Cliffs With more intensive uses of the park will come additional noise. Currently, the southeastern edge of the park is quite open to the residences just beyond the fence marking the edge of the parkland. Planting additional trees along that edge can help to buffer park activities from the residences.
II. Intersection and Streetscape Redesign 8. Retime Traffic and Crossing Lights $
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Key Partners: Boston Transportation Department, Boston Planning and Development Agency, Boston Department of Public Works The Bowdoin Street / Geneva Avenue intersection is currently configured to facilitate the movement of cars through the district, with short crossing times for pedestrians and wide travel lanes. To increase safety for pedestrians, the traffic lights should be studied and retimed to give people more time to cross this intersection in all directions but most importantly across Bowdoin Street between the Walgreen’s parking lot and the billboard site. These are modest changes that will at least give pedestrians the appropriate amount of time to cross the street.