THE GREENWAY being created along the Neponset River got a major boost from the Patrick administration last week: $5 million to improve a 3-mile section in Hyde Park. But the administration also must tackle the unresolved problem of connecting the Hyde Park green space, which it has dubbed the Neponset Esplanade, with an existing stretch of parkland in Milton and Dorchester.
The missing connection in the park is a half-mile section from Mattapan Square to Central Avenue in Milton. Some Milton residents have opposed locating this part of the trail in their town, even though a stretch of park farther to the east has enhanced the community. A trail on the Mattapan side could be an adequate alternative. The Department of Conservation and Recreation, which manages the greenway, has allotted $300,000 for a design and expects to decide on a location by next year. Then, the state needs to come up with $2.5 million to $2.8 million to get it built.
Even without the Mattapan connection, the Hyde Park section merits the state's investment. The money will be used to rehabilitate a derelict building as a park headquarters, repair the Martini concert shell, and build a trail from Mattapan Square to the Martini site. This Hyde Park riverbank has not received the attention of the section farther east. Its rehabilitation is overdue.
A visit to the eastern end of the greenway, however, shows the recreational potential that has been unleashed by the creation of an integrated park system there. First the state, assisted by the nonprofit Boston Natural Areas Network, built the magnificent Pope John Paul II Park at the mouth of the Neponset. Then, it extended a recreational path to Dorchester and Milton. It enlivened the path with a park and a canoe landing built on the site of an auto repair shop in Dorchester. Residents of Dorchester and Milton can now enjoy 2.5 miles of enhanced recreational space along a revived river. The experience would be poorer without the kinds of connections that are denied the people of Mattapan and Hyde Park because of the Central Avenue gap.
Not too long ago, the Neponset was a forgotten resource burdened by neglect and the detritus of industrial use. The state and the Natural Areas Network have burnished it to vibrancy. The Department of Conservation and Recreation has done a fine job of maintenance, but to ensure proper care into the future, the greenway is best treated as a single entity and not a series of disconnected parks. Connecting Hyde Park and Mattapan to Dorchester and Milton will ensure that a coalition of neighborhoods protects the green space and preserves the river.
