WE DISAGREE with Shirley Kressel's July 14 op-ed "A private power grab on the public's Greenway," concerning the Rose Kennedy Greenway legislation. Failure to pass the legislation means that this non-transportation responsibility will return to the cash-strapped Turnpike Authority.
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy is a private, nonprofit charitable organization, the only model that can raise significant private support for operations and capital improvements. Our board was appointed by the city, the state, and the Turnpike Authority; meetings are and will be open to the public. We maintain financial transparency and public accountability. The legislation confirms the community's role in decision-making.
The Greenway is public open space where there will be no admission fee to enjoy the parklands. To suggest otherwise is a scare tactic.
The Greenway has five fountain systems, more than 50 specialty lighting features, polished granite plazas, walkways of granite pavers, and ornate planting beds. No state park is comparable in the complexity of design, or in the level of care required. And enhancing the park will fall to private-sector funding raised by the conservancy.
Rather than the power-seeking entity Kressel envisions, the conservancy is found by many to be a civic-minded nonprofit that works collaboratively with the neighborhoods, other nonprofit groups, and public officials, and cares deeply about the beauty, accessibility, and common ground of the Greenway.
PETER MEADE
Chairman
NANCY BRENNAN
Executive director
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy
Boston
