Sidewalk snafu

THE ROSE Kennedy Greenway above the Central Artery tunnel will never live up to its promise as a promenade and pedestrian connector between downtown and the harbor if its design does not invite walkers. Making sure it does has been a goal of state, city, and community group planners from the beginning. That is why it is so disappointing that the city has gone along with a hotel's request for a parking pullout at its entrance that would force pedestrians to detour around idling cars and under the building's portico as they make their way on Atlantic Avenue.

Both the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the city's Public Improvement Commission have unwisely approved a redesign of the new InterContinental Hotel near Russia Wharf with a double-car-width valet parking pullout. The BRA director, Mark Maloney, said the BRA gave its OK with the understanding that the developer, Extell, and the nonprofit organization WalkBoston would work out a solution acceptable to both. There have been meetings of the two sides but no agreement.

With the current design, pedestrians would have to fight their way through luggage carts, doormen, and hotel patrons just outside the building's doors. WalkBoston has challenged the plan by filing a notice of project change in the state environmental monitor, which opens a period of public comment -- until Sept. 13 -- on the sidewalk design changes. The state should force the developer back to the drawing board.

The hotel's sidewalk design is suited to a location that gets so little pedestrian traffic that the inconvenience of being routed around the parking pullout does not matter much. Boston is not that kind of place. It could become one, however, if decision-makers do not insist on designs that put pedestrians -- and the Greenway -- first. The InterContinental is the first big new project along the Greenway, a precedent. ''It is important to get it right," Maloney said Friday.

This sidewalk snafu is evidence of the need to consolidate more Greenway decision-making in the hands of the Greenway Conservancy, the public-private organization set up to provide long-term oversight of the 27 acres regained by burying the old elevated highway. Too much authority still rests with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the city, and the MBTA, whose actions lack sufficient coordination. With more clout, the conservancy could provide that coordination at the same time that it consolidates fundraising for the Greenway.

WalkBoston deserves credit for blowing the whistle on the city's approval of the sidewalk detour. But the fate of the Greenway should not depend on activist organizations. If the Greenway is not to become part of Anyplace, USA, it is going to need a more powerful conservancy to become its steward.