Menino wants to extend park over Storrow Drive

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff

Mayor Thomas M. Menino today called for expanding public green space between the Public Garden and the Esplanade by covering over a section of Storrow Drive in need of rebuilding.

"I'm calling on everyone to take a Big Picture view," Menino said in a speech to the Boston Municipal Research Bureau at the Seaport Hotel in South Boston.

"Think about this for a moment," Menino said. "We can reopen the river front to residents, connect the Charles River and the Public Garden, and create more green space in the heart of our downtown neighborhoods."

In challenging the state and others to extend public space along the Charles River, Menino cited the example of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge.

"We saw a chance to make a bold statement about Boston's future," Menino said.

As reported in the Globe this morning, Menino also called for building height limits along the new Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

"The public interest, not the private market, should guide development" around new Greenway parks, Menino said.

To the west, Boston University and Harvard University are considering similar plans to extend parks above Storrow Drive and Soldiers Field Road to the Charles River.

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