Sprucing up city before big party
Hub in mad dash to repave streets, retouch fixtures
Boston has launched its most extensive makeover of the core city in 20 years, repaving major roads, festooning Boylston Street with lampposts and flowers, restoring historic paintings and monuments, hanging banners, and laying new bricks. George Washington and other statues that have been missing their swords will get new ones.
Officials say most of the makeover doesn't have anything to do with the Democratic National Convention and the 35,000 visitors who will flood Boston the last week of July.
But city agencies -- including the Parks Department, the Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Development, and the Department of Public Works -- are hurrying more than 100 projects, worth nearly $6.5 million, to completion before then.
''The dates happen to collide," said Susan Elsbree, spokeswoman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which is finishing a transformation of Boylston Street in the next two weeks. ''You make the judgment."
Prettying up the city for the convention has been a sensitive subject for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who has been criticized by some unions for spending city money on the convention instead of on raises for police and firefighters. Budget officials insist the city is spending no more than $2.7 million that it set aside for sidewalk repairs and street paving in what it calls an impact zone near the FleetCenter.
But in the three months since the spring construction season began, city departments have quietly embarked on projects from fence-painting to tree-trimming in parts of the city where conventioneers are likely to visit in July.
The BRA is spending $3.6 million on Boylston Street, $2.1 million of that coming from private donations, and the parks department is spending about $170,000 on tree-trimming and other beautification projects before the end of July.
''Were not allocating additional funds for these things," said Lisa Signori, the city's chief budget official. ''It's being done within their regular budgets."
The Public Works Department received some $1.5 million in additional money in 2004 for road and street improvements, said Joseph F. Casazza, Public Works commissioner. Some of it is being spent on sprucing up streets with asphalt and fresh crosswalks in the Back Bay, the Theater District, and the South End where delegates will be sleeping and partying, he said.
''We looked at where they're going for their events, what hotels they're in, and the areas and roadways leading to those places," Casazza said. ''This was kind of a special plan."
The city's Parks Department has been working crews throughout the weekends to trim hundreds of trees in the downtown area. With an extra $100,000 in the department budget, ailing trees are being replaced. The Parks Department is spending about $70,000 of its regular budget to fix fences and paint lamp posts in the Public Garden and the Boston Common. The department also is installing bricks around the visitors' center on the common,
''We're doing things that anybody who was having a party would do: You go out and buy some fancy towels and put some candles around," said Mary Hines, spokeswoman for the Boston Parks and Recreation Department. ''They want Boston to look good."
Many residents are happy to have their city polished up, whatever the reason may be. But the work has also roused complaints from residents living with the din of overnight street work and drivers who have had to negotiate so many roads torn-up at once.
''It's a mess," said Newbury Street resident Rob Seaver, sitting outside a coffee shop on Boylston Street in the Back Bay and gazing at 6-foot piles of rocks in the street. ''Who are they trying to impress?"
When works crews scraped off the top layers of pavement on several Back Bay streets in recent weeks, the protruding manhole covers created a nearly inescapable obstacle course for drivers.
''People think you're drunk when you're trying to avoid those manholes," said Quinn Ferree, a 21-year-old valet at several Back Bay restaurants. ''It's kind of dangerous."
City councilors say they have fielded as many complaints as calls from residents expressing bewilderment and thanks.
''New streets are welcome and very much needed in downtown Boston," said Councilor Michael P. Ross, who represents Back Bay and Beacon Hill. ''We're willing to look beyond any inconvenience for new streets. This is a positive biproduct" of the convention.
In the Back Bay, Boylston Street will get 85 double acorn street lights, 100 trees, and street furniture. Private donors paid for $2.1 million of the improvements, BRA officials said. The Theater District also will get street lamps and street furniture, though probably not until after the convention. Already, 90 purple banners have been hung, emblazoned Menino's name and the slogan, ''More than just great theater."
Public art officials said they have found money in their budgets, including private donations collected in years past, to clean and repair monuments around the city, including the statues of Samuel Adams at Faneuil Hall and Paul Revere in the North End. Statues of George Washington in the Public Garden and Robert Gould Shaw near the State House, whose swords are prone to theft and vandalism, are getting replacement swords.
Meanwhile, specialists will undertake a quick restoration of ''Webster's Reply to Senator Haynes," the large painting behind the podium at Faneuil Hall painted by George Healy in 1851.
Councilor Paul J. Scapicchio was so moved by the improvements in his district that he wrote a letter of thanks and had it published in a neighborhood newspaper.
''They've been banging those things out," said Scapicchio, whose district includes the North End and the FleetCenter. ''It's amazing what you can get done when you have a deadline."
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com. 