Boston’s interim Parks Commissioner Cathy Baker-Eclipse was a guest at the Columbia Savin Hill Civic Association (CSHCA) meeting on Monday night to discuss planned improvements to one Savin Hill park and to discuss safety concerns at another site.
Pedestrian safety around the recently renovated McConnell Park has been on many minds in the neighborhood since a child was hit by a vehicle and injured over the summer.
Neighbors and the Parks Department have been concerned about safety along an easement that serves as both a driveway to the Savin Hill Yacht Club and as a parking area. The access road cuts between the city-owned park’s baseball fields and the playground area and has proven confusing to motorists.
The injuries to the child were not life-threatening, but they have fueled discussion about ways to improve the situation.
“It is a pedestrian space,” said Baker-Eclipse. “I think it worked fairly well but improvements will be made. We added a speed bump.”
Baker-Eclipse, who worked on the design of McConnell in her previous role at the department, said her staff has consulted with the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) on the issue and will be getting flashing beacon signs to alert drivers they are in a pedestrian zone.
“The best way to slow people down is to alert them there is a pedestrian-first space and cars should move through with caution,” she said.
But some neighbors say that’s not enough.
Jake Wachman noted that too many drivers go through the area not knowing it’s an active walking zone for children.
“All the excuses seem academic and it’s something that doesn’t work in the real world,” he said. “That’s proven. A child was hit. We need to try something really different.”
Other neighbors noted that baseball and softball games held at the park attract players who aren’t familiar with the area.
“It doesn’t look like a street; people don’t know,” said one neighbor. “A pedestrian might not even know they’re standing in a road.”
Baker-Eclipse said they looked at routing the traffic around the playground and fields to the driveway easement, but it was too expensive and created “straightaways” for cars to go fast.
“We looked at all the options,” she said.
She said they will continue checking the speed table and trying to figure out better ways to mark it and signal it as a place to slow down.
On a different matter, Baker-Eclipse unveiled the city’s latest plans for renovating the courts and open spaces at Savin Hill Park along Savin Hill Avenue.
“We’re going to be awarding a design services contract and potentially getting the ball rolling in 2026,” she said. “That’s when we’ll really start community conversations to improve the courts. There’s questions about quality of the courts with surfaces being uneven and access issues and no clear path leading to them.”
She said they have funding for a design process in the city’s capital budget and have requested that companies submit statements of interest on the project – also known as Requests for Design Qualifications.
She said they will only focus on the lower area of the park, and not venture up the hill into the wooded area – which she noted would be a whole different conversation.
Before anything can be done at the park, there would be a significant survey done by the City Archeologist due to the presence of significant pre-colonial Native American settlements in the area.
“That is one area where there was a lot of pre-contact history on the site,” she said. “It’s a resource we want to completely understand before we dig things up.”
A final bone of contention came from a collision between dog owners, sports teams, and non-dog park users at McConnell Park – where there is no dog park, but many neighbors use the facility anyway to let their dogs run off leash.
Some have complained that dog owners let their dogs loose on playing fields, particularly on the turf of Martin Richard Challenger Field that is attractive to dog owners due to the fencing. But it is against state law to allow dogs on turf fields. Dog owners note they don’t have any other place to let their dogs enjoy exercise.
Baker-Eclipse conceded that it’s an ongoing problem.
“There are no plans for a dog park at Savin Hill at the moment,” she said. “We want to implement dog parks in every neighborhood first and not every neighborhood has one yet. Dorchester has Ronan Park, but Dorchester is big and that one isn’t big enough. We are not the only landowners. There are other opportunities for other property owners to put a dog park in…I will say that when we do have dog parks, we still have dogs loose on the ball fields.”
She said a dog facility isn’t “off the table” at McConnell, but much work needs to be done.
Speed humps reconsidered
Councillor John FitzGerald and CSHCA President Bill Walczak have been on the forefront of the speed hump plan for Savin Hill, which has been a major ask from the neighborhood. But “be careful what you ask for” was the message on Monday night.
The city has forwarded neighborhood leaders a map that shows 47 humps. Some say that’s too many.
“They start on Savin Hill Avenue and go all the way to the bridge and then over the bridge, including some on dead-end streets,” said Walczak. “My street is about 12 inches wide and has one in the middle, which is ridiculous, and we can move it elsewhere.”
Added FitzGerald: “It seems like a lot. They gave me a map and I marked it up and I hope they listen.”
The CSHCA did form a committee to begin looking at the locations and consulting with the city before they are put in place, as they are very expensive to remove.
