I have been a harsh critic of the "Big Dig", that lovely public works project that is rife with corruption and largely detrimental to the Massachusetts economy. In my opinion, it has given yuppies permission to set up well outside Boston where their tax dollars can be safeguarded and money and jobs can be siphoned away from Western Massachusetts.

Now that the Big Dig is nearing completion (in time for Kerry's coronation?) the question of how to decommission the Central Artery has come up. The idea of turning the artery into a "greenbelt" is both attractive and historical. When walls and fortifications were taken down from medieval cities, many of them were turned into parkways that surrounded the inner city. Of course, the problem that arose was that the inner city was still separated from the outer city despite the absence of the walls (this is something that the project planners should think about as they decide how to make use of the land). If anything, please don't turn it over to the Turnpike Authority. It has been a poor advocate for the public good. There needs to be an agency that will be committed to integrating the parkland into the local neighborhoods and that will delineate sections to specific uses (nothing would be more useless than just a bunch of green space).