Boylston Avenue's incarcerated park

fence, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

A long time ago (1992?), I lived in The Porter Apartments in a studio overlooking this grassy park and the SCCC parking garage. It wasn't really much of a park, and pretty much every day when I woke up, I would look out my window and there would be some destitute drunk peeing behind the steps of the garage, or sitting, drinking a bottle of thunderbird in a plain brown bag. It was kind of depressing, but it was life in the city.

As neighborhood parks go, it was a sad affair. There would be the occasional dog walker or napper mid-day, but it wasn't a place anyone spent much time. The best that could be said, is it was an accessible patch of grass that you could go stand in, a break from the concrete.

Now it is just a jailed lawn. I'm not sure when the fence went up, but every now and then I see a mattress, or a big pile of trash trapped behind the bars, doing it's time. Waiting for parole.