Proposal To Close Dartmouth Street Is Wrong
Dear Editor:
This is to record my strong objection to a proposal to close off Dartmouth Street at Copley Square. This is a “solution” in desperate need of a problem.
As you know, realistically there are only two streets — Berkeley Street and Dartmouth Street — plus the marginal contribution of Charles Street that cross the South End and points east to and through the Back Bay. And of course there is also the off-ramp from the Mass. Pike. We have years, indeed decades, of experience in what happens with traffic when Dartmouth Street is closed off even for a couple of days for special occasions.
There is ample space already in front of the library and in the park itself, including providing additional seating and space for booths, for all but exceptional events. And implementation of the Copley Connect as a permanent activity would not qualify to be one of them.
Why on earth anyone rational would want to concentrate essentially all the Dartmouth Street traffic, including trucks, on the already jammed Berkeley Street and adding further congestion needlessly on more blocks of Newbury Street 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for no particular reason is beyond me. And it should be beyond you, also. Please give this inane proposal the appropriate disposition.
Edward Jay Allan