A seven-year battle to keep the tip of the North End's Long Wharf as a public park seems to have ended Wednesday with a federal judge's ruling that the Boston Redevelopment Authority screwed up royally.
Actually, residents in favor of the park won on a technicality. Sean P. Murphy at the Globe has the details: "The ruling says that the BRA relied on the wrong map of Long Wharf when it approved a commercial venture for that site. Had the 'right' map been consulted, the BRA would have seen that the area was off-limits according to an agreement struck in the 1980s that exchanged federal clean-up money for a promise of open space, according to the ruling." The onus actually falls on the National Park Service in this case for providing the BRA with shaky information.
What did the authority want there, by the way? A restaurant. The thinking was that that would be a better way to attract people to the tip.
· Judge Rules Against Allowing a Restaurant on Long Wharf [Globe]
· Our Parks Watch archive [Curbed Boston]