City Hall

Big dig follies

by Dorie Clark

The Boston City Council held a hearing on Monday, grilling city and state officials on plans for the 27 acres of land that will be opened up downtown when the Big Dig is finished in 2004. But though the Massachusetts Horticultural Society gave an extended presentation about its proposed six-story "Garden Under Glass," the councilors' minds seemed to be on neither plants nor flowers, but rather on Bush, as in the president-elect.

Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman Andrew Natsios, who manages the Big Dig, announced just a few hours after the hearing that he plans to step down from the post early next year, and the weight of the impending announcement was in the air. Councilor Maureen Feeney of Dorchester, chair of the Committee on City and Neighborhood Services (which co-sponsored the hearing with the Committee on State and Federal Relations), complimented Natsios on keeping the city council informed about Big Dig developments, saying the process "has been done right." But councilors were concerned about what could happen if Natsios -- a friend of new White House chief of staff Andrew Card, and a likely Bush appointee -- leaves his post. Councilor Michael Flaherty pointedly asked James Rooney, the chief of staff for Mayor Tom Menino, "If Chairman Natsios were to move on, are there mechanisms in place to ensure the continuity of that relationship? Something may break down, so is the city in a position to overcome that?"

Indeed, the politics of developing the depressed Central Artery will get progressively trickier as the plan becomes a reality. Natsios said he thought the state legislature would probably draft a bill "in the next few months" to lay out a plan for overseeing and maintaining the land (including open space, privately developed parcels, and civic projects like the Horticultural Society's building) and that it would probably pass by 2002. Maureen Feeney instructed Rooney, "My concern is the details.... I would caution you as you move forward with this legislation to establish every minute detail."

In addition to raising the subject of Natsios's departure, councilors expressed other fears. "I worry about the economy going down," Councilor Mickey Roache said at the hearing. "If that were to happen, I'd worry about the open space. Developers might say, `Should we turn the 75 percent open space into 25 percent?'" (Rooney responded by noting that it would be extremely difficult to enact such a change, given that the ratio of open space to developed space has been written into law.) But in spite of the uncertainty over the economy and Natsios's departure, councilors seemed to recognize that their loss might also be a gain for the city. In a Beltway climate where irate Republicans including former presidential contender Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) have gone apoplectic about Big Dig overruns, a friendly face would be reassuring. "I'm very glad," said Roache to Natsios, "the chief of staff in Washington is working closely with you."