Southwest Corridor Park Alliance�2025 Annual Report
October 2025
The Southwest Corridor Park is known for our beautiful and active community gardens …
….stewardship gardens…
…for the bicycle / walking paths…
…for sports courts, spray pools and playgrounds …
…. for dog walking….
… for nature and culture…
…. for community events….
…. and for our well-loved park history and neighborhood connections.
We are known for a tradition of volunteer park stewardship and community involvement that stretches back 35+ years. For example, this 1996 Boston Globe article highlights the tradition of park volunteer stewardship, noting that it was (already) an ongoing tradition.
Archives from the planning phase of the park document the importance of community voice from the many neighborhood-based community meetings, as well as the the park-wide Parkland Management Advisory Committee (PMAC) which is now our Southwest Corridor Park Alliance.
This newspaper clipping is an employment ad for the MDC (DCR) assistant manager – reading the text confirms that there was a long-standing expectation that volunteers and the parks staff would collaborate in guiding and supporting the park.
Whether it is via your garden tools or your paintbrush, …. via bicycle or scooter, skateboard, wheelchair, on foot,…. Through reading park history or remembering it personally….. It feels good feel that you have discovered and explored and somehow contributed to the park.
Because everyone uses the park in different ways, we all have different ways of describing the park; but all feel a sense of belonging with the park.
Not exactly “ownership” but a sense of pride that you have discovered and explored and somehow contributed to this great urban space.
For this annual report, we will look at what our volunteer network does, enjoy some photos of the park, and think about goals for the next year or two.
When we say “our volunteer network” we mean the inter-related groups – the Southwest Corridor Park Alliance includes representation from the full park, and this report blends in information from the Southwest Corridor Park Conservancy, Carlton Court Dog Park, and we connect with Friends of Kelly Rink. Our annual reports blend information from all of this.
1
Our volunteer network manages a network of 12 community gardens in the Southwest Corridor.
This includes developing guidelines for gardens, managing garden applications and waiting lists, welcoming and orienting new gardeners, collecting dues and managing funds, organizing workdays, and managing garden projects.
DCR staff provide the infrastructure for the volunteer-led gardens, such as soil, compost, stone dust for paths, signage, and other infrastructure, along with some of the basic supplies.
Pictured here – gardeners in the Follen Community Garden built three new raised beds this summer, replacing one that was no longer usable.
Pictured here – gardeners in the Lamartine-Hubbard Community Garden created a communal bed outside the community garden. Last fall, they planted hundreds of bulbs (tulips and hyacinths), which came up beautifully this spring (other than a few lost to rabbits!).
They write: “Our goal is to move towards (mostly native) perennial flowers, so we planted more of those this spring (lavender, black-eyed Susan) and filled them in with annual flowers, tomatoes, eggplant, greens, herbs, and okra. Signs invite neighbors to pick the vegetables and herbs. We also have a donation crate right outside the gate of our community garden, where gardeners put surplus vegetables they grew.”
The Newcastle-Saranac Community Garden has a common area that encourages people to gather together. If you look behind the tree in this photo, you’ll see an easel, which is used by a neighborhood artist, there in the garden, while neighbors relax and talk in the garden.
2
Garden Stewardship: Our volunteer network creates and maintains “park stewardship” gardens along the park, with annuals, perennials, herbs, roses and other decorative plants.
Each year, park stewardship volunteers contribute thousands of hours, planting and transplanting, weeding and watering, and updating landscape features, such as decorative paint for garbage cans, rocks for garden borders, etc.
Volunteers are led by the Southwest Corridor Park Conservancy in the South End, and/or the Southwest Corridor Park Alliance in Fenway / Roxbury / Jamaica Plain.
Photo here – the Durham Green lawn restored by the SWCPC. Plus plastic flamingos added for fun by an anonymous neighbor.
Both gardening approaches are volunteer based.
In community gardening, individuals (or two people) are assigned a specific garden plot within a fenced in community garden. Gardens are generally intended as food-producing, with flowers and herbs as supporting plants. Community gardens make up part of the park’s physical and social landscape.
In park stewardship gardening, gardens are directly part of the park landscape, and the gardens are primarily decorative (and sometimes with educational or environmental themes) and feature annuals, perennials , roses and shrubs, and may also include edible landscaping, pollinator plants, or other themes. Volunteers may be assigned to steward a particular garden, or they might join in common efforts on a volunteer day.
Some of our projects blend the “garden stewardship” and “community garden” approach. Pictured here, the SWCP garden at Mildred Hailey Apts., in Jackson Square (in a temporary location during construction) with an all-bean garden and an all-cilantro garden planted by neighborhood gardeners in a garden supported by the Southwest Corridor and Mildred Hailey Apts.
3
Public Safety and Health.
As part of each monthly meeting, we meet with public safety officers from the BPD districts along the park, along with state and other jurisdictions.
Throughout the year, our volunteers act as eyes and ears on the park (formally, and informally as dog walkers, gardeners and others who are in the park year-round in all weather and many hours of the day), and we collaborate with public health programs and communicate with public safety teams.
4
Dog Parks & Dog Walking
Carleton Court Dog Park is volunteer- managed, with support from DCR and the Southwest Corridor Park Conservancy. Park advocates are also advocating for a dog park in JP.
5
Park History
The history of the Southwest Corridor Park is a valued story in Boston history.
Members of our volunteer network have immersed ourselves in this history and we are happy to collaborate with others who want to dig into and celebrate this history.
6
Advocacy
We seek to act as a channel for community voice to support the park. We pay attention to –
An advocacy highlight this year: SWCP Alliance members have been active participants in the planning and design phase of the new Jackson Greenway and joined with neighbors for the Grand Opening this summer (shown in the photos here).
We continue to advocate for DCR’s plans for additional new pathways connecting the Southwest Corridor to Kelly Rink, and look forward to next steps for this project.
7
Communication, Social Media and Events
See our website & find us on social media – share photos with us -- and more --
See our meeting schedule page for meeting dates and format (zoom and in-person)
https://southwestcorridorpark.org
/meetingschedule.asp
Discussion – Goals – Ideas – Projects
Goals – (1.) Advocating for Park Improvements
At our annual meeting, we discussed some of our goals for the next year or two.
A year ago, we supported DCR, along with wide representation from park communities, in the development of an Action Plan for the park. We are looking forward to next steps for projects that were highlighted in the Action Plan:
Goals – (2.) Volunteer and Staff Collaborations
We also focused on projects we will work on directly –
Leadership Team Election / Re-Election
Jennifer Leonard, SWCP Alliance Chair; Youth/Family Initiatives; Website�Tracy O'Brien, Community Garden Committee Co-Chairperson�Sabine Voigt, Community Garden Committee Co-Chairperson�David Wean, Bicycle-Walking Path Committee Chairperson�Scott Romney, Carleton Court Dog Park Representative, Southwest Corridor Park Conservancy (SWCPC) Representative�Franco Campanello, Volunteers / South End / SWCPC�Jenny Jones, Volunteers / JP�Frederick Vetterlein, Greenway Extension Project�Matilda Drayton, Neighborhood Representatives, Mission Deck�John Burke, Neighborhood Representatives, South End�Sage Carbone, Neighborhood Representatives, Fenway