Abstract
Introduction
Bringing the wilderness in the city is a concept brought by the establishment of public parks. Typically, public parks are characterized by green spaces which are typically filled with a diverse array of plant species that can provide the city with a viable breathing space. In fact, public parks can even host certain kinds of animal species, although such is reasonably regulated for the purpose of keeping city life safe for residents. As a viable space for greenery, public parks provide residents of the city with an escape to the stresses of urban life, which is also compounded by different environmental factors related to the industrial nature of cities and surrounding urban spaces. Whereas cities were first built as spaces to support the industrial activities of humans and serve as viable areas where industrialization resulting to technology can thrive, the numerous breakthroughs made by efforts to reintroduce greener to city life in the form of parks deserve a closer look.
What of cities with public parks as against those with little space for greenery? This study provides for the impact public parks – as excerpts of wilderness, have provided to cities, primarily focusing on the case of the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Boston, one of the most important cities of the United States (US) in terms of its economic, social and political significance, deserves a closer look on the issue of its public parks. Understandably, Boston has become one of the hotbeds for industrial growth in the New England side of the US, given that the East Coast has first bore witness to the Industrial Revolution that produced other urban counterparts such as New York City, New York, Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, DC, among many others. Yet, the growth of industrialization throughout the 20th century has since brought in the consciousness that fuelled movements to reintroduce Boston to the wilderness, through no less than public parks. It is that very phenomenon that this study seeks to address - the marriage of nature and urbanization, manifested through public parks, is a concept that has been formed through time.
The Concept of Public Parks
Cronon (69) defined the wilderness “as the last remaining place where civilizationhas not fully infected the earth. Defining civilization as “that all too human disease,” Cronon (69) emphasized that the wilderness is “an island in the polluted sea of urban-industrial modernity.” Clearly, the foregoing shows a form of isolation wherein industrialization can either eradicate or not exist within wilderness at all. It is from that concept where public parts are made – to provide pockets of breathing space for residents in cities where urbanization and industrialization have taken over much of human activity. Cronon (69-70), in relation to the aforementioned, added that the wilderness is actually a creation of civilization, one that hides “behind a mask that is all the more beguiling because it seems so natural.” Public parks, therefore, are a manifestation that residents in cities and urban areas are actually longing for a break away from urbanization and industrialization, to which Cronon (69-70) fittingly said that “what we behold is Nature when in fact we see the reflection of our own unexamined longings and desires.” Nevertheless, Cronon (69-70) endeavored to clarify that the “nonhuman world we encounter in wilderness is far from being merely our own invention”, which means to say that whereas wilderness may be a creation of civilization, the various species of living things living in there are by no means invented.
The premise that the wilderness is what residents of cities and urban areas are longing for stems way back in history, where several of them would endeavor to explore places largely unknown to them far away from their permanent habitats in order to savor what Cronon (70) described as “the wilderness experience.” Describing wilderness as “once been the antithesis of all that was orderly and good,” Cronon (70) provided a definition that is rather contextualized by the views of those who lived during the antiquities. The wilderness, for many people throughout pre-modern history, has always been the subject of despair and desolation, in that the banishment of an individual there signifies his misery. Yet, towards the 19th century, the wilderness was no longer seen in a hostile manner, in that many have started to seek for its preservation and isolation given the enamoring qualities of its natural beauty, which cannot be entirely reproduced by human creation. In such a case, it is important to note that people, particularly whose residence are at the core of their respective civilizations, have grown tired of the manufactured world around them. Describing wilderness as a beautiful thing to behold is a concept that many people have shared throughout the modern period. Cronon (71-72) has justified such through his account of the consequent designations of specific areas of wilderness as national parks, most notably the Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Niagara, among many others. From there, one can already follow through the concept of public parks, which are manifestations of the desire of residents of cities and urban areas to bring the wilderness closer to them.
Urbanization and Public Parks in Boston
Mitchell (1-54) lamented how Boston has changed from the time it was first populated by the first Americans. In exploring Boston, Mitchell (1-27) attempted to map certain places that somewhat caught his attention about the natural landmarks of Boston – things that were once there that were not anymore, and expressed dismay at how “he could have walked over parts of water” had some of those places still existed, only to find himself at certain parts of the city that are filled with both vehicular and foot traffic. In elaborating how urbanization has imposed itself in Boston, Mitchell (1-27) noted that the city has become very successful in terms of becoming of the most influential industrial and commercial hubs of the US following the Industrial Revolution. Mitchell (1-27) did not hide his frustration of encountering people who are terribly late for work, with one even brushing him off unintentionally, while he grew highly disappointed at the sight of crazy and rude people making obscene gestures against crowds, possibly because they themselves realized that urban life has terribly taken over their existence (Mitchell 1-27).
Incorporating the thoughts of Cronon (69-90) on the seclusion of civilization from the wilderness, it is important to note that the city of Boston has completely metamorphosed over time from being a small yet significant town of commerce surrounded by forests, hills, rivers and streams that separate it from the mainland on rainy spells to a highly urbanized concrete conglomeration of urban spaces that have barely the same room for forests and hills that once filled the lives of the first Americans and Massachusett Indians there. Mitchell (13-42) explained truthfully and logically that Boston went past through stages of disrepair as it grew in importance during the Industrial Revolution, with its rivers and streams becoming severely clogged with industrial waste as industries flourished and human population grew from migration in surrounding areas, as a consequence. Given that, Mitchell (13-42) gave a natural history of how urbanization took place in Boston and how it severely changed the landscape, much to his chagrin as he explored patches of land for hills and road arteries for streams, hence making it a place that is truly isolated from nature. Although turn-of-the-century changes have been a notable observation of Mitchell (13-42) in his explorations in Boston, he is nonetheless sad over the way the city has lacked in terms of establishing green spaces. Boston, in the view of Mitchell (13-42), “is an unreal city, a mere illusion that rises on this glacier-battered coast with false self-assurance, as if it were the hub of a great wheel and permanent in its centrality.” Such meant for Mitchell (13-42) that the changes that heavily modified Boston throughout the years were highly superficial and harrowingly downward in terms of environmental progress.
Public parks, therefore, were not so much an integral part of life in Boston, as Mitchell (24-54) some of the green spaces of the city that mainly included the Public Garden. Once a marsh popular among fishers mainly called the Round Marsh, the Public Garden is filled with plant species that are highly susceptible to destruction amidst weather changes, regardless of the problem of global warming as mentioned by Mitchell (30-35). As historical developments from the time of the first Americans went on under the narration of Mitchell (30-40), the Public Garden gained the depiction as perhaps among the very few green spaces within Boston, its legacy having been undermined by the supposedly non-materialistic virtues held by the Pilgrims and the Puritans that once frequented the area alongside Massachusett Indians. The landscapes that befell Mitchell (18-54) in many of his explorations were characterized instead by “a warren of urban canyons, traffic, side streets, crowds, and more exhaust,” which he described negatively in his idyllic viewpoint on exploring Boston on a September day. What Mitchell (30-38) befell him when he explored parts of what was known as the Shawmut Peninsula area of Boston was reduced to the rather sad reduction of Shawmut Avenue, which resembled just one of the streets that lined much of the urban expanse of the city. Yet, Mitchell (40-54) proved somewhat fair in his comparison with Boston with that of other cities in the US, most notably New York City, given that he appreciated at how relatively laid-back the city was in comparison. Some species of birds still filled the skies of Boston when Mitchell (40-54) was younger, although such has declined over the years as well alongside the green spaces, leading him to describe the sad city as one that “was in sad decline.”
Evidently, Mitchell (40-54) spoke of general disappointment at how Boston has changed throughout the years, deeming the trends that passed over time as a sign of the decline of the city Mitchell (54) eventually came to ask himself, “how did it all come to pass,” as he noted how Boston has sorely missed “the hills and the freshwater springs and the three rivers running down to a deep-water harbor.” Notably, Boston has changed so much and isolated much of itself from the nature that once fully characterized its surroundings by the constant growth of civilization in its vicinity brought forth by its strategic location that was fully exhausted during the Industrial Revolution. The relatively few public parks and manifestations of greenery Mitchell (1-54) has described in his exploration signified that Boston is highly urbanized, and that the hectic lives of the people there signaled that it did not afford them with much escape from the stressfulness of the civilized world.
Views on Improving Public Parks in Boston
Reintroducing Boston to nature in light of what Cronon (69-90) has discussed and based on the lamentations of Mitchell (1-54) is certainly very tough act to follow, but it does not mean that it is completely impossible. Indeed, the need to marry nature with urbanization arises from the fact that people need to be reintroduced to even little pockets of urban escapism in the form of an area where plants are allowed to thrive amidst the bustling surroundings filled with concrete and seas of humanity aimlessly lining themselves up for their daily activities (Mitchell 1-54). To establish public parks would, as Cronon (69-90) discussed, bring the people back to nature in that it would entail them to enjoy what civilization has precluded them from doing so. After all, the growth of civilization has resulted to the expansion of urban areas initially meant to host civilized populations against the wilderness, which was framed in pre-modern times as one that features surroundings hostile to civilized life. The growth of appreciation towards the wilderness came as civilized populations began to choke on the products of civilization mostly manifested in the growth of urban agglomerations – one that led to cities like Boston to rise. With urbanization causing people with so much stress, as Mitchell (13-15) eponymously described as “paradise lost” the current conditions of Boston through “the rushing morning populace intent on work, noise, exhaust,” the importance of cultivating public parks serves as a way of humanizing the civilized population once again. Indeed, one could not deny the fact that urbanization has since turned civilized populations into robots seemingly preprogrammed to take on specific kinds of tasks on a daily basis in a milieu where manmade causes of environmental modification and destruction continuously thrive. Through pocket spaces of greenery favorable enough to host a nonhuman world where animals and plants can flourish, public parks can serve the people of Boston with great favor as they get to afford themselves with their much-needed rest and relaxation from the stressfulness of urbanization. In turn, public parks, particularly in the case of Boston, could serve as mechanisms for providing conceptualizations of the wilderness that are freely accessible to the urban population and not as distant as the likes of Yosemite, Yellowstone and Niagara Falls, which are a class of their own with their status as national parks pre-protected against the spread of industrialization. Thus, it is important for public works on civic spaces in Boston to focus on expanding greeneries and natural reservoirs such as the restoration of streams and the creation of bodies of water - perhaps in the form of manmade lagoons, which can host diverse land and water-based ecosystems that can not only coexist freely with civilized populations, but also benefit them as manifestations of nature in a heavily urbanized area.
Conclusion
While this study does not exhaust a very specific account on the kinds of public parks Boston needs at present, it nevertheless raises the concern that those kinds of facilities are exactly what the city needs in order to sustain its population healthily – an argument supported by Cronon (69-90). One aspect of the observations recorded by Mitchell (13-18) on Boston regards the seas of humanity determined to focus more on “work, noise, exhaust” in the city, giving him the impression that “there will be time” for a “total collapse of the city” if it is not reintroduced again to nature. Public parks, therefore, are very important facilities that must flourish in Boston in order for it, somehow, to reclaim “the paradise of all these parts,” which it lost over time, according to Mitchell (13).
Works Cited
Cronon, William. "The Trouble with Wilderness.'" Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature. Ed. William Cronon. New York City, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1995. 69-90. Print.
Mitchell, John Hanson. The Paradise of All These Parts: A Natural History of Boston. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.
