Keep Off the Grass, and Everything Else

Boston Common is one of our favorite outdoor places in the city. During the winter, it’s fun to watch college students sled on stolen cafeteria trays. We stroll through the park on the first warm days of spring, and watch the tourists feed the obese squirrels during the summer. Even the crinkling leaves that line the sidewalks during the fall make us happy.

Apparently, we aren’t alone in our love for the Common. City officials are considering ending large-scale events in the park because the huge number of visitors are ruining it.

Instead, large events should be held on the completely greenery-free City Hall Plaza.

Now that it has been refreshed, city officials are hesitant to allow it to be trampled again by large-scale gatherings, such as Shakespeare on the Common, concerts, and the so-called Hemp Fest, an annual gathering of supporters of efforts to legalize marijuana.

There’s more grass at Hemp Fest than on the entire Emerald Necklace, but the irony of Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It in an ascetically cold space is probably not the humor Shakespeare on the Common was going for. The whole point of having a park is for the public to enjoy it. If the grass gets a little bare, so be it.