Hanover Street Pedestrian Mall

[kz1000ps]

Hanover Street Piazza Bid has Legs


Plan Would Close Route to Traffic

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | September 2, 2006

A Boston city councilor, backed by tourism officials and the mayor, wants to convert the North End's famous Hanover Street into an Italian piazza, with strolling violinists, artist stalls and waiters with Valpolicella and espressos scurrying to customers at tables in the middle of the street.

Councilor Salvatore LaMattina , who represents the neighborhood, said he wants to test the idea, starting next spring, by blocking out traffic only on weekends during the summer months. Eventually, he wants to seal off the street permanently and convert it to a public gathering place.

``I picture a little music, like they do in Venice," LaMattina said.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino is supporting the proposal and envisions summer dances with accordion players and perhaps space where local artists could show their work.

``There's great possibilities," he said. ``Just think about what you could do."

Part of the appeal of closing the street to traffic, officials said, is that would help the city capitalize on one of its best tourist draws. The 5.8 million tourists estimated to visit the North End each year could grow significantly if the street were turned over to pedestrians, the officials said.

``When word gets out about it, that's going to become a reason to go to Boston," said Patrick B. Moscaritolo , president and CEO Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The proposal would also be a way to deal with persistent problems in the North End, where noise and exhaust spew from the daily crush of traffic along the street as visitors on foot jam the sidewalks. Closing the street to cars would additionally mean easier access by street sweepers, which are often stymied by motorists who refuse to give up rare-curbside spaces. Public works officials rejoiced a few years ago when parking was banned during the Democratic National Convention, with the commissioner gushing, ``I can finally get a gutter to clean!"

``What I noticed this summer, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights, it's so congested, you can't walk on the sidewalk," LaMattina said.

Still, some residents and business owners said they were concerned about increased traffic on residential side streets, difficulties getting supplies delivered to businesses in the closed-off area, and the vanquishing of valets that serve Hanover Street restaurants.

Frank DiPasquale , who runs the neighborhood business association, says he worries that upscale customers won't want to walk several blocks from their cars, especially in bad weather.

``Those are the people we want coming in here," said DiPasquale, who owns five restaurants in the North End, including Il Panino Express and Bricco on Hanover Street. ``There's going to be major issues."

LaMattina said he is putting together a task force to help address the concerns, with representatives from business and neighborhood groups, the mayor's office , and the transportation and police departments. He hopes to have the first weekend closure next spring, roping off Hanover Street between Cross and Prince streets from Friday afternoons to Sunday nights. If the experiment goes well, Menino and other officials will consider closing it permanently.

As part of the plan, cooperative, centralized pickup and drop-off points for valets and taxi cabs could be installed on Cross Street, city officials said. And deliveries could be allowed to the closed-off area during certain hours, most likely in the morning. In the end, LaMattina said, he expects business owners and residents to enjoy the piazza as much as, and perhaps more than, tourists.

``In Italy, residents go out to the piazza and have coffee with their neighbors and friends," LaMattina said.

The idea was popular yesterday among many old-time North Enders, people such as 83-year-old John Rosato and his friends, who for years have created a makeshift piazza a block away on Parmenter Street outside Polcari's Coffee. Rosato can be found nearly everyday except Sundays in his lawn chair on the pavement, talking about neighborhood goings on, waving at passersby and greeting his friends with double-cheek kisses.

``If they can have gardens next to City Hall, why can't we have a piazza, like in Italy?" said Rosato, who said he would gladly move his lawn chair to the piazza. ``It'd be good scenery."

Longtime resident and business owner, Joanne Prevost-Anzalone, said she would welcome the European ambience, and if the delivery concerns were worked out, she would have coffee on the piazza every day. ``I'd be right there, right in the middle of it," she said.

As traffic came to a near standstill on Hanover Street shortly after noon yesterday, car horns rang out and the smell of exhaust wafted across the sidewalk, where Pasquale Giliberti was smoking a Marlboro and speaking in Italian with a friend from East Boston.

``It should have been done years ago, what he is talking about," Giliberti said of the piazza proposal, waving his hands for emphasis. ``Why should people have to go to a foreign country (for a piazza)? Why they can't enjoy every weekend?"

There is one problem, Giliberti said: LaMattina referenced Venice when talking about the piazza.

``The people from Naples, they will be against it; the people from Sicily, they will be against it," Giliberti said. ``That's the Italian way. He should say only Italy."

http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/7131/11571834422748th9.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.

? Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.[/b]

[lexicon506]

I think this is a great idea, as long as the city doesn't try to turn it into a super tourist strip. The Italians know how to make good use of a piazza (even though a piazza is technically more open than a single street), and the tight streets of the North End would make perfect pedestrian ways. If you look at maps of European cities, you can see many streets marked as pedestrian only, something that always seems to be lacking in American cities.

[TheBostonian]

This is a great idea that builds on the removal of the raised central artery.

[Ron Newman]

As someone who works in that area, I welcome this proposal. But do it right this time. Get all the taxis, delivery trucks, and police cars off the road. Downtown Crossing would be much more pleasant without them.

(to lexicon506: this is already a tourist zone.)

[jass]

``What I noticed this summer, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights, it's so congested, you can't walk on the sidewalk," LaMattina said.

I agree, and unless you want to walk at 0.5 mp/h behind a family pushing a stroller, you have no choice but to walk in the streets with the cars anyway.

This is a fantastic idea.

[Ron Newman]

Some North Enders wanted the Central Artery's 'North End Parks' developed as an Italian-style piazza. That proposal was not accepted, but this may make up for it.

[quadratdackel]

I think this is a great idea, as long as the city doesn't try to turn it into a super tourist strip.
Agreed. The neighborhood seems to me to be holding its character well, and it would be a shame to lose that.

...I sometimes think maybe all or parts of Newbury street could make the same move. Newbury's wider and traffic's one-way. As is cars are well-advised to take Comm Ave instead of trudging through Newbury's thick pedestrian traffic, which tends to cross the street at any point on it, or even walk on the street sometimes.

[jass]

I think this is a great idea, as long as the city doesn't try to turn it into a super tourist strip.
Agreed. The neighborhood seems to me to be holding its character well, and it would be a shame to lose that.

...I sometimes think maybe all or parts of Newbury street could make the same move. Newbury's wider and traffic's one-way. As is cars are well-advised to take Comm Ave instead of trudging through Newbury's thick pedestrian traffic, which tends to cross the street at any point on it, or even walk on the street sometimes.

Just remember that BU has a proposal to widen the sidewalks on Comm ave after kenmore square, and thus, remove a lane.

[Ron Newman]

Why? Those sidewalks are already quite wide.

[bosdevelopment]

I think this is a great idea, as long as the city doesn't try to turn it into a super tourist strip.
Agreed. The neighborhood seems to me to be holding its character well, and it would be a shame to lose that.

...I sometimes think maybe all or parts of Newbury street could make the same move. Newbury's wider and traffic's one-way. As is cars are well-advised to take Comm Ave instead of trudging through Newbury's thick pedestrian traffic, which tends to cross the street at any point on it, or even walk on the street sometimes.

Just remember that BU has a proposal to widen the sidewalks on Comm ave after kenmore square, and thus, remove a lane.

are you serious? they've already begun the process of destroying kenmore square by removing one traffic lane. I can't imagine what would happen if that went all the way down comm ave.. what a nightmare..

those sidewalks are already huge.. I understand trying to make a campus but that's just absurd.

[Ron Newman]

Removing lanes of traffic from Kenmore Square can only make it a more pleasant place to be. But we're getting way far afield from the original topic.

[bosdevelopment]

Removing lanes of traffic from Kenmore Square can only make it a more pleasant place to be. But we're getting way far afield from the original topic.

Ron, as you may know, bikes aren't allowed on sidewalks. The kenmore renovation (shitshow) will allow you less biking area and force you onto a narrower roadway where you'll compete with busses, dump trucks and (gasp!) suvs for pavement. I wonder how much of a pleasent place you'll think kenmore is when you're run over by some drunk contractor leaving fenway park.

I don't think the North End idea will fly with business owners. I'd estimate over 50% of their business is generated by suburbanites that come in for dinnner/drinks. Without valet or somewhere convenient to leave their cars they'll be less likely to come in.

Idealism abound, but logic left at the door. ALSO, any project of this scope is sure to be plagued by cost over runs and corruption. Boston (and the state) is incapable of completeing any infrastructure construction and should not attempt anything new, rather they should focus on maintenance. Kenmore is already behind as is just about everything in this god damn city.

The big dig has shaken my belief in what this city is capable of to the core. They should just tear down and start over again, like what is suggested in New Orleans. Despite some drastic re-localization based on energy shortage in the next 10-20 years, the concept of urban centers will slowly peter out. The infatuation with urban centers is based more on Hollywood romanticism than convenience and standard of living.

There's my rant.

[jass]

[quote=Ron Newman]Removing lanes of traffic from Kenmore Square can only make it a more pleasant place to be. But we're getting way far afield from the original topic.

Ron, as you may know, bikes aren't allowed on sidewalks.

Im 95% sure bikes are allowed on sidewalks, except for certain areas downtown. I know I always ride on the sidewalk.


Anyway, I believe theres a thread in this forum about the BU proposals (the new dorm towers, and the comm ave renovation). I havent heard any updates on the project all summer though

[Scott]

The big dig has shaken my belief in what this city is capable of to the core. They should just tear down and start over again, like what is suggested in New Orleans.

dumbass

[bosdevelopment]

The big dig has shaken my belief in what this city is capable of to the core. They should just tear down and start over again, like what is suggested in New Orleans.

dumbass

Do you understand how much 14 BILLION dollars actually is? That's 14 thousand million. The most extreme tower projects downtown will approach $750,000,000 in cost (like winthrop square). There will also be returns on these projects. What tangible return will the big dig have? Tourism?

What exactly does Boston gain from holding on to the cowpath infrastructure it once held, other than the romance. You are the dumbass.

[Scott]

Do you understand how much 14 BILLION blah, blah actually is? That's blah blah blah blah, I worship Bush, I love Romney blah blah.
What exactly does Boston gain from blah blah blah other than the romance. You are the dumbass.

he he he... I thought you would understand me better if I spoke to you in your native tongue :lol:

[statler]

Boston's love/hate for cars

By David Kruh | September 27, 2006

BOSTON HAS long displayed a kind of schizophrenia when it comes to motorized vehicles on its streets. The automobile wasn't even in mass production in 1909, but the city's narrow paths were already so badly clogged that the first idea for a downtown elevated bypass was floated. Ironically, when the Central Artery was finally built in the 1950s its primary purpose was not to get cars off Boston's streets, but to bring more of them (specifically ones driven by free-spending suburbanites) into a city that had fallen into disrepair and blight after years of neglect, incompetence, and malfeasance.

That Artery, dubbed a ``highway in the sky" by one local paper, needed room for six lanes of traffic as well as numerous (and confusing) exit- and on-ramps. But utterly fearful that the Hub was slipping into permanent blight, planners didn't blink at flattening large sections of the North End and Chinatown, kicking thousands from their homes and businesses. A number of streets also had to be re aligned, while many others were simply cut in two by the highway. No street was more dramatically affected by the Artery than one of the city's first, Hanover Street, which had run all the way from Boston Harbor, at Atlantic Avenue, to the base of Beacon Hill at Court Street (now Cambridge Street) in Scollay Square.

Along Hanover Street lay the history of a neighborhood, a city, and a nation. During the 17th century, Boston's first as a town, Hanover Street was home to Cotton Mather, a prominent Bostonian who was also leader of the Puritan Church. During the Revolutionary War lived patriot Joseph Warren, from whose home the word was sent to the sexton of the Old North Church on how to light the lanterns for Paul Revere. Mather and Warren gave way in the 1800s to Irish immigrants who jammed the North End's three- and four-story apartment buildings, as they eked out an existence in a hostile city.

Boston was no more hospitable to the wave of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe who followed the Irish into the North End, or to the Italians who followed the Jews. Yet all embraced their new home, and made Hanover Street a focal point of their lives. Then, in 1951, came the destruction of a large chunk of the neighborhood by the construction of the Central Artery, and Hanover Street, the North End's primary link to downtown, was cut into two pieces, all in the name of getting cars into and through the city.

Yet less than 10 years after Central Artery construction began, the crowded Scollay Square district was razed, and most of its streets, including the upper end of Hanover Street, between Congress and Beacon Hill, removed to make room for the expansive (and car-free) red-bricked area known as City Hall Plaza, which one planner believed would become the St. Peter's Square of Boston. That, of course, never happened, and save for the occasional sports championship celebration ( one Celtics, three Patriots, and one Red Sox in the past 20 years) car-less City Hall Plaza remains an empty, ghostly reminder of the anti auto zeal of the 1960s.

By the 1990s the pendulum had swung back to a newfound appreciation for the benefits to the city of motorized traffic. In 1995 Mayor Thomas Menino, an unabashed critic of City Hall Plaza, formed the Trust for City Hall Plaza, a 33-member panel made up of business, civic, and neighborhood leaders. Headed by prolific developer Norman Leventhal, the Trust was tasked with finding ways of rejuvenating the Plaza. Among its recommendations was the restoration of Hanover Street from Congress to Cambridge, including allowing automobiles. The Globe's own Robert Campbell wrote in 1997, ``Many of us, if asked, will say we prefer `open space' to streets. But we're far more likely to be saying this while sitting at a sidewalk cafe on congested Newbury Street than picnicking on the Boston Common."

Now comes talk of turning Hanover Street into a pedestrian walkway. Proponents talk dreamily of the old world charm that would come from sidewalk cafes and street vendors lining a bricked-over Hanover. But is Campbell right? As we look around the city at our experiments with auto-less streets (not just City Hall Plaza, but the mess that is Downtown Crossing) even the most anti car, pro pedestrian advocate has to wonder if we are, once again, reacting with our gut instead of accepting how Boston actually lives, works, and plays.

David Kruh is author of two books on Scollay Square
Link (http://www.boston.com/cars/news/articles/2006/09/27/bostons_lovehate_for_cars/)

[ablarc]

Closing Hanover Street to cars is a bad idea, imo. Such closure sapped Downtown Crossing's vitality and character. The same will happen here. I see hokey written all over this; let's be happy we have a more-or-less genuine place and let's not turn it into a phony tourist trap --complete with jugglers-- like Quincy Market.

[lexicon506]

The universal decline of all American cities is what sapped DTX of its former vitality. If anything, having DTX car-free adds character to the place. I love it when I enter Winter St. and the road is clogged with people instead of cars. I'm all for the bricking-over of Hanover, although I do share ablarc's concern over its possible transformation into a tourist strip.

[ablarc]

...although I do share ablarc's concern over its possible transformation into a tourist strip.
Possible?? Read what they have planned for it.

[ablarc]

The universal decline of all American cities is what sapped DTX of its former vitality.
That was the first step, but that decline is pretty much over everywhere, including Boston (tell a New Yorker his city's in decline!), but it's not over in Downtown. The first thing they can do is get rid of that idiotic name, Downtown Crossing. Smacks of a mall.

And by the standards of malldom, what a sorry excuse Downtown Crossing is!

[statler]

And by the standards of malldom, what a sorry excuse Downtown Crossing is!

To be fair, Downtown Crossing (Washington Sq? Filene's Sq?) is in transition. I doubt it will remain downmarket very long after the Vornado project (http://architecturalboston.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7&start=15) gets built.
I'm not sure what can be done in the meantime though. Maybe try opening it to traffic. I doubt it will make much of a difference either way.

[ablarc]

I love it when I enter Winter St. and the road is clogged with people instead of cars.
I share your feeling about Winter Street It's the best part of the pedestrian area, but it's downhill from there on (even literally); the charm just doesn't extend to Washington St., which is most of Downtown. Keep Winter Street closed to cars, but Washington can be another story.

[Ron Newman]

I don't see how cars make any useful contribution to the life of a narrow downtown street. Keep them off Washington, take them off Hanover, and think about taking them off Salem and North while you're at it.

(And in case you haven't noticed, Hanover Street is already full of tourists.)

[DowntownDave]

I don't see how cars make any useful contribution to the life of a narrow downtown street. Keep them off Washington, take them off Hanover, and think about taking them off Salem and North while you're at it.

Yes, I agree. I am certianly no anti-car Nazi, but I can't imagine what cars bring to these specific streets in any way other than inconvenience to pedestrians.

[quadratdackel]

I'm always baffled by this "Downtown Crossing is a bad space" talk. It's one of my favorite spots in the city, and the lack of cars is a main reason why. There, we can actually be on the street without worrying about getting flattened. I find it rather refreshing. So the stores there are less expensive. What's wrong with that? I thought cities were supposed to be places for everyone, not just the wealthy. Sure, it would be nice if it were open later, but that's a minor tweak, not a complete overhaul. And "Downtown Crossing" is a great name for the area, because that's what it is- the center of the city, where the Red and Orange (and sort of the Green) lines cross, the easiest place to get to and one of the nicest places to be, that is unless you're in a car...

As for Hanover Street, well that's a very different space, but as long as the stores can reasonably make their deliveries (maybe delivery vehicles would be allowed, just like taxis are allowed in DTC), then it should work. And I don't see what traffic calming has to do with hyper-touristification.

[kz1000ps]

Big Dig gone, North End tells tourists charm is back

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff | April 14, 2007

The North End, after years of feeling hemmed in by the Big Dig, is embarking on an aggressive effort to promote itself to tourists and Boston residents who have shied away during construction, with television commercials on the Food Channel, a major makeover of Salem Street, and a new line of slogan-bearing trinkets.

Long an attraction for tourists who came for an Italian meal and to see historical sites like the church where lanterns set Paul Revere on his midnight ride, the North End is being touted by promoters who want to forge a new image of a retail paradise where high-end shopping goes hand-in-hand with old world charm.

"We are trying to create a situation where we have art stores, small boutiques, and shoe stores," said Joanne Prevost Anzalone , a local realtor and former president of the neighborhood council. "And it's going to, in some ways, become more like Newbury Street. And we want to encourage a diversity of businesses."

Promoters plan next month to blanket area hotels, restaurants, and tourist sites with 25,000 brochures and maps of the neighborhood's attractions. Television spots are to be filmed over the next several weeks featuring neighborhood fire fighters, police officers, cooks, and residents who say, "This is my North End." The slogan is meant to depict the neighborhood as a place where everyone can find something they like.

T-shirts, coffee cups, wine glasses, and key chains with the My North End slogan are to go on sale alongside T-shirts at stores such as the Old North Church gift shop. There are also plans for a cookbook with recipes for dishes made in the North End. Business owners are also asking that the Government Center exit sign on Interstate 93 include "The North End."

"We want to make it tourist-happy," said Frank DePasquale , president of the North End Chamber of Commerce, which is leading the push. "To us it's well known, but to people in Utah and Florida, it might not be."

The North End, Boston's oldest residential neighborhood and one of its best known tourist destinations, endured for years the dust and noise of Big Dig construction to bury the Central Artery, a highway that sliced the neighborhood from the rest of the city. Now that the old elevated highway and the construction are gone, business leaders want to capitalize on an influx of art galleries, coffee shops, and high-end merchants that have transformed the neighborhood in recent years as wealthy urban dwellers moved in.

City officials and Councilor Salvatore LaMattina have been working with neighborhood officials to draw tourists off well-known Hanover Street to Salem Street, a narrow side street often overlooked by outsiders.

Some of the plans for Salem Street, which will begin to be implemented this spring, include installing overhead twinkle lights that could be modified for holidays such as Independence Day and Christmas; hanging plants from windows and light poles; and installing a gateway structure at the front of the street that would announce Salem Street to the foot and car traffic on the Greenway.

Longer-term plans for the area include raising the street so that it is flush with the sidewalk as a way to promote more pedestrian traffic; providing an informational kiosk for tourists to get maps and advice on where to go; and providing areas for pushcart marketers.

Some of the improvements will be paid for by local businesses, and others will be financed by the city.

There are also plans to create a North End History Trail that will develop a new tour that highlights several historic landmarks in the neighborhood and integrates spots along the Freedom Trail, Boston Women's Heritage Trail, and Jewish Friendship Trail.

"Salem Street could really use some help aesthetically and help enliven the street and raise its profile so it's seen, along with Hanover, as the critical commercial district," said Peter Gori , project manager for the city's Crossroads Initiative.

Advocates of the North End's new image say they want to be careful to promote the new, glitzier image without tarnishing the old ethnic character that has been long a draw to tourists.

"You can still come here for a slice of pizza and it will be the best slice of pizza you had in your life," said Nick Varano , who owns the Strega Restaurant. "But it's becoming a neighborhood where you can come in for sandwich for lunch, buy a dress, see tourist things, and then have a gourmet meal and then go to a caf? and have a nice cappuccino."

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who still drops his shirts off at Lavanderia and buys bread every Saturday from Parziale's Bakery , said he supports the upgrading of the infrastructure to promote more business, but wants the neighborhood to maintain its cultural flavor.

"The uniqueness of it, the narrow passageways -- the North End, even with its diminishing Italian population, is maintaining a lot of its character," said Menino, the city's first Italian mayor. "A lot of the originality of the North End is maintained there."

Still, some longtime residents fear that the transition will further dilute the neighborhood culture.

"The old charm is gone," Sal Fiamma, 72 , said as he took a break from the Rome-Manchester soccer game and stood outside Caffe dello Sport, wearing a brown tie, vest, and driving cap. "The butcher shops are going, one by one . . . and whiskey is not sold like it used to be. White wine has taken over, and all those stupid drinks like fruit martinis."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.

? Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

[lexicon506]

Why are they doing this? Don't they realize that by making the North End "more like Newbury," they'll kill eveything that the North End is known for in the first place?

The North End is the LAST place in Boston that needs more tourist attention, there are too many already. Someone should tell these planners to take their tee shirts and coffee mugs to Roxbury.

[vanshnookenraggen]

Where there's money to be made, history and culture become a commodity.

[Ron Newman]

I don't get it either. I work in the North End. From April through October, tourists are everywhere. They don't have any trouble whatsoever finding the place.

[ablarc]

North End ain't what it used to be. You can still get whiffs of it, however...

I have a feeling the pedestrian mall will tip it over into precious Disneydom.


Maybe some enterprising Italian will start charging to have his picture taken.

[statler]

There are soooo many streets in Boston that need to be fixed. Hanover is one of the few that doesn't. So, of course, we have this....

Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/02/05/crowding_congestion_create_dilemma_on_hanover_stre et/?p1=News_links#) - February 5, 2011
Something new on the menu
Some in the North End want to make Hanover Street one way and give it a bit of Newbury Street panache. But others fear losing the bustle that makes this savory place.
By Meghan E. Irons
Globe Staff / February 5, 2011


Even with glacial piles of snow and an icy wind on a recent day, Hanover Street?s narrow sidewalks seethed with people, and impatient drivers slalomed double-parked delivery trucks amid the helter-skelter traffic that has come to define the fabled spine of Boston?s North End.

Some say the cacophony and gritty edge are essential to Hanover?s Old World charm, but business leaders along one of Boston?s biggest tourist draws say it is time to do something about it.

Saying the removal of the elevated highway has brought more people and cars to the neighborhood than ever, they are proposing that the street be converted to one-way traffic and its sidewalks widened to accommodate alfresco dining and more comfortable strolling. They want to spruce up the street with more trees and gaslight lampposts with an eye to making over the street in the image of the Back Bay?s Newbury Street.

?We are getting more people than Faneuil Hall, Chinatown, Newbury Street,?? said Frank De Pasquale, head of the North End Chamber of Commerce, which is pushing the plan. ?Hanover is a premier street, just like Newbury Street, and we?d like it to be treated the same way.??

City Hall, where officials have fretted about the traffic crunch on Hanover, is open to the idea. But it is generating intense controversy in the North End, where many residents fiercely guard what they say is the lifeblood of the neighborhood.

?Hanover Street is no way similar to Newbury Street, and that?s actually one of its strong points,?? said Mary McGee, a 37-year resident and member of the North End/Waterfront Residents? Association. ?Here you see your neighbors. It?s a real-people kind of experience, not a glamour kind of experience.??

Less than a mile long and at the northern tip of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, Hanover is one of the North End?s original streets. Besides its famous trattorias and restaurants, its mix of life is the stuff of travel guides. In summer, older men sit on sidewalk benches taking in the street life or head to the Prado to play cards. Amid sightseeing tourists, normal life goes on at the local fire station, the community health center, and the local corner markets.

Some tourism officials say that flavor of Hanover Street ? a gem with all its blemishes ? could be lost if Hanover is made over.

?It?s part of the soul of the street,?? said Pat Moscaritolo, who heads the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors? Bureau.

Still, many say that Hanover is badly in need of updating, and proposals for revamps have come up repeatedly at neighborhood meetings in recent years. In 2006, City Councilor Salvatore LaMattina circulated an idea to close Hanover to cars and make it a pedestrian mall, with strolling violinists, artist stalls, and waiters serving Valpolicella and espresso to customers at tables in the street. But residents shot the idea down, and it never got off the ground.

?You walk around the North End and it?s jammed-packed with tourists,?? said LaMattina, who wants an independent traffic study of the street. ?I do think we should take a serious look at it before someone gets hurt.??

Officials in the Boston Transportation Department, which would be responsible for any makeover of the street, said they have not seen the plans but said they would consider the proposal if there were enough community support.

?We would be willing to take a look at it,?? said Jim Mansfield, the department?s director of community outreach.

In the small, densely packed neighborhood, some resistance is fueled by longstanding tensions between residents and businesses looking to attract more customers. They point to a steady string of merchants seeking to expand their restaurants to serve more people or to serve liquor later into the night.

David Kubiak, who heads the zoning committee for the residents? association, has yet to see a formal plan but worries that a one-way Hanover would invite more people into the street later into the night, contributing to noise and vandalism.

?We?ve reached a capacity to handle all the nighttime activity,?? said Kubiak. ?We can?t allow traffic to grow anymore. Hanover Street can?t handle it and the neighborhood can?t handle it.??

?They are trying to do away with the ambiance of the North End,?? said 80-year-old Frank Romano, as he stocked supplies at a North End senior center one afternoon. ?And that?s because it?s all about the businesses.??

Nicole Rafter, who lives in the North End, said her neighbors are also concerned that their Little Italy will follow the path of similar neighborhoods in San Francisco and New York City that are now shadows of themselves.

?These were two wonderful, old Italian neighborhoods that allowed themselves to become highly commercialized, and now they are dead,?? Rafter said. ?It?s not good for business to have too much business in an area that is residential and has wonderful old traditions as the North End does.??

De Pasquale, who owns six North End restaurants and describes himself on his website as a powerhouse restaurateur, seemed taken aback by the early resistance, saying he?s trying to do what is best for the neighborhood.

Not everyone is against the one-way plan. On Hanover Street one evening, some residents said they yearn for any improvement that will ease the chaos.

?I think it?s a great idea,?? said Anna Martignetti, a lifelong North Ender. ?It?s insane here. In the summer you can?t even walk.??

And some businesses owners who had initially been skeptical said they are warming to the idea.

?I think it would be a good idea to try it,?? said Alan Caparella, who owns Mother Anna?s Restaurant at Cross and Hanover.

Harry Shuris, the co-owner Philip?s Salon, said a one-way Hanover would not do much for his business, but he would like to see the chamber?s final plan.

?It wouldn?t hurt,?? he said. ?I think Hanover Street overall should have some sense of order.??

De Pasquale said he is hoping to win more support from residents before submitting a proposal to the city. And he said he is open to ideas for revisions from residents.

The chamber?s leadership expects to bring the issue before the North End Waterfront Neighborhood Council and the North End Waterfront Residents Association ? the two main neighborhood groups ? as well as the chamber?s 280-membership before the summer.

Meghan Irons can be reached at mirons@globe.com.
? Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

[jass]

Hanover doesnt have to be fixed?

Have you BEEN to Hanover? It's an enormous pain in the ass to walk down the sidewalks because there are too many people. Meanwhile, 90% of the road is given to cars.

Add in the snow piles, and it's an insult.

[Lurker]

Widen the sidewalks and change the parking to be only on one side, alternating at every block. Install bollards at the curbside where there isn't street parking to provide protection to pedestrians.

[erikyow]

Not sure how you'd make it work. Given that Hanover St. is already a one-way street with the ubiquitous delivery vans and/or cabs dropping off and picking up people. Traffic is invariably giving way to opposing traffic to pass these stationary vehicles. If you narrow the street to only have one traffic lane, where are you going to put the delivery trucks, without taking out half the street parking for delivery zones?

Having lived for a number of years just down the street from Hanover, I know all too well what a PITA trying to walk down it from Thursday to Sunday nights can be. Which is why unless it was my destination, I would stay away whenever possible. That said, it gives a unique energy to the street.

Frankly, there are two kinds of people on Hanover. People with a destination and people who are meandering. If you're one of the former and you just want to get to your intended stop without getting stuck behind the family with the mega stroller or the gaggle of tourists stopping for a photo in front of Mike's, then you (should) take Salem or North Street until the appropriate cross street. If you're one of the latter, you probably don't mind the slow pace.

Why fix what isn't broken? If the snow is a problem, then the city and or businesses on the street should have the snow trucked away.