A concerned Brookline resident recently raised a deeply troubling issue that deserves both public attention and swift governmental response: the once-promising stretch of green space between Warren Street and Hedge Road along Route 9 has deteriorated into a neglected mess. Once the subject of praise during a well-publicized re-landscaping effort years ago, this block-long area is now defined not by community pride, but by dead plants, invasive weeds, and visible decay.
At the time of the landscaping project, state employees spoke enthusiastically with neighbors, generating goodwill and optimism. Residents were likely justified in saying “job well done.” Unfortunately, since then, what was once a carefully curated landscape has become what amounts to a dumping ground and a symbol of neglect.
The space is now overrun with wild garlic weed, which has choked out more desirable plantings. Dead rhododendrons lie as withered reminders of a forgotten effort. Fallen trees are left to rot, trash is strewn throughout the area, and even the few evergreen trees that have been planted look like afterthoughts — their identification tags still attached and fluttering in the breeze, a fitting metaphor for a project abandoned midstream…