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considered opinion Easy as ABC Did the Big Dig give birth to a new civic model? by davi d lu b e r o f f y the beginning of summer, the last remnants of developer Robert Beal, attorney and former city councilor the elevated Central Artery were being taken Lawrence DiCara, and planner Catherine Donaher at down, the green steel superstructure that walled Beacon’s newly developed Rowe’s Wharf to discuss what off the financial district from the waterfront for would happen when the state began construction on the decades torn into scraps and hauled away by the Big Dig. They reached three important conclusions. B truckload. As the subterranean construction pro- First, the city’s major property owners and employers ject known simply as the Big Dig turned into the needed to pay closer attention to the project’s short- and Big Demo, the sky opened up over what will become, in long-term impacts on downtown Boston. In particular, its wake, the Rose Kennedy Greenway. This being Boston, they had to make sure that downtown continued to func- just what the new land will look like, who will pay for it, tion while the project was being built and that downtown and who will look after it is still being debated. While was well served when the project was done. these are significant and important questions, they also Second, none of the city’s longtime business groups remind us that the Big Dig—which had the potential to were up to job. The Coordinating Committee (also known turn downtown into an impassable construction zone and as the Vault), which had been the city’s leading business later had cost overruns that seemed to threaten