The photo accompanying this essay is as close to a Rorschach test as any you might find. It shows two elements currently being discussed in regards to the future of Central Square. In the foreground is one of the city-owned parking lots on Bishop Allen Drive—Parking Lot #5. Behind it rises a building that will have to serve as a stand-in for the 16-story towers proposed by the Central Square Advisory Committee (C2 Committee) with the guidance of the Community Development Department.

I offer this photo for you to consider which of these elements is Beauty and which is the Beast? The Parking Lot or the Tower?

For me the choice is simple. I often traverse Parking Lot #5 in the normal course of my life; it’s a gateway through the graffiti alley, taking me from Mass. Ave. to Area 4 where I live. Unlike one of the members of the C2 Committee who was quoted as being afraid to enter the parking lot, I don’t find the lot threatening or scary, but rather, I find it welcoming. It takes you from the noise and congestion of Central Square to a place of spaciousness and quiet that serves as an entranceway to a neighborhood of modest wood framed homes.

True, I would prefer grass to all the cars, asphalt and concrete, but my eyes rarely linger on what I can’t enjoy. In the spring the trees are all in flower, serving as a glorious natural frame for David Fichter’s fabulous “Community Potluck” mural. As you can see from the photo, they still serve that function long after the blossoms have fallen from their branches.

In all honesty, the tower in the photo—an office building rather than the apartment towers being proposed—doesn’t offend me, but it certainly doesn’t seem anywhere near as attractive and relevant to my life, or my neighborhood, as does the not-so-frightening Parking Lot #5.

But more than anything else, the real Beauty in this photo hovers above both these earthbound elements—the sky! It’s the sky that is most often the unconsidered element in all these discussions. No doubt those who see the Beast in our Rorschach parking lot; who see the potential for more structures, more profits and more tax revenues, would argue that towers dotting the landscape will barely obscure the sky or lessen its impact on the quality of our lives.

But along with the towers, I see shadows on our landscape. And I see more—more congestion, more people and more noise. I see currently crowded roads further burdened; public transit systems, already maxed-out, strained to the breaking point; and I see endless sacrifices made by current area residents only to serve the needs of future residents, the profits of wealthy developers and the thirst for additional tax revenues. None of which sounds like Beauty to me.

Beauty or the Beast? The Parking Lot or the Tower? Better make up your mind before you discover how long a shadow follows the Beast.