Franco Campanello and the Revival of The Southwest Corridor
Interviewed by Irwin Levy, Friends of Titus Sparrow Park Board Member
In this Community Corner, I profile longtime South End resident and community leader Franco Campanello, whose decades of stewardship along the Southwest Corridor Park have helped transform once barren stretches of urban land into thriving community green space. As President of the Southwest Corridor Park Conservancy, Franco has worked alongside volunteers and neighbors for nearly 20 years to restore and care for The Corridor, creating not just a landscape, but a place where community connection flourishes every day.
The Early Years
Almost 50 years ago, Franco Campanello, the President of the Southwest Corridor Park Conservancy (SWCP), moved to Boston from Long Island. Relocating wasn’t necessarily a conscious thought, but Franco had friends here, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Franco’s first stop in Boston was on Gray Street, which coincided with a recent planting of Ginkgo trees there, an omen perhaps.
The Southwest Corridor Park, or just “The Corridor” to those who cherish it, technically stretches for 4 miles, from Dartmouth Street to the Forest Hills MBTA station. For this story, we are referring to The Corridor from Harcourt Street to Mass Ave, and it didn’t always look as it does today.
Franco’s term for it was “barren,” particularly in the 1990s. There would be plantings of trees, shrubs, and perennials, but without irrigation or any real nurturing, they didn’t survive. By the early 2000s, The Corridor was considered “a barren stretch of derelict urban land.”
Building the Conservancy
SWCP Board
Hope reappeared with the establishment of the Conservancy in 2003, and while there were strides, there was still a lack of cohesion.
Circa 2007, Franco was living on Claremont Park and was approached by a neighbor. Franco explains:
“My neighbor, Joe Short, approached me and asked if I would become President of the Conservancy. I gave a one word answer: Yes!”
Franco went right to work, enlisting the help of volunteers from the Boston Cares organization.
Some beds began to develop, but there were losses as well, including numerous pines, hemlocks, and junipers during hot summers with serious drought. Franco referred to these areas as “dead zones.”
Then there were the invasives, plant bullies that can take over a bed. Franco relayed that removing these invasives took the better part of five years, from 2008 to 2012, of tedious, hard work.
Drugs, alcohol abuse, and homelessness were problems then, as they are today.
A Transformation Takes Shape
By 2015 to 2016, Franco described The Corridor as “finally starting to look like something,” and from 2016 to 2019, things started to gel.
Franco thought of himself as “Operations,” both overseeing and doing much of the grunt work himself. Residents walking The Corridor began to see the physical transformation, along with the volunteers and garden stewards working the land.
The pandemic added yet another dimension, people seeking community safely outdoors.
In a most fitting recognition, The Corridor was deemed an Arboretum in 2025, a most prestigious honor.
A Living Legacy
Reflecting on nearly 20 years on The Corridor, I asked Franco if he considered The Corridor his legacy.
“The Corridor gave me a purpose, and the plants, the trees, they are like my children. Walking it virtually every day with my dog, I seem to stop every few feet, seeing a neighbor, a friend, a volunteer. The Corridor is truly a community.
And I remember that the tree I planted today gives shade for generations to come.”
Franco Campanello has helped transform the Southwest Corridor Park into a thriving community green space, bringing neighbors, volunteers, and visitors together along The Corridor for nearly two decades. His dedication to stewardship and community building continues to leave a lasting mark on the South End.
Thank you for reading Community Corner. More stories highlighting the people who make the South End and St. Botolph such a special community are coming soon.
— Irwin Levy, Board Member, Friends of Titus Sparrow Park
