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Comments
My tax dollars at work
The City had 6 months to get their act together and submit something to the feds. They blew it.
If I blew a 6-month deadline of any import at work, I'd resign - I wouldn't even wait to be fired. Who in the City was responsible for this?
actually, it sounds like they had 4 years
Didn't the Globe story say the city hasn't done anything for four years?
And the alleged threats to life and health from
both sources continue to be grossly overrated by the NIMBY crowd. Life will go on just fine after next Monday when a few more trucks drive down Commercial Street everyday (hey - the name of the street itself should give you a BIG hint why it's not an issue).
"grossly overrated"
That's a funny little term, "grossly overrated." One could easily apply it to the lethal potential of molasses as well. Yet, in the same neighborhood, molasses killed more than 20 people and destroyed homes and a firehouse near the waterfront. If a substance as benign as molasses can do that, imagine what a volatile load of LNG could do.
Sounds like...
.. you're watching too much 7'oclock news. Stop worrying about what the next thing that can kill you is. We're all dead in the long run.
Commercial St.
Don't forget that our fair city has a little bit of experience dealing with disasters on Commercial St. anyway. (BTW, if you haven't read the book, it is worth it - and the author is a hell of a nice guy, too.)
Worried about city govt, not safety
I'm not so worried about some truck carrying gas blowing up the entire N End - they're driving on Cross St now anyways, so it's not that much different. I'm more worried about the fact that the deadline was allowed to lapse.
If trucks on Commercial is not an issue, the City should've just said so and let it die. If it is something worth fighting for, then they should've done something about it, beyond asking for an after the fact extension.
Are there any other pressing matters City Hall hasn't gotten around to yet?
Mumbles responded to NIMBY
Mumbles responded to NIMBY pressure (with talk), but understood that there's no real issue. This is garden variety politics. Give them lip service, and then go about your business. Do you think Mumbles wants the communities surrounding Boston putting bans on gasoline trucks passing through their streets to get to Boston? Tit for tat is not a difficult game to play.
Less trucks down Broadway in Somerville
This means that folks in West Somerville should experience dozens fewer 18-wheelers rolling through our residential neighborhood at all hours of the day. Many of them appear to take Rte 16 to Harvard St (Medford), through the Powderhouse Rotary and then west down Broadway to match up with Route 2.
This allows them to save some mileage over the "up and over" Rte 128 option that the city of Boston tells us the trucks are using to get to points south.
Puritans have something against trucking?
Actually it would be sensible if we could do what other cities do and have the heavy trucking (hazardous and otherwise) be done after hours so we could ease up the traffic during the day.
But then the noise of the trucking at two in the morning would be complained about, because so many people seem convinced that the city should behave like a suburb and shut down completely after a certain hour... harumph.
Why is Commercial Street
Why is Commercial Street better than Cross Street? Cross Street feels like the most obvious route for vehicles that aren't allowed in the tunnel.
I do think it's ridiculous that the truck route goes through a residential area because the feds won't allow them on Congress Street, near some federal buildings.
Actually, what would make the most sense...
would be using those things called "rails" that appear to radiate out from the city in all directions. Like Boston, NY had starved off rail freight (especially on Long Island) then realized that they needed to bring it back, quickly.
The volume of freight handled in Brooklyn, Queens, & LI has more than doubled over the past few years...
Civil disobedience
How about some impassioned North Enders do what we did as kids when we saw the sanding truck heading for our favorite downhill sledding street -- lay their bodies down to block it and make it go away. Success!
Which in our case lasted until nightfall, when the DPW returned and did its job. Of course, this was in another place and time. I imagine today's authorities wouldn't put up with that shit. Might make the evening news, though.
ETA visual aid: The trucks will be doing this
rather than heading directly up Cross and North Washington Sts above and parallel to the tunnel.
BTW
Whats the problem with this route again?
It's almost a double wide most of the way, and is a major through way in the NE. I know there's a few expensive condos on the wtaerfront away from the road, but is it really their NIMBY-ism complaining about this?
Handover street, with it's many businesses, has more issues and noise on any given tuesday and is 10 times closer to any issues. Is this really fear of "terrorism" or is that just a convenient scape goat?
Official notification of the change
Here; goes into effect on Monday.