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Citizen complaint of the day: Stub is a menace, dog and acorn for reference
By adamg on Fri, 09/08/2023 - 12:46pm
A concerned citizen filed a 311 complaint about the stump of an old sign pole on South Street in Jamaica Plain - and used a couple of aids to show the city just how large the thing is:
Dangerous piece of metal protruding about 4” from sidewalk on South Street at Spalding St bus stop - old street sign left in ground. Dog and acorn for size reference. Know one person who tripped and cut themselves badly this week. My son tripped on it this morning. Saw someone almost trip as I was typing this!
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Comments
yum
Yum. A Tetanus Pole.
Jokes aside, this is a thing in this area. So many of these exists. I get that now the idea is to use PVC pipe as a liner so the whole sidewalk section doesn't need to be re-cemented, but sheesh.
The cost to just do that vs a lawsuit would be alot less. Just do it already.
Why does this happen at all?
Any ideas?
Did a car knock this down?
Otherwise, why not just leave the pole there - why leave just the stump?
At least not this particular one
I don't know about.
But around me often its a parking sign that was moved, or bus stop.
Tbh the T is awful about this now. If a sign post gets knocked down it could be months or years before its fixed (if ever). But it takes coordination with the town also to fix.
A 112 stop on Everett Ave hasn't had a sign in 2 years. I've complained and complained and its crickets. And it sucks because all these new drivers zoom past it not realizing its a stop since its IB only and only used by the office park / mall people.
Why does this happen? Oh my...! Cluck cluck cluck
Allow me to contribute my explanation to all of Gaffin's preferred elitist clique of cluckers clucking about this terribly troubling issue, if his majesty chooses to grace this "anon"! with posting this, heaven forbid...
I choose not to be one of the special people here that King Adam has gifted with an account in his kingdom of opinion swayed only to his liking.
So here we go:
This individual did exactly the right thing. They contacted 311 which is in my personal experience an extremely effective and responsive solution to, again, any one of the tens of thousands of street sign issues, for example, as well as the additional endless list of bitching from cluckers like you all about whatever other issues irk them, be they legitimate complaints or not. We as Boston residents should be grateful for this service, not griping about a stump that wasn't kept track of (OMG!! How can that be?!?) or addressed at lightning speed. Many, many residents of countless towns and cities would be very envious of the concept of Boston's 311.
If I had a hat on, I would doff it in your direction
That is some writing there. How long did you take to write that screed? How many cups of coffee did it take? How many people did you need to help you pound out all those righteous lines of steely wrath?
How many trees did you look at and not realize you were in a forest?
The reason I posted that particular 311 report is not because somebody was reporting a stub of a pole that somebody else could trip over. That's just what 311 is there for and there's nothing unusual by itself about reporting something like that. There are literally thousands of reports about damaged sidewalk poles. I don't track which 311 complaints about poles I write about, but I'm going to estimate the number is pretty low, at least when dildoes aren't attached to them (those I will always pay attention to).
Take a look at the photo again. Spend half, nay, a quarter as much time staring at it as you did writing your rant.
Maybe, just maybe, it will slowly dawn on you that what struck me about this particular report is that somebody posed a shaggy dog and an acorn next to the stub and THAT is what separates this particular wheat from the 311 chaff. That's not something you see every day. I found myself wondering why the person didn't go get a pea to pose between the acorn and the stub. Yeah, I admit it, even in a vast sea of misery of people tripping over metal stubs, I found the photo kind of funny.
So now you know.
Look who's missing forests for trees
That rant required no assistance from anyone else your majesty.
And speaking of missing the forest for the trees, if you'd have noticed the title of my response, you'd have realized that it was a reply to one of your regular minions who asked "why does this happen?!?" and all the rest who seemed to be oblivious, not my asking you why you posted it.
I did get the point of you finding the dog and the acorn amusing.
Nice try though.
Maybe next time you'll get it.
Cluck you
*
Any crow around?
Obviously, I failed to see what you were responding to.
For that I apologize.
However, you might want to reconsider going into a forum in full offense mode from the get-go. Somebody asking some legitimate questions (basically, why did the city leave that pole stump there?) doesn't really deserve verbal fists of fury. Maybe there are legitimate reasons why somebody left that thing there (and painted it orange) rather than removing it and sealing up the hole. You could have explained that without going into immediate battle mode.
A Humble Response...
...To yours:
Your oversight with my original post is understandable, and your humble acceptance of that minor mistake is appreciated.
And in retrospect, I too accept that I may have responded to your tiresome, waspish regular commenter(s) and their blatantly overprivileged ignorance a bit too heated.
However, I read your columns often, and I've never witnessed you reprimand the routine exclusive group of bullies that go into your forum "in full offense mode" "with verbal fists of fury", ganging up on Costello or Rwgfy, for example...
You're seemingly selective with those who receive your admonishments and advice.
But alas, I'm only one of the dreaded "anons" that your special regular minions have no respect for. Thank Christ.
And these cliques of gasbags with no lives other than this forum keep you "in the pink", I suppose, huh?
Get help
It's the mark of a disordered mind to believe that everyone you dislike is in a conspiracy against you.
If Only...
...There was a City Councilor who was on top of things like this in that district.....
If Only...
...It was Happening Only in That District...
If only the mayor held the
If only the mayor held the public works department accountable.
They are at many bus stops
I have a relative who tripped and fell over one of these things at a bus stop in East Boston. Funny how they always seem to be at bus stops. Who is responsible for removing them? Why don't they take them all the way out?
Angle grinder takes ten
Angle grinder takes ten minutes, digging the post out completely takes a jackhammer and requires new concrete. The problem here is that the dude with the angle grinder was either too lazy or didn't think he was skilled enough to sever the thing AT THE SIDEWALK. If the metal edge was flush or beveled below the sidewalk it wouldn't be a problem. But that requires bending over, taking care your grinder doesn't cut out a shit ton of concrete, etc. Too much to expect.
Amateur
Use a banana for scale.
Or, the Boston classic.
Every winter, we expect to see Dunkin' Donuts cups as scale for every snowfall.
Pooch menace.
I thought the dog’s name was Stub.
Credit where it's due...
...I reported one of these on the 311 app a couple of winters ago, and it was fixed right away. Imagine the carnage it could inflict on snow removal personnel and machinery.
Stitches
I hope they remove it. I had to get stitches a few years ago due to a similarly orange spray painted stump..
Wow, that's ugly.
I hope it's fixed soon.
Meanwhile, if I lived in the area, I'd make a trip to the hardware store and figure out a way to wrap it in foam so it won't cut anybody. Sure, you'll still trip over it. Pipe insulation and duct tape would do the trick.
Better solution
More expensive, but better: buy an angle grinder and some safety glasses, and cut the stub off flush with the sidewalk.
AND A RESPIRATOR. cutting it
AND A RESPIRATOR. cutting it flush will cause at least a little damage to the concrete and you do NOT want to breath in concrete.
It would be a lot less
It would be a lot less dangerous if they just left the pole after removing the sign from it.
Or maybe replace the previous sign with a new "Warning, Random Pole" sign instead :-)
This pole intentionally left blank
-
Not Art
.
All too common
This is common, either when a sign is knocked down or removed. The few I've reported were very sharp/jagged and could've sliced a sandle-wearing foot badly.
Seems like whichever crew picks it up ignores the metal stump til someone 311's it. I am generally very appreciative of DPW but they really seem to be behind the curve and don't think much of leaving these around. Thanks to the reporter (and their pup) in this case.
Not DPW….
…it’s BTD who does the signs.
In addition to 311
Might be worth talking to counsel.
Use the MBTA solution
Just put an orange cone over it? It's about the best you can hope for sometimes. But once the snow starts, someone will steal it to be an even bigger jerk to "save their space" on a public street.