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Man sets out to prove Boston really is a walkable city - by walking from Readville to Charlestown
By adamg on Sun, 01/01/2023 - 10:45am
Alex Weech describes and photographs his walk yesterday from Sprague Road in Readville on the Dedham line to Charlestown on the Everett line. He reports it took 4 hours 7 minutes.
I just heard the bells of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross echoing through the old buildings of the South End and it was magical.
Also see: Patrick Maguire's Neighborhood marathons and Miles Howard's Walking City Trail.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
Glich
=cg====
The T is much faster
It only takes three hours to complete the same journey
Charlestown Chopped Up By Highways?
Yes, there is the Mystic River Bridge but his comments appear to indicate that the he has no idea that Rutherford Avenue and the area around I-93 have never been residential.
It was tidal wetlands, then filled railroad land, then used for cars. Sidings and warehouses were along the area between BHCC and the shopping center. No residential buildings were taken for the development of I-93 nor Rutherford Avenue.
If anything, the biggest destruction of Charlestown's residential housing were for public transit with the redoing of Sullivan Square in 1901 for the T and the wholescale blockbusting done by the BRA in the 60's for Newtown and the pre-BRA in the 50's for Bunker Hill.
In fact, most of Charlestown's mid-1800's residential layout is still in place. That is the area bounded by Main Street, Medford Street, and Chelsea Street, the Mystic River Bridge approach excepted. Charlestown has more units of housing than it did 50 years ago. A lot more.
These Magellan posts are great and hysterical at the same time. (Look! There are people walking upright and breathing oxygen in Readville - I have discovered them! Let me let everyone know).
Jeremy Siegal did a piece on Wood Island's removal two weeks ago and people were acting like the taking of Wood Island for the airport was only coming to light now like Geraldo opening Capone's vault. Thanks blow ins, we natives have know about it for a long time.
You missed the best post
"Up until now I've followed the shortest route, but I'm taking Main Street through Charlestown because New Rutherford is a disgusting car sewer"
Rutherford Avenue
It is unreal.
I like my car. I like driving my car.
Rutherford Avenue however is a disaster and driving it is like out of that late 70's movie where pedestrians were targets.
That roadway needs to be have one of those corsets / elastic bands that get advertised on the Food Network applied to it.
The road is too wide and ridiculously unsafe.
There is so much land that could be used for housing there and have minimal effect on traffic flow. Why are there four lanes going south near the hockey rink?
Why does Benny Hill Country Club (and RCC for that matter) have so much parking when they are abutting Orange Line stations?
Road diet Rutherford and take the train to BHCC if you need to get there. Build more housing and correct the mistakes of the 60's and 70's in Chucktown.
Nice job of denigrating community college..
Not everyone has the luxury of attending a 4 year school but you're usually highly judgemental of others, so no surprise there.
BHCC is the largest community college in Massachusetts with classes held morning, noon amd night, including weekends, so it stands to reason they would have a sizable parking area.
Thanks For Your Words
That place has had that nickname since the 80's. Get over it.
Also, my kid has credits from there from during Covid. Saved enough money to give him a Europe trip as a present owing to the way that UMass does credits.
Take a joke and if you can't, go suck an egg you supporter of unnecessary parking.
Doh
So....you're clinging on to a mean 40-year old nickname?
C'mon John..
It's a whole new year, aren't you obligated to construe my post as anti-Catholic in addition to being your usual moronic self
I like my car. I like driving
I don't. So take that into consideration.
Pathetic Gaffin
Pathetic.
Try harder.
Did he really take the shortest route?
Bowdoin Square isn’t on the shortest path, but there he was in one of his photos.
Main Street is kind of the main street through Charlestown. Hence, the name. New Rutherford is a loop road on the edge of the neighborhood.
I mean have you done this
"blow ins"
Rather read 10,000 posts by people enthusiastic about the city they live in than "natives" who hate anyone not exactly like them
New Year's Relief
I feared that the old Boston attitude of native Bostonians was disappearing. The attitude that finds justification in criticizing a non-native in a fun exploration of the city.
Somebody left their neighborhood/place of birth
And now they put some pieces of the city together in a bigger way!
Either he walks fast or ….
…. the hub of the universe is even smaller than I thought. Stories like this make me love Boston more than ever. Thanks!
Also, he can walk to Thompson Island by way of the land bridge that is revealed at low tide.
Google Maps says, 4:22 for that walk,
which works out to an average speed of three miles per hour. That's an average pace that Google uses. Many people do walk faster than that. To do it in 4:07, is really only slightly faster than average.
This is exactly
why the automobile was invented.
The whole area, IMO, is quite
The whole area, IMO, is quite walkable, and I love it that way. In fact, because it was nice out today, I walked from Newton Corner to the Harvard hockey game. After the game, I walked to the Star Market on Comm. Ave., then cheated a bit by taking the 57 home. Not that I'm a green nut, but I never want to live in a place where I would have to drive everywhere.