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All over the city, people stuck at home are seeing wildlife, but on Beacon Hill ...
By adamg on Thu, 04/23/2020 - 10:08pm
A roving UHub photographer forwarded this video of motorcyclists carefully making their way down Acorn Street, you know, the most photographed street in America and all that, this past Sunday.
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Comments
Walking would be quicker,
Walking would be quicker, more comfortable and a million times more quite. If we cobblestoned the whole city drivers would finally stop speeding.
How thoughtful of the motorcyclists to disrupt a quiet street
Do motorcycles/ death machines need to be so noisy and disruptive to civic calm?
Those
We’re some of the most polite motorcyclists I’ve seen in a long time.
Noisy - you don’t know noisy if you thought that was it.
"Death machines"
How many people do you know who have died on motorcycles? Vs. the number of motorcycles currently registered in the US today?
What are the per capita statistics on four-wheeled deaths?
Yeah but...
Cobblestones are deadly for bicycles.
We all know that this video
We all know that this video got kinopio’s panties in a twist.
Let's just revert back
To dirt roads and save time harvesting rocks...
Quieter, but with more tripping
Walking would be quieter, but it would be interrupted by more tripping. Cobblestones can cause all sorts of inconveniences for pedestrians. And of course, wheelchairs and bicycles would also be impaired by it. In the glorious post-car utopia, streets could have more complicated landscaping and other obstacles that would obstruct cars, but we're always going to want roads to be pretty smooth.
Ever try to ride a bicycle through downtown Nantucket?
Only had to make that mistake once.
Walking over and on
cobbles is not fun.
Really?
I woulda guessed Lombard.
We often take out-of-town visitors to Acorn Street
...and present it as an "oh look, another typical Boston street just around this corner" type of experience.
But in the summer there is one resident who spends much of her time haranguing tourists (mostly international ones), trying to get them to move on. Each time that I've confronted her, she's asserted that Acorn Street is private property and that her property line extends to the middle of the street.
Of course that's absolute nonsense - the city assessor's maps very clearly show that the property line of each house ends at the front stoop and that nobody has any private ownership over, or is paying any taxes on, the sidewalks or the cobblestones.
Yet the myth persists, abetted by a lazily-researched and absolutely incorrect Boston Globe article in October of last year claiming that residents had the right to keep the public off the entire street if they wanted to:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/10/16/beacon-hill-acorn-street-ca...
Never mind that the article contradicted Mass General Law as well as the Globe's own reporting a decade earlier -
http://archive.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/10/private_ways_pu...
I tried contacting the author of the October, 2019 article and he told me that his source was "the city on background" and when I asked him which department was dispensing such hogwash, he of course blew me off.
Had 2 kids and a red wagon
on Acorn probably 7 years ago for a quick photo shoot.
Fully permitted with the city and the film office and the bpd knew, etc.
We were there for 10 minutes and some old guy came out screaming and waving his hands at us to leave.
We tried to ignore him but he stood over the kids (under 8yrs old btw) and screamed so much that kids started crying and he laughed and omg I've never wanted to assault anymore more in my life than I did at that moment.
The absolute WORST people in the city live on that street, by a long shot.
It's like moving to Bourbon St and complaining about the noise.
Sad story, but if you were
Sad story, but if you were there legally, why didn't you wave the permit in his face, tell him to bunk off, and threaten him with calling the cops for harassment?
You are incorrect, Acorn
You are incorrect, Acorn Street, like some other private ways on Beacon Hill, such as Louisburg Square are not city property and the maintenance of the streets is the responsibility of the residents. They must facilitate and pay for their own snow plowing and street repairs. Acorn isn’t the only one of these private ways on Beacon Hill, just the most well known.
Massachusetts has more than one kind of private way
There's the kind of private way that's actually private property, and there's a "statutory private way", which means that, though the abutters are responsible for maintenance (definitely repairs, who does snow removal is somewhat up to the city or town), the way is open to use by the public.
Incorrect. No property ownership rights (or taxes collected)
...even though the residents have assumed responsibility for maintenance and snow removal. Check the assessors' map at http://app01.cityofboston.gov/parcelviewer/
As the city solicitor of Medford pointed out in the 2008 Globe article,
I think you'd better call City Hall and the film office
because they have quite a different opinion on who "owns" that street.
She is more correct than you
She is more correct than you are but not totally.
Acorn St is designated as a private way by the city of Boston. The abutters don't pay taxes but they do in fact own to the centerline and are responsible for maintenance of the street (including plowing).
However, streets designated by the city as private are also open to public travel. If it was completely private property (like a driveway), it wouldn't be designated at all by the city (and would show up in the assessors map as such). The abutters can basically do want they want (including putting dumpsters out there) as long as it doesn't impede emergency vehicle access.
Since it's open to public travel, she is not correct that she is allowed to keep people off of it.
FYI, most of the side streets in ft point also are designated this way too.
Easiest way to tell is to check the street signs. If they don't say BTD BPD on the bottom border or if they are a completely different format, youre on a private street open to public travel.
Private Roads
Private roads, in Massachusetts, unlike driveways, do not come with the right to exclude others. A private road is just a road that hasn't been accepted by a municipality as a public road. Thus, the city has no responsibility to maintain it. I just sat down and read through the deeds of houses on Acorn Street going back to 1973 and guess what they don't mention? Any ownership of the street itself.
Here's the Suffolk Count atlas showing the lot lines for Acorn Street: https://massrods.com/suffolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/images/Bos01938...
And the City Tax Assessor: http://app01.cityofboston.gov/ParcelViewer/?pid=0501523000
Thanks, JP.
I wonder if Acorn St would be a public right of way seeing as the public has been using it regularly for centuries.
Well, actually
Don't mix up "public right of way" with "public street." The public has an unconditional right to access Acorn Street. The city designates it as a private road in the sense that they won't maintain it.
I know the difference.
.
Private roads and parking
Don't the owners of a private road have the right to restrict parking to only themselves (and their tenants)? That is definitely the case here in Somerville. A city residential parking permit is *not* valid on private ways.
Yes
That's one of the few (only?) perks to living on a private road.
Private Ways
M.G.L.c.183 Section 58
I don't get it. What is this
I don't get it. What is this premise of "most-photographed street..."?
It's like seeing a billboard along a highway
in the middle of nowhere that says 'WORLDS BIGGEST STEAKS! 10 MILES AHEAD!'
It's meaningless.
What’s the issue
What’s the issue
vertical video fail.
vertical video fail.
vertical video - who cares?
Why is this such a thing? Who cares?
I would love nothing more
I would love nothing more than to ban motorcycles with these loud rumbling engines citywide. They are extremely disruptive and many of their owners seem to love to rev them to show how manl... I mean inconsiderate they are of others.
Next, I would like the police to start giving tickets to people who have subwoofers in their cars that are so loud that I can hear them from 4 stories up with the windows closed.
I always thought it odd ...
That the cops will invade a house and assault people in places like Allston all because somebody says the word "party" without bothering to take a decibel meter with them ... and yet they won't stop and ticket vehicles that are exceeding noise ordinances.
Almost like they can't let simple measurements specified in the noise ordinances get in their way of who they love and hate.
Don't signal out motorcycles
Don't signal out motorcycles for making noise. Cars, passenger trucks, and commercial trucks also "make noise" at dB levels and frequencies that likely also disturb you. Automotive audio systems are also no less disturbing than the Bluetooth speakers some people walk around with / sit on the T with) playing very loud music (sometimes with lyrics that might disturb), or people who "sing" or "play instruments" (in quotes because some of these performers are not attempting to make a career) at various points throughout the city.
Absolutely
The amount of noise pollution from motorcycles and car stereos in the city is appalling. Considering that anything over 50 dB at night and 70 dB during the day is considered a nuisance, any of these noise producing annoyances violate the law on a daily basis. Would love enforcement of the noise ordinance.
Seriously, I still have no
Seriously, I still have no idea with this supposed "most photographed street" thing. Could somebody please explain it?