The Davis Square Community

Yes, we'll spend a lot of time on that :)

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Or the city making walking as much of a priority as driving is... You don't need sidewalks to walk. You just need a legal right to use the throughways.

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no.

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Growing up on a street with no sidewalks (in Arlington, then in several places in Maine, and the suburbs of Boston, I learned that you can indeed still walk quite well as long as everyone respects your right to use the road. :-)

But I know you just like to contradict me, so of course you had to say "no". You just wouldn't be pierced heart guy if you agreed with me.

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Is there any reason you turned this into a personal attack?

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No personal attack at all. Just our usual silliness.

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No, actually, going off on a tangent about me and my user name, instead of what I wrote, IS a personal attack.

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Of course it is! I'm so very very evil!

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ron_newman

This isn't an argument, this is just contradiction.

Edited Date: 2010-01-07 07:15 pm (UTC)

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ukelele.livejournal.com

Win.

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Out of curiosity, are any city officials going to be attending? Perhaps Steve Winslow?

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Steve Winslow has moved to Gloucester. I'm not sure right now which city official will be there, but there will probably be some! We'll know more closer to the date.

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Ah, interesting. I hadn't heard. It's Kathleen someone now, I guess. Hopefully she'll be a little more proactive.

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ron_newman

Steve still lives in Malden, but he now works for the city of Gloucester rather than the city of Somerville.

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m00n.livejournal.com

Funny that the venue chosen for this particular conversation is so far from any train stations...

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ocschwar.livejournal.com

The Green Line extension should fix that.

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fefie.livejournal.com

Most parts of Somerville are far from a train station right now (a problem that will be remedied in a few years). But the main library is a common place to hold community meetings, and is on a couple of bus lines.

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bostonartist.livejournal.com

"(a problem that will be remedied in a few years)"

ha ha ha With the fiscal status of the T and the general mode of getting things done in MA I would bet 10+ years to never on this happening.

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ceo

The first 20 people to RSVP and attend will receive a pair of winter traction cleats for safer walking in snow and ice.

Which they wouldn't need if people shoveled their @#$%&! sidewalks.

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Or if the city did so around the city lots.

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emcicle.livejournal.com

hee hee hee

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Notably, when I was on the hiring committee that hired Steve Winslow when the Somerville Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator position was first created, the one question I asked Steve in the interview was if he'd seen the state of the sidewalks that day (there'd been a snow storm the night before and I had to walk in the streets to get to City Hall because no one had shoveled the sidewalks) and then asked him what he would do about it.

He didn't really answer, and did the usual politician's technique of handwaving and promising to look into it. Suffice it to say I was not impressed. But the other two candidates had their own problems that made them even less appealing (though I think Bryce is brilliant and I was personally happy to work with him on several projects).

Maybe this new woman will be useful...

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boblothrope.livejournal.com

Even if every property owner is diligent about shoveling and salting, there are inevitably going to be times when pedestrians have to walk somewhere that's slick with snow or ice.

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ron_newman

Just curious - are the 'winter traction cleats' YakTrax or some other product?

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We actually haven't decided. I've heard mixed reviews of YakTrax and I know there are several other products that I've heard good things about, so we're in the "shopping around" phase of sorting out what exactly they'll be.

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ron_newman

I'd be very interested in your comparison once you've done the shopping around. I bought YakTrax a few days ago just because it was the only brand I'd ever heard of, and various friends had raved online about how great they were.

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avjudge

My husband picked up a pair of STABILicers Lite last year after his Yaktrax shed too many springy-things to operate, and I think likes them better. Though they don't come inside beyond the doormat! (They look like they'd be murder on the hardwood.)

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surrealestate.livejournal.com

I have a pair of Get-a-Grip Ultra which I much prefer to Yaktrax. They are little spikes instead of coils. They cost about the same.

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adrian-turtle.livejournal.com

YakTrax are great for traction, but they can be a bit difficult to put on and take off. That's problematic for people with arthritis or carpal tunnel, or for anybody who tries to put them on wearing gloves. (The elastic things can LOOK like they're on when they're stretched over the bottom of my boots, but the top of my boot soles is almost an inch higher, where the rubber connects to the leather. If I don't stretch them that extra inch on both sides, my YakTrax can come off at awkward moments.) I've heard Icer's are easier to put on, and don't have the problem of slipping off. http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.aspx?c=3&p=40911&cat=2,51676 But they don't fold up as small to put in a pocket when you're not walking on ice. I think any ice walkers would damage wood floors or linoleum, and increase the danger of slipping on non-icy pavement or tile.

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anotherjen.livejournal.com

Sign me up!

There should also be discussion of how to navigate unshoveled sidewalks with a stroller. Not my problem anymore, thank goodness, but it made me CRAZY when my kid was little.

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Would you mind emailing me at rcarson@walkboston.org to make this all official-like? That makes it much easier for me to track RSVPs.

Thanks!

And, yeah, strollers and wheelchairs are some of the sidewalk users we're most concerned about. I'm not sure I have any useful insights into how to do that better, but I'll see if I can find any pointers! Thanks for the question.

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ron_newman

Perhaps this should ultimately lead the mayor to appoint an official Pedestrian Committee, similar to the Bicycle Committee that I'm on? We try our best to include pedestrian concerns in our work, but it's not really our job and we don't necessarily do it well.

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