Celebrate and support GWS at the Armory

[dawn quirk]

The 2012 Groundwork Gala is coming right up on Friday, April 27th, 7-10pm at Arts at the Armory on Highland Ave. in Somerville. 

We hope you will join us for a fun, elegant night out in Somerville.  Attendees will enjoy live music from the stellar local band Opposite People, tasty appetizers, and a cash bar.  You can learn more on our calendar or facebook event page.

Tickets can be purchased in advance online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/233802. Use the code "GA20" before April 15 for $5 off!  All proceeds will benefit Groundwork Somerville's work in our community.

Davis Square Turkey!

[fontia.livejournal.com]

Anyone else woken up by our wild gobbler this morning around 5am? I thought it was some annoying turkey ring tone or something that someone wouldn't turn off, until I woke up and realized the turkey I saw on Sunday night was still around! He or she is kind of skinny for a turkey, and super awesome to see! :-D I need to close my storm windows.

Red Line buses Kendall-Broadway 4/28-29

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Notices just appeared in some T stations saying the Red Line will run with shuttle buses between Kendall and Broadway, on the weekend of April 28-29.

http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/news_events/?id=24375

The buses won't stop at Downtown Crossing. Which is no big deal, since it's only 1 block from Park Street.

This will allow power supply installation for the new Park Street elevators, and other station repairs.

I don't think I've ever experienced such an extensive shutdown. The most I've dealt with is Kendall-Park Street.

I'd recommend avoiding the entire Red Line that weekend. Even the parts that are running will have big delays.

(Multi-posted to the mbta community.)

Parking permit issues

[twe.livejournal.com]

About 6 weeks ago (Feb 29) I mailed in my Resident or Visitor Parking Permit renewal form asking for exactly the same thing we got last year: permits for both of our cars and a couple of visitor passes. Today (Apr 12) my application and check were returned to my with my husband's license plate circled and a scrawled note "already has permit issued 3/13 for Mammouth St." We don't live on Mammouth St and have never lived on Mammouth St. His car is clearly registered to our address (and has been since he bought it). Moreover the city happily sends excise bills for his name/address/license plate combination (in fact they sent one on 3/12). My best guess is that permit was issued to someone with similar plate number, who then misrecorded it as my husband's, and whoever processed it could not be bothered to look into the matter at all. (It seems inplausible that these mistakes would have been that hard to uncover; if that isn't so, perhaps the city needs better record keeping systems.) Despite asking for my phone number on the form, no one one bothered to call when a problem was (erroneously) found with my application, they just sent it back without any permits at all. Since they sat on my application for 6 weeks, it's now less than 21 days before my existing permits expire that they require for postal renewals and no longer possible for me to renew my permits by mail. So now, through no fault of my own, one of us has to take time off from work, hike up to Davis Square, wait in line for forever, and then no doubt spend a lot of time arguing with someone at the parking office and the whole process with take a lot more of both their time and our time, but perhaps someone will see this and clean up some processes and policies at the parking office.