am i blind?

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

i drive past porter sq every day, and i just noticed today that there appear to be solar panels all along the top of the shopping center. are these new? it would be very cool if they powered themselves. the mcdonald's also seems to have been replaced by another restaurant. that's the first time in my entire life i've ever seen a mcdonald's franchise disappear. hope i wasn't seeing things.

Comments

[roblem.livejournal.com]

No Problemo. GraveStar seems to have their act together with not just the solar panels but all trees and other "unnecessary" changes they made to the site. It really made a big difference to the area. I’m hoping that they work going on now http://www.cambridgema.gov/TheWorks/departments/engnr/portersquare.html will help make the area more like davis.

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

i don't know about making it more like davis.. mass ave is a big road. I'm having trouble visualising. giving porter a real heart would be wonderful though. i hope they progress along quickly - part of the aim being to make it more pedestrian-friendly, but the construction and crazy lane patterns and lack of crossing grids has made it look really dangerous for the pedestrians trying to get around the jersey barriers and such. and, well, the traffic sucks worse right now.

[ert.livejournal.com]

I think that the size of Mass Ave is a problem, but when you think of the five spokes converging on Davis the three that meet at Porter aren't that much. I think it's more that the pedestrian mall area is next to the T stop and Lesley, but isolated from almost all the stores and restaurants. In Davis people just hang out in the pedestrian area. In Porter it's pretty much just people waiting for the Bus.

There's also the big parking lot that means that a large percentage of people in the area aren't walking from the T to somewhere, they're just traversing the parking lot to one of the stores in the strip mall and back.

[ert.livejournal.com]

Wow. I ask and I receive. They're putting outdoor seating area by the Healthworks. Check it out.

http://www.cambridgema.gov/%7ECDD/et/infra/psq/psq_plaza.html