City to hold a series of zoning meetings you can only get to by car.

[rachelmello.livejournal.com]

Today the city announced a series of critically important zoning meetings that will shape the future of the city. These meetings will be held in Assembly Square, which is the least accessible location to anyone who gets around by public transit, bicycle, or on foot, of any location within Somerville City limits.

You can tell them what you think about this at: www.somervillebydesign.com

Yes, you can get there by bike, but it's dangerous and difficult to do so to anyone except a very experienced commuter. You can walk there, by utilizing a cross-walk that is unlit in the middle of a highway off ramp, or by walking an additional mile down to a dark highway underpass. You can get within a tenth of a mile of it by bus, with at least one transfer from most places in the city. Does this sound reasonable to you?

Comments

[fefie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for pointing this out (as i plan to attend). I will certainly email OSPCD.

That part of Assembly Sq area is still mainly car-oriented.

[kelkyag]

The 90 bus will take you very close to there, and it runs to both Davis and Sullivan. The 95 bus will get you pretty close, too.

Crossing under 93 on foot I will give you is not awesome -- I usually cross McGrath at Grand Union and then 93 at Temple rather than the crossing closer to the meeting site -- but it is doable. And making that area more friendly to foot traffic should probably be on the agenda for these meetings.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

When I think about getting around Somerville by bus, I always think of my neighbor, and what distance she would be able to do on foot. She's not as young and mobile as I am, and my sense of "pretty close" is much longer than hers.

The meetings are from 4pm to 7:30pm, so you have to think, too, what time would you have to leave your day-time commitment to get there, even just for a part of it, and what time would you be able to get home at the end of the day.

I can't think of any parent who is responsible for making sure that kids get fed and into bed being able to make these meetings, whereas if they were someplace central, like City Hall or the main library, they might be able to at least stop in.

[kelkyag]

Google maps says under 500 feet from the 90 stop to where it places that address (probably somewhat more to the door). If that isn't a viable walk, bus transit to most places isn't viable.

The timing of the meeting is a whole different problem. The writeup at least claims it is structured soas not to need to be there the whole time to offer input, for what that's worth.

<Notes the June 26 Mobility, Parking, and Access meeting down on her schedule>

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

The "meetings" are drop in, you can come anytime. If you work 9-5, come at 6.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Yes, the #90 stops in two places in the Assembly Square area: Sturvetant & Foley (very close to the location of the meeting--about a block) and at the mall, by Bed Bath, & Beyond. One can access the #90 bus from three different subway stations: Sullivan, Wellington, and Davis. This location is also right on the #92 bus line, which leaves from Sullivan.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of the 90 route because it goes to convenient places, but the schedule is another story. It only runs once an hour, so if you miss it, you're screwed.

[ron_newman]

By bike or foot, I'd go down Temple Street under I-93 (not very busy), then first right onto Bailey or second right onto Governor Winthrop.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

...which leaves you a half mile more to walk along a busy highway or empty streets in a warehouse and industrial zone. Not exactly what I'd call "inviting".

[twilighttremolo.livejournal.com]

I tried that by bike when I was new to the area, following google maps directions (supposedly in bike mode) and I ended up on an on-ramp to the highway because the turn was poorly marked.

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

Both the timing and the site sound tailor made for fat-cat developers and vested interests.

In other words, "business as usual" in Somerville.

[tikva.livejournal.com]

Not gonna lie, my guide dog and I are pretty intrepid, but the idea of navigating the Assembly Square area scares the hell outta me. Yeah, I know, they just built a whole city there or whatever. It's still under a fracking highway.

[bluesauce.livejournal.com]

I'll take it over NIMBYs showing up to scream about terrifying hamburgers and drinking holes.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

You do realize that "NIMBY" is a term invented by developers in order to push through things that they will profit from onto people other than themselves, right?

[bluesauce.livejournal.com]

Citation, please.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

"NIMBY is an acronym for Not in My Backyard. This term is used primarily by the public relations industry as a pejorative against people who assert local sovereignty to reject unwanted development projects."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/NIMBY

Would be a fine place to start. Those of us old enough to be there in the 80s saw it happening. It was pretty obvious.

Other research places early uses of the term in Britain in the 50s, so it might be that this marks the US emergence of the term.

[bluesauce.livejournal.com]

Whatever. I'll use a different term then. Busybodies. Better?

another citation

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

If you want an in-depth, super geeky analysis of the term "NIMBY," I found the following to be really cool.
(I mean "cool" by my standards, which are pretty nerdy, because I'm generally interested in how language is used. ;-) )

http://bscw-app1.let.ethz.ch/pub/bscw.cgi/d6463359/SA_50_06_Aeschbacher_A4.pdf

[ron_newman]

That's an incomplete definition at best, as NIMBYs have also prevented or stopped many worthy things that would improve neighborhood life: Red Line extension to Arlington, a bike path in Weston, 24-hour retail stores and restaurants everywhere.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

People being overly fussy have stopped all sorts of worthy things from happening, I totally agree with you there. But still, I think calling people names is not the way to have a discussion about what's beneficial and what's just being resistant to change for no good reason.

People using the term "NIMBY" is especially annoying because to me it's a sign of big money winning a long PR fight to make people look stupid for getting involved in community planning.

There are actual questions to be discussed about what direction development should take to benefit the neighborhood, the community, and the city, and which direction it will just benefit the out-of-state developers and people who might have short term profits from money transferring hands under the table. Some choices put one constituent group at odds with another, and it's a difficult issue of good governance to figure out how to handle these conflicts. But the right way to handle it is never to dismiss people and make fun of them for having an opinion about what happens locally.

Calling people "NIMBY" or "busybodies" says they shouldn't speak up at all. Call them out for being short-sighted if that's what they're doing, but it's a better argument if you can pinpoint *how* their resistance is wrong in the instance at hand, instead of just pointing fingers at people who resist a proposal.

The original NIMBYs in Britain were saying they didn't want a nuclear power plant in their residential neighborhood. I'd fight pretty eff-ing hard against one in Somerville.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Oftentimes the narrative I see is developers wanting to build dense projects because that is their profit motive. As it turns out due to the beauty of the invisible hand, that is the best thing for the environment, the local economy, walkability, and absorbing demand so relieving pressure on prices to go up. But car oriented local people whine about the density and sometimes local building "character" as if our vinyl sided triple decker world is so amazing and worth more than the environment, affordability, and walkability.

So a little name calling sometimes seems tempting, maybe not productive.

[ron_newman]

I just thought of another especially local example: the people who tried to prevent Arts at the Armory from opening, and then harassed it with groundless complaints to the Licensing Commission.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

The subject has a number of flavors of interesting. When I lived in Cambridge, it was generally applied to local opposition to anything the locals found to be undesirable. Of course, it covered any new building, but it also covered the CASPAR homeless shelter. (CASPAR was finally located in a far part of Cambridgeport, in what was at the time a post-industrial wasteland, about the only place in Cambridge where nobody lived.)

Developers are interesting in this regard. Of course, they're in it to make money. But in most cases, the only way to make money is to build something that people want to use, it's interesting to think about those people too. For business development, clearly there is a bunch of potential customers who'd like to see the business exist. For residential development, there are the people who'd like to live there. The catch is that the potential residents usually aren't people who already live in the town in question, so they don't vote there. So it becomes a battle between the interests of the current residents and the potential residents.

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

That is pretty unfriendly. And I live closer. I take the Shore Dr. route because at least it's green and pretty (once you get past the nasty overpass with all the broken glass below). And that new walkway that goes under the bridge instead of having to cross 8 lanes of traffic is much better now.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that's super convenient to my office and I kick off at 4:30 these days. I'll have to make a point of going since it seems to be a problem for lots of people.

[george-proakis.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I'm really happy to see all of this interest in the zoning overhaul work and our drop-in meetings. On behalf of the OSPCD planning staff, which has been working for the past two years to develop zoning that will implement the SomerVision plan, these meetings are important steps towards submitting a great zoning ordinance later this year.

I understand the concern about this meeting location, and we want to make it work. And, I certainly don't want anybody to decide not to participate because of the location that we chose.

We are going to set up a shuttle service, using a city bus or van that will circulate from this meeting to a central location or locations in Somerville, transporting interested participants to and from the meeting site on a regular basis throughout the entire meeting schedule. We should have this shuttle up and running by the start of next week's meeting (6/19/14). I really hope this helps encourage people to participate.

For those interested in this week's meeting (6/12/14), who might be limited by transportation choices, send me an email at gproakis@somervillema.gov, and we will work to find a way to get you there and back this week.

If you can't make any meeting, we always accept on-line comments at www.somervillebydesign.com, and we will post info from each meeting as soon as we can.

Just for a bit of background: the self-storage building at 50 Middlesex Street was required to provide a community meeting space as a part of their zoning approval. The leadership at the Mystic View Task Force has coordinated use of this space, and has encouraged us to use it when we need to do so. For these meeting dates, city hall rooms were not available, and school locations were not able to guarantee custodial support and/or air conditioning for this regular schedule during summer months. We then had to find a space that is comfortable, accessible and available for eleven straight Thursday nights.

This is a new room, is built to modern standards, and it is within a ten minute walk of bus lines 89, 90, 95 and 101. I am aware that there are limitations from each bus line (90 has limited schedule, 95 and 101 cover a limited part of Somerville, and the walk from the 89 or 101 on Broadway requires walking about ten minutes and going under I-93). For anybody who feels comfortable with those routes, (or anybody who wants to bike, walk or drive) all of those options are there. For others, we will provide the shuttle starting next week.

So, watch www.somervillebydesign.com for more info. I hope this helps.

Thanks,
George Proakis
Director of Planning
City of Somerville
gproakis@somervillema.gov

PS: I don't normally keep a regular watch on livejournal, so if you have any questions for me about all of this, just send me an email. Thanks.

[rachelmello.livejournal.com]

This is a great response, George, thank you!
The shuttle is good news, and I appreciated learning the back story about the site.

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

That is a nice gesture. Thanks.

PS: can we do this to the underside of 93? I think it would make them much cheerier. Maybe the Lego place would kick in the money. https://plus.google.com/u/0/116875697889347839888/posts/Ti2J7tQFSfE

[siderea]

Great response! Maybe something on the Planning Dept's agenda should be to make that area more pedestrian accessible/inviting from the other side of 93? Crossing under a highway doesn't have to feel like a trip through "Bladerunner": consider what the North End did, back in the day, with pedestrian passages to lure tourists from Faneuil Hall under 93. It would seem to me that the businesses which stand to gain customers might be willing to contribute to such an effort.

[wintahill.livejournal.com]

I agree on both counts.

This is a great response to the accessibility concerns that people have brought up about the meeting location.

I took the under 93 by Stop & Shop route just the other weekend to get the food truck festival over at Assembly Row. I am a younger guy in decent shape and even for me it is a somewhat scary adventure. You have to be quick to dodge all the vehicle traffic and it just has this odd sort of "robbery waiting to happen" vibe to it. Hopefully pedestrian and bike connections to that area can be improved.