Bike path cut-through at Dick's Auto Body is now shut?

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

The hole in the chain link fence that allowed access between the bike path and the street by Dick's Auto Body is Now patched with a big piece of chain link fence.

I had sort of hoped that would not happen. It is an often used entrance to the bike path, and when someone paved the slope between the path and the street I had hopes that the hole in the fence would become an actual gate instead.

Anyone have info on what happened and why?

Comments

[ron_newman]

No idea, but does anyone here want to fix the problem with a bolt cutter?

from MA General Laws chapter 86 section 5: "Any person may remove gates, rails, bars or fences which are upon or across a public or private way"

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

I doubt that it is legally a public way. Indeed, it's likely that the property owner patched the fence to prevent continued usage from obtaining an easement. And beware that they may have a camera trained on it.

If we want the public to be able to use that stretch of real estate, the city should seize it through eminent domain. Talk to your city councilor!

[ron_newman]

the law says public OR private way, and I'd say that an easement has been established by 30 years of continuous use (ever since the bike path was built over the Red Line extension)

I recall this issue coming up when a property owner tried to fence off the Harold Street pedestrian entrance to what was then the Johnnie's Foodmaster parking lot (now Whole Foods). The property owner lost and the entrance is still there, though now with a sign saying it's locked during hours when Whole Foods is closed.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

There is no "property owner". The fence separates a public street from a public bike/pedestrian path.

The fence is located at the foot of Elmwood St., adjacent to Dick's Auto Body, not on the auto body shop's property. You can see the fence, and the hole in it, if you look on google maps: http://tinyurl.com/kelaohg

[nathanjw]

Interesting that that's actually public street there (though Cambridge GIS seems to confirm) - it's certainly used by the auto body shop as parking/storage most of the time.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if you look around in GSV, it certainly seems like the auto body shop treats that end of the street as their parking lot. That doesn't make it so, even if it's longstanding practice. The hole in the fence and use of it by bikes and pedestrians doesn't interfere with the body shop's use of the street, either, in any way that I can imagine.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

adverse possession is a fun thing to study.

if the auto body shoppe actually claims it's theirs, long enough, properly, it can be.

now, also interesting if the city decided that is not a lawful path. good luck there.

#

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Adverse possession does not apply to public ways, I don't think. The only way that a road can be officially abandoned, at least in most East-coast states, is if the authority that's in charge of it chooses to abandon or terminate it by formal declaration. I.e. "This is not a road any more, we abjure all responsibility for taking care of it and maintaining it." In that case rights usually devolve to the abutting property owners, but not always.

as an example of how adverse possession does not apply to a public way, see Vermont's "ancient roads". People sometimes get bit by that. Some property owner wants to erect a structure on his land, then the surveying process discovers that there's some abandoned road going across the property that no one's used in centuries. They have to re-site the structure or maybe can't build it at all, because they can't block a "public right of way." A few years ago VT embarked on a project to catalog all these roads, so that the state and various towns and cities could formally abandon the ones that were no longer in use as public roads and formally relinquish rights to the property owners.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

if they've been defacto owning the cul de sac or dead-end of decades, the court battel would be fun.

esp if they're the ones that paved it, and did all all the repairs/etc

esp esp if they can show bike path traffic affects their business/safety/security. maybe.

i know someone from years ago, that spent years sitting on his driveway, blocking access to "the wood", until people just gave up. previously there was an assumed easement to the public forest. he forced people to change their minds.

my parents had a many years long battel to keep asshat snowmobilers off our back 40. it was pretty amusing that someone with deep pocket kept removing our fences and obstacles. they must've spend $$$$ every time, cost us nothing but laughs. eventually we found out who was doing it, and that stopped it. knoweldge. these days, cameras, and what not.

anyway, these kinds of antics make for more interesting drama than tv.

#

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

It sounds like it would cost a lot in lawyers to figure out what the "truth" is here...

[ron_newman]

Isn't adverse possession more likely to work against the auto body shop (if they are the ones who tried to block the way)? The path has been in continuous public use for 30 years, maybe more.

[nathanjw]

I ran into this this morning; my son and I often use it on our way in to his daycare. No info yet. I was going to start with some Cambridge city types.

[smammy]

Surely someone on this list owns bolt cutters?

[jicama]

Hmm, that hole is rather important for access to the Zipcar location from the Path.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I noticed this yesterday and was also surprised and a little upset about it. we use that cut through frequently for getting to zipcars as well as going to visit the koi fish pond in the davis square loft area.

i agree i had thought they were accepting it as a walkthrough when it got paved recently.

hopefully it gets reopened (if enough people complain?)

[tiggrstaar.livejournal.com]

Agreed, this is definitely super helpful to get to the zipcars there. It's used by a lot of other people to get to and from the neighborhood too.

Does anyone know who paved it? Leftover asphalt one day?

Anyone know why it was patched? It's seems likely it was the auto body shop but is there any other reason why it would be patched? I can't think of any safety reasons for the T or the city to do that. Weird that it's been open for so long to be patched for seemingly no reason now.

[hamtrack.livejournal.com]

I spoke with someone at Dick's this morning and was told that the City of Cambridge patched the hole because it wasn't handicap accessible.

Dick's was happy to have the cut-through and based on the community reaction they're surprised the patch has survived this long. Last year's paving of the access was just a kind citizen who had asphalt left over from another job - nothing official.

I suppose the right way to do this would be to petition the city of Cambridge to build a proper access - easily justified I think by convenience and the fact that the alternative, walking around to Tannery Brook Row, is more dangerous because it doesn't have a side walk.

But, I don't think anyone would object to another hole showing up. Maybe it just needs to be wide enough for a wheelchair :)

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

That seems like a strange reason, because now that it was paved, it seems pretty handicapped accessible. It was definitely wide enough for a wheel chair to fit through, and with the paving, it was a pretty smooth transition. Maybe the steepness was an issue? there are a probably rules about how steep it can be for going up it? (I frequently went through with large wagons, double strollers, etc with no width issue).

any idea who in the city we talk to about it?

[ron_newman]

there are certainly steeper ramps onto the bike path, for instance from Clifton Street. (hard to climb even on a bike if you aren't going reasonably fast at the bottom of it)

[redbird]

The maximum allowable slope for a wheelchair ramp, or for a path to count as accessible, is 1 inch up for every 12 inches of length (which is about an 8.4% grade), though 1:16 is better.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

That's rather asinine. Are they going to start demolishing all stairwells in the city? I'm all for universal accessibility, but it should be additive. Removing a not universally accessible path and not building anything to replace it does nothing to further that goal.

If the City wants to build a gate with a proper ramp, that would be great.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

That does seem kind of non-sensical and I wonder if the person at Dick's got the story wrong somehow. Because I don't really want to believe that, given the relatively poor condition of the Cambridge portion of the bike path that THAT is what the City would choose to do something about.

I am a Cantabrigian now, anyway. Maybe I can contact whoever my elected official is. I still have so little clue about how things work here. :(

[kent37.livejournal.com]

I would contact the Cambridge City Council. Councillors are elected at-large so they are all your representative. You could also try Cambridge Public Works, presumably if it was the city who closed the hole, it was Public Works who did the work.
http://www.cambridgema.gov/ccouncil.aspx

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info.

That seems kind of unfortunate. I always thought Somerville's mix of specific and at-large worked well from a constituent perspective. I also don't' remember feeling so lost when it came to Somerville politics, though granted, it's been a while since I moved there and only a couple of months since I left. I just know it wasn't that long before the first time I met the mayor and I could recognize a bunch of the Alderfolks on sight. For whatever reason, I can't even keep in my head who the mayor of Cambridge even is! Here they don't seem to care nearly as much about being active and keeping people updated online and via social media, so while I know tons of things happen, I still have no idea how find out what/when.

*sigh* I miss the 'ville.

[ron_newman]

I'd start with City Councilor Craig Kelley (who often rides a bike, and I think lives near you) and the Cambridge Bicycle Committee.

ETA: also Cara Seiderman is Cambridge's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, and Jennifer Lawrence is in the planning and community development department.

[kent37.livejournal.com]

I have emailed Councilor Kelley and Cara Seiderman.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I just did the same.

[kent37.livejournal.com]

As a former 'villen I totally agree. After two years in Cambridge I still feel more connected to Somerville politics than Cambridge.

I think both the at-large election of the council and the city manager style of government contribute to this. As far as I can tell the position of Mayor in Cambridge is largely symbolic, whereas Mayor Curtatone is the chief executive of Somerville. Very different.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

There are mailing lists for the North Cambridge Stabilization Committee and the Porter Square Neighborhood Association and they hold in-person meetings regularly, if you'd like to join. Mostly they're focused on development and zoning. I've been going to a few of them to speak in favor of increased housing construction.

Here are their websites:
http://portersquare.net/
http://northcambridge.net/

I set up a petition on change.org

[christian bayer (from livejournal.com)]

Hi folks, I have set up a petition on change.org to get the hole back (or to find any other good solution for that). You are welcome to give suggestions about the wording, the correct recipient (I also thought about Craig Kelley) or anyting else. I also plan to print it out, add a tiny URL and a QR code and pin it to the new fence part:
https://www.change.org/p/city-of-cambridge-ma-put-back-the-hole-into-the-fence-on-the-davis-sq-bike-path (https://www.change.org/p/city-of-cambridge-ma-put-back-the-hole-into-the-fence-on-the-davis-sq-bike-path)
Short URL for twitter: http://goo.gl/YjkyNs (http://goo.gl/YjkyNs)

[kent37.livejournal.com]

According to DPW Commissioner O'Riordan, via Councilor Craig Kelley:
"I am informed that our maintenance contractor repaired the fence on Linnear park adjacent to Dick’s Auto Body Shop as part of their routine fence repair work. Given the popularity of this particular pathway to and from Linnear park we have instructed the contractor to undo his repair work and temporarily open up the fence again (making sure that the fence is safe ) while we further investigate a permanent solution here."

I hope some of you will thank Councillor Kelley for his help with this, I have!

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Awesome.