phantom tollbooths in Davis Sq. ...

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

apropos of nothing and not a serious proposal but I was thinking about sales taxes last night, the discussion of tolls on 93 south and something to do with all the border violence going on in the world these days. Suddenly I had this image of tollbooths/checkpoints on the roads entering Davis Sq. Weird but interesting to speculate on.

The growth in popularity of the sq. has brought higher rents and housing prices, higher prices in stores and bars and general gentrification. The city of Somerville and the property owners benefit but the residents don't. Would be interesting to have a toll that went to offset the costs of gentrification to people who actually live here.

Comments

Re: A healthy commercial district is a slow district

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

If they could just slow traffic down, a LOT, through the business district, I think it would help. Like putting up some pedestrian-controlled stoplights (especially at the corner where Brooks is) - you know, those lights that only change when someone pushes a button. Or big speed humps where all the crosswalks are. Or all of the above. I think these were questions I raised when I did my Davis Square study, and if I recall correctly (probably not), changing the speed of traffic through the Square would be fairly complicated, because the roads going through are considered . . . some term I forget, which basically boils down to, "We want to keep traffic moving at X rate, so, um, sorry, pedestrians, and we'd have to get permission from a whole big list of agencies to do it, so it's just too much hassle." *sigh*