A construction mess at my polling place

[ron_newman]

This morning, I stood in front of the Dilboy Post VFW from about 8 to 9:30, holding a Deval Patrick sign.

While I stood there, a road construction crew was busy digging up Summer Street, including the handicap ramps in front of both the VFW and Domino's Pizza. The street was closed, making it impossible to park alongside the VFW or to reach the parking lot behind the VFW.

The Election Commission chair and the Mayor both had to personally intervene to stop the construction, reopen the street, and restore the two handicap ramps.

Comments

[prog.livejournal.com]

Yipes. That said, I'm glad that they did intervene!

[nomirena.livejournal.com]

That is so typical and stupid a circumstance. I'm glad it got cleared up.

Was it just my ballot or was the divestment question NOT on it? Did I miss something? I was so looking forward to voting no.

[ron_newman]

Questions 4, 5, and 6 are on the ballot only in Denise Provost's district. Do you live in Carl Sciortino's or Tim Toomey's district? (See http://www.WhereDoIVoteMA.com to check.)

[nomirena.livejournal.com]

Yup, Carl Sciortino. I just had the three state questions on the back of the ballot.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Did you remember to fill out the BACK of the ballot, if you were in the right district?

[julishka.livejournal.com]

i do believe that you can access the parking lot from cutter street, as well. just an fyi.

[ron_newman]

As a non-driver, I didn't realize this. Still, this should never have happened.

The Mayor

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

That's good they sorted out the mess. Our Mayor seems to be Johnny-on-the-spot. When my wife went to vote at City Hall on Friday afternoon (she's traveling today) she discovered to her chagrin that City Hall closes at 12:30 on Fridays. Luckily for her, the Mayor happened to pull up while she was standing in front and he let her in and showed her to the elections office (where folks were working overtime, I guess) to make sure she could be counted. Props to him.

Re: The Mayor

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Curtatone really seems to enjoy being mayor!

Two years ago, when a big storm knocked a street tree down across my neighbor's driveway, he showed up in the middle of the night to watch the DPW crews chainsaw it apart. No real reason he needed to be there, and it certainly wasn't for the publicity....No press coverage of a tree across somebody's driveway. I think he just likes mayoring.

Re: The Mayor

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

Isn't it nice to know that there are still politicians out there who like the job for the sake of doing the job, rather than for the joy of unbridled abuse of power?

I wonder where we can find some more of 'em.

more good Mayors

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Cloning!

Re: The Mayor

[ron_newman]

I'm glad the Mayor fixed this situation at Dilboy Post -- but he also should have prevented it from happening in the first place.

Re: The Mayor

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Yes you're right, it's a preventable mistake. But unless nothing is getting done, mistakes will be made in a large system. The much more important thing is how mistakes are identified and resolved. It sounds like the resolution took a bit more effort than it should have but it actually was taken care of in a mostly timely fashion. I think that that speaks positively of the city.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

The Election Commission chair and the Mayor both had to personally intervene

Go them, for doing the right thing.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm proud of my city and state today.

[elements.livejournal.com]

I'm glad there was intervention, but does it seem to anyone that there's a real disconnect in planning between the folks deciding what to dig up when and the actual lives of Somervillians? First the no-notice repaving on Kidder on September 1, possibly the worst day calendar-wise of the entire year in Somerville for doing street construction that hinders, say, moving vans. Now digging up around a polling place on a major statewide election day. I get that there's gotta be repaving going on somewhere on any given day, but surely with a teeny bit of forethought these two snafus could have been avoided. Repaving could have been in a more commercial or industrial, rather than residential, area on either of those days.

It's excellent that the situation Ron describes was reversed, but it should never have happened in the first place, and it's ridiculous that it took *two* Somerville officials to get it stopped. I just hope there weren't any people disenfranchised by the inaccessibility before the construction was stopped and the ramps restored.

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

The repaving was supposed to be done two weeks ago, which would have meant there would be a brand new street and even sidewalks for voting. It's just taken too long to do all the work.