Boiler on the move

make up a healthy chunk of its population and Somerville's Chicken Little approach to permitting just makes it look foolish in situations like this?

I don't blame Somerville for refusing to let it travel through the town without a permit, or for not waiving it on application. But it sounds as if Somerville refused, period - or at least, was unwilling to review the route within a few days, despite the circumstances.

That's either dysfunctionally bureaucratic, or petty. Large loads sometimes need to be moved through narrow streets. That's a simple fact of living in a dense, urban environment. Somerville is a city with housing, but not jobs. It relies on the surrounding communities for employment. In fact, more residents of Somerville go to work in Cambridge (20%) than in Somerville (16%). Or, from another perspective, Cambridge has two jobs in the city for every working-age adult; Somerville has two working age adults for every one job in the city.

There's also regional planning to take into consideration. In 2001 the state’s Committee on Regional Truck Issues determined that all east-west travel outside of Kendall Square should be completed in Somerville via Broadway, Somerville Avenue, and Washington Street. In other words, this truck was attempting to follow the state's recommendations for how to transit the area to deliver its load.

In short, Somerville was in the wrong here. It's in the interests of its residents to support the flow of commerce through its streets, not to spitefully deny permits because someone blew the initial application. This sort of move raises the costs of doing business in the region for no particularly good reason, and in the long run, that hurts everyone - particularly bedroom communities like Somerville that can't employ their own labor force to begin with.