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Fed up Hyde Park men shovel out bridge state probably planned to get to one of these days
By adamg on Sat, 02/07/2015 - 11:57am
Meet Marcos and Tim, whom Molly Lanzarotta ran across this morning shoveling out one of the sidewalks on the Fairmount Avenue bridge over the Fairmount Line and the Neponset River this morning - just like state Rep. Ed Coppinger did the other night on the bridge named for his father over the Needham Line.
Marcos and Tim had their work cut out for them - that's a long bridge:
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Baker's email to state workers
Continued...
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/02/06/email/hrcnabqBxL73BUfNUQAGXM...
Sidewalks end at state/commuter rail bridges.
They don't clear their overpasses/underpasses at all in Lynn, except for a little bit by the Central Square stop - but not enough of it. I'm not sure if the MBCR or state is responsible, though? A lot of residents are fed up because they clear their walks, but the sidewalk stops at the commuter rail bridge!
The State should pay these
The State should pay these two people $30 an hour
Trust me, in the up coming
Trust me, in the up coming months you will see in your local news stations investigating reports on who is responsible in shoveling public walk ways, which hack is sleeping on the job, which hack is getting paid $75,000 a year for not doing thier job.. Where is the city/state's workforce!! Especially on snow removal..DOT What the fuck are they doing? These scumbag hack DOT workers get paid $100,000 a year.
MBCR?
Certainly not. They've been out of the picture since last July...
True that.. it's that French company, now?
I want a neat acronym, though.
I just call them MBCeolis...
...it was pretty hard to tell the difference for a while. Now it's not - it's a lot worse.
I used the Commuter Rail
I used the Commuter Rail during the winter of 2000/01, and only dealt with one late train (Attleboro/Stoughton line). There was a huge snowstorm during the morning rush hour, and my train ended up showing up at the next train's scheduled departure time: Although, rather than my train being (effectively) cancelled, they actually linked the two trains together into a double train: The first eight or nine cars pulled up to the platform, picked up people, then they moved the train up and put everyone else on the second eight or nine cars. Certainly "over and above" what they had to do.
I used the CR again during the winter of 2003/04, right after the MBCR took over, and the lightest dusting of snow had South Station full of people waiting for trains due to "switch" or "signal" issues. Late trains both into and out of Boston were constant. I never saw them do the double-train thing again, just late, later, even later trains. And of course you had cars that were either iceboxes or ovens.
I didn't think anyone could do it worse than the MBCR, but from what I hear, Keolis has accomplished the impossible. Now trains are hours late, or just go completely missing. Glad I don't use this thing anymore.
Some are State and Some are City
Bridges, which ever kind, are not all owned by the Commonwealth. There are some, for example in Boston, that are owned by the City of Boston and must be maintained by them.
This may also be the same in other cities and towns.
There is a list - somewhere. I've seen it.
For example, along the NEC (Boston-Providence) railroad, Blakemore Street Bridge (Roslindale), and River Street Bridge (Hyde Park) are owned by Boston.
Cummins, Canterbury, Met-Dale Pedestrian, West, and Reservation are on the state
None are on the MBTA. The state ones fall under the highway department. City of Boston ones on Public Works.
I'm surprised with the T's effort this storm
I ran last Sunday, and I run over the NEC tracks in Roslindale and Hyde Park. Even going back to the small storm before this onslaught, the sidewalks on the actual bridges have been in good shape. They were good before the Monday storm, I can say.
Of course, the approaches were untouched, I'm guessing since the DOT and City are locked in a pissing contest about who is responsible for them, they will have their snow removed from them the natural way.
I'd say I'm shocked that they are doing a piss poor job this time. My hope is that the crews are concentrating on keeping snow from getting into the motors on the Orange and Red Lines, but that can't be the case.
Not a pissing contest between State / City
They just don't care. That's all.
It's not that they don't care
It's not their responsibility. It's "someone's" responsibility, just not theirs.
Vibes to Marcos and Tim
If everyone just took an hour and did something neighborly like this, we'd be livin a better life, meet one of our neighbors and stop whining so much! I shoveled out sidewalks around here this afternoon.
This is a "Public Walkway"
This is a "Public Walkway" taxpayers rely on state & city workers to remove snow..
The people that are responsible in removing snow are the useless fucking politically connected state and city workers who make good living wages from your tax dollars, this is what happens when the public elects the wrong people in office..
Totally agree, but the
Totally agree, but the problem is that someone is already getting paid to have this done as part of their job.
The bridge next to the C-6
The bridge next to the C-6 police station in Southie is usually never done either. One time my aunt went in to ask about it, and they said its the State's property. There is a bridge going by the Twin City Plaza in Somerville, and just today, I saw a man struggling to get across holding onto the rails. It seems to me that the snow removal crews don't get out in the streets. They sit in their plow trucks and bobcats pushing the snow around, and that's it. Isn't there managers that go and check that every single property is taken care of?
Same for the city. Are there no ground crews that are assigned to get out in the streets and do things such as dig out the handicap ramps and crosswalks that get blocked from the plowing? If so, where are they? Sure the plowing is great, but doesn't anyone realize that the ramps and crosswalks need attention too?
When I hear, "It's the State or the T.."
I say, "What's the difference? If you can fine a homeowner or a business for not doing their sidewalks, can you fine the state or the T?" I have seriously asked, though I have never received a direct response to the question.
The direct response is no.
because as a general rule, municipal ordinances are not enforceable against the Commonwealth or state authorities.
One of the leading cases on this involved the Braintree Logan Express stop. Braintree tried to enforce some kind of municipal regulation against Massport. The Appeals Court said, essentially, Massport is not subject to municipal regulation (there are actually lots of good policy reasons for this that were discussed by the court, but sometimes, as with snow removal, it doesn't work as it should). Interestingly, Massport is usually pretty good about snow removal where it is the land owner along ways owned by the City (e.g., the sidewalks of Marginal St. along Piers Park, along Medford St. in Charlestown)
Same pants
different pocket.
That bridge by Twin City Plaza is THE WORST.
Even in summer, the sidewalk is crumbling and full of trash. Hard enough to get across safely even without the snow.
Oh, boy....you can say THAT again!!
I live in that general area, and the sidewalk is not only trash-strewn, particularly in the summer, but it rarely gets ploughed/shovelled out in the winter time. It's not a pedestrian-friendly place, generally. How I wish they'd hurry up and depress that bridge!
State House snow free.
I walked by the State House today. Looked like mid summer. Not a ounce of snow on the walkways or streets around the sides I went by.
Community Garden/Cummins Highway Bridge Roslindale
The Community Garden/Cummins Highway Bridge by Rowe Street wasn't shoveled until Friday afternoon. I started calling the Mayor, city council, and MBTA on Wednesday morning after my daughters and other kids had to stand in th street on Cummins for 20 minutes waiting for their bus. Totally unsafe.
By Friday morning I brought a shovel to try to clear safe spot myself for the kids to wait. A kind, anonymous bulldozer driver took pity on my efforts and cleared a safe space at the T stop in one fell swoop. It was nice for my kids to see another person's kindness. For future reference, the community garden is the responsibility of the city Parks Dept, and the bridge is, I believe, Amtrak. Now if the owners on the other side Cummins and Rowe would only shovel.
All Volunteers
The garden is operated by the Southwest Boston Garden people. All volunteers. My guess is they had to shovel out their homes before even thinking of getting to that. And that's a lot of linear feet to deal with. Hopefully someone had a snow blower.
Spoke with Dept of Patks and Rec
Actually I spoke with someone from Parks and Rec and was told P and R was responsible for shoveling it. He put in the case/request to have it shoveled. So the impression I received was it was not up to volunteers, but Boston P and R. The man actually lives in Roslindale and knew the area I was referring to. He said the MBTA owns the land but gave P and R a 99 year lease on it. Hence the reason the MBTA said it wasn't responsible for shoveling out their bus stop.
Do your job!
Do your job!
Ask not
Ask not what snow your city will clear for you Ask if there is snow you can clear for your city.
Boston Strong and all that.
Yes, the city and other agencies should clear snow. But no, I don't expect them to have staffing to keep up with this recent onslaught. And whether they do, or don't, they're obviously not doing it very well.
So at this point, you can grumble and piss and moan. And slip and slide. Or if you are physically able, you can clear a sidewalk, fire-hydrant, storm-drain or other space near you.
Really. Just do it.
bobcats were clearing that bridge sidewalks last night around 8p
I'll look this am if it's all clear as I expect it to be. someone must have made a phone call.
Or maybe Universal Hub exposure shamed someone into action?
Tim confirmed this morning that one side of the bridge has been cleared by a sidewalk plow. (But he showed up with a shovel just in case.)
These gentlemen are very
These gentlemen are very different from your typical comment writer. Instead of going online to complain about the bridge not being shoveled, they actually did something about the problem. Did the picture taker help the guys, or just post it online?
Snow Removal on Truman Parkway
I have called the Mayor's Office, Councillor McCarthy's office, the Governor's Office, the Interdepartmental Office (which facilitates communication between the state and city) requesting that the state remove the snow in the parking lanes on Truman. So far, no response. I explained to all who would listen that many of us who live on the Parkway do not have driveways. There is no place to pull over to get out of the way of traffic, the section between Neponset and Fairmount Ave is especially dangerous due to the narrowing width of the Parkway. Does anyone have any other recommendations as how to resolve this problem?