Do you care about basic services in your DCR parks in Boston? Go to the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs' FY 2011’s budget hearing with Secretary Ian Bowles on Monday, November 23, 2009, from 3:30 to 5:00 pm at 100 Cambridge Street, 2nd floor, Conference Room B. Submit written comments prior to the hearing, or up until November 30, 2009. Bring a picture I.D. for security.

Mike Mennonno notes somebody was recently critically injured by a rotted-out tree limb that fell from a tree in Central Parks and that the DCR has been ignoring him for more than two years when he calls to complain about dead trees along the Charles River bike path. He posts photos from a copse of tree corpses:

... As I rode by this morning I realized there were actually three dead or mostly dead trees in the space of a few hundred yards along this well-traveled portion of the path near the new work-out station. I also noticed that each of the dead trees seemed strategically placed where a large overhanging dead limb could best fall on someone: over a park bench, above a water fountain on the main path, at the intersection of the main path and a pedestrian overpass. ...

According to a press release that I received from the DCR yesterday, the upstream (south) sidewalk of the Longfellow Bridge reopened yesterday.

Here's the full text of the press release:

Remember when Massport was going to eat up the turnpike authority and solve all its problems? Now the state Senate is looking at a proposal to create a super-duper Massachusetts Surface Transportation Authority to gobble up the turnpike (which includes the Harbor tunnels), the MBTA, DCR parkways and the Tobin Bridge (now owned by Massport).

State Sen. Steven Baddour explains the proposal on Blue Mass. Group (with more details here), says the thing would be called MassTrans. One interesting idea: turn the current state highway fund into a "Surface Transportation Trust Fund." So those new gas taxes could help subdidize the T?

Baddour says reorganization could save up to $6 billion (over 20 years) in reduced overhead. Cool, no? And we'll just pretend for a second that the state has an outstanding record with creating authorities and commissions that run well and cost effectively (hey, there's always the MWRA).

But what happened to Massport in all this? Perhaps this is all for the good - without the Tobin, that authority can get back to doing what it's supposed to: Running the port of Boston.

Nothing should stand between a girl and her Chanukah brisket, especially not the crappy, axle-cracking condition of Charles River Drive in Watertown, a grumpy Mels grumps.

TRAFFIC ADVISORY
CIRCUS ANIMALS WILL SLOW TRAFFIC
ON SEVERAL DCR ROADWAYS

Expect delays Monday evening

WHAT: Elephants, zebras, and horses from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will walk along several Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) roadways to the TD Banknorth Garden where they will perform with the circus during the week. As they are led to the Garden, Massachusetts State Police and Cambridge and Boston police officers will provide a rolling roadblock behind them, which will slow traffic for the duration of their walk.

WHEN: Monday October 6, 2008
Beginning at 8 p.m.

WHERE: The animals will begin walking from the train yard near Vassar Street in Cambridge. They will head south on Massachusetts Avenue, turn left on Memorial Drive eastbound, continue straight on Land Boulevard, turn right on Msgr. O'Brien Highway, cross the Charles River Dam onto Martha Road in Boston, and turn left on Nashua Street to the Garden.

Steve S discovered the hard way that the state Department of Conservation and Recreation has figured out it can put up "No Parking" signs on Park Drive near Beacon Street and then start towing away reams of cars:

... I talked to the woman at the tow lot. she says the sign is brand new and they towed something like 20 cars on one day this weekend, probably Saturday. While we were there, the tow operator came over the nextel... "Towing two cars at the corner of Park and Beacon"... two more suckers. ...

Everybody agrees it's wrong that those brand-spanking new fields along the Charles River are padlocked most of the time, yet nobody can agree why, let alone simply send out a guy with a bolt cutter to end the problem.

On June 28th, DCR kicked off it's new Park Passport, a stamp book with stamp stations placed in 76 parks across the state (15 parks in the Boston area, including John Paul II, Castle Island, and the Southwest Corridor). Each park has a different stamp, so you have to go to all of the parks if you want to collect all of the stamps. When you complete any one of the 5 regions, you can use the completed passport at the regional office (starting August 15) to receive a t-shirt with the stamp pictures on it for that region.

For the same reason trucks have been banned from everybody's favorite rusted-out hulk of a bridge. Ron Newman asks; Joe Pesaturo at the T answers: It's 10 m.p.h. for Red Line trains until the Department of Conservation and Recreation tells the T otherwise.