North Harvard Ave Re-paving Catastrophe

So when I saw that they were finally getting around to repaving North Harvard Ave, I did some not so silent rejoicing. Honestly the road was a complete disaster, with giant potholes everywhere, poorly done patches, which made biking to Harvard Sq a nightmare. It also wasn’t a joy to drive. So I thought, paving, at last!

So now that the paving is done, and it is oh so smooth I must say, I was excited. I had read in the Tab that 115 of the 140 parking spaces along the road were going to be removed, and replaced by a bike lane. As a resident, I must say I have very mixed feelings about this.

New Harvard Ave with "No Parking" and the new bike lane

Beggan said that he does not anticipate the parking changes to cause a major upheaval for area residents, whose parking privileges are protected through a residential parking sticker program and, in the case of Charlesview Apartments, an off-street lot.

- July 10 Allston Brighton TAB http://www.wickedlocal.com/allston/news/x488832794/Get-ready-for-street-paving-in-Allston

 But I must say that I don’t quite understand why this was done. It is not correct to say that our neighborhood is protected by Resident Only parking permits, many streets (like mine) have no parking restrictions at all, and I for the most part like it this way. When a street goes resident only, it immediately makes life more difficult for many residents. Unlike Cambridge, there are no “visitor passes” so my girlfriend or other guests who I invite over would no longer be able to visit by car. Summer BBQ’s or parties? Nope sorry, just forget about it, or try to jam your car into the two “visitor” spots that they designate for every 20 spaces. Good luck getting one of those. So the real impact of removing 115 spaces close to Harvard sq is that it will push people desperate to save money into the neighborhood’s already limited parking spaces, which then may force us to make our quiet peaceful streets resident only, which in my opinion directly decreases my quality of life because I either have to pick up all my friends or tell them to take the bus. Do my friends like me enough to take the bus? I’m not really sure

Whats worse at the moment, is that despite promises by A Boston Transportation Department official, Vineet Gupta, in the TAB, there seems to be absolutely ZERO enforcement of the parking ban on the street right now. The result is that you have people parked IN THE BIKE LANE, making the life of bikers that much worse. On a bike ride to Harvard Sq this morning, I was squeezed by this illegally parked truck and a car trying to pass me

Illeaglly parked truck makes life very difficult

 What I really don’t understand, is why can’t we have both parking spots and a bike lane. Clearly, there is enough room for both, as we see in this picture below at the spot closest to Harvard Sqaure:

Plenty of room for bikelane and cars, if they wanted to do it

Removing parking spots just doesn’t make a lot of sense. I really want to hear an answer from the city, and from Harvard. Why on earth remove parking spots that were a real convenience for many people, pushing parkers deep into the neighborhood on our streets, when the plan could have kept at least half of the spots intact and added a bike lane? Please just tell us, because its just not adding up right now.

Boston, You’re Looking Good

Tonight I enjoyed a rain-free, wedding-free and travel-free bike ride down the Charles. I took a route starting at Western Ave heading inbound on the Boston side of the river. I have to say that the widening and repaving is awesome.  After going over the dam and heading back on the Cambridge side it is clear that the Boston side is now superior. All the huge tree root swollen pavement that made me want to bring my mtn bike instead of my road bike is gone!

Instead of heading back down Western Ave I keep going to North Harvard St. Even though the roadway needs one more coat it was a pleasure to bike on — no pot holes, no parked cars, no need to illegally dodge pedestrians on the sidewalk — just smooth roadway. I wonder if HBS and Charlesview could provide more parking for their residents to make this car free existence permanent?  HBS has some pretty big lots off Western Ave that are only full intermittently.  When they cap the Science Complex can it be used for parking?

Other notes from my ride
- The park I mentioned on 4/29 is STILL under construction. I can’t comment on the schedule since I haven’t been involved nor can I really comment on how long it should take Harvard to build a park.
- Repairs to Storrow Dr overpasses continue. Though based on listening to NPR midday on Friday there is still no solution to replacing the tunnel. This has to be resolved before tragedy ensues. Although some callers and talking heads want it eliminated, Storrow Dr is a critical East-West link for Allston-Brighton residents to get to downtown Boston. I am both a Paul Dudley White Bike Trail user and Storrow Dr user and we need both to prosper. The Mass Pike is not an acceptable replacement.

Harvard in Vanity Fair

Read Nina Munk’s great article on “Rich Harvard, Poor Harvard”  in the next issue of Vanity Fair. The full text isn’t out yet, but they just released this teaser on the Vanity Fair website:

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/06/harvard.html

We had the chance to meet Nina a couple months ago when she was researching this story, and she did a ton of digging that makes for great reading, and some interesting insights about whats going on under the covers at Harvard. Though don’t expect many “names to be named”, as it seems most people at Harvard wouldn’t talk to her on the record…