Recent content by fatnoah

As a former resident of Melrose, I can confirm that the 3(!!!!) commuter rail stops there have turned that town into a post-apocalyptic hellhole. I had to move to Winchester, which only has two stops, but I still keep the door locked and rarely leave my house due to the rampant train-related...

As a parent that raised a kid downtown, I felt this very acutely. We did a lot of bike riding, and getting from the Esplanade to the Necklace required a significant break in the action. Of course, this was also when the Lower Depths featured hot dogs, so we'd often make a detour to the surface...

The quote below made me chuckle until I realized that there's a separate plan to connect Reading to Philadelphia. The overall context of a longer-term Harrisburg, Reading, Allentown, NYC route is also pretty interesting, but I know nothing of the area or whether this is realistic or not.

It's a massive improvement over what's currently there. My only real "complaint" is that I would have loved to have seen more ground-floor retail along the riverfront on two sides of the building.

It's a much better option than the parking lots that are there now. My hope is that more people downtown means more support for local businesses. We've lost two of my favorites (Fuller Cup and Olive Branch) this year. They were literally the only places I went with any regularity.

At the period of my life when I frequented the Dive Bar and/or Sir Morgan's Cove, I was rarely in a condition to take stock of the surroundings. It wasn't until many years later that it wasn't just a dive bar, but there was actually some amount of nautical theming as well. Also, RIP Tortilla...

Great to see the I-95/Route 1 barrier to those trails getting breached, though it does emphasize the lack of connection to Peabody Square and Salem. I wonder how long before we see a "trail-use" agreement for the all-but-defunct railroad branch in that area.

In all fairness to the Globe, it is wildly overbuilt with what seems like more interior space* than all other downtowns combined, all in support of a one of the lowest capacity mass transit modes available. I was a year 1 rider and coming out of the huge, shiny station into a sea of parking...

This is where some anonymous benefactor provides the $$$ to repurpose the Mystic Wharf branch for a streetcar / LRV route, right?

I think context is important here. If I grok'ed the article correctly, last year the RTAs received a 91% increase in funding thanks to $90M in "fair share" funding. The new budget reduces that funding to $75M. It's definitely a big chunk less than last year, but still a huge improvement...

I was in Laconia over the weekend and there was a fair amount of steel already up for the new bank building. While I'd love the Pleasant St. street wall to continue, I don't see that happening any time soon. I'm happy to be wrong, though. I grew up in the post-urban renewal era, so I have no...

I had to take a trip to the city because mini-FatNoah's doctor (despite all requests from us) keeps sending prescriptions to the CVS on Newbury St. I was expecting Transit Apocalypse but instead had about 100 minute door-to-door from Winchester and back. Commuter rail was on time and Green...

Born in Dorchester Grew up in NH Moved back to Greater Boston and lived in towns inside I-95 and between I-90 and Route 1 for 13 of those years Also three different stints in downtown neighborhoods totaling about 10 years

I'm now convinced that the guides/bumpers under the bridge are actually wood, though my intense scrutiny of them is probably starting to worry the other passengers on the ferry.

Is that the actual reason? Never once, as the driver of a vehicle along the E line, have I ever noticed a stop sign on a train. I just figured I was supposed to stop for a train letting people out into a traffic lane. (Googles pictures of LRVs) ...and I know I know what those look like. TIL