...
The reason something like this would never happen is that we are in quant old New England, where we will always be stuck in a horse and buggy mindset, clutching our pearls and gasping when something modern is proposed.
This is a severe exaggeration. Back in the 50s and 60s, this metro area, and the City of Boston in particular, was extremely willing to go whole-hog into the then-modern concept of what should be done with old cities. The "modern" idea of that time was that old cities should mostly be demolished for shiny new "towers in the park" a la the new West End, or for the freeways to connect them, a la the Turnpike that obliterated much of the traditional African-American neighborhood of Newton, and a la the demolition that was done for the Southeast Expressway that then didn't get built.
As one looks at the lifespan of a city like Boston, those events are only a few blinks of the eye ago, and the scars are still fresh. The African-American neighborhood of Newton never fully recovered (though Setti Warren's election shows that some families did ok nevertheless), and the old West End community was shattered completely and is gone forever (as a community – some individuals like Leonard Nimoy did ok).
So any time anyone proposes anything that involves freeways and rearranging them, the push back is not just “quant old New England, where we will always be stuck in a horse and buggy mindset, clutching our pearls and gasping when something modern is proposed.” Quaint old New England embraced the new with savage ferocity in the 50s/60s, and engaged in astonishing acts of self-destruction as a result. We still haven’t recovered as an urban area.
Having said all that, I DO agree that this area leans towards the provincial and the old-fashioned. I myself have reactions at times almost word for word as you expressed it. So I’m NOT saying you’re wrong everywhere and at all times. I just don’t think the words “never” and “always” have a place in your quote above; “often” is the word. Attitudes around here are complex, for complex reasons. And not all the knee-jerk negative reactions are without grounds.
Your proposed exchange, as drawn, though, looks intriguing. I agree with F-Line that there’s just no need for a new CR station there, and I’m not convinced there’s otherwise a need to redo that exchange. But I certainly would never reject it on the grounds of not wanting one more bridge over the Charles (and I live in Newton, so I would have a dog in this fight), especially if there was some counterbalancing factors in play.
