Boston 2024

Shepard said:
Some funky stuff here
{omit picture in quote}
I'm seeing a proposed Cambridge Street (Cambridge) light rail
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I think they just screwed up on how Union Sq works (note that it does not follow the Fitchburg ROW as it should) It seems like they knew they needed a branch near Lechmere, and knew they needed a terminus at Union Sq, but didn't really know how this comes about.

Once the the routes corrected, they won't be all that wrong in their 10minute-walk catchments, and it doesn't affect venue access (which is probably why they didn't sweat getting it right)
 
Shepard said:
I'm seeing a proposed Cambridge Street (Cambridge) light rail, as well as heavy rail on the Grand Junction.
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I believe that they're using "Heavy Rail" to mean "Passenger Rail" or "Conventional Rail" and "Light Rail" to mean both "Light Rail Transit" and "Heavy Rail Transit" or "Metro." All non-CR services are "Light Rail" on this map, and the Grand Junction has only been assigned the Worcester/NS trains that have been proposed before, likely in addition to DMUs.

I have no earthly idea what they're thinking with the GLX stuff. It's like they tried to outline the Union Branch on a zoomed-out image, never realized it aligned with the CR line that is marked, took two stabs at it, and said "screw it, just go with both."

They ended up with a Cambridge St. Streetcar and a Union Square Streetcar on Washington and Somverville Ave, thus surely inspiring many happy hours on the Crazy Transit Pitches thread.

Seriously, this is a pretty amateur map.

EDIT:

Arlington said:
Once the the routes corrected, they won't be all that wrong in their 10minute-walk catchments, and it doesn't affect venue access (which is probably why they didn't sweat getting it right)
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Maybe, but this takes minutes to get right with a Google search, and it doesn't help their credibility with the MBTA and MassDOT when they ask for help.
 
Equilibria said:
[Getting the right GLX aligment would have taken] minutes to get right with a Google search, and it doesn't help their credibility with the MBTA and MassDOT when they ask for help.
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Maybe it'll penetrate that amateurish errors on the O's part could be avoided if they were a little less cocky and insular, and a little better at cross-agency cooperation. *Any* MBTA or MassDOT reviewer,--current or veteran and down to the greenest intern-- would have caught that error.


Maybe Mayor Walsh is too insecure about critics and criticism to create an environment of constructive criticism, but Gov Baker seems like exactly the kind of manager who'd use constructive criticism to make the team work.
 
I'm at the event at BCEC. I don't know if there will be anything left to scoop since they dumped all the docs earlier, but I'll post if anything interesting happens.

Anyone else here? PM me.
 
Couldn't make it, Fattony (if that is your real name) but please give rapid fire updates as you can.

One other crazy faux pas just noticed on uHub: Long Island for the shooting event, with mention of the soon-to-be-nonexistent bridge.

Overall I support the bid, but this comes across as more than a tad full of wishful thinking...
 
Shepard said:
One other crazy faux pas just noticed on uHub: Long Island for the shooting event, with mention of the soon-to-be-nonexistent bridge.
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By 2024, the bridge will be rebuilt, won't it? But, in general, I think the O committee has to explain how it it can learn to partner rather than primp, and tap the wisdom of crowds rather than try to outsmart us.

This is a classic call for team-is-smarter-than-any-one-member kind of innovation, and, so far, it is painfully (almost comically) lacking in team play.
 
Schorschico said:
We agree on this one, just not on the direction.

As a golf tournament, both the Ryder Cup and the Majors are more important. As an event in general, it is not even close. Not in the same ball park, not the same galaxy. The Olympics are the number 1 event in the world. Short of the Country Club building a soccer stadium in the middle of hole 18 to host the World Cup final, there is nothing they can do that would resonate more around the world. People that don't care at all about golf will watch.

There is a reason tennis in London was played at Wimbledon. There is a reason tennis will be played at Roland Garros if it ever goes to Paris.

It would be a travesty to have the Olympics in Boston and not play golf at the Country Club (and I know very well it is a decision for the members to make) but they organized the last massive event there in '99. It will be 25 years come 2024. That is plenty of time.
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That's not how this works. I love golf and I love following golf and I dont think anyone who cares about golf is going to care about the Olympics. The Majors and Ryder Cup carry history and prestige that Olympic Golf cannot even touch. Golf is also that sport that only golfers like watching (usually). So... If golfers as a whole don't care about Olympic Golf what makes you think the members of The Country Club will care enough to sacrifice their course for the summer once you factor in damage done by visitors and spectators.
 
I'm here, too. Very slick.

Not terribly convincing so far. But also no giant flubs that I've noticed.

John Fish just gave a plug for South Coast Rail. Some of us will consider that a flub.
 
I'm really excited to learn how a slow, once-every-2-hour commuter rail connection to the South Coast could ever possibly help the Olympics.
 
After Mancredi's spiel stressing closeness and walkability of it, the Q & A session is hitting a lot of MA-wide schmoozing. High speed rail to Springfield, SCR, shout outs to Lowell and Holyoke. Methinks they've been getting pushback from pols outside of Boston, eh? Behind the scenes, that is.
 
Matthew said:
I'm really excited to learn how a slow, once-every-2-hour commuter rail connection to the South Coast could ever possibly help the Olympics.
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Sorry, they skipped past that detail.
 
Sounds like regionalism is going to turn this into an infrastructure pissing match... could we have expected less from Massachusetts?

Also noticing that, as many have suggested would be the case, no major Boston area RT projects are part of the bid, such as it is.
 
During Q&A, multiple references to "putting Widett circle are back in play" from its current underutilized status. Their words not mine. They did discuss the food market and discussions there. But you can just FEEL the urge to get that land out of MBTA' hands (and amtrak's and food market's hands) and into the hands of RE developers.
 
Q on eminent domain usage. Answer stressed they don't have that power and don't tend to ask govt entities to use theirs. Intent is to buy wWidett circle land via negotiation. They laid down a big marker on this. I'm guessing maybe they've gotten pretty far with those negotiations already. That, or they just blew it on a critical issue.
 
meddlepal said:
Golf is also that sport that only golfers like watching (usually). So... If golfers as a whole don't care about Olympic Golf what makes you think the members of The Country Club will care enough to sacrifice their course for the summer once you factor in damage done by visitors and spectators.
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But that is true about almost every sport in the Olympic program, and people watch anyway! You guys keep referring to Olympic golf, but it is not about that, it is about the Olympics, period. It is the same with tennis (almost exactly). The Olympics are not the top of the season... but you still get the games being played on Wimbledon. Why? It is all about the Olympic brand (as a whole, not Olympic golf).

In the next 100 years, there will be 100 U.S. Open venues (ok, a few less due to repetition), 25 American Ryder Cup venues (same, a few less), but only 3 or 4 American Olympic golf venues. That is the reason (I hope) the Country Club members will care. It is, literally, history. Not just golf, but sport history. You see it as a negative (being not golf focused), I see it as a positive.

On a personal note, the Olympics are the only chance to care about sports I don't care in general. As a kid in Barcelona I watched live sports that I love (Handball, Basketball, Soccer, Track-and-Field, Water-polo) and some that didn't even know existed (Badminton, table tennis,...). After that, I always watch sports on TV that are not very popular on the big picture (indoor cycling, sailing, rowing,...). I think that is a very powerful think the Olympics bring. I don't particularly care for golf in the Olympics, but, once it is there, it should have the best showing possible as the ambassador of the game, and that in Boston, is the Country Club.
 
Well, they've got The Country Club pencilled in for now. It is in the docs released today and got mentioned briefly this evening. I don't recall exactly, an aside really.
 
West said:
After Mancredi's spiel stressing closeness and walkability of it, the Q & A session is hitting a lot of MA-wide schmoozing. High speed rail to Springfield, SCR, shout outs to Lowell and Holyoke. Methinks they've been getting pushback from pols outside of Boston, eh? Behind the scenes, that is.
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They're probably trying to get support for increased revenue to fund transportation projects. Right now we don't have enough money to fund the yearly bond cap - there are a bunch of projects in the pipeline that won't happen without some kind of increase in fees, taxes, tolls, etc... the money has to come from somewhere.

I just wish Baker would admit he's the one that screwed over the MBTA under the Weld admin and is going to work to fix it. We'll see...
 
Shared just now on Boston 2024's Facebook page:
10257543_822873411083711_7329657582008080628_o.jpg
 
They displayed that at the meeting too. In this render, it seems like the Cabot Yard facility is gone, as it would conflict with whatever those buildings are under the rings. In the stuff published online this afternoon it seemed to be still there. That is one huge detail to get clarified.
 
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