Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

Speaking of "natural" ... https://www.somervillema.gov/news/somerville-passes-first-its-kind-native-planting-ordinance

"It requires that native species constitute 100% of all new plantings in any City-owned land on the Community Path, the Green Line Extension corridor, and riverfront areas; at least 75% of new plantings in City-owned parks; and at least 50% of street trees and new plantings in bioswales, plazas, streetscapes, and other City-owned property, subject to certain exemptions. "
 
The School Street pedestrian bridge will be removed this Saturday. The Somerville High School webcam should have a good view of the work.

Tangentially, the GLX website has repoint the construction photos link to a new Flickr gallery with new photos. Many of them are clearly from the webcams that used to be public. Is there anyone on this site who can get a straight answer from the T why the cams are no longer available?
 
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Mod Note: I have moved *most* of the Graffiti conversation from this thread to a thread consolidated with a prior graffiti thread:
Graffiti Images, Art, or Nuisance

I tried to leave only the comments just before and just after it was noted that Magoun Square's public art will, in fact, be local Graffiti. LMK if I missed or stranded something in the wrong thread.
 
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This weekend: constructors will drop an additional bridge into place over the CR+GL at the Medford/Tufts station site.

This will substantially widen the sidewalk on College Ave, between the big water main (Which also parallels College Ave) and the new station and the Cummins building

patch.com

Detours Planned At College Ave. Bridge For GLX Work

Detours Planned At College Ave. Bridge For GLX... - Medford, MA - A pedestrian bridge running parallel to the College Ave. bridge will be installed Saturday.
patch.com patch.com
 
Javier said:
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A bit off topic, but on the topic of Gilman Square, does anyone else feel the naming for this station could have been better? I have lived in Somerville in Ball Sq for 2 years and I do not know many individuals who even know what Gilman Square is. There's little culture or businesses around the name of Gilman Square. I don't think there's even a sign for it like other squares in Somerville. There were other stations on GLX renamed too - such as Brickbottom --> East Somerville and Lowell St --> Magoun Square (great moves).

I would love to hear a transit fan or pundit's thoughts on naming of stations and how it's done. It is interesting because there have been many other instances of this chicken/egg scenario where an area actually became more notable because of the station there (Quincy Adams or JFK/UMass), but there have also been some where it never caught on (Science Park).
 
AndrewOnTheMBTA said:
A bit off topic, but on the topic of Gilman Square, does anyone else feel the naming for this station could have been better? I have lived in Somerville in Ball Sq for 2 years and I do not know many individuals who even know what Gilman Square is. There's little culture or businesses around the name of Gilman Square. I don't think there's even a sign for it like other squares in Somerville. There were other stations on GLX renamed too - such as Brickbottom --> East Somerville and Lowell St --> Magoun Square (great moves).

I would love to hear a transit fan or pundit's thoughts on naming of stations and how it's done. It is interesting because there have been many other instances of this chicken/egg scenario where an area actually became more notable because of the station there (Quincy Adams or JFK/UMass), but there have also been some where it never caught on (Science Park).
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Disagree. I lived in East Somerville for a few years and always knew where Gilman Square was, even though it was always very light on commercial and very heavy on residential. School/Medford/Pearl are a pretty major crosstown crossroads of streets. It had a longstanding B&M stop (called "Winter Hill") there until the late-30's, remnants of which were easily visible until GLX construction came along. It's flanked within 2 blocks on both sides by heavy-ridership buses and ex-streetcar lines, which explains why the B&M stop lasted until bustitition. The projected GLX ridership there is certainly no slouch. In the modern era it became harder to get to because of the Chinese wall created by McGrath, but historically and due to transit routings that was a bigger gravity well than the Fellsway/Medford intersection where all the car overloads now trawl.
 
It's been mentioned before on this thread, but I think there could've been some better names:
  • Magoun Square would probably be more appropriate as Somerville Junction, but it works alright.
  • Brickbottom is more memorable in my opinion than East Somerville
  • Someone said Tufts / Medford would be more appropriate as Tufts / Medford Hillside and I definitely like that better, it's a better representation of the neighborhood
 
The EGE said:
The only other obvious name for the station would be Winter Hill, and I suspect that was avoided due to the longstanding association of that name.
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Exactly.... (discreet whispering) Ixnay on the Bulgerskay!
 
Is historical Gilman Square a place on the top of the hill or the flat below? My Problem has been that all the "Somerville Government Center" stuff that defined the area was at the top of the hill, and basically one cool building, a gas station, and a bunch of knock-downs defined the flat below.

I think the Gilman name works despite all else because the school is so iconic, yet "School" would have been a terrible name for a neighborhood
 
BentFryingPan said:
  • Someone said Tufts / Medford would be more appropriate as Tufts / Medford Hillside and I definitely like that better, it's a better representation of the neighborhood
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FWIW the official name is Medford / Tufts, partly because at the last minute Medford realized that nobody would know that Medford had any subway if it was all "Somerville Neighborhoods and Collegy-Tufty-Something" And partly because anti-Tufts grumbling was thinly-veiled with claims of confusion with "Tufts Medical"

Also Seeing that transit didn't ruin property values, South Medford recently broke from a 20 year anti-transit fever and asked if something--(Ball Sqaure)-- could be named for them.
SMRTO (South Medford Resdents TOgether) calls the stations Tufts/Medford and Ball Sq. South Medford.

East Somerville is also a purely political name...trying to rope more real estate listings into its walkshed.
 
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