Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

In Ron Paul land, we return to the gold token standard. Plastic fiat CharlieCards are of the devil. Only gold buys you true transit. Also, we rename the Orange Line to the Gold Line.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

ant8904 said:
Care to tell a little bit.
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My wife is an Über Liberal, hasn't ever voted for a Republican in her life, dragged me to more Obama fundraisers than I care to remember the first go around, and will be voting for Jill Stein this time around. I am essentially married to a sexy female lawyer version of Ron Newman. She refuses to vote for Warren and won't be voting for Brown either.

Liz is a ruthless lawyer when it comes to a willingness to find and utilize any aspect or loophole of the law, no matter how dubious or questionably moral, which will ensure a favorable outcome to her interests. She is a very anxious woman whom can be very nasty, on paper, when pursuing her self interests. Liz has no qualms arguing one side of a case for a client and then representing the other side in another case, as long her interests are furthered. Altruism isn't part of her personality and that's why you've never heard a peep about pro-bono work.

Genuinely surprised Liz got into politics. Based on being dragged around by the wifey to various events and meeting Liz, she never struck me as a people person. Though her second husband Bruce is very personable. He's more likable than she is and I find it surprising that Bruce hasn't been making more campaign appearances.

This law professor has been running down some of her questionable behavior:
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/1...tos-workers-hostage-to-inter-corporate-fight/

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/1...tion-of-elizabeth-warren-law-license-problem/

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/1...-high-6-figure-income-and-8-figure-net-worth/
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Matthew said:
In Ron Paul land, we return to the gold token standard. Plastic fiat CharlieCards are of the devil. Only gold buys you true transit. Also, we rename the Orange Line to the Gold Line.
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Okay, but how do Bitcoins factor into this?
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

I am essentially married to a sexy female lawyer version of Ron Newman.
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That just made me laugh out loud. Somehow I got a visual of Ron in a bikini arguing a court case.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Lurker said:
Liz is a ruthless lawyer when it comes to a willingness to find and utilize any aspect or loophole of the law, no matter how dubious or questionably moral, which will ensure a favorable outcome to her interests. She is a very anxious woman whom can be very nasty, on paper, when pursuing her self interests. Liz has no qualms arguing one side of a case for a client and then representing the other side in another case, as long her interests are furthered.
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Assuming all the facts here are correct and characterized correctly (and I'm not so sure), I don't really see the issue here. In fact what you're describing is exactly what a lawyer should be. A lawyer should be able to argue any aspect of any case, using using any "loophole" (I put that in quotes because "loopholes" are often not actually "loopholes" until people with an agenda retroactively redefine them as such).

In fact if lawyers weren't this way, the entire adversarial system would collapse.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

I agree that the facts basically comes down to "being a lawyer." I guess the big deal is that image she poses as she runs seems to be a caring public advocate who knows enough law to use it against the big banks. A bleeding heart, but a possible positive quality considering the state and a being a bleeding heart to issues that many voters care.

However, the image does show she might be far more ruthless than she advertise. Then again, advertising of being a lawyer but a lawyer on your side still will not sell well. So it is understandable she does not push that side hard.

So having a lawyer could be a good thing, assuming she on our side. The two questions remaining is how much is she on our side? And would a ruthless lawyer be a good thing? I thought about before, that perhaps having a government where JD degree holders (with the next largest group being finance/business people but in the networking and not in the money management sense) dominates the posts could be a major cause to our issues.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

At community meetings held around Somerville this fall, the city is saying, in essence, "Happy days are here again" with regards to the Green Line Extension. Despite the MA Secretary for Transportation claiming in September that construction of Phase I would begin "next month" (i.e. last month), actual construction... has not yet begun. Somerville now says "Fall 2012" for bridge work that would lay the ground for the actual extension of new track.

Nitpicking aside, the big points coming out of these meetings are 1) the city claims that funding for the first three stations is a done deal - bonds secured and assured by the Commonwealth; 2) federal FTA grants - not yet secured - would pay for work leading out of Union Square; 3) big news of the presentation was that Federal Highway money would pay for a much-debated final station at the Medford/RT 16 line.

I am a perpetual/casual observer of this project, so I probably missed something, but it was news to me that the first three stations (Lechmere/Northpoint relocation, Washington St, Union Square) are totally, totally bought and paid for. Just need to put the legos together, etc. Almost certainly not the case, but there was no indication from the presentation to suggest otherwise. I had to leave before I could ask any questions.

Tentative opening date for these first three stations on the Powerpoint slide the city showed was Fall 2016. ...then, with a proverbial clearing of the throat, the presenter added, "Or Spring 2017."
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

I would much rather see GLX end in West Medford at their commuter rail station than I would see it end at Route 16.

Has the option for GLX to go to West Medford been discussed at all?
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

As far as I know, it's been discussed to the point that they aren't going to discuss the possibility until it's time to rebuild the RR bridge over the parkway...
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Commuting Boston Student said:
I would much rather see GLX end in West Medford at their commuter rail station than I would see it end at Route 16.

Has the option for GLX to go to West Medford been discussed at all?
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No. West Medford bitched and moaned about all their on-street parking getting inundated by "outsiders", so they spiked it. But $10 says that once it gets to Medford Hillside--even before the Route 16 phase opens--that they'll be crying for a tack-on extension and claiming entitlement.

I think they'll be waiting awhile. STEP isn't done with its advocacy and is a locktight bet to start beating the drum for a Union-Porter extension as soon as Hillside is on the home stretch and the 16 phase is funded and on a schedule. Not even an about-face advocacy by Medford is going to trump STEP's supremely effective ground game and ability to work the squeaky wheel, so regardless of the relative merits of either destination it's tough to argue with the town that wants it worst and will go all-in to make it happen.


The other wrinkle in West Medford is simply that horrible Route 60 grade crossing. GLX was originally supposed to stop short of it and be across the street from the CR station. No one was terribly wild about that because there'd be no place for a stub track...any spare trains would have to deadhead back to 16 and the pocket track that's going there. Plus ped traffic coming off the GLX station would make it that much more precarious a crossing for commuter rail, Downeaster, and freights. And Canal St. crossing would have to be closed because end-of-the-line speed restrictions and near-constant trolley traffic would make it almost useless for auto traffic to cross. Couple in the expense of 'doubling-up' the historic Mystic River and 16 stone arch bridges with exact replica expansions (not hard to do, but not cheap) with those terminal restrictions, and it was just a mediocre-looking extra leg not worth the hassle of community hostility.

What they need to do is eliminate the grade crossings first. NH Main traffic growth alone makes Route 60 intolerably bad, and that already is a severely speed-restricted crossing that has to have a staffed crossing tender all day. They need to incline the tracks down starting off the Mystic Bridge, put it in a cut under the square for 60 to seamlessly bridge over, and either sever Canal St. or do a combo road bridge + track sinking to handle that crossing elimination mid-incline. And make the cut 4-track width so that side of the Mystic is pre-prepped for rapid transit with only the stone arch 'double-up' required to extend it straightforwardly from 16. I think the traffic pain threshold is going to merit this within 10 years RR-only, especially if any New Hampshire CR service becomes likely. And since those are not going to be cheap crossing eliminations ($$$ pretty much the only reason they weren't zapped 50 years ago), they might as well do it once and do it right with the 4-track provision.

Get that long overdue fix funded and constructed and a W. Medford extension becomes much more palatable and much lower-hanging fruit. But I'd like to see the local yokels actually be cooperative for a change at unifying behind a grade crossing elimination plan as a litmus test of whether they're even worth dealing with about future GLX+1 considerations. I don't think they're quite as godawful uncooperative as Framingham about bitching and moaning at every state proposal for their grade crossings not having enough free ponies and pixie dust, but Medford's history is not one of can-do spirit when the state has proposed otherwise common-sense ideas for solving their traffic problems. Plus like I said, I think even if they do start coveting the Green Line STEP's going to run circles around them at having their shit together on future considerations advocacy.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

F-Line to Dudley said:
No. West Medford bitched and moaned about all their on-street parking getting inundated by "outsiders", so they spiked it.
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I wonder if they might have an image in their as to what these 'outsiders' may look like.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

statler said:
I wonder if they might have an image in their as to what these 'outsiders' may look like.
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It was a classic, flawless, airtight bit of NIMBY reasoning:

Outsiders look like nobody I know. I don't ride the Green Line. None of my friends ride the Green Line. Nobody I know rides the Green Line, ergo, anyone riding the Green Line is someone I don't know, and who is not my friend.
​
I had to admit, there is no refuting that, and I sympathized in a way. Also there was this quote:
This is Medford. When we need to go somewhere, we drive.​

But from there, things got psychedelic:

Green Line riders were going to be so poor they were going to steal all "our" stuff, but so rich they would want to replace the hair and nail salons with Starbucks. Home prices would go up so much "our" children can't afford to live here, and go down so much that "our" life savings will be wiped out.

The Green Line is so high-voltage that it will surely electrocute people, but others noted that idling MBTA vehicles always fill neighborhoods with fumes. Vehicles are so quiet, that they hit people who didn't see them coming, and so noisy that you can't sleep at night.

It will be so empty nobody will use it and will be a waste of money, and so full that there won't be any place to park.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Arlington said:
Green Line riders were going to be so poor they were going to steal all "our" stuff, but so rich they would want to replace the hair and nail salons with Starbucks. Home prices would go up so much "our" children can't afford to live here, and go down so much that "our" life savings will be wiped out.

The Green Line is so high-voltage that it will surely electrocute people, but others noted that idling MBTA vehicles always fill neighborhoods with fumes. Vehicles are so quiet, that they hit people who didn't see them coming, and so noisy that you can't sleep at night.

It will be so empty nobody will use it and will be a waste of money, and so full that there won't be any place to park.
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Another piece of 'post of the year' material, here.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Nobody rides the T, it's too crowded.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Arlington said:
It was a classic, flawless, airtight bit of NIMBY reasoning:

Outsiders look like nobody I know. I don't ride the Green Line. None of my friends ride the Green Line. Nobody I know rides the Green Line, ergo, anyone riding the Green Line is someone I don't know, and who is not my friend.
​
I had to admit, there is no refuting that, and I sympathized in a way. Also there was this quote:
This is Medford. When we need to go somewhere, we drive.​

But from there, things got psychedelic:

Green Line riders were going to be so poor they were going to steal all "our" stuff, but so rich they would want to replace the hair and nail salons with Starbucks. Home prices would go up so much "our" children can't afford to live here, and go down so much that "our" life savings will be wiped out.

The Green Line is so high-voltage that it will surely electrocute people, but others noted that idling MBTA vehicles always fill neighborhoods with fumes. Vehicles are so quiet, that they hit people who didn't see them coming, and so noisy that you can't sleep at night.

It will be so empty nobody will use it and will be a waste of money, and so full that there won't be any place to park.
Click to expand...

I heard about a lot of this kind of nonsense back when a major TOD development was being debated in a town I used to live in.

They were proposing lots of one- and two-bedroom luxury condos. They were going to change the character of the town and make all kinds of yuppies move in. These new buildings built to modern fire code would be such a strain on our fire department. And once carless poor people and illegal immigrants heard about them, they were going to snap them up like hotcakes and pack them full of children, three to a bedroom, to take advantage of our schools. And the traffic that these poor immigrants were going to bring! And the crime that a high-end supermarket with (gasp!) a beer and wine license would bring!

Luckily, reason won in the end (we had the carrot of huge amounts of tax revenue being dangled, of course).
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Somerville city meeting last night said ground breaking on Phase I of this project (rebuilding two bridges and demolishing a building for use as a staging area) is December 11.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Ah yes, the traditional late December groundbreaking.

Ie the "nothing will actually happen until April" ceremony.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news..._celebrate_first_p.html?comments=all#comments

Officials to celebrate first phase of Green Line Extension Tuesday

Governor Deval Patrick, US Representative Mike Capuano, and other officials will celebrate the start of construction on the Green Line Extension project Tuesday in Somerville, according to an announcement from the Department of Transportation.

A ceremonial groundbreaking for the first phase on construction on the extension will be held at 1:30 p.m. at 180 Somerville Ave. Phase one calls for the reconstruction of two railroad bridges: one carrying tracks over Harvard Street in Medford and one over Medford Street in Somerville, according to the announcement. It also calls for an MBTA-owned building on Water Street in Cambridge to be razed. The preliminary work is expected to cost $12.9 million, the announcement said.

The extension project will stretch the Green Line from its current terminal station in East Cambridge through Somerville to Medford, creating six new stops. It is expected to be completed by 2020 and cost about $1 billion.

Transportation Secretary Richard Davey and Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone will also be on hand Tuesday.
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