Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

The Globe said:
In a 41-page lawsuit filed in US District Court in Boston earlier this month, Wood and Rosen - who live on Bussell Road in West Medford - claim, among other things, that the government didn't sufficiently study the environmental impact of moving commuter rail tracks closer to homes in order to make room for a light rail bed along the extension.
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Shouldn't it be "...study the environmental impact of moving commuter rail tracks back closer to homes in order to make room for a light rail bed along the extension after their removal XX years ago when rail service was declining.

I also have to wonder how much money in court costs this will eat up that could be going to real problems.

I guess the studies are only "reasonable" if it comes out in their favor of not running the extension. Why not just have the balls to come out and they dont want it, instead of claiming they didn't do enough studies? If you really think the neighborhood doesn't want the RT16 extension then go out with a petition and prove it. I hope this gets tossed out.


EDIT: These people don't even live along the tracks that are getting moved! Bussel Road is on the other side of they Mystic, almost a mile away from the RT 16 terminal. The only way they would be ever be effected is years in the future if they ever make the push across the Mystic, through West Medford and all the way to Winchester. What the hell
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

If that's the case (how far away they live) the suit will probably be dismissed easily for lack of standing to bring suit.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Something about this just stinks.

As mentioned, they're unaffected. But at least one of the people behind the lawsuit has being waging his own little war against GLX. Why? All I can think, given how goddamn far away he lives, is that he thinks its a colossal waste of money, and he doesn't want money spent. So why muddle it up with more environmental studies and legal fees? They won't stop the project, gauranteed. But they will run up the price tag. So the only thing I can imagine is some backroom deal for this guy because somewhere someone is benefiting from these delays and studies, and in turn, is kicking back some money to him.

Or he's just nuts.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

These types of lawsuits are why nothing gets done in this country anymore.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Charlie_mta said:
These types of lawsuits are why nothing gets done in this country anymore.
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You'll see in the document that plaintiff Dr. Wood has a PhD in "Disability Rights" and is "a self identified person with a disability."

I wonder where one gets such a PhD?
 
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Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

From the Globe story: ""It wasn't done socially correct, organizationally wise," he said."

What a creepy, if not blithering statement.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Judging from the locals commenting on the Globe article, that dude has apparently made himself the "Old Man Yells At Cloud" alpha-dog of the last decade's worth of GLX meetings. Apparently if you go to any town meeting he's instantly and infamously recognizable as "the one who will not yield the microphone".

This may be their first GLX suit, but I doubt this is the couple's first harassing legal maneuver about the project. Or the town/state's first encounter with them on a lifetime's worth of other harassing local legal maneuvers. Sounds like they're well-prepared to bat it away. And that most of their own neighbors wouldn't exactly mind if they got electrocuted by the mic at the next meeting.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

I can't resist posting this Chesterton quote both here at at Railroad.net because it so perfectly describes what one feels when reading the lawsuit:
G.K.Chesterton said:
Every one who has had the misfortune to talk with people in the heart or on the edge of mental disorder, knows that their most sinister quality is a horrible clarity of detail; a connecting of one thing with another in a map more elaborate than a maze. If you argue with a madman, it is extremely probable that you will get the worst of it; for in many ways his mind moves all the quicker for not being delayed by the things that go with good judgment. He is not hampered by a sense of humour or by charity, or by the dumb certainties of experience. He is the more logical for losing certain sane affections. Indeed, the common phrase for insanity is in this respect a misleading one. The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason
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And this little extra for the arcBOSTON audience:
G.K.Chesterton said:
The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.
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Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

I'm not sure how to section youtube videos but skip to 22:00 and these dweebs Wood and Rosen get to talking about the green line extension

EDIT/ADDITION::I hadn't finished watching the video when i had initially made this post...they suck worse then i thought. she also called the green line a "boondoggle"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDWWt6FS6S0
 
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Lurker sits comfortably in his manor unable to type an appropriate response to lunacy

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Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

rdeastcl said:
I'm not sure how to section youtube videos but skip to 22:00 and these dweebs Wood and Rosen get to talking about the green line extension

EDIT/ADDITION::I hadn't finished watching the video when i had initially made this post...they suck worse then i thought. she also called the green line a "boondoggle"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDWWt6FS6S0
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"Visual Radio"? What station is that show on? The date says 2011 but the production values say 1983. (And the name says 1947.)
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

rdeastcl said:
I'm not sure how to section youtube videos but skip to 22:00 and these dweebs Wood and Rosen get to talking about the green line extension

EDIT/ADDITION::I hadn't finished watching the video when i had initially made this post...they suck worse then i thought. she also called the green line a "boondoggle"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDWWt6FS6S0
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This older video of him is much more entertaining (from the Globe article comments):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MGQYUq8ZG08#t=182s
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Some observations on the Wood-Rosen selective-fact machine.

In the video, Dr. Wood notes that by 2020 or 2025 cars will be getting twice the mileage of today, with the implication being that since cars will be so much cleaner by then, the Green Line won't be needed to mitigate anything. I somewhat sympathize with the enviro point--discounted Zipcar Priuses and more Hubway would have a bigger impact on air quality for less $ But Dr Wood is not balanced across modes. Only for cars is he happy to assume that the mandated great progress in vehicle emissions is a sure thing.

Yet when it comes to diesels, he's all fear-mongering and makes no allowance for progress *that has already happened* Diesel commuter rail in Dr. Wood's world is assumed to be the same old Diesel. He's wronger about that than he is right about cars. Even MBTA's currrent aging CR fleet, when in motion through Medford, is already much cleaner than he allows for, thanks to Urea additives and cleaner diesel. Plus by the time the tracks are moved 8' closer to the side of the ROW, the MBTA will be running even cleaner MPI HS46s.

He's also fairly "out there" to make a big deal out of CR's track movement. The reality is that the trains are moving one "slot" closer to half the homes but also one slot farther from the other half--I'd say that's worthy of a Finding of No Significant Impact.

But what is the impact? Highways emit continuously, but rail does not. Trains pass at 30mph at most 6 times per hour. At 44 feet per second, we're still talking something like a *max* of 60 seconds (call it 10 seconds per train) of "exposure" in the worst hours of the day, and probably no more than 10 minutes (out of 1440 in a day). We're basically comparing zero to zero for train emissions that move 8'.

He also assumes that the buses "attracted" to the new GLX will be dirty diesels. True, the north side doesn't have CNGs (it might by 2025 too) but the diesel fleet is now using low-sulfur diesel and particulate traps, but in Dr. Wood's filings buses are the black smoke-belching phatoms from some indeterminate past.

Only by aggressively being selective in his facts is Dr Wood able to sustain his narrative.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Arlington said:
Some observations on the Wood-Rosen selective-fact machine.

In the video, Dr. Wood notes that by 2020 or 2025 cars will be getting twice the mileage of today, with the implication being that since cars will be so much cleaner by then, the Green Line won't be needed to mitigate anything. I somewhat sympathize with the enviro point--discounted Zipcar Priuses and more Hubway would have a bigger impact on air quality for less $ But Dr Wood is not balanced across modes. Only for cars is he happy to assume that the mandated great progress in vehicle emissions is a sure thing.

Yet when it comes to diesels, he's all fear-mongering and makes no allowance for progress *that has already happened* Diesel commuter rail in Dr. Wood's world is assumed to be the same old Diesel. He's wronger about that than he is right about cars. Even MBTA's currrent aging CR fleet, when in motion through Medford, is already much cleaner than he allows for, thanks to Urea additives and cleaner diesel. Plus by the time the tracks are moved 8' closer to the side of the ROW, the MBTA will be running even cleaner MPI HS46s.

He's also fairly "out there" to make a big deal out of CR's track movement. The reality is that the trains are moving one "slot" closer to half the homes but also one slot farther from the other half--I'd say that's worthy of a Finding of No Significant Impact.

But what is the impact? Highways emit continuously, but rail does not. Trains pass at 30mph at most 6 times per hour. At 44 feet per second, we're still talking something like a *max* of 60 seconds (call it 10 seconds per train) of "exposure" in the worst hours of the day, and probably no more than 10 minutes (out of 1440 in a day). We're basically comparing zero to zero for train emissions that move 8'.

He also assumes that the buses "attracted" to the new GLX will be dirty diesels. True, the north side doesn't have CNGs (it might by 2025 too) but the diesel fleet is now using low-sulfur diesel and particulate traps, but in Dr. Wood's filings buses are the black smoke-belching phatoms from some indeterminate past.

Only by aggressively being selective in his facts is Dr Wood able to sustain his narrative.
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Hmmm....based on his comments in the video, somebody less skilled in the art of nuance might get the impression that Mr. Wood is actually opposed to the Green Line. I thought he just wanted further study. (read sarcasm)

At the risk of being classless....what are the chances this gentleman is still alive when the first trains come rolling by his house?

Wait? You mean they aren't actually going to roll by his house?

This lawsuit is exhibit A for a "loser pays" system of tort reform.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Green Line Extension Project managers to hold March 5 abutters meeting at St. Clement

On Tuesday, March 5, the Green Line Extension (GLX) Project will hold an Abutters Meeting at the St. Clement School cafeteria, 579 Boston Ave., Medford, at 7 p.m., for those directly affected by Phase 1 construction and any concerned citizens interested in the construction relating to the Harvard Street Railroad Bridge in Medford and the surrounding drainage reconstruction.

With Barletta Heavy Division, Inc. having received their Notice to Proceed with construction for Phase 1 of the GLX Project, this meeting will be an opportunity for the project team to present the extent of the Harvard Street Bridge and area drainage construction, and address any questions or concerns before the construction begins.

In the coming weeks, the GLX project will hold a larger public meeting with the Phase 1 contractor and the community to discuss the full extent of Phase 1 construction in Medford, Somerville and Cambridge.

It will be an opportunity to meet the team, discuss the schedule and to present opportunities for stakeholders to follow the progress of the project.

You will be notified of the time and location of this public meeting later this week.

More information about the project is available on the Green Line Extension website at: http://www.greenlineextension.com/.
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http://www.wickedlocal.com/medford/...ting-at-St-Clement?rssfeed=true#axzz2MEh8ZBsa
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Sounds like Phase I only. I can't even imagine who would go to this other than crazy old NIMBYs who will bitch about anything, even if irrelevant to Phase I.
 
Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

I'd go if I were an abutter, just to know when and where construction is going to happen. There are probably minor temporary land takings (easements) during the project. Maybe also intermittent street closures.
 
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