Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

BostonTrainGuy said:
Yeah not a very inviting place to walk or ride. Note to all you graffiti defenders . . . not good.
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This could be a good area to look at mural art. I know the arguments about cost/maintenance.
These buildings are owned by FlagGraphics and Cataldo. Surely Flaggraphics have the expertise to put something on their wall, even if it's a mural that promotes their business.
I don't think there's going to be any room to plant trees/plants so the only way to avoid graffiti is to put murals along here.
If done right, it could become a feature or focal point at what will otherwise be the worst looking part of the project.
 
Ruairi said:
This could be a good area to look at mural art. I know the arguments about cost/maintenance.
These buildings are owned by FlagGraphics and Cataldo. Surely Flaggraphics have the expertise to put something on their wall, even if it's a mural that promotes their business.
I don't think there's going to be any room to plant trees/plants so the only way to avoid graffiti is to put murals along here.
If done right, it could become a feature or focal point at what will otherwise be the worst looking part of the project.
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Also couldn't ivy be planted to cover the walls on the white building?
 
Ruairi said:
This could be a good area to look at mural art. I know the arguments about cost/maintenance.
These buildings are owned by FlagGraphics and Cataldo. Surely Flaggraphics have the expertise to put something on their wall, even if it's a mural that promotes their business.
I don't think there's going to be any room to plant trees/plants so the only way to avoid graffiti is to put murals along here.
If done right, it could become a feature or focal point at what will otherwise be the worst looking part of the project.
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Yeah. Always enjoy the various murals on the Neponset River Trail. They have been there for a while now, and I don't think they get particularly much maintenance/upkeep. Ivy is also cool as long as it doesn't damage the masonry work.
 
B and C branches are moving to GC, and D Branch to North Station, on October 24. Presumably this is to allow mock service on the Union Square Branch, where D Branch trains will continue empty past North Station as if they were in service. I'm not thrilled about 2 branches terminating at GC - it severely limits the headway management that can be done at the terminal - but that may well be temporary since North Station will be available again in 2022.
 
The EGE said:
B and C branches are moving to GC, and D Branch to North Station, on October 24. Presumably this is to allow mock service on the Union Square Branch, where D Branch trains will continue empty past North Station as if they were in service. I'm not thrilled about 2 branches terminating at GC - it severely limits the headway management that can be done at the terminal - but that may well be temporary since North Station will be available again in 2022.
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thanks for the info. I know it's been chatted about on here before but how much time is usually allocated for testing? If they are to hit their target, that's only two months of testing. I thought I read that more time is needed.
 
Two months is probably about right, save for the unlikely event of a serious issue being discovered. The signaling is just standard block signals (more or less identical to those in the Central Subway and on the D Branch) that's fairly simple to fully test, so it's not like more sophisticated train control systems where truly rigorous testing is needed.
 
The EGE said:
B and C branches are moving to GC, and D Branch to North Station, on October 24. Presumably this is to allow mock service on the Union Square Branch, where D Branch trains will continue empty past North Station as if they were in service. I'm not thrilled about 2 branches terminating at GC - it severely limits the headway management that can be done at the terminal - but that may well be temporary since North Station will be available again in 2022.
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Interesting! Does this mean they're just not going to use the inner northbound track at Park St for now? Or did they finish that crossover so that trains on the inner track don't have to go through the Park St loop?
 
The sketchy stretch of the path is real. But relatively brief. Half mile from the McGrath steel bridge to the new overpass at Brickbottom. About a fifth of the whole length of the new 2.2 mile path extension from Lowell St to the Cambridge Crossing park.
 
devnull said:
Interesting! Does this mean they're just not going to use the inner northbound track at Park St for now? Or did they finish that crossover so that trains on the inner track don't have to go through the Park St loop?
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I would assume that the inner track will be unused except for short turns - I haven't heard anything about the crossover.
 
Not fighting about graffiti only works if both sides agree to the ceasefire. You can't expect one side of the argument to sit it out and the other side to use that as an excuse to make snippy comments without pushback.
 
BostonTrainGuy said:
Yeah not a very inviting place to walk or ride. Note to all you graffiti defenders . . . not good.
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There is actually some excellent and interesting street art in the area including these that I was able to partially snap on my last trip on the downeaster which are right on that white building in the picture.
graf1.jpeg
graf2.jpeg

There was another great one I unfortunately couldn't get a pic of in time. I personally am super excited to be able to walk and bike along that stretch people throw up masterpieces there quite frequently and I rarely get to see them, this will give me more opportunity.

erom said:
Not fighting about graffiti only works if both sides agree to the ceasefire. You can't expect one side of the argument to sit it out and the other side to use that as an excuse to make snippy comments without pushback.
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It is very clearly the people opposed to it who have such a fixation on it and cant seem to stop with over the top doomsday framings of anywhere they happen to see it. Graffiti does not imply immanent death to everyone lol. Quite clearly the moderators also do not see this kind of nuisance complaint as a problem and only take issue with discussing it when people oppose seeing it as a problem so I wont say much more.

Charlie_mta said:
Also couldn't ivy be planted to cover the walls on the white building?
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bakgwailo said:
Yeah. Always enjoy the various murals on the Neponset River Trail. They have been there for a while now, and I don't think they get particularly much maintenance/upkeep. Ivy is also cool as long as it doesn't damage the masonry work.
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The problem with Ivy is none of them are native, quite a few of them functionally act like invasive species here and don't offer much to pollinators or local wildlife. There are native and regional climbers though including the varieties of concord grapes or other regional grape species, Allegheny vine (which is native and endangered), Trumpet climbers, etc. many better options to plant.
 
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donkeybutlers said:
There is actually some excellent and interesting street art in the area including these that I was able to partially snap on my last trip on the downeaster which are right on that white building in the picture.
View attachment 17975View attachment 17976
There was another great one I unfortunately couldn't get a pic of in time. I personally am super excited to be able to walk and bike along that stretch people throw up masterpieces there quite frequently and I rarely get to see them, this will give me more opportunity.


It is very clearly the people opposed to it who have such a fixation on it and cant seem to stop with over the top doomsday framings of anywhere they happen to see it. Graffiti does not imply immanent death to everyone lol. Quite clearly the moderators also do not see this kind of nuisance complaint as a problem and only take issue with discussing it when people oppose seeing it as a problem so I wont say much more.





The problem with Ivy is none of them are native, quite a few of them functionally act like invasive species here and don't offer much to pollinators or local wildlife. There are native and regional climbers though including the varieties of concord grapes or other regional grape species, Allegheny vine (which is native and endangered), Trumpet climbers, etc. many better options to plant.
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I’m not opposed to cool interesting stuff, I just hate lazy tagging. I get it. You’re name is City and you like to write it everywhere. The more accesable the location the crappier the tagging.
 
Ruairi said:
I’m not opposed to cool interesting stuff, I just hate lazy tagging. I get it. You’re name is City and you like to write it everywhere. The more accesable the location the crappier the tagging.
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Thats a product of criminalization to some degree. Easier and faster to do a quick tag than a full piece, easier to spend more time in more inaccessible areas where you are less likely to get the cops called on you, general urge to tag everywhere because your tags keep getting covered up, etc. In places like Berlin which take a very different attitude to graffiti you do still see some of that but there are so many more amazing large scale (to the scope of full wall murals) and highly visible masterpieces all over the city. Bad graffiti, especially in prominent locations, even gets covered up with better graffiti instead of mutating splotches of grey paint like you see all over the place here.
 
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donkeybutlers said:
Thats a product of criminalization to some degree. Easier and faster to do a quick tag than a full piece, easier to spend more time in more inaccessible areas where you are less likely to get the cops called on you, general urge to tag everywhere because your tags keep getting covered up, etc. In places like Berlin which take a very different attitude to graffiti you do still see some of that but there are so many more amazing large scale (to the scope of full wall murals) and highly visible masterpieces all over the city. Bad graffiti, especially in prominent locations, even gets covered up with better graffiti instead of mutating splotches of grey paint like you see all over the place here.
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Also, certain walls and surfaces, if left untouched, actually look like total crap on their own after 20-30 years just due to weathering, lack of maintenance, etc. No simple cast concrete retaining wall actually looks great on its own over time, and can actually send more strong vibes of urban decay and lack of public investment than it would if the same wall were covered in beautiful graffiti art. There's a big difference between a cheap tag on a nice piece of building facade material or the side of a subway car, compared to artwork on a retaining wall.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Also, certain walls and surfaces, if left untouched, actually look like total crap on their own after 20-30 years just due to weathering, lack of maintenance, etc. No simple cast concrete retaining wall actually looks great on its own over time, and can actually send more strong vibes of urban decay and lack of public investment than it would if the same wall were covered in beautiful graffiti art. There's a big difference between a cheap tag on a nice piece of building facade material or the side of a subway car, compared to artwork on a retaining wall.
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I know we're getting sidetracked again but the problem for me is not the great piece of art on the retaining wall, it's all the crap that's associated with it. Tagging on all available roller shutters, red brick, light posts, fences, office doors, in the surrounding areas, right down to people randomly writing crap on walls with sharpies.
Just take that area behind alston st. and make it like graffiti ally in central. At least that way it can look cool and be somewhat managed avoiding the need for private business owners to hire bower washers to get crap off red brick every 6 months.
 
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