New Design Guidelines Planned for Boylston Streetscape

[itchy]

I hope this project also makes some room for maintenance / cleaning after the capital investments are made.

The thing that shocked me earlier this week on Boylston Street had nothing to do with the width of sidewalks (which seemed fine), lack of bike lanes (I have no idea if they are there) or the materials used in the sidewalks (though the slapdash of varying materials you see on sidewalks in Boston and the region is pretty hideous). It was the amount of trash and absolutely filthy, blackened snow that was on the sidewalks.

The area from the BPL to the Hynes was covered in old cardboard boxes (what are these even used for?), Dunkin' Donuts cups, advertising fliers, discarded gloves and umbrellas, and all other manner of garbage. I'd just come in from Austria and before that Russia. Sadly, no city in the US can even aspire to be as clean as any village, town or city in Austria. But even Moscow, which is an overall highly dirty and ugly city with median income far below Boston's, doesn't have anything approaching that amount of trash in its city center (or even outside the city center). For one of Boston's premier shopping areas to be this dirty and trash-strewn is pretty pathetic and makes Bostonians look like ... well, go figure.

 

[Shepard]

I would much prefer if they invested in doing something about Huntington between Symphony and Copley. No other Back Bay thoroughfare (aside from Storrow if we're counting) needs such an urgent "complete streets" redesign. It's a mess of tour bus idling, duck boat boarding, massive garage entrances, pike ramps, ugly median barriers, and in many instances narrow unadorned sidewalks. To the Prudential Center's credit, they've done a good job activating their stretch of sidewalk with Haru and 5 Napkins. And, there are some active frontages on the south side (Thornton's diner, Brasserie Jo). But, aside from these, Huntington by comparison makes Boylston glitter like the the Avenue Montaigne.

 

[cden4]

At one point, the city was talking of putting a two-way cycle track on the north side of Boylston St. I think this an excellent idea. This would be done by removing one of the three travel lanes and shifting the north side parking lane. That leaves one travel lane for double parking instead of two, which is more than enough. If people are driving through Back Bay quickly, they usually use Storrow or Comm Ave. Boylston St should be more people-oriented since it's where a lot of the stores and restaurants are.

 

[gooseberry]

I hope this project also makes some room for maintenance / cleaning after the capital investments are made.

The thing that shocked me earlier this week on Boylston Street had nothing to do with the width of sidewalks (which seemed fine), lack of bike lanes (I have no idea if they are there) or the materials used in the sidewalks (though the slapdash of varying materials you see on sidewalks in Boston and the region is pretty hideous). It was the amount of trash and absolutely filthy, blackened snow that was on the sidewalks.

The area from the BPL to the Hynes was covered in old cardboard boxes (what are these even used for?), Dunkin' Donuts cups, advertising fliers, discarded gloves and umbrellas, and all other manner of garbage. I'd just come in from Austria and before that Russia. Sadly, no city in the US can even aspire to be as clean as any village, town or city in Austria. But even Moscow, which is an overall highly dirty and ugly city with median income far below Boston's, doesn't have anything approaching that amount of trash in its city center (or even outside the city center). For one of Boston's premier shopping areas to be this dirty and trash-strewn is pretty pathetic and makes Bostonians look like ... well, go figure.

More trash cans would be nice... Sometimes I find myself walking for blocks and blocks carrying trash before finding somewhere to put it. You almost can't blame people for just throwing things on the ground. Of course I think people who do that are apes. Another problem is trash blowing off the top of overflowing trash cans.

 

[fattony]

More trash cans would be nice... Sometimes I find myself walking for blocks and blocks carrying trash before finding somewhere to put it. You almost can't blame people for just throwing things on the ground. Of course I think people who do that are apes. Another problem is trash blowing off the top of overflowing trash cans.

+1

 

[JeffDowntown]

More trash cans would be nice... Sometimes I find myself walking for blocks and blocks carrying trash before finding somewhere to put it. You almost can't blame people for just throwing things on the ground. Of course I think people who do that are apes. Another problem is trash blowing off the top of overflowing trash cans.

The City needs to install more BigBelly's -- the solar trash compactors do not let trash blow out.

 

[whighlander]

More trash cans would be nice... Sometimes I find myself walking for blocks and blocks carrying trash before finding somewhere to put it. You almost can't blame people for just throwing things on the ground. Of course I think people who do that are apes. Another problem is trash blowing off the top of overflowing trash cans.

Particularly bad in the Winter ... between stuff blowing out of over filled cans, cans which are mired in the slush and so people just dump it where they are ... etc.

Usually the city makes a good effort to clean-up the Back Bay around the first week of April and it stays reasonably clean through the summer and on past the return of the students. Along with the cleanliness -- the city and the merchants plants flowers in beds, hangs flower baskets, put out big and small pots, people hang banners, the city hangs banners -- it actually looks remarkable -- then come the end of the end of the dining al fresco weather and the streets get less nice -- all the extras like the tropicals in the Public Garden go back inside for the next 6 months and the banners come down.

Only the glitz and flash of the Holiday phase when the lights glisten and shoppers listen to hear the Chestnuts Roast ... etc., diverts our attention to the fact that the sidewalks and the streets are seeing reduced regular cleaning and maintenance.

Finally, after the last of the decorations are packed-up and the snowy, slushy stuff with wild winds settles in early January -- people just give up and wait for Spring.

This applies to people's yards out in the suburbs as well. In the spring and summer you never see any trash along the streets and sidewalks -- Because you walk your property line and pick it up -- comes the slush, biting wind, cold rain, and stuff -- you just wait for Spring and the first time the street sweepers are out and about.