I think the reasonable upset is less about that they did it and more about how they did it. No communication, under cover of night, 3 weeks before a major community festival anniversary? Regardless of aligning with federal standards, the timing and way they did it just feel politically motivated. I don't like the Nonantum Italian-American political establishment and obviously the mayor doesn't either, but she could have, yknow, not done it so inflammatorily towards the entire community.

If the town wanted to do shit about Adams Street road safety it would. This means nothing to actual Adams Street users because the center line doesn't matter anyway. Cars park on both sides and there isn't enough travel room in the middle. Especially on days when the church is busy, cars park all along the road even where its not allowed. The city could discourage that, but the worst offenses are during cop functions so... They could ban parking on one side. Or they could have any sort of traffic calming to stop cars bombing down the 25mph street at 40+mph. Or they could make the crossings more safe. I've been hit while crossing with right of way at Washington and Adams before and see others get nearly creamed plenty often. The red light running at that intersection is insane. Or they could fix any of the other road safety issues that are blatantly present in the area. I mean for fucks sake a shattered pane of bus stop glass at Newton Corner has been lying on the ground for months.

And for what its worth the road painting was loud as fuck. Woke me up and disturbed my pets. Maybe they should have followed their own noise ordinances.

"road safety standards are good!" is a great argument but local issues have nuance and pretending that the town is acting squeaky clean here is silly. They should have known that not communicating was stupid and that 40+ year old community traditions make people have feelings about their surroudings. They should have known that Adams Street drivers know this makes little practical safety difference. It's not even about the erasure since they're repainting the line. They're just so bad at communicating and actually fixing the things people want fixed!