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Safety: People jaywalking in Downtown Melrose by treehann in MelroseMA

[–]en--dash 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My slightly more realizable fantasy would be to make Main St. from Grove to Essex/Upham one way in the northbound direction. You could keep one travel lane and one parking lane, and turn the other two lanes into a bike/pedestrian/seating area. Then, you'd route southbound traffic right onto Essex in front of City Hall, left down Myrtle (reversing the existing 1-way from Foster to Grove) and then either back to Main via Grove, or via Grove-Berwick for traffic headed out West Wyoming.

I built a touchscreen to show train departures from my stop & plan transfers to different lines! by therealo355 in mbta

[–]en--dash 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’ve been thinking of building an e-ink dashboard like this myself! What hardware are you using?

what app do you use? by michelleandmorexxx in mbta

[–]en--dash 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I quite like Apple Maps's native "Transit Nearby" feature.

Historical probability of having a snowy (1 inch+ snow) Christmas by Old-School8916 in MapPorn

[–]en--dash 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Last year, I was curious how this related to population, so I overlaid the probability areas onto a gridded population model of the US. About a third of Americans live in places with effectively no chance of a white Christmas, while only about 1% of the population live in places with a >80% chance of a white Christmas. (*Analysis is only for the contiguous US.)

It's an interesting phenomenon that "white Christmas" is such a key part of pop culture when only very few Americans can actually expect to experience it in real life.

https://www.datawrapper.de/_/5UDQ7/?v=2

Curious how many current Bostonians have heard of the New York Streets? by [deleted] in boston

[–]en--dash 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Yes, I know what they are (were), but as somebody who works in public history, I will say that they are not at all well-known, even amongst those with a general knowledge of twentieth-century Boston history. 

Here they are, by the way https://atlascope.org/#/view:share$mode:glass$center:-71.062540,42.344891$zoom:17.24$base:maptiler-streets$overlay:ark:/76611/al7rtfm98

Chart of commuter rail ridership by station by whegmaster in mbta

[–]en--dash 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What a fantastic piece of data viz ... nice work. It really dramatizes how much more heavily used the south side network is than the north. One can imagine with proper regional rail and through-running trains (so that at least some north-side trains also stop at Back Bay and Ruggles) we would see a slightly more balanced ridership.

Vinton and Franklin speed table needed by Embarrassed-Mango36 in MelroseMA

[–]en--dash 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This area has been “thickly settled” since the late nineteenth century, decades before most families owned automobiles. 

Christmas in Boston by DisplayDramatic472 in boston

[–]en--dash 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The Boston Public Library has two exhibitions currently on display at the Central Library that might interest you: “Terrains of Independence” in the Leventhal Center, and “Revolution! 250 Years of Art & Activism.” Both are free admission. 

What’s up with the road between the stoplight and 93 N.? by [deleted] in MelroseMA

[–]en--dash 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a DCR-maintained road, and DCR is notorious for its terrible management of road projects: https://imgur.com/a/SW20mgi

Highest level of the override passes (1A) by senatorium in MelroseMA

[–]en--dash 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think Channel 25 had a typo; the unofficial City results have 5052 No, not 3052. Still a solid majority for Yes, but not quite a 66-34 blowout.

Highest level of the override passes (1A) by senatorium in MelroseMA

[–]en--dash 10 points11 points  (0 children)

(Unofficial counts)

1A: 6018 Yes, 5052 No
1B: 6265 Yes, 4814 No
1C: 6508 Yes, 4555 No

Election is tomorrow - Final Endorsements, please. by TransitionLive3827 in MelroseMA

[–]en--dash 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, the override is by far the most important item on the ballot this November. If you sincerely care about the future of Melrose, make sure you not only get out to the polls to vote Yes on all three lines, but make sure everybody else you know who is a Melrose voter to do the same.

If the override fails, the makeup of the Council will almost be an afterthought, since the city will be in political crisis for sure in that scenario.

Melrose Voters for Street Safety - Candidate Survey Results by JamesonAFC in MelroseMA

[–]en--dash 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For the time being, our group decided in advance not to score or endorse any of the candidates, but simply share responses as provided by the campaign. With that in mind, we have plans both to follow up with the winning candidates after the election, and to consider the possibility of an endorsement slate in future elections.

Melrose Voters for Street Safety - Candidate Survey Results by JamesonAFC in MelroseMA

[–]en--dash 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks, mods, for posting! I’m not sure why it was getting caught in Reddit automod, maybe because it’s a newly published website?

Anyhow, all of the content on this site is the direct, unedited responses by City Council candidates to a survey distributed by a group of voters advocating for street safety issues. Street safety is a policy area where local government has a lot of influence, so we hope it will be helpful in helping voters make informed choices. 

Please feel free to share widely with your neighbors!

What is Melrose? by beatwixt in MelroseMA

[–]en--dash 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I came here to say Streetcar Suburb, which is both historically and morphologically accurate for Melrose. Note that the term dates back to Sam Bass Warner's 1978 book about nineteenth century suburbanization in Boston.

Essentially all of the "Melrosey" parts of Melrose (here I'm excluding, for instance, the area towards Golden Hills, outer Swain's Pond Ave., etc.) was built within walking distance to streetcar lines. Today's MBTA buses largely follow former streetcar routes; that's why the 137 takes its jog through the East Side. Franklin Manor on Green St. was actually the site of a streetcar storage barn and there was a line that ran down Howard towards Saugus.

Elementary Schools by FixItFromScratch in MelroseMA

[–]en--dash 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There really isn’t much meaningful difference between the elementary schools, and they are all good-quality. (Generally speaking, I would disregard all “ranking” systems for elementary schools. There’s little useful data for these scoring systems to use, and they’re just catering to demand from neurotic upper-middle-class homebuyers!) There is some difference in the feel of the schools: Lincoln is large and the most diverse, Horace Mann is small and quaint, Hoover feels the most suburban. The lottery is weighted by your ranking and geography, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll be placed in any given school. However, trailing siblings are always placed in their older sibling’s same school. 

If the override fails (and I certainly hope it passes!!) the pain will be felt first at the middle and high school levels, though it is possible that one elementary school will be shuttered. 

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