New York’s Citi Bikes have begun rolling out around the city

Dear New York:

We here in Boston wanted to be the first to welcome you to the bikesharing club. It’s an exciting time for you, we know. We were curiously watching these “bicycle stations” get deployed around our city just two years ago. Like you, we didn’t know exactly what to expect. We had heard about their success in Europe, but that didn’t mean much to us. Those of us who were familiar with DC’s experience were excited and optimistic we’d see the same success they had.

It turns out we did. Hubway ridership continually eclipses projections. When the stations closed last fall for winter, we had complaints as people were forced to get around the city the boring way: walking, driving, or taking the T. There is discussion of keeping some stations open next winter, and we can’t wait!

What’s the big deal, you ask? Bikeshare transforms transportation in a city. Have you ever tried to get from DUMBO to Red Hook? Two bus connections and 45 minutes later you’re already thinking about how you’re getting home. Well, with Citi Bike, you can grab a bicycle, hop on the Brooklyn Bridge Park Greenway, and you’re there in 15 minutes. No sweat!

We know, it hasn’t gone smoothly so far. You’ve had some fits and starts. But trust us, it will be worth it. You don’t even know what’s about to happen to your city. You know how the main topic of discussion at every New York party is how you got there and how you’re getting home? Citi Bike is going to make things so much easier. It doesn’t close. There’s no traffic. It’s there when you need it and it’s super cheap.

Some of your more annoying residents are making a scene trying to obstruct Citi Bike stations. It’s not their fault. They don’t understand what’s happening either. But trust us, these same people complaining about stations in front of their business will be begging for them this time next year. That’s how it’s happened here and elsewhere. Just try to ignore them for now.

Finally, we also know that you fancy your five-borough home unique. No, you are, we get it. But in this you’re better positioned to realize the benefits of bikesharing. What Boston, DC, and New York have in common is that getting around is a pain. Bikeshare makes it easier. And more enjoyable. Plus, you have the best bicycle infrastructure of the three of us.

We’re actually jealous. But we’d never admit it. Enjoy your new toys, we can’t wait to come visit.

Yankees suck.

Unprecedented lockdown in Boston area (Credit: Jonathan Wiggs; courtesy Boston Globe)

There is much to say at the end of this most bizzarre week in Boston, and there are many who have and will continue to say it. Little of this has to do with the general topic of this blog — though there is at least one discussion about safety priorities to be had at a later date. So rather than trying to shoehorn some transportation connection or compete with the qualified voices already speaking, the purpose of this post is to offer a description of life during a terrorist attack, federal manhunt, and state-imposed lockdown. (In other words, this is probably as much for me as anything else, so please excuse me.)

Monday

I live in a third-story apartment in East Cambridge, about a mile and a half due north of the explosions at Monday’s marathon. I was working at home when the bombs went off and preparing to head to the finish line to watch my uncle when I heard the news. The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to track him down to make sure he was safe (he was) and fielding calls and texts from concerned friends and family members, including from my wife who was out of town for work that day. Meanwhile, reports of “suspicious packages” came flooding in from around the area and an electrical fire in the JFK Library was briefly considered a third attack. By the next morning, police would confirm that the two bombs set off near the finish line were all that were found, and that they did not know much about who did it and why.

Tuesday

As Boston comes to terms with what has happened, we have more questions than answers. Police are poring over photos and videos from Marathon Monday in hopes of finding clues and continue asking people for any images they have.

Wednesday

Wednesday’s hockey game was full of positive energy as Boston celebrated its resiliency

After canceling the Bruins game on Monday and Celtics game on Tuesday, the TD Garden opens up again Wednesday evening as the Bruins host the Buffalo Sabres. My wife and I happened to have tickets to the game and were eager to be part of Boston’s return to normalcy.

While I wasn’t sure what to expect, I wondered whether some might stay home or feel uneasy. Instead, I found an exuberant crowd and a positive atmosphere, even directed towards us in the “wrong” jerseys.

By now you’ve probably heard our arena-wide rendition of the national anthem, which was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. There were other nice moments, too: a very well-done tribute video, a commercial break during which marathon runners were asked to stand, and both teams giving hockey’s famous salute to Boston. We left the arena feeling good.

Thursday

News came out early in the day that investigators had found strong evidence in photos and videos and would be releasing photos of the suspects. We waited all day before the photos and surveillance videos were finally released around 6pm. The images showed two young men walking deliberately with backpacks down Boylston Street amid the joyous marathon crowd. It was chilling. And somehow it changed things. The faceless evildoers suddenly had faces. They, too, were people. At this point it becomes clear that they will be caught, but you ask how and what will happen until then.

Still, things moved along. I attended a networking event on Sidney Street in Cambridge. I came home, ordered a pizza, and walked with my dog to pick it up. I waited and wondered.

Shortly after 10:30 that night I started hearing sirens. And instead of drifting off, they grew more numerous. Over the next 20 minutes it was obvious something significant was going on. I turned on the news and scanned Twitter for information, but no one had anything yet. Finally, Twitter revealed that a police officer had been shot on Vassar Street near MIT. I had biked through the area just two hours earlier.

The sirens outside my window continued to grow and eventually combined with the sounds of helicopters. MIT sent a warning to its students that one of its officers had been shot and students should stay inside. Likewise, Cambridge Police told neighbors to stay off the street. I alternated between Twitter, local news, and streaming audio of police scanners to figure out what was going on. Finally, it seemed the activity had moved on toward Watertown so I decided to sneak out so my dog could go to the bathroom before turning in for the night. Surely, I thought, this will be over by the time I wake up.

Friday

Map of key events and locations in hunt for suspected marathon bombers (courtesy Boston Gobe)

Just after 6am I was awakened by a text message from the City of Cambridge declaring a “shelter in place” emergency and instructing me not to go outside. I turned on the radio to hear newscasters describing the unprecedented situation I was waking up to. The entire MBTA system was shut down and residents of Watertown and each of its neighboring towns (including Cambridge) were to stay indoors. Initially, only the Allston-Brighton neighborhood of Boston was included, but this order was expanded to include the entire city by mid-morning. Apparently, the overnight shoot-out in Watertown had lead to the death of one of the suspects and the other was at large.

Over the course of the morning we would learn the names of the suspects, who were brothers, and some preliminary details about their lives. With little else known about what was happening, we were left considering the significant decision to lock down a million residents and close thousands of businesses in a major US city.

I made a decision early that morning not to turn on the TV. Yes, there may be important developments, but I was not interested in sorting through the inevitable scourge of misinformation from local and national media. Instead, I left the radio tuned to WBUR, our local NPR affiliate, in one room in the apartment. I would check in periodically to see if there were any significant updates. I also stayed up to date with Twitter, which is relatively easy to fact check.

Over the course of the morning, Cambridge Police alerted me to numerous “suspicious packages” at familiar locations: Harvard Street, Memorial Drive, Broadway… These would all turn out to be false alarms. At the same time, there’s activity at a house on Norfolk Street and Cambridge Street. It’s less than a half mile away. My dog and I walked past there Thursday night with the pizza. At first it’s thought there is a suspect there. Then that there may be explosives. Finally, Police confirm that it is the Tsarnaev home, but that there is no threat. Chilling, but not alarming.

By about 10:00 that morning my dog has grown impatient. She struggles to understand “shelter in place.” I decide to take her to the yard next door, but not before texting my fellow building residents that they’d be hearing me in the hallway and not to be alarmed. We visit the yard without incident and stop for a coffee with the neighbors on the way back up to our floor.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon are spent with texts and phone calls and checking in with the radio and social media for updates. Not a lot of new information is coming out. We learn that the police are continuing to go door-to-door in Watertown looking for the second brother. Frequent reminders from media and the City of Cambridge tell me not to go outside and to keep my doors locked. Don’t open your door for anyone, they say, except uniformed police officers.

The truly jarring aspect of this lockdown is the complete absence of activity outside. I work from home and am accustomed to a certain amount of noise from the street. But not today. I saw one car all morning: a cab which stopped outside to drop off a young man who quickly scurried into his house. This thriving metro had been converted into a post-apocalyptic ghost town.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Wiggs, Boston Globe

Photo Credit: Suzanne Kreiter, Boston Globe

Photo Credit: Boston Globe

Photo Credit: Reuters

The two overwhelming sentiments of this situation are its magnitude and its strangeness. Boston is familiar with weather events that “shut down” the city, but this is completely different. As Hurricane Sandy and Winter Storm Nemo closed in, they stopped the T and told people to stay at home. But we understood what was happening and the only question was its severity. We could calculate a risk assessment and leave the house. In this case we did not have good information on what had happened, let alone what might happen. The Governor told one million people in 96 square miles of metropolitan Boston to stay inside and keep their doors locked. It was difficult to reconcile the scope of one teenager at large with that level of shutdown.

Aside from the emptiness of the streets in East Cambridge, however, there was no obvious evidence of danger. In the early afternoon a helicopter hovered over the neighborhood for about two hours. But eventually it wandered off and we continued to wait.

By 4pm, people seemed to grow tired of staying inside. A woman pulled up and dropped off some groceries for her elderly parents across the street. Some dog-walkers finally emerged to relieve their patient friends. Cars drove by occasionally. By no means were things returning to normal, but at least it looked as if a few others had survived the apocalypse.

Eventually, around 6pm, the Police gave what would have been their final briefing of the day. The suspect had not been found, but they were lifting the “shelter in place” orders. Residents of Watertown, Newton, Waltham, Belmont, Brookline, Cambridge, and Boston were free to leave their homes, but should remain vigilant. We cannot continue to keep this area under lockdown, they acknowledged.

But they hadn’t found him. They were confident he did not have access to a vehicle, but he was not found within their search area. So what does that mean? What was all of this for? What next?

Fortunately we didn’t have to live in this post-lockdown purgatory for long. Less than 30 minutes later a Watertown resident discovered the suspect hiding in a boat in his yard. The next hour and a half revealed what had become a foregone conclusion. This strange day was finally over. Celebrations took place in Watertown and throughout the locked down heart of Boston.

Saturday morning here looked mostly like it does on a typical weekend. No doubt we will learn more about this case in the coming weeks and months. And we will ask some important questions, both related to the risk and our response. Was the lockdown a proportionate response to the threat? How much did it cost? Was it effective? Or would we have been better off with hundreds of thousands of people looking for this guy? What if we focused this level of effort on greater threats to Americans’ health and safety?

Friday’s events are virtually unprecedented and exceeded even the most imaginative Hollywood scripts. They provided a unique mix of frustration and helplessness, fear and boredom, anticipation and trepidation. The day was filled with information that reinforced a feeling of unknowing. I’m glad it’s over. And I look forward to taking a nice long walk tomorrow.

Rendering of proposed Beacon Street redesign

If you haven’t already, take a minute to read Streetsblog’s coverage of the on-going debate over the future of Beacon Street in Somerville. The City of Somerville is planning to build a protected bike lane on the street, which may be the busiest bicycle corridor in the state. Yet some in the community are opposed to the transformation. Angie Schmitt sums up the situation:

Somerville’s plan calls for eliminating about 100 on-street parking spots on Beacon for the mile-long stretch where the bike lane will be installed. Although a local parking study found that there was more than enough on-street parking capacity to accommodate the reduction, some local residents have been grumpy about the proposed change. At a recent preliminary design meeting with the community, one neighbor called the plan “discriminatory” (against drivers) and said it violates their “right to park” in front of their homes.

“I want my parking place; I think this is a dumb project,” said Somerville resident Marty Filosi.

Further complicating the matter is the fact that a handful of vehicular cyclists in the region have opposed the plan. One of them is John Allen, a prominent local follower of John Forester’s transportation theories, which — against the preponderance of evidence — argue that dedicated cycling infrastructure makes cyclists less safe.

Despite the best efforts of City planners and advocates, proponents of a livable Beacon Street have failed to frame the discussion in a way to curry popular support. It doesn’t help that traditional media outlets insist on the reductive he-said she-said approach to journalism. The Globe, for example, quotes Beacon Street laundromat owner Domenic Ruccio for his expertise on the economics of parking supply and property values: “If you take a neighborhood like this and it gets a reputation of being unparkable, the rents of these apartments go down, and then the value of the real estate follows it.”

Setting aside the Globe’s refusal to challenge this ludicrous assertion, reporter Jarret Bencks merely mentions the objective parking study as a counterpoint to Ruccio’s uninformed (and self-serving) opinion. This is as troubling as it is unsurprising. In its desperation to be perceived as impartial, news media are only able to present opposite sides of every issue in equal proportions, irrespective of facts and information available to reporters.

The question of cycle tracks on Beacon Street is whether we want to make relatively small sacrifices in the name of saving lives of people who walk, bike, and live along the street. It’s whether we want to commit resources toward giving people viable alternative options to driving polluting vehicles as our planet cries louder and louder for help. And it’s whether we want to make Beacon Street a place people can come together to shop, eat, commute, and relax.

It should not be a question of preserving the minority’s right to store their private property on public land.

Photo credit: Eric Ross Rosenbaum

The extra-ordinary snowstorm Nemo gave us a weekend out of the ordinary. Some of it was awful, and some of it was just great. So I thought about the good and the bad, and tried to sort it out. Here are things I observed and liked:

(Associated Press)

A mayor’s job, generally speaking, is to be an advocate for their city and to promote its economic well-being. One of the most important ways to achieve this is to attract and retain residents by creating a high quality of life.

Livability – defined by density, walkability, and strong public transit – is central to this. Mayors across the country have woken up to the idea and are pushing their cities forward, from Michael Bloomberg to Rahm Emanuel to our own Tom Menino. Just last week, Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett declared that it is time to stop building their city for cars and start creating a place that people want to be.

Yet other mayors are stuck in the past, convinced apparently that their cities are one gimmick or convention center away from prosperity.

But who is the worst?

For our money, Baltimore’s Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is the score to beat. Since assuming office in the wake of Shelia Dixon’s indictment in 2009, Rawlings-Blake’s reign has been characterized by a lack of vision, bungled projects, and ineptitude. She has presided over sweeping cuts to parks and after school activities, tax breaks for a big box superblock development, and straight-up cronyism.

Still, nothing typifies SRB’s failure as Baltimore’s mayor better than the ongoing Grand Prix debacle. The city recruited IndyCar to hold an annual race on the streets of downtown Baltimore. Rich with wide thoroughfares and generous curves, downtown streets are ideal for open-wheeled race cars driving 180 miles per hour.

Setting aside the questionable optics of staging a car race in the heart of a city, the Baltimore Grand Prix is a logistical nightmare for residents and workers. Concrete barriers and bleachers disrupt travel patterns for drivers, transit riders, cyclists, and pedestrians alike for a month leading up to the event. Trees are removed in the name of cleaner sightlines. And the noise!

Yet Rawlings-Blake champions the event as a critical jolt for the city’s economy, despite all evidence to the contrary. The Baltimore Marathon is responsible a greater economic impact with almost no inconvenience.

But the worst part is the blatant corruption behind its planning and execution. Following the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix in 2011, Baltimore Racing Development was having trouble paying its bills. Eventually it filed for bankruptcy and left its creditors (including Baltimore City itself) in a lurch. Obligations, such as replanting those street trees were never fulfilled. For all its trouble, Baltimore got stuck cleaning up after BRD’s mess and paying for it.

After everything that happened in 2011, SRB and her team worked feverishly to help create a new organization, Race On LLC, and start planning the 2012 Grand Prix. The new organization is led by her largest campaign contributor and made up almost entirely of the same clowns who botched it up the first time. The same people who absolved themselves of their responsibilities are now collecting salaries to do it all over again. With the mayor’s full blessing and encouragement!

This is the true brilliance of SRB’s awfulness. Not only does she aggressively pursue exactly the wrong projects and policies, she employs corrupt and misguided tactics to make sure they happen.

Rawlings-Blake can’t be blamed for all of Baltimore’s ills – its drugs and crime, it’s 6-lane one-way streets, or its ineffectual transit system – she inherited those. But we can ask why she insists on thinking backwards and refuses to embrace progressive ideas. Baltimore deserves better.

That’s our vote. What do you think? Do you know a mayor who can top it? Leave your suggestions for worst U.S. mayor in the comments. Next week we’ll compile the results and see if someone can dislodge SRB from the top seat.

Dear boston, you taste like salt.

— ben kutner-duff (@benkutnerduff) January 22, 2013

It says something when one steps outside & immediately tastes salt on one’s tongue. #salty #Boston @universalhub — Liam Sullivan (@Othemts) January 24, 2013

@universalhub How great would it be to find out that all the salt blowing around Boston caused all the MBTA’s problems today?

— Tom Griffiths (@FlashTheGap) January 23, 2013

Wondering if Boston @mayortommenino is working for the powerful carwash lobby (aka “Big Suds”). There’s no logical reason for all this salt.

— Aaron Naparstek (@Naparstek) January 23, 2013

Cantabrigian dogs want to know: What’s up with all the salt in the park? @cambridgedpw twitter.com/ConorSemler/st…

— Conor Semler (@ConorSemler) January 24, 2013

Boston responds to 0.03″ snowstorm by covering city w salt. You can taste it in the air. Blood pressure rising… twitter.com/wendypedia/sta…

— wendy chao (@wendypedia) January 23, 2013

Like… There’s so much salt that every time I even open my mouth in downtown Boston I just straight up taste salt. And I’m always thirsty.

— Matt Anders (@matt__anders) January 24, 2013

Winter cycling + Boston road salt is basically like a cinnamon challenge: youtube.com/watch?v=Cyk7ut…

— Sgay (@HeySgay) January 22, 2013

Photo credit: Wendy Chao, PhD @wendypedia

Public works departments in Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline have coated area streets, sidewalks, and paths with a thick layer of salt in anticipation of an underwhelming snowfall earlier this week. The result is sodium-caked public spaces throughout the region. Vehicles kick up clouds of salt as they pass by, providing a burning sensation in the noses and throats of people nearby – as if the icy temperatures weren’t enough to deal with.

Photo credit: Captains of Industry @captainsboston

Photo credit: Spiro Pappadopoulos @spirocks

Photo credit: Yesenia Aracely @indecisiveVIEW

City officials will tell you this is all in the name of safety – and that you’re better safe than sorry. But at what cost? The environmental impacts of salt are well documented, particularly with respect to water supply. Salt in our drinking water is a concern especially for individuals with high blood pressure. Not to mention the impact on our pets and wildlife, both through ingestion and on their paws. And then there’s the direct financial cost of salt’s corrosive affect on vehicles and infrastructure.

This is just one example of the “windshield perspective” that afflicts so many decision-makers. Even in relatively progressive Cambridge, the Public Works Department’s actions assume everyone gets around inside a glass-enclosed, climate-controlled vehicle. It shows utter disregard for the pedestrians, bicyclists, dog-walkers, and water-drinkers among us. It’s the same mindset that plows snow into bike lanes and spends millions keeping streets clear while leaving sidewalks in the hands of conscientious neighbors.

Let your mayor, city manager, and council know that their obligations extend beyond simply accommodating motorists. Even in winter we spend time outside and we shouldn’t be subject to salty aggravation.