I saw these two school buses trying to squeeze past each other on Mill Street last week. Do the snow piles and cars parked on streets, that are narrowed by the all snow, compromise public safety?
Two school buses try to pass each other on Mill Street.
I have called the mayors office and submitted 311 requests for the streets to be widened. If a car passes in one direction, the car heading in the opposite direction needs to go into a private driveway or back up.
Every day the school bus and I meet, and I land up backing up, (carefully as not to hit a kid).
And some of the neighbors PARK on the street! I drive in a snowbank to avoid them. Part of me hopes for a fire truck to hit them as they pass by.
AND my storm drain is three feet away from any puddles. There are dug out channels to them, but really, three feet for each side of the street. The mayor and the alderman need tom come forward and appoligize and figure out how to make this better in the future. This will not be the only year of lots of snow.
My street is incredibly narrow and downright dangerous. The snow piles at the end of the street make it life threatening to try and pull out onto Watertown Street. The snowbanks are so high. I live near a school and teachers are parking on the street all day making a bad situation worse. And then there is school pick up time….
I came home to find two cars parked IN MY DRIVEWAY while the parent walked down to the school to pick up their child. I blocked the cars in and went into my house…and waited. One of the owners returned with his child and started screaming that he was blocked in. I went out and approached him and was verbally attacked by this idiot for daring to block his car in. His behavior in front of his child was reprehensible. And then he called me an a**hole for blocking him in! Really????? You park in my yard and I’m the a-hole?! The truth is had this man simply apologized and acted like a gentleman, I would have told him no big deal but please don’t park in the yard again. Next time, I will have him towed. But NONE of this would be necessary if the City would just plow to the curb! Simple.
#48-15 ALD. JOHNSON, SANGIOLO & YATES requesting a discussion with the
Commissioner of Public Works regarding: (1) short and long term snow clearing
of streets and sidewalks, (2) proactive planning relative to potential issues
resulting from melting snow, (3) short term plans for addressing potholes, and (4)
how the Department of Public Works will use the data gathered from where
potholes need to be filled to guide planning for street repairs. [02/23/15 @ 9:31
AM]
Now that each post has a “report” button, can we also have “Like”. I want to “like” Amy’s post (among others).
In Newton Highlands, streets that go between Lincoln St. and Rte. 9 and also get parked cars are dangerously narrow. As others have reported, it’s impossible for cars to pass each other – thankfully, drivers have mostly been courteous about pulling over where possible to let others pass.
Amy, I’m glad you mentioned potholes.
Amy Sangiolo- what was the outcome of the meeting? Or has the meeting not happened yet?
People like NewtonMom baffle me. Like she lives on the only road so narrow that one car can go down. That is every side road in every city around and in 128. But still she feels the need to call 311 every day and demands the Mayor’s attention to her as if this record breaking winter only happened to her. How about deal with it like the rest of us. Not one person in the DPW is waiting around asking for more work and nobody in City Hall has a bag of money to spend on clearing your street.
Meeting has not happened yet. There was a Committee of the Whole meeting recently regarding Stormwater issues and both Ald. Johnson and I asked if we could bring up snow issues at that time and were told that was not the appropriate time. So under Ald. Johnson’s leadership, we docketed the item with Ald. Yates.
Kim,
I had no idea that my street was not the only narrow street. Like I haven’t read this blog. However, in a month the city has done nothing for saying I am sorry and we are all lucky no one has gotten hit by a car! And not every city is like. Wayland has better streets and others. I am glad the alderman are going to talk about it, but why not discuss it now? Gov. baker has been on top of the MBTA all month…..and he wasn’t planning to have that as a main issue, but it is now. What has Mayor Warren said publicly?
And yes, calling 311 is appropriate when I see a near miss every day….and every day I witness other things that I don’t “report.” But thanks for making me sound like a whimp. I have seen some streets (not main) get widened in Newton……so I know they are working on it. Why can’t I put my street on the list?
Thank you Amy – I am sure they dont want to meet with you and the other Ald. until April or May when all the snow is a memory.
It was an unbelievable amount of snow – HOWEVER- Waltham and Watertown were able to make their streets passable. Why couldnt Newton?
Both me and my husband separately had our cars hit on narrow streets that were not plowed well – we both tried to pull over. In my case the truck just hit me and kept going.
Thanks Newton Mom – keep posting – Yes what has the Mayor said about this?????? He cracked a joke about it at NNHS Athletic Night – But no one on his departure could ask him anything as he was whisked away by his Police Escort.
Keep Calling City Hall and bombarding them with complaints – speak to a person and then put it on 311 too.
Kim, so I guess that goes for everyone here including Keith Jacobsen, who posted this thread, all of the others who posted nightmares on other threads. Don’t you think you might be a little self righties telling all of us to just shut up and wait. Not much gets done that way.
And your remark about streets inside 128 being the same is not true, as others have pointed out here and on longer threads. I know crossing the line on most any road into Waltham, Needham, Watertown, etc. the change is very noticeable. We all had the same amount of snow.
I’ve witnessed some wrecks and many near misses including two snow plow trucks meeting like the picture above but these two got stuck and it took help to get them separated. It’s not just the side roads either. Austin Street between Lowell and Chestnut Hill is terrible, as are Lowell, Sumner Street in the middle of Newton Center and may other highly traveled streets.
I use Lowell every day and it’s fine.
My neighbors live on the corner, and they have such a high pile of snow from the snow plows that it goes up to their second floor windows. They are very worried because the plows pushed the snow right against their house. They have called 311 repeatedly and have gotten nowhere, and now I just found out today that they are getting leaks from that massive pile. My street is very narrow. If someone approaches the other way, one of you has to go backward because there aren’t that many driveways on my street.
I use Lowell almost everyday. As of yesterday it was not cleared to the curbs and with parking during the day, it is one lane requiring cars to pull in behind the parked car and wait to pull back out which isn’t always easy. Or one car has to back up to let the other by.
@amysangiolo,
Thank you for your proactive efforts. Could I add a suggestion to your snow punch list:
(1.5) proactive planning relative to temporary street and traffic management if not now then for future snow storms.
– Many of the safety and traffic issues around the schools could be mitigated with either temporary one-way street designation OR temporary street parking bans. Many of the school’s side streets can not handle “business as usual” which is taxing during non-snow conditions; a firetruck or ambulance would normally squeeze to get down our school’s street during school drop off or pickup times. Our fire alarms are up to code, our students are well drilled, but basic fire truck access has been MIA since storm 1. I imagine it’s similiar across Newton.
– Additional, concentrated traffic control would be welcome too. Our PTO does a great job urging safety, courtesy, carpooling, etc but it’s unfortunately not enough. I have kids and I get being late, in a rush, whatever but the police would be doing everyone a favor in the long run if they periodically cracked down on traffic and parking violators near schools, just as they do with their periodic pedestrian crosswalk stings.
Thanks again.
Berkeley is the worst street I have encountered. Barely passable for one car in spots and, as already described, impossible for two cars to pass at the same time without one car going into a driveway till the other passes. And that street is on the way to the Peirce Elementary School! I live on the carriage lane of Commonwealth – wide enough for just one car which is okay, I guess, since we are a one way street. But add in the walkers and runners – entire track teams from NNHS and Brandeis, as well as Marathon trainers in groups as large as 20 – 40 at a time on the weekends, and dog walkers (some dogs off leash), and getting to the next possible cut through for me can be a scary and unsafe proposition. Thank you to those with a brain who duck into a driveway to let my car by. To those who just keep walking without regard for anyone but yourself, lets hope that when you force me up onto an icey snow bank to get by your unyielding self, my car does not skid on that ice! And really….glaring at me like I have no right to drive down my street really doesn’t help! All year long, people forget that the carriage lane is a STREET, not a leisure track or a place to train for marathons. I live on that track, folks, and have to drive on it to leave my house…I got no choice, people. Common sense is never a common commodity – it seems to have left us all totally with all of this snow. Just be courteous, whether walking or driving. That’s the only way we will make it through this epic winter, particularly given the inadequate snow removal job done by this City.
My street is sort of narrow to begin with, obviously made worse by the snow. My street it semi-commercial, so we have lots of trucks coming and going, people double parking in front of the dance school on our street…it’s pretty dangerous. I put in a 311 request after the first two storms and they did a really nice, thorough job widening the street which was delightful. Until storm #3 a few days later and they haven’t widened it again, unfortunately.
Streets near my house are usually narrow, so made worse by this, but we’re getting by- most of the streets in our little neighborhood are not cut-throughs which alleviates traffic headaches- and while the street I live on is 2-way, I rarely come into conflict with other crs going in either direction. For the mot prt I just remember to have a little patience- for example, the lady who inexplicably backed up in front of me at an intersection before I realized she was going into our driveway, or the cars coming around an impossible corner (I once pulled into a driveway to let someone pass on a detour from Crafts.
Short version- it’s crazy out there, we need this snow to be gone, but until it is I’m just going to keep taking deep breath and planning an extra couple of minutes.
I must say I do approve if the new “speed bumps” on Lowell- oh wait those are frost heaves?
Just like riding a slow, annoying roller coaster, which is why I thought going down Austin Street to Chestnut might be a better route, but I was wrong. Oh well, I’m being patient while on the roads and finding most others are too and saving my frustration for you guys.
One positive – for the most part, I’ve found other drivers very courteous in dealing with this mess, at least in my neighborhood. People are proactively pulling over several car lengths in advance if they see a car coming towards them and no place to pull over further ahead. I even had a van driver stop to tell me there was a parking space open that he hadn’t been able to fit into, in case I needed to park!
By the way, reading up the comments, I’m with Tom in being glad Amy mentioned potholes. As the snow slowly melts away, we’re going to be talking about those a lot. I’m a little apprehensive about the beginning of biking season, whenever that’s going to be
Doug, the bike season never ended for some. The potholes are worse than I’ve seen in 15 years living here.
I assumed that during the February school vacation week, which was after the largest storms, the city would make a concerted effort to widen streets traveled by school busses, especially near the schools. I was astonished to find that Olde Field (main route from Route 9 eastbound to Newton South) was not improved at all during break. There were places where two cars could not pass each other, and chaos resulted when a school bus tried to come through. There still has been no effort to improve any of the roads approaching Newton South, other than through salt-assisted melting (Brandeis Road in the immediate vicinity of the school was reasonably well cleared after each storm, but that was about it).
Other than in the village centers, I have not seen any effort expended to improve the condition of city streets in the last 2 weeks. Last week the state made middle-of-the-night improvements to Route 9. When it snows, plows appear to maintain the status quo, and then they go away. The city just isn’t trying. Is it primarily a money issue?
The big question on the Jim and Marjorie talk show yesterday was whether we want to break the snow accumulation record because we’re less than two inches away. Loads of callers voted to go for it, but I suspect they weren’t V14 folks!
I say we go for it.
Been a lot of snow obviously so initially it was hard to keep up, but no attempt in past two weeks to widen streets. Rowe Street, (where prehistoric creatures want to add 150 more cars into the mix) is a single lane… like so many streets in city.
Potholes and overall road conditions horrible.
The courteousness of drivers has been an amazing pleasant surprise. Driving through the streets of West Newton hill is a challenge, with cars bumping left and right like pinballs but it’s because of trying to anticipate best place to pause and/or pull over to let other person pass. Despite how trying the weather has been, I’ve seen nothing but politeness.
PS
for the record, I feel compelled to mention that I’m just driving through West Newton Hill, I do not live there. I don’t own or run a corporation or a big blog conglomerate like a Village 14 or something. 🙂
Mark, and here I thought that your editorial cartoonist career had allowed you to buy a second home!
Use your head NewtonMom and Marti.
First of all, Marti, I call BS on you. I am in Waltham and Watertown all the time. It’s a nightmare just like here. Needham and outer towns are less condensed so it’s better just because of geography. Try Brookline, Quincy, Boston and Newton.
Like I said, the DPW guys aren’t hurting for work to fill their day. Not only that but we are out of money to pay them. So suck it up. Or call Setti’s office and donate to the yet to exist Winter of ’15 fund.
It’s snow and we’ll all get through it. Some of us just need to complain and be miserable needlessly more than others.
Hmm. Not a bad idea. I can’t see the mayor doing it, but the residents who want, and can afford, to help might step up.
Kim,
So unless I agree with you, I really can’t post my opinion on the blog without being called names? I am allowed here with my opinion. And IMHO I believe Newton could have done a better job. And I am NOT going to suck it up. There are some dangerous things occuring and WE ARE LUCKY that no child or adult has gotten HIT BY A CAR or BUS!
So Kim, please allow me to post my opinion. Newton does great in some areas, but this is one area that they could use improvement, and as a citizen, I can point that out.
Housekeeping note. @Newtonmom: Unless there’s something on another thread that I’ve missed, I’m not seeing where Kim called you “names” or is denying your right to post here (not to mention you use a pseudonym so it’s not like he’s ruining your reputation).
OK, folks carry on.
It’s certainly understandable that people are frustrated by road conditions — and worried about public safety — but it’s inaccurate to say that crews aren’t still out there clearing our streets. I drive across the city a lot and I don’t think a day — or more frequently night — passes when I don’t see our DPW folks hard at work, widening streets and removing snow and, more recently, patching up pot holes as well.
If you lived or traveled near the interchange at Rte 9 and Eliot St., you’d see a steady stream of trucks filled with snow headed to and from the second melter every day. Like it or not, we have the same number of people to deal with 6 inches of snow as we have to deal with 7 and a half feet. If you can’t give these guys some credit, then at least give them a break.
I’ve been gone for the past three weeks, but I rather suspect that the problem isn’t the City’s ability to widen the roadways. It obviously has the equipment and manpower to do that. Snow removal technology and operations are light years ahead of where they were back in 78 when something similar to this took place. The real, and perhaps insurmountable, challenge is where to park the tons and tons of additional snow that still have to be removed. It doesn’t help that most of the snow already in storage areas still has not melted. There’s just may not be much if any room left to put all this stuff. I’d appreciate knowing if anyone has a different take on this, but I think we’re just going to have to bite the bullet and get through it as best we can. A bigger concern is whether the bitterly cold weather pattern of the past two winters from displaced Arctic air is going to continue for several more years. Now that’s serious.
I’d like to give a shout out to whomever at the Mayor’s office is lurking on this thread. Thank you for sending the police officer to my kid’s school. Murphy’s law of course made sure the place was actually not a massive disaster for the first time since February. Possibly because the snow banks have shrunk and the cop car was hard to miss. Still, I’ll take it. Thanks also to the cop for *nicely* telling the woman in the SUV she not only couldn’t block a driveway but also couldn’t leave her car unattended in the bluezone. No thanks to the woman who waited until the cop was gone to repeat her offenses and play frogger with her kids instead of using the crosswalk. (And yes a standing thank you to the principal, crossing guard, pto and standby parents who have in fact tried to address this type of behaviour to no avail). Next time issue some tickets, please. Heck, I may get ticketed myself but in which case I’m sure it will be deserved. Thanks again officer and thanks again to you mayoral lurker wo(man).
PS: I just drove on Everrett street in Newton Centre for the first time. Is there a contest for pot holiest street, I think that may be a contender.
The city of Newton must be responsible for any damages to private property as a result of shoving snow against it.
Docketing an ‘request for a meeting’ as Alderman Sangiolo has done only documents a formal request for a meeting. It accomplishes nothing. Why not call one of our alderman who has access to Dave Turocy’s mobile phone and find out what the street clearing plan is to get an answer? Blogging that one has used the legal process to get an answer to a basic question comes off as wacky.
Perhaps docketing an item for an official, on-the-record meeting is a more open and transparent way for information to be exchanged between the DPW and the public? Maybe better than a private cell phone conversation between a single member of the BOA and the DPW?
I was all set to grumble about my street being reduced to (barely) one lane — and, because it’s a popular parking destination for special programs/events at the nearby school, that width becoming even narrower. Then during the night, a squadron of Bearcats, front-end loaders and dump trucks went through our neighborhood. This morning, we woke to find that not only is our street back to two lanes, but the amount of snow left along the curbs may actually melt before Memorial Day. It’s like we got a visit from Municipal Santa Claus — of course, we provided him with the money to get us this gift.
On a somewhat related subject: I work as well as live in Newton, and am the only Newton resident in my office. Over the years, when there’s been significant snowfall and other wintry weather events, my coworkers have unfailingly complained that their commute is generally smooth until they hit Newton: The traffic is particularly bad here, they say, and the condition of the roads equally so, if not worse. I feel almost compelled to apologize on behalf of the city, and try to offer an explanation or excuse, which usually fails. Anyone else experience this?
We had a problem a couple of days ago with a school bus stuck on Lake Ave waiting for a parked car to be moved from the street. Apparently, buses with children can not back up. My wife called the police department to see if the street could be declared No Parking until the street is widened or the snow melts. Signs went up shortly afterwards and the street no longer allows on street parking. Please no complaitns if you are trying to park on my section of Lake Ave 🙂
Kim, this is a thread called “How narrow are your streets” so you will see comments about narrow streets and frustration with them. You can instead tell everyone twice how hard the city is working and it’s need for money, but others are posting about the topic. In addition, it’s not actually productive to say “use your head,” make an implication of a poster being selfish and annoying and refer to observations made by another poster as “BS.”Obviously we have different experiences. When I have gone to Waltham to Market Basket and to MGH West, the condition of the road changed significantly when crossing the town line. I have had similar experiences going into Watertown and I’m at least the third one on this thread to refer to Watertown and Waltham.
Greg, I think your snarky post to Newtonmom was in poor taste. Kim has been insulting to Newtonmom twice and rude to me. Kim only uses a first name. Why would it possibly be OK to insult commenters on V14 just because they don’t use their name. You allow annonimous posting and sometimes there are very good reasons not to broadcast your name.
The mounds of snow in the Austin Street parking lot labeled by Peter Bruce as Camelback and Little Matterhorn are GONE!!!
Our street is so narrow that we tore off part of the car’s front bumper because the walls of plowed snow didn’t leave enough room for a smallish sedan to make a clean K-turn out of the driveway. Our street is so narrow that you have to step into a snowbank to let cars pass while you’re walking in the street–and you have to walk in the street to get to the end of the block because the city never got around to shoveling its sidewalks alongside the municipal parking lots. It’ll be a miracle if those sidewalks are usable by Mother’s Day.
Transparency for the sake of transparency? Aren’t results what matters. At the end of the day, elected officials can tell you all day long about the legislation they proposed. How many can tell you about the ones that were enacted and whether the community they served cared a hill of beans about it? Changing the from Alderman to Alderwoman legislators – oh right, that’s important to (some of) THEM.
I too came home yesterday to find all these great “No Parking” and “Temporary Tow Zone, Snow Removal” signs stuck in in the snowbanks all along my street and in the neighborhood. And there were cars parked all along the streets completely disregarding the signs. And no snow removal happened here last night or during the day today. What’s the point of the signs if they are going to be ignored and no work is done? This City ought to be ashamed of itself for the conditions these streets are in. I know for a fact the City hired police details for snow removal starting at 5am…and then the trucks didn’t show up until 630. A waste of time and a waste of money.
And one more thing….I read in the Boston Globe today about the concern for the conditions of the Marathon route. The two issues mentioned were potholes that would affect the course and snow on the route where spectators usually stand to watch the race. In addition, it was noted that the medical tents and water stations need to be set up on dry land. And it was quite clear that the City will absolutely remove snow from these areas if necessary. That’s great but can we worry about the here and now and not what MIGHT happen 6 weeks from now?
Until a day or two ago, Elliot Street was too narrow for people to park next to Dunne Gatherin’s, Fortunately crews got out earlyThursday and cleared to the curbs. from Hale Street to Chestnut Street next to the Echo Bridge Cafe.
The good news: crews are removing the snow that has dangerously eliminated the merge lane from Centre St to Newton Corner rotary.
The bad news: they are doing it at 7am,blocking an extra lane in the circle of death at rush hour.
Looked like they were near done, but still…
The recently paved Oak Street has held up beautifully, and even round the man hole covers the surface is good. Chestnut Street is a nightmare and when you get to the section between Eliot and Oak, it could well be described as unpaved dirt road. Potholes marry and have children. Pass at your own risk. Do not drive during third trimester.