Deskripsyon
Both sides of Beech Street, between Massachusetts Avenue and Orchard Street, are posted no parking for construction for the entire period December 14 - January 14, Monday-Friday, 7 am-3:30 pm. The contractor is "Riley Bros".
There was no construction activity yesterday, and so far none today, on any part of this street (aside from building construction that has been ongoing at one address for the past 18 months, and is unrelated). The weather is clear.
This permit needs to be revoked. It never should have been issued this way. The contractor needs to reapply for separate permits limited to specific dates and a specific side/length of the street where work will actually be occurring. This is significantly displacing parking for residents and the contractor needs to make a good-faith effort to mitigate that impact.
Please note I have tried to reach the public works construction permitting office at 617-349-4800, option 2, option 2, but it does not seem to be routing to a phone line operated by a city employee.
Thank you in advance.
14 Komentos
City of Cambridge (Beripikadong Opisiyal)
Public Works - TS (Streets & Sewers) (Beripikadong Opisiyal)
Public Works - DA (Inspections) (Beripikadong Opisiyal)
GTS (Rehistradong User)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Rehistradong User)
Nick (Rehistradong User)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Rehistradong User)
But many residents are still forced to work from home because of the pandemic, so instead of driving their cars to work, they need to remain parked on city streets during the daytime.
That makes it all the more important that construction permits be issued in a way that is considerate of residential parking. Can they complete this work on one side of the street at a time, and only block off parking on that side? That alone would cut in half the number of parking spaces that are affected by this permit.
Nick (Rehistradong User)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Rehistradong User)
Nick,
1) If this happened in the past, it was much longer ago than you are remembering. I've lived on this street throughout the pandemic.
2) "No one complained before" is never a valid argument. That's true whether it's a restaurant violating sanitary code, a gym that is not following emergency health guidelines, or a contractor putting up no parking signs for an entire month but not actually doing any work.
3) "only a few houses", "all of them have driveways" - Have you looked at how many levels are in each residence? And thought about how many people live in each level? There is one building already with multiple units on each level, and one or more people living in each unit. If all of their cars fit in these driveways, why don't they do that already? Because they don't fit. Remember, this is Cambridge resident permit parking only on Beech Street, day and night — the passenger cars you see parked here belong to residents (or their temporary visitors).
4) "What do they do when street cleaning is on one side?" Exactly! That's a problem. What do they do? They contact the city (using this app) whenever a contractor does what this one did, and then the city works with the contractor to balance what the contractor *actually* needs to do their work, against the impact it will have on residents. So when street cleaning day comes — today! — an unnecessary problem is avoided.
Which is exactly what happened. The contractor is out there right now removing these signs. He told me that they won't be doing any work this week or next on this street.
Nick (Rehistradong User)
I’ve lived on Orchard Street 10+ years and I agree that Cambridge construction has been overwhelming and me working from home and homeschooling my children during these times is not easy.
This pandemic is not easy for no one and as well for these contractors that have to go work every day leaving their family with no option to stay home to make a hard earn living I spoke to the contractors a week ago and didn’t have much of a timeline because contractor states emergency work comes in to play during the winter months.
So I guess “Parking” is a big issue??
We should complain to city, city council, dpw, and to whoever keeps approving all of this work.
Stay safe!
Anonymous-Nick
Isinara Public Works - DA (Inspections) (Beripikadong Opisiyal)
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Reopened An anonymous SeeClickFix user (Rehistradong User)
At this point in time, there is signage posted on the even side of the street that is *completely* incomprehensible. The signs are either attached to trees or to orange cones on the sidewalk, but they are posted at very irregular distances — in some cases 2 feet apart, in others 20 feet apart. This is all for the same contractor.
Walking down the even side of the street starting from Mass Ave, the signs indicate (in this order) that parking is not allowed during working hours between the dates:
1/7-1/15
1/13-2/13
1/7-1/15
1/4-1/25
1/7-1/15
1/19-1/22
1/14-1/24
1/19-1/22
12/14-1/14
This is all in the span of enough parking for about 6 vehicles. (Those are not typos; some are for 4 days, some are for 1 month; one sign starts in December, one ends in February.)
Last week, I attempted to walk over and speak with the person in charge from the contractor, and they absolutely do not understand or care about the parking signs. They are happy to simply pick them up and move them around at will, or change the dates as they see fit with white tape and a sharpie.
Please have the contractor remove and replace all signage, with consistent dates that reflect actually planned work periods (which are not inconsiderately long so as to avoid planning on their part).
Public Works - DA (Inspections) (Beripikadong Opisiyal)
Isinara Public Works - BMc (Streets & Sewers) (Beripikadong Opisiyal)