Matt

  • 123 Perkins Street Somerville, Massachusetts - Somerville

    For the past few months, more and more dog feces has been left on the sidewalk and not picked up by the owners. I happen to see new piles 2 or 3 times a week in front of my house or neighbors as I walk along the sidewalk.

    Today, I happened to walk down Mt Vernon street and see a fresh pile in the snow with paw prints and its owner foot prints leading away. So I followed the paw prints back to the house. They went into 123 Perkin street.

    One does the city have any regulations regarding cleaning up after pets and second can the city please send out mailers to inform owners of their responsibilities.

  • Mt Vernon Street Somerville, Massachusetts - Somerville

    Over the past few months I have regularly and increasingly noticed dog feces left on the sidewalks because owners are not picking up after their pets. In the past two weeks I have seen leftovers in the middle of the sidewalk on 6 different occasions and I only have a short walk along Mt Vernon. Most of the time bikes or people already stepped in it, tracked and make it nearly impossible to walk along the sidewalk without stepping in some of the remainders.

    Is there any ordinance against not picking up after pets and what is the best way to report this?

  • Broadway And Mt Vernon Intersection Somerville, Massachusetts - Somerville

    Yesterday, Sunday July 13, 2015 at 7pm the light timing for the intersection at Broadway and Mt Vernon was messed up. The green light cycles were extremely short, followed by a 20 second walk cycle every time. Only 1 or 2 cars would be able to turn left from Lombardi Way and traffic was backed up from the 93 off ramp, Assembly and Mystic Ave trying to turn left. It took over 10 minutes to go from Assembly drive to through the left turn lane at the intersection of Broadway and Mt Vernon to head towards Sullivan. This was a huge safety hazard as I saw two cars run the red light while the walk signals was up by making left turns from the right turn only lane on Lombardi Way. I notice this light timing cycle happens quite frequently, but normally late at night. There is no need for such a short light cycle at any time of the day nor for a walk cycle every 30 seconds.

    The lights in for heading south on Broadway, and the ones going across Broadway from Alfred A. Lombardi Way/Mt Vernon were only green for 5 seconds and yellow for 5 seconds, followed by a 20 second walk signal. I am not exaggerating the shortness of the light cycles, my passenger took a video of the green lights and you can see the countdown of the walk timers.

    Numerous people have reported this issue over the last year plus. To why this issue has not been addressed in baffling.

    The solution is not hard, just fix the timing of the light cycles.

    - Eliminate the automatic walk signal across Broadway. There is not enough foot traffic across the road to justify it stopping traffic every 30 seconds. Let people use the Walk button.
    - Increase the minimum length of a green cycle. There is no reason to have a 5 second green light programmed into any street light. Who ever wrote the code for the intersection is incompetent for including a cycle that short.
    -Give the left turn lane from Lombardi Way a priority turn. Driver would be less likely to rush and cut off cars traveling straight across Broadway from Mt Vernon.

    - Move the stop line for Alfred A. Lombardi Way closer to the intersection. It is 30 feet away from the intersection which wastes the first few seconds of the green light.

  • Broadway And Mount Vernon Somerville, Massachusetts - Somerville

    The intersection was backed up today around 8:45 and frustrated drivers would block the intersections use the right turn lane to make left turns and only further adding to the congestion. There was no congestion backup from Sullivan, just too many cars for the light intervals to handle. The cars that backed up were trying to turn left from Lombardi drive onto Broadway toward Sullivan Square. Most were originating from Assembly Row Drive and would block the intersection for cars trying to make a left hand turn onto mystic Ave. As many complaints of this situation have been told before, the lights are MassDoT timed, and that they are "working" as "intended." So, if Somerville cannot fix the timing of the lights can we at least get a police detail during commute hours to prevent illegal turns and cars blocking the intersection?

    Aside from that request, since the casino going in Everett is required to redesign Sullivan square, it is perfect time to look at how cars leaving Assembly row enter Sullivan square. There is an unused lane on the Mystic Ave bridge over the train tracks that could be used to divert traffic heading from Assembly Row to Sullivan. Instead of having that traffic enter Sullivan by going through the Broadway, Mt Vernon lights, traffic would turn left from Assembly Row Drive, and head south, staying on the Mystic river side of 93, use the unused lane of the Mystic Ave. bridge that goes over the train tracks and cross the unused parking lot (I believe MassDoT owns it, and merge onto Mafia way from the left. This solution can be done inexpensively, and will greatly help traffic and pedestrian safety. I hope the representatives of Somerville possess the foresight to seize the opportunity and avoid a growing traffic nightmare.