Join me Monday night to learn about proposed improvements to Broadway in the Winter Hill neighborhood & share your feedback. Community meeting on Mon., Feb. 4, 6:30 p.m., in the Healey School cafeteria, 5 Meacham St. The proposed work includes creating a dedicated bus/bike lane on a portion of Broadway, additional crosswalks, and improving traffic signal timing. These are some of the improvements to that part of Broadway we’ve been waiting for for years! Can’t wait and so excited this is finally happening!!
Winter Hill has gotten screwed for decades. East Somerville had a pr person, paid from some sort of bloc grant. A person dedicated to promoting business development and trying to make East Somerville more of a destination. Meanwhile ESom also has a subway station and Assembly Sq. How did E Som merit a dedicated pr campaign. Winter Hill is the ugly stepsister. There’s been no help to bring businesses and to promote Winter Hill. Meanwhile, WH lacks even a major intersection or square to aid development. We have no subway. For many years, since Sen. Charlie Shannon, WH has needed a bus to connect, going east, not west, to the Red Line, Kendall Sq. WH gets nothing. So bike lanes are really huge (insert sarcasm). We have an abandoned Star Mkt site thats been an eyesore forever. We have a corridor, a none too attractive corridor at that. Why has no one applied to get a main streets bloc grant to help Winter Hill? Winter Hil has seen the least appreciation in property values. The Mystic side of Broadway, even moreso – because this side of WH is not helped by the green line station. That size of Winter Hill is a large pocket of RB zoned properties. Now the city is taking away value by eliminating the 3rd unit with NR zoning. i guess the property owners haven’t suffered enough by simply being ignored, by not having their neighborhood improved or paid attention to. The City now will take away substantial market value from every single or 2 family in RB zone on the Mystic side of Winter Hill. How can the city reduce the value of all these homes – yet NOT reduce the assessment or taxes???But thank god, we’ll have bike lanes!! O happy day.
Another instance of the city pandering to a few select groups while ignoring the rest of the residents. This will cause massive traffic jams at all times, causing idling and pollution, and every business and resident along Broadway will suffer because of it. Then when the traffic becomes intolerable and people use other routes they will try to keep people off those other routes (which consist of city of Somerville public ways). This is all they keep talking about in regards to the Broadway/Ball Square Bridge situation.
What I am trying to understand is why Laura would ask a question about the west side off the Balls sq. Bridge, Making a left hand turn to drive back in to Medford. When this article clearly shows Winter hill/Broadway between Temple and School st. Which is approx. 1 to 1 1/2 miles away. I have no clue what one has to do with the other. But more to the point,any improvement to help alleviate traffic at that intersection would be a big improvement.
Will traffic travelling eastbound on Broadway be allowed to make a left turn onto Boston Avenue during the bridge closing construction? If not, why not?