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Dear Sir/Madam:

Beacon Street Reconfiguration Plan – Unworkable and Dangerous

 
The last few days have given us a picture of what Beacon Street would look like if the Curtatone administration has its way in re-configuring Beacon St., Somerville.  It’s not pretty.  Indeed, it is unworkable and dangerous.  Over the objections of residents and businesses, the City plans to install cycle tracks that will narrow the road and reduce parking by half.  With this storm, Beacon was narrowed to approximately the width the City’s plan calls for and it looked more like a parking lot than a main artery.  Every delivery truck that double parked turned Beacon into a one lane road.  Every resident that parked to unload groceries did the same.  If two vehicles double parked in opposite lanes,  Beacon would be literally impassable.   This is the future that Beacon St. faces 24/7/365 if the Curtatone plan goes through.

So for a cycle track that runs for less than a half mile (yes, you read that correctly), the Mayor will degrade the livability of the Beacon St. neighborhood, but be able to tout “the first federally funded cycle track.”  Nice line on an ambitious pol’s résumé, but a disgraceful price to be paid by his constituents who live and have businesses on Beacon St.   The Mayor is as tone deaf to his constituents worries as he is to the complete lack of feasibility of this plan and the several viable alternatives available.
Thank you.
Domenic J. Ruccio, Jr.
Somerville