In a tweet last night the Newton Village Alliance offered yet another apparently unsubstantiated Tweet.
Korff’s guy says the bike lane will come out if the $700,000 for Newtonville. and Newtonville doesn’t want bike lanes.
— NewtonVillagesAll (@NewtonVillages) May 31, 2017
Once again the Newton Villages Alliance is showing that it’s against everything and for nothing. For an organization that is always talking about traffic and loss of parking, you’d think they’d instinctively be supportive of taking cars off the road, which can be achieved, in part, by getting more people on bikes.
But I’d also like to know how they came to the conclusion that Newtonville doesn’t want bike lanes? Unless there’s been a survey on this how can they state this as fact?
I believe the Newtonville Neighborhood Area Council or Beautiful Newtonville or other participants in the Walnut Street Redesign Project should favored wider sidewalks over bike lanes/. Could somebody who participated in the Walnut Street Project clarify the source of the opinion?
I have the same questions. Where there are bike lanes in Newton, this rider definitely welcomes them, especially with Newton’s overall density. I would imagine there is a diversity of opinion among the residents of the village itself as to the “want.”
There is some further context to the Tweets (as it appeared to be a live-Tweeting of a public hearing); another Tweet:
“Laredo says Newtonville doesn’t want bike Lane to nowhere.”
Anthropomorphisation of the Village aside, I’m curious what road(s) that refers to, and what “bike lane to nowhere” actually means. If it’s what I’m guessing, I’d prefer bike lanes on some streets over bike lanes on none.
I think more context on what the proposed bike lane “project” is, as it is not in that Tweetstream.
Brian, as a cyclist I could see wider sidewalks in the context of overall traffic calming being a benefit to cyclists (not to mention pedestrians) .
At least the anthropomorphisation has decreased from Newton as whole, down to just Newtonville.
As a cyclist, walker and driver, I find Newtonville hazardous to bikes, pedestrians and cars. Bike lanes alone will not solve the problem, but should be part of solution.
It’s terribly annoying to have a person or organization consistently say they are speaking for an entire group of people when they are not. I live in Newtonville and it seems to happen here more than in other villages, including by the NVA, the NNAC/Beautiful Newtonville and by our Ward Councilor.
I want bike lanes in my village along with wider sidewalks – I know many, many residents of Newtonville who ride their bikes and who want livable streets. I want the city planned village center enhancements to work similar to those planned for West Newton.
I want Austin Street to break ground and I want a good deal made with the Washington Place developer.
Most of all I want all of these speakers to qualify their wording with the use of “some” before the word “residents.” They don’t speak for me or many others I know.
There is a fair amount of installed bike lane coverage on Walnut St south of Orr from the Newtonville village center to Newton Highlands. Marc was likely not considering that in his comment.
The decisions around Walnut St. redesign are challenging. You only have so many feet from store front to store front to work with, and competing priorities for wider sidewalks/outdoor dining etc, dedicated bike lanes, protected bike lanes, transient center lane truck unloading, two-way side street convenience, and a general desire to avoid unforeseen consequences.
I attended the information session at North several weeks ago. It began with a great presentation on the Newtonville Ave/Walnut intersection from some Day Middle Schoolers, who gave the consultants and city planners a run for their money.
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-QRpNmn/
I thought the city’s presentations and options were thoughtful, and they are looking to find mix and match ways to optimize across the priorities above block by block. As a cyclist I like bike lanes, but in a village center I’d probably prefer to get away from car doors (and people darting out from between them), and instead join a “Sharrowed” main lane on traffic-calmed section in a village, but some might think a dedicated lane is safer. It did seem that provisions for transient truck unloading currently handled by middle lane was not addressed fully in current city options and the concern noted in tweet is merited.
This is a good example of where village-level representation and focus on the council feeding into process will be valuable.
Before folks simply respond based on reflex (and I have no idea what the full tweet means), please actually look at the TWO OPTIONS ON THE TABLE.
You can’t have it all in Newtonville’s village center. The road isn’t wide enough. Don’t just reflexively respond “Hey, I like bike lanes”. And Greg, this is a big deal for my village, so get out of here with your weak post. Everything doesn’t revolve around NVA. I could give a flying hoot what NVA thinks about the bike lanes or the Walnut redo. You know what I care about? My village center. Which I walk through multiple times a day, which has narrow sidewalks, few places to sit, very little charm, and has the chance to be reinvented as a walkable village. I bike too. But there is a choice here, a very minor redo of the sidewalks with bike lanes, or much wider sidewalks with additional spaces for outdoor seating, plantings, trees, outdoor cafe space, etc. I believe the Newtonville Area Council and Beautiful Newtonville both support Option A, which is the sidewalk expansion option. I do as well. I don’t think the dedicated bike lane through a village center works well (folks double park constantly, forcing bikes back to the middle), and the village center is enough of a destination site that we should focus on that, rather than the cars and bikes passing through. Traffic calming is important for lots of reasons, and I also believe Option A does that better as well.
In short, study the freaking proposals PLEASE. Opposing opinions are welcome (and I pushed for a blog topic on just this freaking issue a few weeks back to drum up support and get the conversation started). But let’s not make this about NVA. You wanna debate bike lanes, that’s great. But NVA no more speaks for this village issue than they speak for me, and folks should know they sure as heck don’t speak for me. And in my view, as a resident and sometimes rabble raiser in Newtonville, there is a LOT of support for the option with the wider sidewalks but not dedicated bike lanes (Option A). Don’t let a tweet by NVA take away from that support.
And it really is an either/or Marti. You get dedicated bike lanes through the village, or you get wider sidewalks. Widening the sidewalks by a foot on either side is negligble in my view. Option B attempts to please all sides, and ends up doing nothing well. And as a biker in my youth, sometimes the dedicated lane really isn’t the way to go in an urban area. Traffic calming can be better if done right. I always worried more about shifting around a double parked car than being in a lane slow moving lane of traffic as a biker.
Is NVA run by Kathleen Kouril Grieser? This reminds me of an unsubstantiated claim she made on the Courbanize page saying that “people” don’t like buildings more than 3 stories high. Which people?
I feel like the people of NVA would be better off in the further out ‘burbs like Westborough or something.
What Fig said.
Newtonville NAC spoke on this matter, and the option was not bike lanes. People may have preferences, like Marti, but the NAC was elected, looked at this matter diligently, and made a decision.
Greg– your obsession with NVA is ridiculous. No one cares about NVA. Except you apparently. Stop knocking down a strawman that has no bearing on our actual reality.
Greg, did you read the NVA blog chain? They were clearly blogging about the Council meeting. They are talking about the Newtonville mitigation dollars for the Orr project. I would imagine those are for bike lanes on Washington, not Walnut, otherwise those really are bike lanes to nowhere. Talk about taking a tweet out of context. Go back and review the chain of tweets.
And I can find 10 different ways to spend $700,000. Spending it on things the city should be doing anyway (like restriping lanes on Washington or Walnut for bike lanes) isn’t mitigation, it is putting the $700,000 in the city’s general fund.
Newtonville keeps having projects built with promises made, but when it is time for the money to get delivered, I’m not seeing the results. C’mon now folks.
Emily/Jake/Susan, what say you?
LOL, Fig.
I just read the same chain.
Of the whole chain of tweets, Greg– that was the one that you thought was worthy of attention?
How about the CCs being apparently surprised by Korff backing out of a promise?
Or concerns about the low-ball estimates on school projections?
Concerns that the projected costs for the city is net negative?
Questions on whether there are sufficient village improvements as part of this deal?
Do you care at all about this stuff?
There are real issues on the table, and you seem caught up in silly stuff.
I’m personally sick and tired of Newtonville getting screwed. You don’t seem to care one bit.
It might be just me, but as someone who grew up in the sixties, the acronym NVA carries a fairly strong negative connotation. Of course that should not affect my view of a local organization in the Twenty First Century, but the unconscious mind is a strange and powerful force, which makes me wonder . . .
We have many residents who either fled South Vietnam during the war or are descendants of those refugees. Maybe it is not really an issue at all; but still, if I was in charge of naming the group, I would have chosen another name, and acronym. Too cautious? Perhaps.
It also strikes me that if one ignores the provocations of this group, it would serve to lessen their perceived importance (assuming one is in disagreement with their apparent anti-growth strategies and positions and your goal is to oppose them). Oftentimes the best way to oppose something is to ignore it. The NVA seems to get more attention on Village14 than elsewhere, making them appear to be more of a force than what might be the reality.
Their Twitter account has only 400 followers; many of those, like myself are not even members or fans of the organization – keep giving them attention and retweets and you will help them grow that number. If they ever become relevant, they just might have Village14 to thank for that.
Ahhhh Newton …13 comments about bike lanes, over 100 comments about leaf blowers and 8 comments about the opioid epidemic. Newton you never cease to amaze me. Hopefully the citizens of Newton, will one day, get their priorities in order.
@Auburndale, I wouldn’t say that it’s particular to Newton. People will focus on the things for which they think they have control. The opioid epidemic feels almost too big for many people.
As for Walnut Street itself, I went through the proposal and while there are bike lines, I’m not sure they’re protected (unless you consider paint to be adequate protection). Given that, and the fact that the reduced crossings will encourage traffic calming, does the village need bike lanes in the commercial strip? I ask this as someone who actually bikes through that area quite often.
Is there a combination of the two that can include sharrows in the commercial area and bike lanes both over the bridge and in “connection zone” between Highland and the high school?
The tweet above goes too far in claiming that most of the village residents don’t want bike lanes. If you look through the comments in the presentation it’s clear that the people who participated clearly DO want bike accommodations, they said as much. It’s also why there is increased bike parking.
No matter which option we choose there will be biking on Walnut Street, so what’s the safest option?
Some have made important observations about the Walnut St Redesign project. Two options were presented. The Option that the Area Council supports shows wide sidewalks in the retail area – something they have been advocating for some time. This option has a sharrow or shared bike lane. The Planning Department is still receiving comments on the two options. Option A also made a couple of streets one way and this has been controversial. I’m guessing that in the end there will be a mix and match between the two options taking the best from both.
The other issue raised by the NVA had to do with a proposed expenditure in Schedule D of the Council Order that was voted on last night by the Land Use Committee. Schedule D describes how the $700,000 mitigation funds would be spent. The planning department listed an expenditure of $100,000 for bike lines North of the Turnpike Bridge in the intersection that will be rebuilt by the petitioner. It was the memory of me and other Councilors present that those bike lanes were part of the original project and therefor should not be part of the Newtonville mitigion funds.
So the question wasn’t should we or shouldn’t we have bike lanes north of the bridge- the issue was whether they would be part of the project or part of the mitigation funds. I believe we all agreed that if the DPW agrees we should have bike lines they would be part of the project.
@fignewtonville – Jake and I agree that the $700,000 should be spent on things that are enhancements to the village but given what is happening in the village right now – its impossible to know at this moment how to spend the funds. We examined the two lists of possible proposed projects and found two broad categories –
1. enhancements and beutification to the streetscape, including the bridge
2. enhancements to various transportation modes – including pedestrian, bike or the train station.
Right now in Newtonvile there is a lot going on. We have the austin st project, the Washington Place potential project, the Walnut St redesign, the expenditure of CDBG funds in Newtonville , and the possible selection by MassDOT of a means to redesign all three trains stations in Newton (to be clear MassDOT has made no promise to fix the Newtonville Station – but as part of the reconsideration of the Auburndale Station – I believe they are seeking a solution that will work on all three stations). Given all these moving parts it made sense to me and Jake that we outline the two broad categories I briefly described above, and then define a process for how the decision would be made later when more things are known – to spend the money . The process would include the area council, the councilors and the planning department. The law department is trying to figure out if this is possible. We will find out by Friday.
Fairly certain that tweet was referring to a dispute between the developer and the Land Use Committee over who was supposed to pay for intersection improvements at Walnut and Washington, including but not limited to bike lanes. The Land Use Committee was under the impression that the developer would be paying for them, the developer was arguing it would come out of the $700K being dedicated to village improvements.
@fig I think participants on this thread mixed the NVA Orr tweet with the Walnut Street Enhancement Project, not Greg. @NewtonVillages seems to have done this too, without basis and much to their detriment. That’s sort of the point.
From what I’ve seen, Korff is offering enough to add to the right of way to support bike lanes on the adjacent section of Walnut (which will ultimately have accommodations on both ends of the business district one way or another, a positive step) but not tackling the much more strategic challenge of accommodating bikes on the Washington Street side of the block, the trickiest block outside of West Newton Square (under design) and Newton Corner. Fix that, and a very dangerous east-west cycling corridor could support continuous, perhaps even separated bicycle facilities. It could be a game changer. Or a lost opportunity.
As for the village center, anthropomorphisation aside, it would be so much easier for the NVA to instead be positive and cite support for wider sidewalks and the many benefits to the community. As an advocate for bike lanes, I totally get that. Why go negative on bicycle facilities? Whether option A or B, safe passage by bicycle on Walnut Street (and every other mode of transportation) is a requirement.
If I’m reading the presentation correctly, the village center sidewalks — the ones that really need to be super wide to support village center activity — go from 8′ to 12′ under option B. Not 16′, but it seems quite livable, especially with the possibility of a parklet or two during the summer months. In his op-ed, Tim Stone cites minimal sidewalk improvements and pinch points under option B… worst I see is the “transition zone” and “high school connection” where sidewalks remain around 8′. Plenty of room for people to walk side by side. Given that there’s no commercial activity there, what’s the problem exactly? Are there other issues with sidewalk width that the presentation doesn’t cover in its cross sections?
Also, does anyone know if parking-protected bike lanes or cycle tracks were considered as options?
Fignewtonville, I wasn’t just saying, “I want bike lanes” as a reflex – I was responding to the use of Newtonville residents to include all of Newtonville – in a more generic way – not referring to a specific project. I do want all of the things I mentioned, including bike lanes and wider sidewalks but not necessarily in the same place.
I knew the tweet was referring to Washington Street and the mitigation money being discussed and that it was from live tweeting at the council meeting. They do this for meetings related to their mission to stop time – the threads are informative.
There’s also this: the tweet says it’s about Korf and mentions mitigation money of $700,000.
As for Walnut Street in the village center, I generally like wider sidewalks over bike lanes for reasons mentioned above. I have closely read the presentations – even started a a thread on the subject.
Councilor Albright, thank you for commenting both here and on the Newtonville listserv. I have been pleased with your and Councilor Auchincloss’ success in working together. The two of you serve Ward 2 well and have provided an example of ward-at-large representatives who care about their ward.
I saw in Jake’s very informative newsletter that you will be holding his office hours while he is in Worcester this weekend. Hope to see you there.
Auburndale, how about the 100s of comments on the proposed new charter – clearly important to voters. I agree with Chuck’s reasoning on why there are fewer comments on the heroine epidemic’s thread. I don’t know enough about solutions or what Newton is doing with PATH to contribute to the conversation.
Fig, I started the Walnut St enhancement thread right after your request.
Emily’s succinct comment answered my main question (I think).
Like fellow-cyclist Chuck, I wouldn’t think separate bike lanes are a necessity for that commercial strip of Walnut St- wider sidewalks and anything that calms traffic (including bikes) on that stretch makes the most sense to my mind.
Marti:
My apologies, I now understand what you were trying to address. My point stands regarding either/or for the Walnut section.
I also agree that the $700K shouldn’t be used for bike lanes. Newtonville is going to have major development and headache associated with it, it should see major improvements. Susan’s comment was informative, and I’m glad folks are holding the developer to his promises instead of allowing him to double count project benefits (you don’t get to say $700K of village improvements and bike lanes if the 700K is paying for the bike lanes.) I hope we can get an update about what the law department decides.
By the way, what happens to the money promised from Austin Street? That $1,000,000 was also supposed to be used for village improvements. Can we get an update on those funds as well? It looks like that project is moving forward, how do those funds factor into the mix?
Susan (or Jake/Emily):
Can you give more detail regarding Newtonville station redo? The Auburndale redo by the MBTA made no sense to me, except that it allowed the station to remain open. It would be amazing to have at least one Newton station allow for reverse commuting, and having a platform like Yawkey at one or more of the Newton station would ideal. The switching plan is a nightmare, and the line already has so many delays that it is a very frustrating commuter environment. Considering how many of those delays will now be due to “switch” issues, I’m really hoping they come up with a new plan.
I’m very excited about the future of Newtonville. We are really depending on the three of you as well. I’m sure there will be disagreements, but I’m hoping that by 2020 we’ll have a lot of very positive changes to the village (along with a new Cabot school)
@Fig: Councilor Albright and I were at a meeting recently with MassDOT Secretary (and Ward 2 resident) Stephanie Pollack, in the office of State Rep. Kay Khan and also attended by State Senator Cynthia Creem. Secretary Pollack acknowledged the now well-publicized flaws in the current Auburndale station plans, and promised to get back to us soon in terms of MassDOT’s recommendations for next steps. There is not enough $ at this time to re-do the Auburndale, West Newton and Newtonville stops optimally (ie with 2 stations, so that trains do not have to switch tracks). We have docketed a discussion item to go to the Public Safety and Transportation Committee (which I serve on) to give interested members of the public a chance to hear more details about the status and where we go from here.
It’s hard to overstate how admirable it is that S. Pollack acknowledged that the near-t0-being-built station design was not adequate.
Good work by TransitMatters, local advocates, and local lawmakers!
I was not aware of the dueling proposals along Walnut Street and I wish I was when I started this thread. (I actually discovered this Tweet after someone else retweeted it I was not aware of the other Tweets in that sequence.) My bad.
But that doesn’t alter my outrage at the the NVA for its tendency to declare that it represents far more people than it does or make outlandish declarations that can’t possibly be verified without professional polling.
So no @Paul, I’m not going to stop pointing out this disingenuous behavior by the NVA because we’ve all seen what happens when fake news sources aren’t held accountable for their tall tales.
Sean, agreed! I’m somewhat shocked but hopefully the correct decision will be made.Switch equipment made so little sense that it made my head hurt.
If the answer is: we’d need to close down Auburndale to do this right, they did that for Govt center t stop. Not exactly the same thing but West Newton is not that far away.
@Greg
Please slow down for a second.
My frustration is this: if I look at V14’s postings on Newtonville over the past few years, they’ve been only Austin St/Orr-related posts and NVA. We had to literally beg you to open threads on Cabot School, even though it was being delayed which should have been noteworthy on its own. The city and developers have promised improvements to Newtonville that keep getting pushed out without concrete commitments being made, and a major storage center is being considered to be put in a residential area and 1 block from Cabot for no good reason.
There are SO many topics to be explored that are just much more valuable than another post complaining about NVA. The comments in this thread make the point pretty clear– so much constructive dialogue on what is happening on Walnut St, the rationale behind it, etc.– despite it not being the topic of the thread. We need more of that dialogue.
NVA isn’t a new source btw. Fake News is such an overused, lazy phrase. I really don’t think you have the right perspective on their impact and whether it merits much coverage at all. The reality, is that for a regular Newtonite myself, who isn’t day-to-day active in the civic activities of the city– I’ve literally never heard about NVA outside this forum. Didn’t know they have a twitter feed, until you posted on it. You know what? I’ve discovered, thanks to you, what Marti said– their blow-by-blow tweet-storms on controversial meetings is pretty informative, albeit I’m sure biased to some degree. You’re giving them a forum and amplifying their voice, while at the same time, spending less time on the issues we care about– just as the comments in the thread show.
Slow down and think about it. You’re off on this one. They’re not worth it.
@Paul: I don’t own this blog. It’s a collective volunteer effort by more than one dozen bloggers. We each write when the spirit moves us and time allows. I start a lot of threads but as you’ll notice most of them are based on something I read or found online. I don’t see my role as reporter here. I’m linking and commenting and, in the process, hoping to shape and contribute to civic life and public policy.
Meanwhile, I don’t live in Newtonville. I no longer have a kid in the public schools. And the TAB no longer has a schools reporter so stories like a Cabot delay rarely cross my radar and/or I don’t have enough information to start a new thread or know what the key issues are. People email me frequently asking me to start threads. My response, when I find time to respond, is please don’t just reach out to me, there are more than one dozen other bloggers here. And I always recommend using the “contact” form in the top left corner because that triggers an email to many of the bloggers here.
That’s a long way of saying, I’m going to write about what interests me or something I’ve read that I found interesting and worth sharing. Other Village 14 bloggers have different interests and criteria, which I believe is one of the reasons why I think this collective works.
As for the NVA, their main spokesman is as close to a regular columnist the TAB has. I find her/their opposition to virtually any and all changes in our city — and her/their habit of overstating community support without proof — to be troubling. I’m not going to stop pointing that out.
@Greg
The comments in your NVA threads speak for themselves. Very few, if any, engage on your concerns.
Its the same complaint, to the same audience, with nothing really new added to the conversation.
Rise above it, Greg.