Hey, there! Log in / Register
Massive traffic jam at Millennium Park as soccer goers jostle with hazardous-waste owners
By adamg on Sat, 10/24/2015 - 10:40am
The haz-waste line. Photo by Kevin Davis.
Both groups are left wondering why the city scheduled its fall hazardous-waste collection at the DPW garage there at peak soccer time, given that access to the park is limited to just one narrow road.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Well it is the fall
Well it is the fall collection, City has 4 of them, maybe they deem it of importance , a clean enviroment and all that. Easier to accept hazmat in an orderly manner , than try to clean it up afterwards. Work before leisure!
agreed
They always have one there this time of year, nothing new.
Yes but
Yes but how about bumping the hazmat dropoff a week earlier or later?
No need to schedule both events the same day.
Incompetence.
on the league's part, not the city's
I am no fan of Marty's, but as I mentioned below, the city lists its haz-mat drop-offs waaaay before the Parkway soccer schedule gets finalized. This seems like a goof up by them, not the city.
Soccer schedule
Yeah, but there's soccer up there every Saturday pretty much from early Sept through next weekend. If they could do this either in late August or early November, or on a Sunday, the volume of soccer traffic is minimal.
For an event that takes place
For an event that takes place over several hours, outdoors, involving the handling of hazardous materials, August may be too hot, and November too cold to safely hold the event.
Columbus Day?
No soccer then, but I'm sure the DPW would prefer to not work then either.
Sunday would be the easiest or just move Parkway Soccer to Sunday on that day - one should simply move.
Holiday weekends would be
Holiday weekends would be tough to get staffing for (don't forget there's also a hazmat company, usually Clean Harbors, that also staffs the event), and there's likely less people at their homes that weekend to be able to bring their hazardous waste for disposal.
Sundays may be just as hard to staff as a holiday, so moving soccer might be the most practical solution.
HazMat collection requires quite abit of planning....
....both for the City and the State. If I recall they are also required to pull permits. The City sets the dates at least one year in advance.
For those of you ripping DPW over this traffic problem; you are way off base on this one. Hazardous Waste collection day has been one of the most detailed and highly organized events I have ever been to. I have dropped off material at each of the West Roxbury events for years. It is not just driving to the dump and throw your trash out.
I would suggest that in the future the City Parks Department deny use of the fields on HazMat Day. In addition to the traffic issue getting into the park, there is the safety issue of evacuating Millennium should a hazmat emergency occur - which is extremely small.
I asked someone to take empty petroleum tanks up this morning...I said they would be in and out in 15 minutes. I am thinking they are not going to be very happy about running this errand. Oops.
I totally agree with you
I've dropped off in past years with no trouble. The PWD yard predates the park, and for years there was no conflict. Parkway Youth Soccer or whoever dropped the ball on this.
Usually in November?
I think this is usually held in November, and I've gone lots of times with no traffic at all.
I did get stuck once in the spring in a line like today's, but I just paid the guy behind me $5 to take my stuff & left.
It was insane today
We made the turn onto the access road at around 9:05am today with a hatch full of used motor oil, insecticide and oil based paints. Left the hazmat collection area about 70 minutes later. 60 minutes waiting in line, 10 minutes to drop the hazmat stuff off. It's never taken us more than ~15 minutes before.
Boston usually does a good job with collections - it's well organized and we are usually out in minutes.
I think today it was a combination of soccer traffic getting totally jammed up and it also looks like the crew of helpers, traffic guiders and other municipal folks showed up late for work. It was not until past 9:30 that they really had people at the various intersections guiding traffic. People in safety vests were still parking their cars and getting themselves situated at 9:30.
After 9:30 when they got fully staffed they seemed to hit stride. They even had a process for pulling soccer people out of the line of cars and directing them straight into the parking lots
Rudeness prevailed
Glad to hear people showed up eventually to help. Pulling people out of line to get to soccer was really a pretty simple solution.
My kind and helpful husband got out of line and passed cars in an attempt to get our son to soccer and suffered the fist shakes and colorful curses of a whole bevy of drivers who thought he was cutting in front of them. All this in full hearing of our young son.
I think the biggest hazardous waste was the language.
Rudeness prevailed
Glad to hear people showed up eventually to help. Pulling people out of line to get to soccer was really a pretty simple solution.
My kind and helpful husband got out of line and passed cars in an attempt to get our son to soccer and suffered the fist shakes and colorful curses of a whole bevy of drivers who thought he was cutting in front of them. All this in full hearing of our young son.
I think the biggest hazardous waste was the language.
I got stuck too
About 45 minutes for me. It was my first trip so I just assumed it was always that bad. I figured they needed to do them more frequently.
Definition of Insanity
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. They scheduled it the same way during the spring. There is no reason they couldn't have it starting at 2pm or have it tomorrow or have it two weeks from now when the parkway soccer season is over. Some 800-1000 kids play parkway soccer. There are plenty of other options to consider instead of inconsiderately inconveniencing a couple of thousand people on a Saturday.
It's either laziness or incompetence on the city's part to schedule it during peak soccer time. Dumb as a bag of hammers.
The insanity is having narrow roads!
That is repeated over and over. Worse, wider roads are being made narrower.
Enlighten us
How do wider roads help? In this, or any other given scenario.
Having an extra lane for parking/queuing
and still 2 lanes for two way traffic to come and go. Perhaps even parking on both sides of a two lane roadway.
You see the picture?
Everyone's queueing in the same line. Parking and turning is irrelevant here.
As usual
He's never been there, so he has no idea.
The last time something like this happened, we parked in a lower level area and sent the athletes up on foot ahead of us, schlepping the chairs, coffee, and team snack up the hill.
Of course, that's treasonous to you know who - how dare anyone escape a traffic jam!
Made the mistake...
of dropping by Home Depot to pick up some new smoke alarms about 9:30am. By 10, you couldn't get out the parking lot onto the parkway in less than 30 minutes. It was total insanity! It might have helped everyone- shoppers, soccer players, people dropping off waste- to have posted a few traffic cops in the area.
Why are people surprised by this?
Have non of you ever dealt with people who work for the city? Do you seriously expect them to coordinate with other agencies or business? City workers are the ones who can't get a good paying job any place else. For a reason. To expect them to be some super vigilant, highly tech savy workers who instantly know what is going on around them is beyond foolish. Its a crappy paid job that you cannot be fired from but comes with great benefits. Its a system built by the employees for the employees. It is not meant to be a great system for you.
On my street there was two major construction projects going on at the same time. One construction company was permitted a staging area for multiple vehicles and road digging equipment in the exact same spot that another construction company was permitted to tear up for a completely unrelated project. Both projects were approved by the same person for the exact same dates and times. None of the abutters were notified in advance. 90% were business trying to earn a living. It was a complete cluster f.
I really think you guys are expecting way too much if you think the DPW is going to coordinate schedules with the local soccer field.
How is this the city's fault?
I am 100% positive that the city declares its haz-mat drop-off days looong before the Parkway soccer schedule is created for the season.
I know many a lazy cynic loves to slam the government for anything that goes awry in the world (thanks Obama!)...but maybe, just maybe, this is a case of the soccer league people missing a clue.
As posted above
There's soccer up there every Saturday in Sept and October every year. It's 90% rec league meaning all Parkway kids so it's not like they could just schedule away games for that weekend.
Irrelevant
It's irrelevant how far in advance the city plans it. All that means is that the city lacks even more forethought than I thought if they schedule the day that far in advance. Parkway soccer has been playing games on Saturdays in Sept and Oct at Millennium field for 15 years. 800-1000 kids play every weekend. Why wouldn't you consider that fact - that a couple of thousand people drive in and out for soccer every Saturday - when planning the date? Scheduling it on a Saturday in Oct is inconsiderate to the soccer families and the people with hazardous waste.
Re: the post about temperature.: I hardly think two weeks from now temps are going to make the materials more hazardous. That's a stretch.
Typical
Always someone else's fault.
That was a dump long before
That was a dump long before there may have even been a soccer ball in West Roxbury. Now it serves the city as a DPW operation. So there you go ,
And not one comment on
The ALL NUMERICAL GREEN PLATE?
That thing has got to be like 30 years old!
I see these once in a while and wonder how their owners convince their inspection stations/car dealers/the Registry to let them keep the greenie?
Impressive!
Pick the right inspection station
They are supposed to reject old plates with the excuse that the paint is "crazed", but we all know its so license plate scanners at unmanned toll booths have a front plate to capture. My parent's cars still have them, transferred from previous cars. They don't use the Tobin or the pike.
If that were the issue, why
If that were the issue, why wouldn't the RMV just decree that everyone now needs a front plate?
Here are the cameras at a Pike toll booth. Note that 6 of them are aimed at rear license plates, while only 2 are aimed at front plates. https://goo.gl/maps/yg8WsY67aEq https://goo.gl/maps/N8jZwRqSxJ52
At least the 2nd time this has happened
It was just like this in the spring. I saw that it was haz drop day again and planned accordingly to arrive early for the kids 1:00 soccer game. I walked up from the Home Depot lot, but it would have been closer to park at WR High and walk across the field.
A few points:
Hundreds of soccer kids flood Millennium every Saturday during the two seasons. 3 to 4 fields of teams all turn over at the top of each hour from 8:00 to 1:00, meaning there is a huge influx and outflow of cars every hour. Parking can get scarce and there are hundreds of kids and parents everywhere.
I don't blame either party: This is a scheduling issue that both sides should address. Having the haz day on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend would solve the traffic problem (no soccer that weekend) but might be a problem for city workers. The city and soccer league should make a much more transparent effort to alert all the soccer parents about the pickup so that they can at least be ready for it. Telling people that they should plan to drop off at the high school (even if there won't be enough room to park everyone) would also go a long way towards reducing the traffic going into the park.
it may sound like poor planning
But for all I know, the city is, more than anything, in the business of removing refuse. That, sewage, and police is all 99% came to expect form cities. Depending on how socialist you are, you may also agree that the city should take of education, public transportation, or healthcare. In no way should cities care about sports, especially of a private, money-making, breeder-biased kind.
Ok, you're probably just a troll
but I'll humor you.
Every single person in this line of cars is a Boston city resident, both the soccer people and the trash people. The city exists to meet the needs of the residents. So the question is simply what is the best way to accommodate both sets of people- let everyone deal with traffic twice a year or move the time of one thing which the people want.
To your larger point, there are plenty of places where a city does the bare minimum for the residents - Detroit, Mogadishu, etc... It is in a city's best interest to be an attractive place to live so it can get residents who will be involved members of their community, pay taxes, maintain their houses, etc... So rec soccer leagues aren't some crucial thing like a good police force or schools, but it's part of the larger picture of why people want to live here and that is what helps make a place like Roslindale and West Roxbury in this case, appealing.
Serious question - why should the city be involved in removing garbage? Plenty of towns have private garbage you know, although I guess you started your post by admitting you don't know much.
As you already explained,
As you already explained, people live in Mogadishu (and probably New York) without being comforted by city officials with soccer tournaments. I am not entirely sure we need more people to want to live here, especially when the city appears utterly incapable to organize anything beyond sewage.
The cities, (including Mogadishu at the peak of the war!) organize communal garbage collection, because individuals, left to their own devices, will do what people of Naples do often - dump the garbage on others' and communal property.
"The city exists to meet the needs of the residents." Suppose I need a Thai massage.
Parkway Soccer
The city has very little to do with Parkway soccer other than the fact that Millennium Park is a (I think?) a city park. It's a weird argument you're trying to make that the city should have open public spaces but that the public shouldn't use them. As for your theory that there aren't youth sports leagues in New York city, that seems like a bit of a stretch. Spoiler alert- did you know Boston also maintains swimming pools for residents to use? Shocking, but true.
Back to the matter at hand, no-one is asking the city to 'comfort' them - just asking if this can be improved. Sorry that civic engagement is too hard of a concept for you to grasp.
I visited Millenium Park a
I visited Millenium Park a few times. Even I know you can take a bus to get there. To avoid the bus is to assume the consequences of your avoidance.
I don't really care what private organizations chose to do, but the complaint is against the city. Some people expect wider streets for them to go to their soccer games, others want speedy highways to their baseball games, and I am left to pay for this.
Here is my personal POV: I live in an apartment in a central area. It is more valuable than most houses in West Roxbury. So not only I am paying in taxes more than these parents, but I subsidize your children's school, I subsidize your street being paved, I probably subsidize your trash collection too. People who live closer to the downtown are usually child-free, meanining they do not make use of public schools, do not create as much trash, and do not drive between sparse houses. Nobody in Beacon Hill, Bay Village, Kenmore needs that sort of garbage collection - but we consent to it because we all know what you'd do without it.
Since people like me are paying all these for people like you, I only have a demand that costs you nothing: when the city organizes one of those activities even I agree with, please cut it down on entitlement. Garbage collection is much more important than your senseless half-empty car driving. The street is as good as I can afford, and I wouldn't want to pay for its widening, just because you have a game to attend. Yes, my civic spirit is gone when I hear you want a street reserved for your progeny.
First time for me
We went through around 10:00 or so. Probably about 30 minutes max for us to get through - and in my father's Maine registered vehicle. We only had stuff for shredding, so once we made the turn into the yard proper, easy peasy. I only had to prove I knew my zip code, even though I did have my licence ready.
I think some people may not know the rules for haz-mat as the person in the vehicle in front of us waited in line to then tell the person directing us to the correct line that he had a monitor for drop off - which gets taken care of by a phone call to the DPW for scheduled curbside pickup. He pulled out of line and left, which sucks for him, but the info is available online for what gets taken care of how.
Was the October 4 'event' this crazy, too? Soccer had to be going on at that point, yes?
There wouldn't even be soccer there
If it weren't for DPW and the trash mound that became a park, there wouldn't even be soccer there.
Soccer needs to adjust its schedule.
Maybe the city just needs to
Maybe the city just needs to have more hazmat drop-off days.