By adamg on Sat., 5/2/2020 - 3:25 pm
To try to reduce the number of people in the Arnold Arboretum at one time, the city and state put up sawhorses and signs along Bussey Street and the Arborway to ban parking. Several concerned citizens filed 311 complaints today (like this one) that people have simply moved the sawhorses so they can go for a walk.
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Meanwhile, back on 311 ...
By adamg
Sat, 05/02/2020 - 8:25pm
Cute, but...
By In The Know
Sat, 05/02/2020 - 9:32pm
This is the flaw of the 311 system. It can be used anonymously to target a population or make false accusations against someone or an address.
There is a need for anonymous whistle-blowing for felony crimes due to fear of retribution and that is why such a number exists for reports. But 311 calls should require you to be identified and take responsibility for the complaint you are making.
It's not like Swatting
By Bob Leponge
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 12:47am
making a 311 request is not like swatting. Nobody is going to be arrested, ticketed, fined, or harrassed solely on the basis of a 311 request. Make a 311 call falsely accusing your neighbor of illegal trash out or illegal parking, and what you're going to get at most is a city inspector taking a look and then saying "no violation found, case closed"
This site loves to celebrate
By Murkin
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 10:21am
This site loves to celebrate the rat and all the social distancing warriors.
Why is everyone you hate a "warrior"...
By lbb
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 10:23am
...while those assholes that threatened the Michigan legislature with guns are apparently "patriots"?
Support the towing industry
By Daan
Sat, 05/02/2020 - 8:54pm
Good opportunity for towing companies to earn some income. But is the Arborway city or state?
Either way just tow the vehicles. This is not a time to just give warnings.
The Arborway belongs to the state, if I'm not mistaken
By necturus
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 4:36pm
Isn't it a former MDC roadway? Aren't those managed by DCR nowadays?
Arborway is MassDOT from the
By DTP
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 7:02am
Arborway is MassDOT from the Centre St rotary to Morton St, DCR north of Centre St. The carriage road along the north side of the Arborway between Centre St and South St is DCR.
Let's pick this apart
By Will LaTulippe
Sat, 05/02/2020 - 9:35pm
1) We'll start with the cars. On this one, I'll mock the public for being basic bitches. You own an automobile, which nominally frees you to visit any outdoor attraction that you like, gas can be found for under two bucks per gallon, and it's Saturday...and your big idea is the Arboretum, as if it isn't near where a plurality of people live in a small area, and you're the first person to have the idea.
These are the same people who, in the infancy of this whole mess, deftly pointed out to everyone that the popular name of the ailment is also the name of a popular beer with which other people are familiar.
2) I think most driving adults can be parsed into the following categories:
- Currently working from home and setting their own hours
- Currently working from home and tethered to a desk
- Essential workers reporting to work 9-5 Monday-Friday
- Essential workers who aren't necessarily working from 9-5 Monday-Friday
- People laid off because there's no work to be done and because their company is not making enough money to keep them around through this
I'm #3 and at a liberty to visit the Arboretum during any damn operating hours that I please. So you know when I went? (Expletive) Thursday. It was not cold, and the sun was not beating down oppressively. I parked on the Bussey side on the first try (with no posted restrictions on the street or in the small lot right at the gate), and walked up the hill where the Asian stuff is. I could have capably met distancing guidelines if I were 20 feet wide.
Why did I go on Thursday? See #1. Not hard to zag when everyone else zigs. I'm a near-breakeven horseplayer during my furlough for precisely the same reason (which also explains why I'm visiting parks on non-Saturdays.) If we have a virus going around, but also the free time to do stuff, the answer is to do stuff when the fewest people are expected to do it, right? That way, you can do the stuff, but also reduce your exposure to this thing that kills people.
3) Now that I've taken down the people, the state: Funny how I drew that conclusion from #2 without any nudging from government. Seriously, government, which I seldom praise, has sent into motion a series of events which have given us all the chance to not only alter what might have been broken about how we live our lives, but to stop and consider how we might live our lives better.
Today, our solution was to, in a state with natural areas abound, all congregate in the same one, in spite of the advice of scientific leaders. I think that ticketing/towing cars is an odious move, but I would have been completely on board with the meter maid taking down all the plate numbers, tracing the registrants, and then circulating said list to local hospitals so that the hospitals can make them sit and wait behind everyone else in line for care if they need it. Why assess a regressive tax when you can just let the private sector punish them with terrible service in the face of the outcome that they should be avoiding, but aren't?
Celebrate voluntary acts, and stay contrarian, everybody.
Bravo, Will
By Cleary Squared
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 1:27pm
Everything you said is precisely true.
People are going to be dumb, selfish, ignorant, defiant, and clueless. That's on them - it's their loss and they'll learn the hard way, either by fines or hospitalization (either by getting the virus themselves or giving it to people they know).
There are many of us, however, who don't want to be in perpetual house arrest or curled into a fetal position. We want to take breaks away from our houses to get fresh air, and walk away from the constant stream of self-interested speculation, press conferences and fear porn. The ones who will know exactly what to do to avoid getting or spreading the disease will take appropriate action - and within their own means.
Well......
By mplo
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 11:00am
The dumb, selfish, defiant, willfully ignorant and clueless will not only end up learning the hard way through fines, hospitalization, or whatever, but these motherfuckers will end up taking others with them, as well. They just don't fucking give a shit.
They're human beings like any other
By necturus
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 4:43pm
No one likes to feel trapped in their homes. And if we had a federal government that had done its job, the virus could have been contained before it spread so widely that stay-at-home orders were the only way to slow it down.
But that didn't happen, and so we are where we are. I have no idea how likely it is that one can get sick by going to a crowded Arboretum. I've been taking to going for walks early in the morning, before too many other people are out. But the bottom line is that here we are, living with a virus in our midst that can kill us or make us sick for a very long time, and there's neither a cure nor a vaccine. It's not our fault, but here we are.
I’ll tell ya...
By Brian Riccio
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 7:59am
Thank God for U-Hub or the world would never have gotten a chance to read how it’s Will against the world.
Why is driving to the
By anon
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 12:50am
Why is driving to the Arboretum considered more risky than taking the T? Should they close all the Arboretum entrances on the T station side to discourage people from riding in close quarters on the train to get there? If the problem is too many people going there, isn't the T much more efficient at moving large groups of people than cars?
These lazy turds should have
By Kinopio
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 9:58am
These lazy turds should have their licenses suspended. Stay in your own damn neighborhood. You already got the forest hills cemetery closed. The people who live within walking distance need this park and the rest need to GTFO.
Enough with the bitching
By Rob
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 10:16am
Enough with the bitching about Forest Hills Cemetery! It's a cemetery! That's their line of work - their bread & butter. If they were nice enough to ever have been open to side things, that's bonus! That ends when they have to concentrate on their prime thing.
A compromise
By SamWack
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 12:31pm
Let us all agree that the residents of Forest Hills Cemetery should stay in their own damn neighborhood.
They can neither catch nor transmit the virus
By necturus
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 4:45pm
They're already dead.
We don't have a zombie-causing virus.
By jmeltzer
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 5:18pm
Yet.
They closed the cemetery........
By PMA
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 4:44pm
because of the ignorant behavior of some of the visitors.......it's a place where people have buried their dead relatives, and paid good money to do so - the very idea of people having picnics there and allowing their children to climb the trees, many of which are many years old, rivaling those at the Arnold Arboretum as well as children climbing on the monuments? Reeks of disrespect and entitlement.
The people who regularly visit there are now locked out due to your total disregard. Thanks, folks. Won't be long before they need to close the Arboretum as well.
"Stay in your own damn neighborhood"
By Will LaTulippe
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 10:45am
What a gross and unpleasant thing to say.
Yeh, well they should stay where they belong.
By mplo
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 11:02am
The social distancing order was put in place for a damned good reason.
Beg to differ
By ElizaLeila
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 1:06pm
One can still "socially distance" when in neighborhoods other than one's own.
“They should stay where they belongâ€
By Waquiot
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 4:04pm
Oh, so much could be read into that subject line.
Why do people within walking
By anon
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 11:39am
Why do people within walking distance need this park, any more than everyone else in greater Boston would need an arboretum which they don't have within walking distance?
And who's to say that the people who drove don't live within walking distance?
Really?
By adamg
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 3:07pm
It's not that people within walking distance "need" this park more, it's that blocking parking limits the number of people who can go there at once.
In case you've forgotten, there's a public health emergency out there, our state has more Covid-19 cases than all of Canada (which has more than four times as many people) and people are dying at a fast rate out there, even if we're not having New York-style ER disasters because we've flattened the curve - by staying home.
Inconvenience? Yes. Me, I wish I could go to Sullivan's, get some clam strips and sit by the water watching the boats go by. Sucks. Dying would suck more, though.
Or are you saying you live in a place with absolutely no green spaces within walking distance?
Ok, but I was responding to
By anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 2:46am
Ok, but I was responding to Kinopio's comment:
"The people who live within walking distance need this park and the rest need to GTFO."
I don't have an arboretum or other park of that size within walking distance of my house. If I shouldn't need to go to an arboretum, neither do people who live near the Arnold Arboretum. It's not the only green space near them either.
The arboretum wasn't created
By anon
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 6:56pm
The arboretum wasn't created for the people of Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, or any other adjacent neighborhood. It doesn't limit visitors to residents of Boston, of the metro area, or the state of Massachusetts. Every time I visit I always remark at how many different languages I hear being spoken. It's for everyone, though that doesn't mean everyone needs to go at once.
Today
By anon
Sun, 05/03/2020 - 10:42am
It’ll be 75 degrees today and next weekend looks cold so no way people are going waste a rare nice Sunday huddling indoors.
I don't understand the urge
By cden4
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 11:38am
I don't understand the urge for people to drive to a park during a pandemic. I get that people don't want to be inside on a nice day, but the nice thing about outside is that it exists everywhere that's not inside. Why can't people just take a walk in their own neighborhoods, or of they're feeling ambitious, walk or bike somewhere a bit further? This is not going to last forever. I just don't understand the urge to get in the car and drive around for recreational purposes right now.
For many city dwellers, the
By anon
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 12:31pm
For many city dwellers, the park options accessible by foot are often little more than vacant lots and patches of grass covered in dog pee and goose poop - or spaces primarily occupied by closed-off athletic fields and playgrounds.
The Arboretum is a world-class outdoor space. If it was easily accessible to you, you'd go.
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