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Crash sends two cars into front of Jamaica Plain bookstore
By adamg on Wed, 04/27/2022 - 11:25am
Jamaica Plain News has a photo of the newly car-dehanced entrance to Papercuts on South Street.
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Comments
HOW
This is a narrow street with a single lane in each direction and street parking on both sides. The speed limit is 25 miles per hour. Also, these cars are pointing in the wrong direction!!
Anyway, my kids (and many others at Mission Hill and Muniz Academy) walk past this store twice a day on the way to/from school. I'm glad none of them were fucking killed due to whatever completely insane shit one or more of these drivers were doing here to make this happen. Feel terrible for Papercuts too, they're a nice neighborhood shop.
Some occasional enforcement of driving laws in the city would be really nice. Would love to be able to walk around my neighborhood with my children without the constant fear of injury or death. Is that too much to ask?
My Guess
I'm in agreement with your points, my guess is as follows:
I bet one of the cars was turning left out of Carolina and didn't/couldn't see an oncoming car headed into JP center. Both swerved towards the curb to get themselves out of traffic and basically smooshed into one mass that kept going through the bookstore.
Given, this is partially informed by my dislike of turning left off of Carolina as there's frequently problems with visibility of oncoming traffic due to where cars, or taller trucks, park.
Also, while it is true that this is a two lane road, It's also true that aside from the usual logjam hours, or driving behind a bus, people very rarely obey the speed limit there. Biking on Centre st has always sketched me out for this reason.
doesn't make sense
Carolina is a one-way street and there's a traffic light. If you're turning left off of Carolina, no other car can (legally) enter the intersection.
The behavior here was likely too reckless for us to even imagine.
Possible attempted pass
It’s possible one of the cars tried to pass the other and it caused the accident. I’ve seen this more and more lately. Drivers seem more likely now to try and pass cars in front of them when they come to stop at intersections.
Very lucky no one was hurt. There is a preschool nearby and lots of foot traffic.
One Way
From the statement I saw on WBZ it seems like the SUV was coming the wrong way up Custer street and T-Boned the other driver coming through the light.
Recklessly driving is not an
Recklessly driving is not an “accident”. Stop letting drivers get away with homicide.
Pedestrians who are or almost
Pedestrians who are or almost hit by drivers on sidewalks should defend themselves by any means necessary. Use whatever is available to you because these criminal drivers are coming at you with 5000 pound deadly weapons. This is no “accident”. A dangerous criminal nearly killed people.
So Close
This was mere feet away from happening instead to Ferris Wheels in what would surely send Kinopio into a perfect storm of absolute god-tier fury.
In seriousness, I am very glad nobody was hurt. Papercuts is a fantastic shop and I hope everyone will continue to patronize them when this is all cleaned up and they can return to some form of normal business.
With that said, you've got to understand, if you're a beloved local bookshop in JP, cars are going to hit you.
What is with the obsession with Kinopio?
I guess they cut too close to the truth sometimes for some people to bear.
Says more about the obsessed than Kinopio.
Eh
No obsession really, just always amused at how they manage to turn every single thing into a bikes vs the world thing. For UHub oldsters, they remind me of a bike version of Markk, who managed to work anti bike lane sentiment into an increasingly unrelated series of things.
Kinopio has some good points. However, unless they are trying to do the thing where you deliberately make radical points to advance incremental change as a compromise, I don't see their approach being effective. I've been around bike advocacy for twenty years now, and have not seen shouting and obsessing making meaningful policy gains.
Maybe he's banking on the
Maybe he's banking on the South Park effect - where you start off saying things that just sound insane and totally overdramatic and comedically exaggerated, but eventually reality catches up with you as all the crazy scenarios you put out there become not just true but everyday occurances?
Supporting Papercuts
I'm glad no one was hurt. That being said, I hope Papercuts gets a big settlement out of this to secure their business even more, or further expand or something. The owner and her partner are such nice people.
Free Rent!
Kinopio has yet to comment here.
And yet he is living rent free in your head.
Save it for an NSFW reddit.
Criminal drivers almost
Criminal drivers almost killed pedestrians and people in a store and your first thought is me? Look into that with a professional.
I am now a single issue voter
And that issue is "Which candidate for local/state office is going to make it harder for idiots to operate automobiles"
Close Call!
Close Call!
There is a daycare about 20 feet away on the opposite side of the street. Could have been very bad. Hopefully whoever caused this gets fried.
Only two today
Looks like the Three Stooges trying to be first through the door.
awful for papercuts
hopefully they’ll share how to support their recovery soon. They’re a wonderful shop
I’ve been thinking recently about making Centre St from Eliot to Green bike/bus/delivery/ped only. There are no residences with access only via Centre as far as I can tell. All the parking lots for businesses are still accessible. It would certainly make that whole stretch so much more pleasant to be around. I’ve done a lot of walking in that part of Centre St recently, and I feel like I find a new shop or restaurant every time. Would love it if there weren’t excessive car traffic on the stretch. It could also act as a circuit breaker, discouraging any through traffic on it, freeing the 39 from traffic at least on the stretch. Maybe then we wouldn’t have speeding assholes crashing through the front windows of our businesses.
Who will pay for the damage the storefront?
The owner of the building? Oh yea, ha ha. That will mean a big rent increase. Who pays for the product that is destroyed. An insurer? Good luck. Who pays for the time and labor wasted in rebuilding? An insurer? Ha ha.
Another approach to solving this problem is whether the city, via the City Council or the Commonwealth's legislators (not that they are very effective) will see the value if keeping open an independent bookstore in the neighborhood.
After living in JP for 10 years (an area that is beautiful and is one of the best neighborhoods in the city), I've also learned that the city and state tax collectors happily rake in the higher property taxes but return far less than is taken out.
JP is to Boston and Massachusetts what northern states are to southern states. Much more money is removed from the neighborhood for other neighborhoods use and less than is needed is returned.
Insurance will pay
Papercuts and its landlord must have insurance. If they are smart they have already hired a competent public adjuster who will help them make claims for all damages, which will include property damage to the building and the inventory and lost profits and rent during the period of restoration. Yes, dealing with insurers can be unpleasant, but that's why public adjusters exist. (No, I am not a public adjuster.)
Nostalgic take
When you are a bookstore CARS ARE GONNA HIT YOU.
May I Be The First Here
To express some concern for the occupants of the vehicles, and to hope that however it happened, that they are okay?
E13, Carolina and insurers
Many drivers use Carolina as a in city speedway. The racing is not quite as bad as on Amory but it is still dangerous. This includes speeding up the curve on Carolina near Call.
No police enforcement on this street. E13 police are aware of the road problems on Carolina, including speeding cars, racing motorcycles with aftermarket ear blasting exhausts, boom boom cars, etc. One cop once told me that if I don't like motorcycles that shake houses passing by at 11:30 that I should hand a across the road. Seems to me that would lead to violence or even decapitation. So much for the advice from a cop.
But then I realized it might be an E13 cop coming off duty.
There are English High at one end (technically Wiliams) and the two elementary schools at the other end of Carolina. Plenty of Slow signs. Kids on the street.
With all the activity of children what I wonder is why E13 does not put more resources into training drives to respect basic traffic laws on this street.
Add the insurance farce in Massachusetts: Papercuts probably will not receive as much money as they need to rebuild the entrance from their own insurer. Suing the drivers' insurers can easily take years (the insurance companies assume the longer they hold up in court the more likely the plaintiff will either give up or go bankrupt).
Massachusetts is a great place to live. BUT: where bad drivers and insurance companies are concerned it is a lousy state to live in. A state that proves whoever has the most cash wins.
Massachusetts: a great place
Massachusetts: a great place despite the asshole drivers and useless cops.
The solitary tree
This reminds me of the tree that used to be in the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's remotest living thing. It was hundreds of years old, and stood in the middle of the Sahara, hundreds of miles from anything. In 1973 it was hit by a truck.
How many bookstores are there left? They're getting to be as scarce as trees in the Sahara.
Let's be fair
That bookstore was probably listening to music and it's not even wearing high-viz colors!