Beacon Street: From Main Artery to Parking Lot Courtesy of the Curtatone Administration

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.  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.  

The Mayor has acknowledged that under his plan, "fuel trucks will do what they have always done: single-park or double-park in front of the delivery location and obstruct traffic flow (bicycle or auto) until the delivery is complete." 

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 and turn Beacon St. into a driver's nighmare. Why? To be able, as his administration has already done, to tout the creation of “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 remains as tone deaf to the legitimate apprehension of the tax paying folks of Beacon St. as he does to the infeasibility of this badly thought through plan. Yet the City vigorously pushes this plan forward despite strong opposition from residents, businesses, business patrons and cycling experts. Something is not adding up here.