Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor: 'Misinformation Abounds About Beacon Street Cycletracks'

Alex Epstein, a Beacon Street resident and chair of the Somerville Bicycle Committee, addresses what he calls "false and misleading statements" regarding plans to reconstruct Beacon Street.

Editor's note: The author of this letter, Alex Epstein, is a Beacon Street resident and chair of the Somerville Bicycle Committee. He is writing in response to a boisterous public meeting, held Tuesday night, about a plans to reconstruct Beacon Street. Here's what Epstein wrote: I was surprised and extremely disappointed by a number of false and misleading statements, made at Tuesday night's Beacon Street reconstruction meeting, against improving bicycle facilities. I feel compelled to set the record straight with the vocal critics who've shown no bounds in their factual creativity opposing the project. And now they've even got the ear of an elected official. It was claimed that "the majority of the neighborhood" opposes the project, and a…

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Is There a Parking Problem in Somerville?

Do you have trouble finding a parking space? What would you do to improve parking in the city?

How would you grade the parking situation in Somerville? Some residents and businesses along Beacon Street are opposed to a plan to reconstruct the roadway that would eliminate parking on one side of the street, saying it would lead to a parking pinch that would hurt business and significantly inconvenience residents. The plan would add cycle tracks to Beacon Street, and some think there's room for both. "There is plenty of parking for everyone on Beacon Street with a cycle track—but the parking that's there has to be properly managed," one commenter, Mark, wrote on Somerville Patch. But another commenter said a parking squeeze in Somerville forced him and his family out of the city. "Because my wife got squeezed out of parking options, we…

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