Warren Dew
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Comments
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On the article Future of McGrath Highway Topic of Wednesday Presentation
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On the article Tufts Student in Critical Condition After Getting Hit by Car
Warren Dew
2:51 am on Monday, April 1, 2013
ReplyJust wanted to update people on this. The city changed the intersection to a 4 way blinking red a few days ago, as suggested by Ron above and seconded by several of the rest of us, and put 1-2 cruisers at the intersection for a couple days straight to, uh, "remind" people who didn't notice the change.
I have to give this to Curtatone: when he does realize there is a problem and there is a reasonable fix, he does fix things rather than ignoring them.
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On the article How Much Money Does it Take to Raise a Family in Somerville?
Warren Dew
9:47 pm on Tuesday, March 26, 2013
If you check the actual cost breakdown, housing is actually a very minor part of it. If the city wants to be more friendly to families, it needs to focus on the other things - notably the cost of child care. If anything, the poor families are better off because they get free preschool.
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On the article How Much Money Does it Take to Raise a Family in Somerville?
Warren Dew
9:45 pm on Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Our first child cost us closer to $36,000 per year, but that included about $20,000 in child care.
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On the article How Much Money Does it Take to Raise a Family in Somerville?
Warren Dew
10:10 pm on Monday, March 25, 2013
It's about right for a family that doesn't need child care - for example, a single income family with a stay at home mom or a dual income family with free child care from grandparents or something. If you need child care to cover for two parents who both work, add $40,000 before taxes to cover the $20,000 after tax cost of child care for the preschooler.
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On the article How Much Money Does it Take to Raise a Family in Somerville?
Warren Dew
10:07 pm on Monday, March 25, 2013
Hey, if you're willing for your kids to be college dropouts who will never earn enough to raise a family themselves, Somerville is fine!
Seriously, when the mayor essentially says that he's only interested in helping the underperforming kids, parents can figure out that the average and above kids will be ignored by the school system, and they will move out.
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On the article Dunkin' Donuts Opposes Proposed Somerville Styrofoam Ban
Warren Dew
3:16 am on Sunday, March 3, 2013
Agreed. Recycle the packaging, and we can use whatever packaging material is most effective for the purpose, which might sometimes be styrofoam.
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On the article Grade Somerville's Snow Response
Warren Dew
7:05 pm on Wednesday, February 13, 2013
I've found that the bike lanes work well for strollers.
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On the article Grade Somerville's Snow Response
Warren Dew
7:03 pm on Wednesday, February 13, 2013
They tried switching to parking on the even side and plowing the odd side to the curb once. The problem with this is that they then end up having plowed everything into the odd side driveways, so those people have to shovel their driveways twice. Anyone who tries that again will probably be voted out of office.
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On the article Grade Somerville's Snow Response
Warren Dew
10:37 am on Wednesday, February 13, 2013
ReplyA- based on what I've seen. The roads were clear throughout the storm, and they did strategic snow removal afterwards in critical spots. The minus is because they probably spent more on overtime than they needed to, given half the plow passes I saw occurred when the pavement was still clear from the previous pass - but better too much than too little.
However, if they shut in many driveways and did not remove the snow from the driveway afterwards as LG says, that would degrade the rating substantially for me. They did shut in my driveway temporarily when clearing a nearby street corner, but they recleared the driveway shortly afterwards, which was fine by me, and I haven't seen any plowed in driveways on my commute, though, so LG's case might have been a fluke.
Warren Dew
12:59 am on Thursday, May 16, 2013
Making short term repairs while waiting for money to be less tight so they can come up with a beautification project that doesn't snarl up traffic with more traffic lights sounds like a good idea.