Tour Buses Continue Parking Everywhere

This is a neighborhood with dwindling parking spaces. In 2011 Harvard University developed a two building monster one block from this intersection. The project eliminated 26 parking spaces which were supposed to be "re-allocated" as they say at Planning Board, Zoning Board and Conservation District meetings. If they were, it was not near this area. Tour buses and delivery trucks have no place to park or to stage waiting for access to the Art Museum loading docks, or to wait for their tourist passengers. Here are two more incidents. There were more but I was unable to capture images. Recently the city removed bus parking spaces on Mass Avenue near Harvard Square to add more metered parking. That exacerbated the situation. Link to video about the city hearings in previous years about parking in this neighborhood is included below. 


Tour Buses Parking along Broadway between Prescott Street and Quincy Street. Both sides of the street are No Stopping Zones. It is a popular block for illegal delivery trucks and tour buses for the new $500 million improved Harvard University Art Museum and truck stop complex.


Cambridge Parking Department created a two space loading zone at the south west corner of Prescott Street and Broadway for the trucks. It is used, as can be seen in this image, by shuttle buses day and night. Trucks continue to use the No Stopping Zone on Broadway. Image captured April 16, 2015.


These images show a two bus caravan loading up passengers on the south side of Broadway in a No Stopping Zone. Image captured May 1, 2015.


These are Trailways buses out of Rhode Island. Image captured May 1, 2015.


Fumes from a faulty ignition system (burnt rings?) can be seen here spewing into the atmosphere. Image captured May 1, 2015.


License plate of one bus. Image captured May 1, 2015.


License plate of the other bus. Image captured May 1, 2015.


ICC and DOT ID Number for one bus. Image captured May 1, 2015.


Here is another tour bus on lay over on Broadway in a No Stopping Zone. Image captured July 1, 2015.


Driver of the Coach tour bus can be seen here resting on the marble fence of the Art Museum. Image captured July 1, 2015.


Here is the bus company number for the Coach vehicle.Image captured July 1, 2015.

Previous post on April 8, 2015 on tour buses parking on Broadway between Quincy Street and Prescott Street in a no stopping zone.

http://enoughroom.blogspot.com/2015/04/tour-buses-idling-illegal-parking.html
The City Council may recall that Harvard University removed 26 parking spaces on Prescott Street and behind 1730 Cambridge Street when they were allowed by the city to build the CGIS in 2011.


One building of Harvard University's Center For Government and International Studies at Prescott Street and Cambridge Street. It was also called the Knafel Center, named for the major contributor.

How many other parking spaces were removed by the massive building campaign erecting edifices everywhere? They were supposed to be re-allocated. Did anyone ever ensure that they were? Is that why Harvard University freely makes promises and then no one remembers to see that they perform their promises?
See this video for their (broken?) promise about Prescott Street. Parking spaces are discussed and mentioned at least three times in this 15 minute video.

http://enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com/2011/06/harvard-spin-doctors-in-action.html 

Harvard University produces politicians, and acts like the politicians they produce.

Cambridge, MA Architect Laments Permit Process For Building Housing

MIT Dormitory, Cambridge, MA

Mr. Boyes-Watson laments difficulty with permit process for new housing. Is it the need to get permits at all, that is a problem, or only some of the process? He does not explain. He does not suggest that any part of the process is corrupt, or can be ignored with due consideration. He does not mention why developers want to build in Cambridge with all of the problems getting permits. Do the high prices of real estate have anything to do with it? Is building in Cambridge a good investment? Is blaming "we in the community" for "loading up housing construction with more and more obligations and fighting each project that is proposed" misguided blame? How much influence do "we in the community" have over decisions by the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals? 

 
Are official requirements too high for low income housing? Shoddy construction, no heat and hot water would lower costs and allow more poor people to live in the city. Allowing flop houses for single room occupancy would get rid of, or at least mitigate the homeless problem. Standards are too high. Look at places like the Sudan, Jordanian and Syrian refugee camps, Gaza, asylum seekers in Italy, for low cost housing of millions who are refugees. The same standards could be used in Cambridge to increase housing and to reduce the homeless problem. Look at the large tent Harvard University erected on city owned land on the overpass near the Fire Department headquarters, which Harvard calls Science Plaza. A great place for low cost housing near a major transit hub. 20 stories of low income housing would go well there. Then there is Cambridge Common where a fifty story building could easily be built, even closer to major transportation and shopping.

[From article]

I can categorically state that it is hard, very hard, to obtain permits to build housing. In my opinion is far too hard, in fact so hard that despite the strong desire of developers to invest in housing in the city not enough new housing is being permitted and built here. This throttling of new housing supply means that well-to-do, moderate-income and low-income folks are all competing for what is a too limited, too static resource.
[. . .]
This is a problem of not permitting enough housing, period. Every unit is very expensive to get permitted and built, so the new housing is, inevitably expensive.
[. . .]
It is disingenuous to suggest we are powerless to slow the rise of housing costs in Cambridge. Those who have control can and should address the rise in housing costs by permitting more housing to be built. We in the community cannot behave like Marie Antoinette and bemoan rising housing costs while loading up housing construction with more and more obligations and fighting each project that is proposed. It is hypocrisy.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150505/NEWS/150508332

Guest column: Permit more housing in Cambridge to slow rising costs
By Mark Boyes-Watson
Posted May. 5, 2015 at 10:49 AM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Cambridge City Council Imitates The White House

This "dispute" within the Cambridge City Council is instructive in several ways. First it indicates that some of the Councilors decided that the goal is all that matters and procedure be damned. That is what the White House is doing with its executive orders acting contrary to the Constitution and laws of the United States. Under the Obama-Holder doctrine selected individuals may ignore inconvenient laws. This appears to be what is happening at the City Council. Perhaps Mazen and Carlone enjoy special privileges under Obama-Holder, and the rest of the Council remains clueless. But also the Council itself ignores its own rules. 

The Council is obligated to run its meetings according to Robert's Rules of Order. For more than ten years I repeatedly petitioned the council to do so. But it failed then and it still ignores that rule of its own  making. The most used rule under Robert's Rules is to suspend the rules. That eliminates the need to even learn the rules which few of the councilors ever know. If there is so much concern with bypassing procedure submitting  an order to the council without first going through the Planning Board or the housing or ordinance committees, why are the other rules less important? That is called selective enforcement of laws, which is what the council did for many years and still does. 

With a lawless White House and Attorney General in Washington DC, it was only a matter of time before state and local officials, ordinary taxpayers and voters began to ignore the laws of the states and the US. Is that why the US military is conducting civil disorder control operations with local police? Is that why Homeland Security is stockpiling billions of rounds of ammunition? 

[From article]

In a 1-7-1 vote, the policy order failed on Monday with Mazen voting in favor and Carlone being absent. The order asked the council to refer the proposed amendment to the Planning Board and Ordinance Committee.
“There’s nothing collegial about filing a zoning amendment without consulting or at least giving the co-chair of the Ordinance Committee the benefit of a brief discussion,” Vice Mayor Dennis Benzan told Mazen on April 13. “There’s nothing collegial about a zoning amendment coming before this council without having at least a brief conversation with the chair of the Housing Committee. It’s becoming a way that yourself and Councilor Carlone are doing business before this council.”

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150415/NEWS/150417734

Cambridge councilors' actions fuel strong criticism from rest of board
By Sara Feijo
sfeijo (at) wickedlocal.com
Posted Apr. 15, 2015 at 12:06 PM
Updated Apr 15, 2015 at 12:42 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Cambridge City Council Wants More Decision-making Power Over Development

Concerned Cambridge Citizens 

One missing element of this discussion is a struggle for power. The Cambridge City Council is mostly a cosmetic organization. They have the statutory power under the Plan E system of local government to hire a city manager and to approve curb cuts. But they seem to want some other decison-making power in order to improve their self esteem. The Planning Board says this plan would only inject more politics into the approval process. The Planning Board does little planning. It is more of an approval board.


Cambridge City Hall

[From article]
"The political theater is no place to have a thoughtful, careful discussion about whether something is within the boundaries of the law," said Planning Board member Steven Winter.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140806/NEWS/140808217

Cambridge Planning Board: Granting council final say on special permits would politicize process
By Sara Feijo
Posted Aug. 6, 2014 @ 10:18 am
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Cambridge City Council, Only The Planning Board is Dysfunctional

According to this policy initiative it is only the Planning Board that is "broken." Is the City Council capable of making housing available to less-than-upper class residents? Where were the citizens when Governor William Weld (Harvard College, cum laude, Harvard Law School, summa cum laude) and Harvard Law Professor Charles Fried repealed rent control using a statewide referendum? The City Council operates according to law (AHEM!) and reason (AH-HEM!!). But even if the current City Council consists of all rational, law abiding, public spirited, altruistic politicians (huh?), what happens next year or the year after that? Can elected officials who historically have shown contempt for laws be trusted to make policy decisions about development? It is bad enough as is, but at least there is the fragile egos of politicians who will respond to a large group of passionate citizens, to question decisions of the Planning Board. If the Council makes final decisions where do citizens go to counter an out-of-control council?

[From article]
While some residents raised concerns about the petition, others were in favor of it, arguing that the current Planning Board is "broken."
[. . .]
According to the petition, the City Council would be able to encourage the production of affordable and middle-income housing, mitigate against the impact of added traffic, promote the use of alternative modes of transit, and apply strong urban design criteria.
"When it comes to the big decisions, such as redevelopment of the Sullivan Courthouse, or large-scale development along the Alewife floodplain - we think elected policymakers ought to assume a more meaningful role in the process," the petition reads.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140701/NEWS/140709594

Cambridge City Council could gain power over development proposals
By Sara Feijo
Posted Jul. 1, 2014 @ 1:35 pm
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Cambridge Master Plan For a Transient Population

[From article]
Kathryn Madden of the Madden Planning Group, said the Master Plan would also highlight the city’s goals for the next 20 years, including issues that should be addressed within the first five years.

With a listening tour to set priorities, why does the transient population of Cambridge merit a hearing? Where 25 percent of the population lives in the city for five years or more, what effect can they have? Should goals be updated every five years? What role does the Planning Board have in such planning? 

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140617/NEWS/140616571

Preserving culture, diversity, affordable housing top priorities in Cambridge Master Plan talks
By Sara Feijo
Posted Jun. 17, 2014 @ 2:49 pm
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Cambridge Council's Policy Order on Technology

Link to order
http://www2.cambridgema.gov/cityclerk/PolicyOrder.cfm?item_id=34138

Cambridge City Council policy order on public meetings and technology may merit reconsideration. The City Manager purchased new wireless microphones for the Planning Board Meetings at the Broadway Annex building.
The members of the Planning Board sometimes don't use them. In some cases they do not turn them on. In other cases they speak so low that even with the microphones you still cannot hear them. The PB volunteers are not trained properly in using the expensive equipment, SONY with each mic costing over $90 plus the transmitting amplifier.

Will having more expensive technology available be any different? When I used to video tape the meetings, allowed under the open meetings law, some of the PB members complained worried that what they said would be recorded. Some of the board and commission members do not want their actions available to be seen by too many people. One of them may understand what they are doing.

The Zoning Board hearings have no loud speakers even though all it takes is to ask the city electric department to set them up for the meetings. Citizens who attend them cannot hear what is said at the table. The discussion is recorded on audio tape for which it is very expensive to get a transcript.

The City has about 50 computers at the seven libraries for public use, and more at the Senior Center. None of them are Apple computers. I asked the previous chief reference librarian to get one Apple computer. He explained that maintenance of Apple computers is expensive. One other librarian explained that the PC is the city standard. There are a citizens who use Apple equipment and cannot use the public equipment to access some of their data.

When the City had an agreement with Cablevision one element was to make some of the city buildings where public meetings were held wired for broadcasting on the City cable station Channel 8. But that was never done. When the city transferred the license to Comcast that provision was ignored and maybe removed. If all city meetings were broadcast it would make the city's proceedings more accessible. But that may have to wait until there is a new more open minded city manager.