Results tagged “publicworks”

The Harvard Lampoon has a grudge against the trees at Mount Auburn and Holyoke, and an editor was busted hacking on a tree in October. Now, the Crimson reports that the Cambridge Department of Public Works had to take down the rest of the trees on the same island James Powers allegedly vandalized because they were damaged so badly. Three Japanese maples and a crabapple were removed. Poor trees. If they could be reached for...

Street-cleaning day is dreadful on so many levels because it is all too easy to forget to move one's car. And then there are the annoying repetitive announcements that are boomed into homes: "You will be tagged and towed, you will be tagged and towed."

Update: Mayor Menino and the Department of Public Works are investigating how this accident happened. Just when you think it is safe, manholes decide that you will be their prey. After a brief quiet period, manholes are taking it out on the masses again. Yesterday afternoon, two women were driving on Columbus Avenue in Roxbury. A car in front of them drove over a manhole, which popped up and flew into their car. Luckily, the...

When you see a city employee driving a street sweeper or a snowplow, you might want to give that person a wide berth. Either that, or run like hell. The Globe reported yesterday, "Of 178 Boston Public Works employees licensed to drive commercial vehicles in 2006, about one-fifth had drug or alcohol violations on their personal driving records." We're all for giving people second chances. Maybe even a third chance. This is liberal Boston! But...

Bostonist seldom delves as deeply into the weather as our big siblings at Gothamist, not least of all because we don't have a trained meteorologist on staff. One thing we do have, though, is someone who observes our city's pavement from close up. Based on these observations, it appears that, just as snow and its accompanying fender-benders have definitively arrived, so too have potholes. Usually, "pothole season" is said to begin with the spring thaw, but we seem to be noticing an unusual number of new craters on our route to work now that the temperature is fluctuating around the freezing mark (for a neat explanation of how potholes form,with pictures, look here). So drive carefully, dear readers, and if you do incur damage to your car as a result of a pothole, make sure to report the incident to the city within 30 days if you hope to get reimbursed. Of course, legally, the city is only liable if it knew about or should have known about the pothole and failed to fix it, so make sure to call to report potholes: 617-635-7555, or go to the special Dept. of Public Works website for potholes (which directs you to another site that is - surprise! - under construction). Or, you could take matters into your own hands, either the cheap way or the expensive (but totally awesome) way.

If you have a pulse and have lived in the Boston area for any significant period of time, it's hard to miss the fact that things are changing. As the powers-that-be taut "New Boston" initiatives, revitalization efforts have been focused on our urban centers with the effect of -- whether intentionally or not -- accelerating gentrification in once neglected neighborhoods like Roxbury, Charlestown, or Dorchester.