Sidewalk Closed
So reads a makeshift sign held up by two boards of splintering plywood on one corner of Carlisle and Prospect Street just outside Inman Square. Few pedestrians seem to heed the message, and on this cloudy Saturday afternoon no work seems to be going on, and no loose boards falling down from the scaffolding above, yet there it is anyhow, ostensibly blocking the way to Hampshire Street and one of the busiest and most confused intersections in the neighborhood, forcing the handicapped and parents with baby carriages to cross against the sub-highway traffic of Prospect, without a crosswalk or any sort of makeshift sign to alert the already thoughtless drivers of the dangerous situation, in addition to the spill-out of vehicles from the Hess station across the street.
Inman already has a terrible traffic situation to begin with. Prospect Street is treated as a freeway connecting Boston to Somerville, and the sheer number of cars, trucks, buses, pedestrians, bikers, motorcycles, scooters, strollers and wheelchairs simultaneously cutting abrupt turns with no regard creates an imminent likelihood of collision that is palpable at all times, attested by the common appearance of side-view mirrors, pieces of fenders, and knocked-down street signs. Fortunately the Police are there to help instill greater safety, by suddenly turning their lights on to run through a red light in the midst of such congestion and promptly shutting them off once they're through the intersection.
I'm not even sure what they're doing at the building on the corner of Prospect and Hampshire, after they've almost finished a year's worth of construction on the opposite corner. It seems like every other property around here is falling apart, burning down, being demolished, renovated, or its occupants forced out, long-time residents and shop-owners alike, to make way for MIT graduate students and the new line of hipster Colonistas, factory-direct and imprinted with lot number and expiration date, all ready for a price tag on the shelf of the new international yuppie consumerist market. I'm still waiting for a Starbucks to pop up. At least it would offer an alternative to the homogenous, flat acidity of 1369's daily brew. If only they would employ the locals, who can't afford to eat or shop here even if they can somehow pay the rent. Cambridge should institute policies not only to raise the working wage but to encourage employment of local residents (by which I don't just mean students and tourists who are merely passing by.) The one good thing of all this ceaseless construction is that it does, in fact, create jobs for a lot of honest working-middle-class guys (and increasingly, gals) who are often long-time residents of some town, even if it's not Cambridge --- and Cambridge does do a great deal to try to employ residents, but should work on more local contracting and outreach at the high-school level ---- not everyone is going to get ahead in the modern tech market even if their parents spend two years' salary to put them through school. The whole university thing is a racket ---- provide the practical training that jobs require directly to the public, without the unnecessary expenses incurred in earning an official degree. College education clearly does not provide one with any sort of reasoning capacity, as anyone can plainly tell. I have interviewed and hired students working on their master's who proved incompetent at the $9/hr job and whose handwriting should not have got them through the fifth grade. I have also rolled cigarettes with winos in Central Square discussing particle physics. Now these thwarted Einsteins will have to make room for a bunch of spoiled babies with smartphones and yoga mats and money to burn at the latest trendy bar. Let them have their comforts, let them steal this city from her people and make it pretty in the process. They are ephemeral, and have no more real power than those they are displacing, as they shall be displaced some day. They do not wield control over the fate of our Nation; they just get to play the in-crowd for a few decades in what was once a proud city. America is a nation of lazy slaves, and I'm just trying to walk down the sidewalk.
originally written 10-18-14
as of 11-13 sidewalk is still partially closed
