[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Um, all right on March 29th, 2023 governor Healy signed into law a supplemental budget bill, which, among other things, extends the temporary provisions pertaining to the open meeting law to March 31st, 2025 specifically this further extension. Okay, and I guess with that,
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Secretary, will you call the rolls?
[Jared Powell]: Do you want me to do that tonight, Dan, or are you speaking to yourself in the third person?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I guess, yeah, I'm technically still the secretary. Either Jared or Lumi, would you like to call the roll? I can also call the roll.
[Jared Powell]: I can do it. I've got it for you. Thanks for leading this meeting, by the way, Daniel. Given that, I will have to turn into a pumpkin for an unspecified portion of it as the volume of the children becomes louder. All right, let's see. I'll go down my list in order. Jared Powell, present. Bruce Kulik. All right, see you there, Bruce. Beat-Ann Fairchild. Here. Ernest Mounier. Not here.
[SPEAKER_14]: Doug Packer? Not here. Daniel Nuzzo-Muller? Present. Noam Reveni? Reveni, did I get that right? I'm sorry, Noam.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_02]: You got that right, yeah, Reveni, present.
[Jared Powell]: Reveni. Great, all right, Mary-Kate Gustafson-Quiet?
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I'm here. It's gust of sin like a gust of wind. Gust and quiet is just quiet with a silent extra T at the end. All right.
[Jared Powell]: All right. I'll try to pronounce the better. All right. Kevin Cutterback here.
[SPEAKER_14]: Leah Grodstein. She's not coming. Rebecca Wright here. and Abigail Stone.
[Jared Powell]: Not here. Has Abigail been to a meeting yet?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I do not recall. I could go back through the other minutes.
[Jared Powell]: I'll make a note about that. Emily has mentioned some technical difficulties with regard to communicating with people on the Google list, where it looks like they're on the list, but for some reason, they don't get the announcements. I'm not sure why, but that seems to be a thing. So we'll reach out to Abigail and see if there's something going on.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Google does weird things with accounts sometimes.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, more precisely, people can turn off notifications on Google and then not realize it.
[SPEAKER_13]: Interesting. Could be could be something like that.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I guess I guess I guess this is the September 2020, September 27th, 2023. We have a motion to approve. I guess I should have done that at first. Next order of business is an approval of the July 26, 2023 minutes. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay, previous minutes are approved. All right. So I guess moving forward and going to the announcements and upcoming events. So September 30th, we have the Youth Bike Safety Workshop at the Medford Public Library. It would be great if we could get people to go to that. I'm not sure, is anyone here able to show up to that? I believe it's 1 p.m. I don't have that.
[Jared Powell]: Daniel, if you don't mind, I reached out to Hillary Klein, who's been helping to organize that, and just asked her for clarification on when and if they might need volunteers and what timing, what capacities to make sure that they do need people and what they need them to do and when. I'll just read what she said or summarize it more or less. From 2 to 5 p.m. is the pop-up bike clinic. So that's kind of the more free-form thing where any of us are welcome to come and encouraged to come to provide guidance about kids' bicycles being in disrepair, that sort of thing which we've talked about. So that's an open walk-up clinic from 2 to 5, so volunteers are are welcome and encouraged there. Ellery mentioned if you have tools, you can bring them. I think they'll have a limited number. I think we've also talked about a willingness to help there, but wanting to be careful about doing too many repairs ourselves just for liability reasons. and the rest of it is largely set. We're welcome to come in and attend any of the rest of it, but Vivian Ortiz from Safe Routes to Schools is going to be leading the content for the kind of registration-based activities that they have. So we're encouraged to be there and participate as individuals or as a part of the commission, but it's really that pop-up bike clinic, I think, where they could probably use the help. So that's kind of a rolling three-hour time frame there.
[Bruce Kulik]: And when does the actual rest of the events occur? Is that also 2 to 5, or is it other times during the day?
[Jared Powell]: It's all within that window. Let's see. 2 to 5 is the clinic. 3 to 4 is a bike safety workshop with registration required, and that's what Vivian, I believe, is leading. And then from 4 to 5, Vivian is also doing helmet fittings and an open Q&A. So I imagine there's room for us to help with that, too, if she would like.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Who's Vivian?
[Jared Powell]: Vivian Ortiz. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. She's from Safe Routes to Schools, I believe. She's presented at a meeting around here maybe last year, I want to say.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Oh, OK.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: I think I know who she is. All right. Thank you. She also has the Boston's Bike Mayor title somehow.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Yeah, she's worked with, I think, a couple of different organizations, and her role is, I think, district representative for the state safe first to school program for our district, including the other kind of Metro Boston municipalities.
[Bruce Kulik]: So I personally plan to be there for some portion of the two to five session, just so everyone knows. I did notice a week or two ago, there was an article on one of the, oh, I forget what newsfeed I saw it from, might've been in one of the Globe auxiliary feeds. And it said, Medford putting on a bike program. And I said, oh, that's interesting. I didn't recognize it initially as the one at the library, because they didn't say that until much later in the article. But anyhow, I did mention that there would be people from the bike commission to help out with inspection and repairs and so forth. So hopefully some others will decide to come as well.
[Jared Powell]: Yes, I need to check on timing, but I'll be there for some of it for sure. So I'll be there for some of it, Bruce. Can anyone else?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I can probably make it for at least part of it, maybe on the later section of it, but.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, that would work great. Cause I'm my preference would be to be earlier. I have something a little bit later that evening. And so pushing five o'clock might be tight for me. So, excellent.
[Jared Powell]: Yeah, I think the earlier side would probably work for me as well.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Thank you for that. Sorry. Okay, so I guess also October 1st, Tufts Community Day. Are we, Jared, do you know if we are signed up for that?
[Jared Powell]: We are, yes, we are signed up for Tufts Community Day. Emily went ahead and signed us up knowing that she would be able to cover the whole thing. So that doesn't mean it needs to only be her, but we do at least have her to cover the full thing. Has anyone attended that before? I went last year.
[Bruce Kulik]: I've been- I've gone several times in the past, not recently.
[Jared Powell]: It's quite a scene it's a it's a really big event on in the middle of the tough squad they've got It looks like graduation day or something, except it's open to the public. Just a ton of food and community events and community tabling and fire truck and kids' arts and crafts. Tons of food, like an obscene amount of food, honestly, which attracts a lot of people. Turns out free food is very attractive to people. It's a good way to get a lot of eyeballs on biking issues. reach out to community folks. I'm not really sure what the portion of town versus gown representation is, but it seems like it's probably more community people than students, if I had to guess, but there's definitely a mix. I'd like to go to part of it. I'm not sure that I'll be able to stay all that long, but I'd like to be there for part of it. Those tend to be pretty fun events.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: What time is it? I believe it's 11 to 2.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: And what are we doing there?
[Jared Powell]: Um, Same old, same old, uh, standing, standing at the tip. Yeah. Standing at the table, engaging with people, talking about what's going on in Medford with biking and that sort of thing. Pointing out routes that tends to be a big part of it. How do I get from X, X to X to Y on my bike?
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Probably talking about the clipper ship connector. So also a popular one.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: And Yeah, I had something on my I can I can possibly get to that one as well, though that one might be a little bit harder. Do we have enough enough individuals who might be able to cover those hours or.
[Jared Powell]: Well, one person is, is technically enough. Um, I'll, I'll be there for maybe say an hour, something like that for, for some of it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Um, I might show up, but I don't want to commit to that. So, um, yeah.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Um, I'd say the, like, you know, it, it doesn't hurt to have two or three people. just because sometimes there's multiple people there wanting to talk at once, but, you know, not critical.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Oh, it is worth noting that we are out of helmets. We might need to reach back out to Breakstone White and Gluck, I guess, to get a new shipment of helmets. They send us a certain number per year, if I'm correct.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: I think we have to do that every time. We have to talk to them every time. So they have sent us, you know, I think like three cases each time, but it's not a per year thing. It's just that we've kind of done it every year for a few years. Okay.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: maybe I should put that on my list of things to do is to reach out to them. Um, because we actually, I think we, we just had a few events where we ended up going through quite a lot of helmets, um, which is good. There seemed to be a lot of interest at the, uh, uh, the farmer's market. Um, I'm sorry, what was the, um, bike rodeo, right. I believe. Yep.
[Jared Powell]: Okay, we've had a few events where they were where they were pretty popular circle the square. I think we went through a lot there too.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Yep. Let's see. So also on October 4th, we have the walk, bike and roll to school day. I personally can probably help. With that, I think those are typically morning hours if I'm not mistaken.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I've been on the emails for the safe routes to school and like organizing for the different sites. I think McGlynn is the only one that has like a walking bus that day. They are the most organized. But I I help at the Brooks. I'm one of our representatives. And yeah, there's going to be stickers and bookmarks like the safe routes to school will. That's the swag they'll give you, and they want us to like hand out stuff to the kids when they come to school, whether they walk or bike or get dropped off, it doesn't matter. We just want to like spread the word. And. Yeah, I think that's all I'm going to meet with. For the Brooks, I'm going to meet with another parent on Friday who actually registered us. But I do know that. All the. Element, I think all the elementary and middle schools are registered. But I don't know what all the representatives at each school are doing.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Is there anything that we can action on to help out with that?
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I'm going to read through the email chain again. Can I circle back to that in a minute? Okay.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: And okay. I also on that note, Harvester Energy Fest is October 14th. I believe I can, what day is that? That's okay, that's a Saturday. Oh, I will not be able to attend that. I'll actually be out of town that week. Is I know that people have spoken highly about that in the past. I think, Jared, we do we typically send someone to that. Or have a table, I guess, Bruce is nodding as well.
[Jared Powell]: Yes, it's we've we've attended the last. However, many years I've been on the commission, at least it tends to be very popular.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
[Jared Powell]: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can be there for a good chunk of it. I believe.
[SPEAKER_14]: But I believe I can.
[SPEAKER_12]: All right.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Um, anyone, anyone else?
[SPEAKER_12]: Anyone else? It's a fun time.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I can go to the harvest your energy.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Okay, we've got, we have at least two and a half people I guess between, or maybe this is two people with Mary Kate, Jared, and Jared is half, Bruce is half, probably can get enough coverage there.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Okay, if it helps entice people at all, they're trying to grow the festival and make it bigger this year. So they have more food vendors. They have winter Hill brewing. I believe is going to do a beer garden and we've got blue bikes to come and table and they'll be giving away adventure pass vouchers at the festival too. So I think they're going to try to put blue bikes next to you guys. So that there's some synergy there.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: That's great. And I guess at some point, I'll have to ask about some of the infrastructure updates on the blue bikes later on. So any sort of updates that you have will be warmly received. Okay, let's see. Moving on from at least the announcements and the upcoming events. Sorry, I don't have any other announcements other than the upcoming events. Sort of jumped into this a little last minute. So nothing crazy to announce. So at least moving on. So social media engagement. Kevin, I just want to say, I think you've done like a great job. Just you're all over the social media far, far better than I ever am or ever have been. I wanted to also touch on the, of course, the Wellington underpass study. There's a link to both the study and the project in the meeting agenda. I believe that that is something that's coming up, and I think it would make a lot of sense if we could have people be able to go to any of the meetings around that.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: You know, uh, so anyone who's able to get on that, I, I think the link that you posted is to a, for a meeting that happened last December.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Oh, was it?
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Yes. So it's December 8, 2022. Um, there might be another meeting, but not that one.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Oh yeah. Not, not that one. Definitely not that one. Okay. I followed it.
[Bruce Kulik]: That explains why I wasn't able to register for it then.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Okay, well, that one's, that one's on me. I'm not sure if then we have, if there, I'm assuming that there might be some more meetings.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Well, I mean, at the same time, just, I think it is great engagement and I said to Jared that my whole approach to social media is more bikes and fewer surprises. That's like the whole thing. And in the category of surprises, just You know, it stunk on the Winthrop Street bike lanes that everybody was like, I never heard about this. I didn't know it was happening, you know, just. And so there's this big backlog of projects in all kinds of states of readiness. I'm learning more about how the official procurement process works. But the point is, people should know that this is a thing that can happen. And I think one of the contributions that we can make is this subtle difference between things, you know, where the budget is locked in and they will go from, and let's see, the official thing is, I forget what happens before 25% design. I think it's just like planning or concept approval, 25% design. And then usually there's a public hearing at the 25% level. And then, It goes from 25 to 75% sort of without the public necessarily being engaged. That's actually where the Wellington underpass is right now. It's they will get the 75% design and it may be that they don't show it to anybody except that they go. Yeah, this is. that the procurement officer goes, I like this 75% design enough that advances to 100% design. And then P, S and E is plans, specs and something or other that allow people to bid on it. And then you get a notice to proceed. So just like at some point, I'm just gonna do a post on that, that just like people should know that at least state DOT projects have a very programmed schedule. There are so many projects at all these different levels of doneness and all these different levels of availability for public feedback. We're just where, you know, when the first digger starts digging, people will at least know what that's all about.
[Bruce Kulik]: I would recommend there's a lot of There's a list that you can get on where you can get announcements for each of these items, and you can get a little bit of overload as I have, but you find out about these things. And I was actually kind of surprised to see this because I hadn't found out about it. But now I see that it was from a year ago accidentally, so I'm not surprised now that I didn't recognize it as anything. I'm curious about the comment you made about people not knowing that these things were happening. Are these cyclists who didn't know that they were happening or general public?
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: You know, so the the our Facebook page has about a thousand followers, maybe eleven hundred. The typical engagement on a post is is maybe 50 likes out of that. Right. So even that is a
[Bruce Kulik]: That doesn't mean much to me.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: What's the point? And also, the Facebook algorithm is limiting our distribution, or wants me to pay 10 to 20 bucks. And at some point, I will, just for the entertainment value of seeing what I get for my 10 or 20 bucks. But the point is, the posts go out, and then the algorithm decides, when and how to show them to people, uh, that it thinks will be provoked, engaged, you know, and, and, you know, engaged as Facebook media consumers. So even though we have a thousand followers, like a decent number of, of actual displays of a particular post is more like 300 to 600. Um, and then getting 50 likes is good out of that. In other words, and the, what the algorithm is doing is the more likes and more engagement that a thing actually gets, the more people the algorithm will show, the more of our 1100.
[Bruce Kulik]: Let me, let me cut to the chase here. My understanding is we do a post, but we have no guarantee that it's getting to anybody. Correct. Okay. So why don't we use email instead?
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Because we have fewer people that way.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, yeah, but we can invite people, I mean, through Facebook to join the email list for a little bit more precise announcement, for example.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Sure.
[Bruce Kulik]: I, for example, am rarely on Facebook. I have an account, but I don't pay any attention to it.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: I haven't read 99% of my email for years at this point. Yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay. So similar problem except self-imposed perhaps. as opposed to algorithmic.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Well, I mean, in all of these things, there's a little bit of the audience is self-selecting and the algorithm is self-selecting or is doing selection on top of that. But where I was going with that was we get good engagement and good likes when I have shown a picture of a piece of infrastructure. So I will find a picture of the Wellington underpass and put that out there just so that people know.
[Bruce Kulik]: Maybe get a picture of the one on the other side, right? But which is completed and in use and people see that they're like, oh, wow. And then, of course, you say we're going to have one like that.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Right. I mean, there's pictures in the presentation that could be used.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Yeah. So I will I will snap the most in all of these things. I'm looking for the most. you know, can I picture myself on that piece of infrastructure? Am I along that road? Am I, you know, is it getting me from an interesting A to B? And Daniel, let me know, is this the part where we talk about social media or just the part where I hijack the meeting?
[Jared Powell]: uh i mean you you can you can continue on i'm not i'm not uh yeah that's yeah that's that's that's the agenda social media engagement 7 30 we're like i'm gonna keep you on a short leash Councilor um
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: So, but where I was going with this, Bruce, was that part of having a better case from our standpoint that we actually are publicizing and soliciting advice and giving advice on these things is being able to show a history of views and engagements on project facts. And to do that, just any project that's out there at any level of doneness, uh, whether from inspiration to nearly groundbreaking, I'm going to try. And then the other thing that you can do in Facebook is you can program these things out for a month in advance. So, um, I try, I try not to step on actual current events and like the other thing that the feed is doing, it's about half. Here's a cool project. enjoy or dream. The other half are, here's a bike clinic, here's a walk and bike to school day, here's harvest your energy. And the problem with those is, again, that the algorithm Jared, I have to use this joke again. The protesters are out there saying, what do we want? We want our Facebook in chronological order now. When do we want it? uh, scrambles your feet. Um, and they're doing it not by chronological order. And so to announce an event, you really have to, you, you can't do your event announcements on the day and think that, or even the day before and think that they will get to people because the algorithm will be testing them for their engagement. And then showing them to more people. And that's why you get stuff all the time in your feed that is days after the event has happened is because the algorithms only get around the scrape in the bottom of the barrel, trying to show you something that it thinks you'll engage with. So actually the other thing that all of us can do is actually like the. I hate to beg, but if you can actually read and engage and like the posts, the algorithm will hopefully find that persuasive and believe that it should show it to other people.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Question so ultimately, I mean, ultimately, I guess what we're saying here is we are doing and we want to do our best to just. Have as much engagement and and get as many like. Eyes on our posts as possible, but more from the informational point of view, like we want to. Present this information to the general public, for example, the Wellington study, I guess I'm trying to. bring this all the way back to the, and I have also been on, like I've gone to traffic commission meetings and seen sort of the Winthrop Street bike lanes, no parking, a lot of dissatisfaction by the public who live on the road, who didn't know that there were bike lanes there that got repainted and there have been, There have been, I guess, and I'll bring this full circle, but there were complaints that there wasn't enough outreach to the individuals there. And I think that what we're trying to get out here is that we want to try and have as much. a blanketing of this information to as much of the population as we can. So through our social media channels, through possibly email lists, through the like, and that we do want to try and expand that as much as possible to be able to bring this information to the general public. Right.
[Bruce Kulik]: But what it's worth, even before social media, people would always complain that they were not notified about something that the city has regularly had hearings about. So I'm a little bit jaundiced about that complaint personally, but I understand the need to get it out to as many channels as possible. So that people like people, including myself, who aren't on Facebook will at least stand a chance of seeing something.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: And this is building that advocacy audience. In other words, if you find bike and infrastructure content engaging, it's probably because you're ultimately going to be in favor of it. Not that you're trying to stamp it out in all its many forms. So that, you know, Hopefully, we are making a more informed electorate and actually very good. I was correctly chastised by Christine Barber for not giving her her shout out in the Clippership Connector, because apparently it's her district and she specifically, you know, made sure it got appropriated. And and the point is, yeah, that's part of our mission, too, is is that. you know, letting people know that success and actually getting stuff built takes participation at sort of all levels. And I've also been, I've been liking all the politicians, not their candidate pages, but at least their office pages to make sure that, you know, that we're interested in what they're doing and they should be interested in what we're doing. It also, in the hopes – this goes back to who does the algorithm think this post will be interesting to? It thinks it will be interesting to the people who are mentioned in it and the people who usually follow Paul Donato. Will will also will also be shown our post Anyway, that's and I'm also trying to to keep just an upbeat Voice in other words in how I how righteous a voice versus just, oh, this stuff is great. Thanks for coming. Everybody enjoy yourselves. I'm trying to have that more. Again, right now, it's Facebook. It's not a notice in a newspaper or record. And the goal is just keeping a channel open and keeping, and we're doing, I'm doing the same thing. It's easy to also cross post to Instagram, but yeah, if we had a true omni media strategy, This would also be condensed into some sort of newsletter that would just repeat the pictures and the text from social media for people who are reading there. For now, Bruce, I would say we're still learning what people want to engage in and what kind of feedback they want to, what sort of interaction they want to have. And so I'd love to just keep everybody informed at this level for now, both everyone here and just opening a bigger pipe between us and the world, I guess is all I can claim to be doing right now. Do we, should we be experiencing, go ahead.
[Jared Powell]: I just, I just wanted to say, Kevin, thank you for what you've been doing so far. I think that I haven't looked at our historical trends on like our Facebook feed or anything like that. But I, my anecdotal sense is that they are substantially up from where they've been over the past few years. So engagement seems to be a lot higher. We have limited public channels that we have access to on the one hand or on the other that we have the human capacity to maintain. So, you know, I hear the phrase newsletter and it's like, well, that could be a good idea, but I don't expect we'll have a lot of capacity to maintain something like that on the regular, which is how it would be most valuable.
[Unidentified]: For now, at least.
[Jared Powell]: Yeah, exactly. It's a good way to get out to people. It seems like engagement has been really high. I think your tone has been good. It has been positive. The main thing is to remember we're a city commission. We're representing the city and the mayor, so as long as we are keeping that like in mind, I think that's a pretty good, I mentioned this to you already, but that's a, that's a good way to kind of guide our tone, you know, is the mayor going to be embarrassed by something that we post and I certainly don't think so based on anything that you're that you're publishing.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Right, but there were a couple misfires, and Jared, you helped me find and correct one. Again, I should have seen that Christine Barber thing coming. did a Facebook apology to her, you know, wasn't a profound thing. But yes, any other things where I get the tone wrong, I can go back and fix the tone. The other challenge is just this People ask questions then in the comments that sort of we should have an answer to, like, will there be another public hearing? Does the city think it's a good idea to have another public hearing? And then I put that question to the person handling procurement on the Wellington underpass, and it was sort of like, no, there's no plans for any further. And then I was just sort of like, well, is that an answer I should be happy with? At least I should let, at least I put it on, that's actually what prompted me to actually put this on as an agenda item, is because there actually are this kind of, municipal versus state, you know, how many people want to take credit, how many people want to take blame for a process that is not used to being reposted on Facebook. The 75% design process was just not made for Facebook.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Right. Well, I mean, that is the the thing, though, is that that sort of standard, you know, meeting at 25 percent, meeting at 75 percent. Means that there would be expected to be a 75 percent meeting, but they haven't gotten the fact that there has been no announcement of a 75 percent design means they haven't gotten to that point yet. So last I heard from talking to the Mystic River Watershed Association folks, they had run into some difficulties with the engineering, and so it had gotten delayed. So they're probably still at 50% or something like that.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: But on the underpass, they just. The other question was, should I have shared this with you all or how like, you know, that I wrote to this, you know, on the procurement page, as was just shared for the underpass project. There's a project manager and any member of the public can can write him a question. And my question was, how are you doing on that? How are you doing on that design? And are you expecting any other public hearings? And the answer is, we're expecting the 75% any day now. Don't tell anyone that we're going to 100% design because we have to go through the 75% design. To me, that was kind of like, don't tell people we're going to Des Moines because we are changing planes in Chicago. And I'm sort of like, OK, but we're going to Des Moines. I mean, well, no.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: So that's the thing is, is that each of these is a stage. And they don't proceed to the next stage until each one is complete. So, you know, it could be stopped at any time. It isn't a, you know, one just follows on from the other.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Well, so, and help me out here, which is to me, you know, some of these, like the Arlington project that is gonna connect from the Mystic to the Minuteman, that one is stopped because they do not have the money to actually advance it to 25% design or whatever. Whereas on the—or past whatever level of design they're at. Whereas the Wellington underpass, it seems like, you know, if they get to— that there is no further political will or appropriation necessary to get it to construction. Or you can help me understand the difference. That's what I'm still trying to tease out of these people.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: It's sort of like... Yeah, that's the thing, is that there isn't... Until... So money is allocated in state budgets mostly for various projects, for various parts of various projects, get design and you get actual construction. Until a particular line item is allocated in a particular budget, nothing exists. there can be deals that say, you know, it expects to exist. And like, that's what the Wellington underpass is, where that is, you know, it's like, they expect that this will be allocated out of a particular budget, or well, at the in 2022, they expected that it would be allocated for construction in 2024. And presumably, you know, the design money was already allocated at some point, which is how they got as far as how they've gotten as far as they have. But. Each individual thing is an individual thing, right? So, you know, until that money has been allocated, there's nothing and there might be. Projects, yeah, you can probably say more than I can.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Yeah, no, this is really interesting. And Bidan, you have like a lot of, like you're kind of getting like pretty much most of it. But to sort of speak specifically to the underpass, it is a state project at this point, and the state is committed to constructing it. But you're right that it doesn't, you know, when you have something that's just a feasibility study, there's no guarantee that that means it's going to progress to any sort of real estate. That that feasibility study that Kevin that you mentioned in Arlington, I don't I'm not as familiar with it as the other projects, but that may just be its own self contained project and the design for that. Maybe there was a grant or some sort of project, which was just for a feasibility study or design proposal. And once the design is done, that's kind of where it ends until there's a further push or additional money allocated for the construction. The underpass, however, is at a very different stage. So the design for that, it's not done yet, but the city actually got the grants for that design, and we are paying for it. But it is now on what's called the TIP, the Transportation Improvement Program. So it's been programmed. The funds have been committed, and MassDOT will be constructing it and paying for it. And we're almost at that tipping point where The design will hopefully be done fairly soon. We're not quite at the 75% yet. There have been some delays. There have been some, some of the permitting has taken a long time. It's a multi stakeholder process because is involved. The state is involved. The city is involved. But once we get to that point where the design is concluded, then it's in mass dots hands, and they'll, they'll be taking construction forward and paying for it. And the city will still be involved. But at this point, you were kind of like, almost in the process of handing it off as a result. We don't often get the most up to date information. Like, we do have meetings periodically with the project team. They have, they have told me that we should be getting more. Shareable info, like, hopefully updated images, graphics, design stuff at the 75% stage. And at that point, the city would want to disseminate that info and push it out on our website to you guys and kind of a way to share it out. So more people know what's happening. Okay, I hope that's a little bit. That is.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Yes, and I'm bad at, I mean, this whole, like the people who are connected into the procurement process, they know the difference between the things that are programmed into the TIP and the things that aren't yet. I'm going to take the view that it's all interesting and it's all worth publishing at the level it can be known, and people will give feedback on, yeah, that's what I want to see built, for what it's worth. And I guess the other thing is to somehow communicate the difference between the ones that are funded and the ones that aren't.
[Bruce Kulik]: And I'm not- William, does everything have to be in the tip to get funded by the state or is it money come from other sources as well?
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: You know, that's the part I'm not quite as familiar with. Yeah, I mean, how things get on the tip is a mystery to me, because I haven't done any of that work myself, but I believe there's probably other ways that the state can fund things that aren't the tip. But if there are, I don't know what they are. It seems like that's the main way that big projects get done and there will be once. It's on the tip, the state has a very, very strict kind of way that they proceed the 25% design the design public hearing the permitting the 75% they have their formula that they use to kind of take these projects forward. And there's both good and bad. Like, it's good when we can get projects on the tip, because it means it's then going to get built. It's going to get built to a very high standard. It's going to have mass dot. Project managers overseeing it, which is good for the city because the city does not have the capacity for a lot of those things. On the other hand, the process takes a long time. The Wellington underpass. Yeah, it's honestly, it will probably end up taking quite a bit longer than the sort of equivalent underpass on the other side, which was built by private development, which can go faster and they kind of, it's not to say that's not as good, but it just, you know, they don't have the same risk. Like, constraints as a state funded project with regard to the tip.
[Bruce Kulik]: I know that's 1 of the mailing lists that I'm on and I periodically get paying that says. Comment period open for the and it's always something absurd. It's like the 2026 tip. It's like these things are really far in the future from our standpoint. It makes sense because everyone has a plan for it, but it's not like money is put into the tip for something that's going to happen this fall. It's like the tip lines are things that are really pretty far in the future. They're hard to track down too, I found. They're really hard. You got to sort them in just the right way to find the project in question. You know, and it might not even end up being in the community you think it's in because of some weird, you know, the way it's allocated.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Right now, I totally agree. It's not that user friendly. So I think 1 of the things the city is trying to do is to kind of extract the useful stuff in the meetings and anything that we think would be a little easier for the public to connect with and try to publicize that. It just so happens that for the underpass, we don't really have anything new since the design public hearing stuff that happened almost a year ago. So we'll hopefully have something in the next couple of months that we can at least share with people.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Cool. People are interested and ready for a picture.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Yeah, and on a related note, there's another project along that in that same area, the extension of the Wellington Greenway, which has just been put on the tip and we're now just starting the process to get we have a project manager with MassDOT. We're getting the preliminary stuff ready to kind of get an existing design into MassDOT's hands. So you will hear more about that project soon, but it's in a much earlier stage.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: The other thing I would add is that it's usually a few years between 100% design and construction. Very true, yeah. The 100% design for the Clippership Connector was in October of 2020. And construction might start this fall, so three years. And that's just sort of typical project timelines. Like once they have the design, it takes them a while to put it out to bid. Then it takes them a while to look at the bids. Then, you know, once they select a bid, then it takes the bid winner a while to start, like a year sometimes. So there's just. It's in terms in terms of outreach, at least. people often want to know, when is this thing going to actually happen? And unfortunately, the answer is usually not that soon.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, I mean, so even just expectations management, I think I went back for the Wellington Post that I had done and said, 100% design is a year from now. And that's why, and then it has to go out to bid and then construction is in 2025. I tried to give people- Yeah, that's the thing.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: They will say things like that. They will say that, you know, they're going to have 100% design in a certain time and then they'll construct construction right after that. That never pans out in reality. Because they said they were going to start super super connected construction like two years ago. That did not happen. It has not happened. So.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, the best we can say is we don't really know yet, but here are the steps that have to happen. And, you know, here's the best case. Or maybe not even say that just here's what has to happen still, and we're not ready to go yet.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Well, well, I mean, here is their public's Polish schedule. I mean, at least it will understand the complexity of that, that there are steps and, um, yeah, you know, like,
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: I think it's reasonable to say what the general steps are and say it typically takes a few years for these steps to happen. Like maybe, you know, maybe there's an opportunity to like tell people, if you want it to be, want these things to sort of things to happen faster, um, you know, write to your representatives and ask them. To try to speed up these sorts of projects, because it's not like, you know, it's that easy. They can just like speed up any particular project, but like, this is how it works in general. Maybe the process could be faster.
[Jared Powell]: Yeah, I mean, I think that's really where a lot of our power lies. I mean, the ability to get people interested in things as civilians, like they're not going to be full participants in some of these design projects and things. It's just not going to work that way. But if we can build a citizenry that is generally aware that things are happening, maybe a tiny bit aware of some of the institutions that are involved in them, I just encourage them to keep needling the people who are actually in charge of those sorts of things, whether that's us or the mayor or the city council or state folks and whatnot. We can build that demand. I mean, I think we've done a good job of that lately. Like, the social media is a pretty powerful tool for that. I mean, like, at meetings where, you know, like the Winthrop bike lane meetings, the traffic commission meeting and whatnot, like, that was By my count, it was roughly 50-50, like people for and against the bike lanes, like more or less. That seems kind of what it was. And if you think about the fact that people who really hate something are going to be real loud about it, and people who are perfectly fine with something are pretty quiet about it, the fact that we got half and half probably really means that the people who are fine with it were really underrepresented in that number. So anything that we can do to to keep people showing up for things like that is really a powerful thing and keeping them kind of Engaged with a steady stream of hey things are happening in the city and at the state level as well It keeps them more plugged into that stuff so that You know, we keep that That strong base of support for these sorts of things I mean Here's a statement which I believe to be true, which is our state representatives and senator
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: love to hear from people about projects they care about and that people would do well for themselves to actually go, if you love this project, contact your state rep and let them know that you love it. And there's a little bit of, and would like to make sure that it stays on schedule and gets funded in that. And I think that's, is that, fair to say? Is that good to say? Is that our job to say?
[Bruce Kulik]: I think all of those are true. Yeah. I mean, you're right. That's one of the best ways to keep things active. And although they can't go and say, I want you to put a shovel in the ground tomorrow, you know, they have great influence when they talk to the commissioners and the people that are there and they say, we're getting a lot of feedback that people want this to happen. Right. they know that they control the purse strings at some level for some time. And so, you know, it's understood that, yeah, you kind of want to listen to them. So yeah, it's important to tell them that that's what we need.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: I mean, I think a lot of people until I I first talked to Sean Gervalli about changing the orientation of the sewer grates on the Mystic Valley Parkway from tire trap to not tire trap and saw how excited he was to participate in that process. You know, most people are unaware of that that state representatives see this as part of their role and are delighted to talk to people about trimming vegetation on state parkways and reorientating sewer grates and so. So if I can re-express that experience that I had in just that your state representatives love to hear about projects you're interested in and passionate about and just say it that way. And the other question is whether City Hall is equally. enthusiastic or how to say that of ourselves. It's easy to sick them on the state reps. And at least my position on Facebook is we are delighted to have the feedback as a commission on Facebook and the engagement on Facebook. I guess the final piece of that puzzle is what's the right way to describe the city's role in these things?
[Bruce Kulik]: I could point out we're running over time on this slide.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: If you want to punt on that, that's fine too. It's not like I have to say anything about it.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Let's see. Moving on. Everyone's favorite topic. Sorry to cut you off there, Kevin. And thank you, Bruce. I was actually just about to say that. Bike racks. I thought we were going to have, I think, Curtis Jackson, who does the metalworking at Manfred High School. I thought he was going to be here, but unless I'm, unless I'm like, Unless he jumped in and I didn't see him pop in. No, it doesn't look like it. Sadly, we don't have him here. Regardless, this actually goes to one of the points that you were talking about, Kevin, related to the social media was engaging private property owners for improved racks. Anything you would like to, I mean, I know some of these ideas were sort of floated around on your post about, you know, where would we like to see improved routes, some CVSs.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Right, I think we could add value by somehow collecting and conveying, look, when people at Medford were asked where would they want bike racks, hey, Target, they said they want a bike to Target. In other words, that there are a couple of big commercial areas that, you know, somewhere there's a mall owner or, you know, owner of a retail parcel who we theoretically could talk to and just say people would be interested in a bike rack. And then I think the thing that we would want to be prepared for is what do we do when they say, okay, sure. Or how do I do that or what does it cost or, you know, do you recommend any, I mean. You know that this agenda item grew out of last time when we had started talking about. What the city can do for bike racks and what private people can do for bike racks and so I did put that out on on Facebook and have started that engagement and we got a fair amount. If you'd like me to systematize the response and actually tally it up so that we can go to people with it. I can do that. But this was just the sort of, the city can do things, but there might also be just plain old capitalists who are motivated to build foot traffic by putting out bike racks. And I don't have any further, other than I have the voice of the people from Facebook, I don't have any further actionability of it.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: So does this sound like the type of situation where we could come up with a playbook for private property owners who are looking to install bike racks on their own private property, of course, not speaking of installing, you know, private property on public property, but is this the sort of thing that we can come up with so that, let's say, reach out to CVS or any of the other private property owners and they say, okay, well, what do you recommend? We can say like, well, we probably can't recommend in particular rack, but racks of this style. Well, I'm just thinking as a public body, we probably can't, we shouldn't be funneling traffic to- We can't recommend anything that we have any connection to. Okay.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Like, so we can't recommend any business that, you know, is owned or run by friends or family of ours or anything like that. But as long as there is no connection, you know, if it's just like, here is a random thing that we have no association with, there's no conflict of interest there.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: So we can even come up with, use this model rack. It works really well.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah. Well, I think it has for a while also.
[Ernie Meunier]: Yeah, can we just back up a little? I'm sorry I'm late. I'm under the weather and Ellen's in bed, so I'm being a spousal nursemaid. But didn't we talk about, or what's coming to mind here, aside from, yeah, B-Dan, we can't be, no one can sniff any nepotism out of this arrangement, but shouldn't we establish rules for intercourse between public and private installation of racks? Who pays for what percentage of what? What models do we want to govern by good manufacturing practices and proper placement? What is used on private property if we help sanction that? We know we have to do that on public property. I think we need to suss out that those gray areas, as well as establish rules and good practices, of course, for what we're doing, and maybe that's already done. but also in what we recommend to private property owners, because they're going to look to us for guidance. Lord knows, we don't want to see them put in bad designs or unsafely accessed bike racks on their own properties, especially if they sort of come under the aegis of us helping engineer that into the public web. Sorry to sound a little disconnected there, but I think that we will establish what we're doing. And so that, yes, if we then go as Where do you go? Well, oh, Kevin. Yeah, if you approach someone and say, look, 450 people say they like bike racks at Target. We don't have any money, but we want to put some up in public spaces. Would you like to fund an effort to put them up at Target? Because we know it'll help drive traffic to you. If so, here's our recommendation for what to buy, what to use, and that meets, you know, AASHTO standards, safety standards, and all that, and hand it to them and say, we're here for guidance, and we'll help you spend your money. Or, you know, we should establish some way of having that kind of relationship before we go and tell them to install things and then complain about it later, or hear about it ourselves, or that there's a high theft area, or whatever complications can occur down the line, we want to help to preempt by establishing good practice.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: So I think that if you spend years coming up with guidelines, no one will install any bike racks. I brought this up before, but Cambridge already has guidelines for bike racks that they use for, uh, city installed ones. Um, you know, We can't do these sort of private requests and fulfillment that they do, because we don't have the budget for it. But they certainly list some types of bike racks that are good and some guidelines for installing them. And we could just point people at that and say, these are good guidelines. That's this, you know, look at these. It's very much, much simpler than trying to help with their own thing. Yes, there is.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: I want to jump in and just say we do have some guidelines that we use in the engineering division for bike racks. So anytime a private developer wants to put a bike rack on their property or whatever. We say, please look at this. Here's the specs. Here's what kind of racks you want. Here's what you don't want, because we really do want to make sure we're not having these bad, not useful ones kind of popping up. I'm going to try to find the guide so I can kind of link it. It's really short and simple. And so basically, any time we get that situation, we point them to this guide, which I think is useful. Because I agree there's no real need to reinvent the wheel. There's already really good standards out there.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Right, and I think the other thing is, I think I would rather have a call sooner with the store manager or target that just says, guidelines exist, demands exist. We're just an advisory commission. We can just tell you that the demand is there, and here's a good way to meet it. And then, you know, we'd have to see how far we get, you know, whether one out of every 10 people that we talk to in that way ultimately installs a rack. I would still have to, I'd still take credit for those. And then we can figure out later what we have to do to boost our response rate and effectiveness. But I'd rather get started sooner. Even with, the picture in the post that I shared was actually from one of the middle schools where the rack that they had was pretty crappy and pretty full and had a gap next to it where you could put, even if it was just another crappy rack, it would, you know, it seemed like it had the prospect of actually getting used, particularly on walk and bike to school day. Right where are those bikes gonna park when they get there?
[Ernie Meunier]: Yeah, I'm not suggesting that we let the perfection be the enemy of the good here and making this into a multi-year technical advisory project, but we should at least, as Lillian has already said, apparently we can provide technical pointers and a quasi-advisory role in helping people, private people, spend their money wisely and get this done. So it's just a matter of maybe, as you say, getting to it and starting it on a, as the demand requires, on a first-come, first-served basis. So I think we're all in agreement here that we can go forward with this. But I just want us to be clear as to how our involvement is carved out. And so there is no private versus public friction for, you know, payment systems or, but, you know, uniformity of design and safety and all that, you know, should have some technical governance. And Lillian is suggesting that's already there. So, great.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: I do want to jump in on the public side with good news that the city was awarded a grant from the MPO to install 40 bike racks on public sidewalks. According to the map that you guys generated, which was. I don't know, a year ago at this point. It was a while ago. So that is happening. And the exciting thing about it is that the grant also covers the installation costs for the city to hire a contractor to do this, which I know there's pros and cons to that sort of conceptually. But in practice, that means we don't have to wait. Our DPW is pretty overloaded. So the fact that we can hire a company to do this will mean we don't have to rely on DPW's capacity to get that done. Not sure on the timeline of when we're going to be able to actually get the contract out and try to find somebody to do this, but the grant has been awarded. So at least there were kind of getting a step in the right direction.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Would it be useful for me to republicize the old map or the existing map and and and get feedback on it? Um, and let me know when we can.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Possibly, if you wouldn't mind holding off on that, particularly for a social media post, just because I think there's, I think the city wants to do an announcement. There was a couple other elements of this grant too. So, they may want to do their own announcement about it. Um. But I wanted to share it with you guys that you wouldn't have to wait because this is something you've talked about since for a while and last meeting extensively. So. Um, but I will keep you guys posted on the progress on that front. And once it's, you know, once we can start publicizing it, we can certainly share around the map again and kind of perhaps 1 of the things to do is to start collecting additional locations, given that the 40 that have already been chosen. Are now planned for, you know, maybe a 2nd round. Starting the thinking process for that could be useful in anticipation of future grants.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: We did more than 40. In that in the last round, we divided them up into phases, but I think you're right.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Yeah, I think that sounds familiar.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: 75 or something. I don't remember exactly, but it was like tier one, tier two, tier three kind of things, but there were a bunch.
[Jared Powell]: So sorry, I think I only have the tier one map, but. What was the the quantity of bike racks?
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: 40 racks, which I believe was tier was the tier one that be Dan is referring to.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, or maybe I'll have to go.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: I don't know if I have a map of tier two, but I know that Amy mentioned it to me before.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: 40 sounds amazing to me.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: It's definitely a start.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, I mean, I was kind of doing it's awesome. I got five squares and two shopping malls, seven. That was kind of the number I was walking around with.
[Jared Powell]: Well, congratulations. That's very, very exciting. Very happy to get that money for the racks. And I think we know where to put them, which is everywhere.
[Ernie Meunier]: Let me be clear. Is that 40 bicycles or 40 actual racks?
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: 40 racks. I think most of the racks are single staples. I think maybe a couple of them are like two
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, I'm like I could probably pick up the actual map, but like that was most of our recommendations just to get well to get a sort of wide distribution for one thing, because it's just a lot of the spots are just like on sidewalks, but also most of the spots that we could think of to put larger racks were on private property. That, you know, there's lots of places, you know, like a target. Yeah. Could, could use a multi bike rack there. It would be great, but we were only looking at places that, you know, the city had public property, um, that we could put stuff. So we didn't include those. Like if we can reach out to business owners, whatever, who have space and demand, um, and get them to install stuff, that would also be a great.
[Ernie Meunier]: So we're at least saying we have, with those 40, we may have the capacity for 60 or 70 bikes.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Something like that.
[Ernie Meunier]: At least 80.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: At least 80. Okay. Every staple can hold at least two bikes. There were a couple of places where we thought, you know, could use a double staple or, you know, something else like that.
[Ernie Meunier]: but the publicly installed ones are apt to be one to two to three like capacity, not six or 10. Okay. Just helpful to know.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: They are errand oriented locations, not, you know, I'm filling an auditorium with cyclists.
[Ernie Meunier]: Not stations, but really parking spaces. Right. To use that parlance.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I think that might cover most of our stuff on bike racks and just in time to move over to the tentative and back organized events. I know that Leah, who she said she couldn't be here tonight but she had brought up the idea of a Halloween bike parade. I think that's actually an interesting idea. I'm not sure what other events might be going on with the city around Halloween. Is anyone else more plugged into that?
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I know the squares all do their little kid trick-or-treating on the same evening. West Medford and Medford Square both do whatever, trick-or-treating at the businesses. I mean, I was gonna say it could be a great time to do something like that because the streets are already just like inundated with children. There's already police officers that are stationed to help people cross. I know we do the West Medford one, so like crossing at High Street. But it's also at like, I don't know what day Halloween is on, but last year was at like five o'clock on a Friday. And so like so much backed up traffic because of the Halloween events. So I don't know how they feel about adding bikes in that sense. Yeah.
[Ernie Meunier]: It's a Tuesday this year.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Okay. So yeah, I mean, they might still just do it always like the Friday before. I could see that thing. I haven't looked it up yet.
[Jared Powell]: That sounds right. I think the square does something on like the Friday before, if I'm not mistaken.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: But I mean, it sounds fun. I would love to see kids on bikes and their stands.
[Jared Powell]: Yeah, I mean, that's, that's something I don't feel like we've ever really gotten into that sort of thing, like leading a lot of kind of festive bike ride type things. I like the idea of it. They tend to be very well, if they're well organized, they tend to be very well attended. Like I know there's quite a few of those in Somerville and whatnot that are really popular. Like the, what is it, the jingle ride or whichever one goes out looking at holiday lights. You know, that's hundreds of people go out, including kids.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: The Halloween one's coming up. I'm going to it. It's fun.
[Jared Powell]: Yeah. What do they do for that one, Mary Kate?
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: They're starting at Magnolia Park and they, I forget where they're ending. And I went last year, it was a different route, but like everybody gathers and kind of parks their bikes in a line or like a U and the kids can just run from bike to bike and do their trick or treating. So you bring candy to pass out and then we get on the bikes and bike to the next playground. all of us in costume. And yeah, mostly along like a lot of times like Somerville Community Path. And they do a good job of, yeah, having crossing guards stations. Sometimes it's like state representatives and stuff. And sometimes it's just normal people like me who would help. But they do a good job of keeping it safe and organized.
[Ernie Meunier]: I have to wonder if having kids unhelmeted, sometimes wearing headgear that tunnels their vision, when wearing costumes, should be pedaling on bicycles, are two things that are completely contradictory. I mean, really, and genuinely unsafe. And certainly, if Cinderella and, you know, Eric the mongol is out there, they're not going to be wearing their little Schwinn helmets asking for trick-or-treats while rolling along on a bicycle. It's just not going to happen. I don't see it as safe at all. A rolling bicycle doing trick-or-treating in odd gear is not about bicycling. So help me with that. I don't know how to put those two activities together.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, I think it's probably illegal, too, if you're thinking about it, because if you're riding a bike and you're under the age of 15, you're supposed to have a helmet on, right?
[Ernie Meunier]: Yeah. Well, I mean, even if you're a wizard.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: You could make it part of the requirement, I guess, to be a part of, like, the bike parade and have, like, clear messaging around helmets are required. I don't think the vision was to have kids, like, biking to, like, from, like, business to business, but having maybe, like, a parade, I don't know, that would kick off the event, you know? I don't have any experience doing such an event, nor do I have Experience on what it would be like if we tried to enforce that you have to wear a helmet on the bike parade.
[Bruce Kulik]: Suggest that the kids would ride from park to park and then. Basically, the Halloween event would be at the park.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: That's an event that already exists. I'm going to it on September 22nd with my kids. I went to the same event last year. It was a different bike route last year, but they hold this event.
[Bruce Kulik]: That would work where you helmet up, you ride to the next park, you drop your bike, and you change into your costume, you do your thing at the park, and then you go to another park. Same thing. I don't know how well that would work, but that's something I could envision, I suppose.
[Ernie Meunier]: Did your kids wear helmets while they were doing this last year?
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I have a cargo bike, so they ride on the back. But yes, my kids always wear helmets. And my daughter hates it. I make her wear reflective vests. And I put the big flag on her bike. And she's like, this flag is stupid.
[Ernie Meunier]: And it still ends up being sufficient.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I'm obsessed with safety.
[Ernie Meunier]: But it ends up being sufficiently Halloween-y for them and their enjoyment.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Oh, yeah. I mean, they're like I said, they're not for these events. I just put them on the back of my cargo bike. And so they don't have to pedal, but they do wear their helmets. And They just don't wear the mask when they're on the bike or they don't wear the hat when they're on the bike. They have the rest of whatever like onesie costume or princess dress they want to wear.
[Ernie Meunier]: Yeah, but what about all the 10 to 15 year olds who are unassisted without running around?
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Well, I suppose we can't, you know, plan for every eventuality.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I think that is all the I mean, there's been a lot.
[Ernie Meunier]: I mean, come on, really, the trick all the trick, we get fair amount of trick or treaters to our house in West Medford. If they had to show up in helmets or roll bikes to get back around, I just don't see it. These tend to be not on the day itself.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: These tend to be another opportunity to squeeze some value out of that costume in some other spectacle.
[Ernie Meunier]: show me some pictures of people in halloween costumes wearing bicycle helmets with smiles and i you know i will think about it yeah yeah so i'm going to make a motion every year uh what i'd like to do is i i'd like to
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: just deputize us all to learn about how other people do it this year, you know, what you think is enjoyable, what you think is safe, what is out there and what you think would be doable by us next year, that our role in these things this year would be to, we might, you know, participate, promote, observe individually. And then, you know, next month, or, you know, at the November meeting, talk about, is there a role for for us.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: So, here's a sort of a question. I think we were saying that Somerville does does something like this.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: It's a. Camberville cargo bike. Camberville?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Yes. Okay. Would it make sense for us to try to reach out to them and try to gain any learnings that we can to bring back and see if we can adapt some of what they have done to look at it as a possibility for next year?
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. They seem pretty organized and there's a few people who tend to organize most of the events, so they have a lot of experience doing it over a couple of years now. There's big turnouts for the events.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Are you in contact with that group, Mary Kate, or on their e-mail? Because I didn't even know about them.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. It's a Facebook group. Okay.
[Jared Powell]: Is there is a very active cargo bikes of camberville.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I mean, they organize, yeah, test rides. So people can try different cargo bikes and like, multiple times a year and. They're very active.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, point of order, I'd like to point out that Kevin made a motion regarding how we should act on this, which is kind of along the lines of this discussion. But I wanted to 2nd, that motion.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: What is the particular month?
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: That we would, as individuals, try and go out and collect as much information on what these events look like, how they're organized, how they fit with safety and costumes and Halloween. and then in november we'd like to hear back from everyone what they think the role of the medford bicycle advisory uh commission can be motion since we're not all right well i mean i think we're looking for closure is this a motion yeah it's a motion that this year's role will be information gathering and and will be used to inform you know, our sense of what we should do next year.
[Jared Powell]: Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, it's kind of a, I think maybe some of us might be disappointed that we didn't have our act together to figure some of this out sooner, but given that that is what it is, Kevin's motion is probably where we are, right? I think this is the type of thing that would be nice if we did more of, so that we could try to build this sort of activity as something that we do normally, you know, whether it's holiday bike rides or Christmas bike rides and whether they're kid oriented or adult oriented, right? They could be one or the other. There's a venue for both. So, yeah, I'm in favor of it too.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, just to add, I think that events that are open to all ages and accessible to all ages really show that like, We're talking about, you know, bike infrastructure and like, these are the faces of the people who want to be able to ride safely in this city. And I think it's a good, it's a good show. It's a good poster to help people understand what, you know, give a face to what we're really talking about. Would it be helpful for like, if I reached out to this person on Facebook, like for them to just come to a meeting and we could ask them questions?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I don't know. Do we need a motion for that?
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I'll reach out to them and ask them. No motion.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: It looks like Leah actually just jumped in.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: My other meeting just ended.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Wonderful. We are we were just discussing the Halloween bike parade. So you actually jumped in right at the tail end of it, but I think for a quick recap. We think we might, unless you have more information on this, we would want to go through probably, we're talking about going through sort of a discovery phase this year to see if we can get learnings on how other groups do this so that we can organize one for next year. Cool.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Did you all see the Cambridge one, Cambridge family ride? No. I can look for that and try to send the link. But they did one last year.
[Bruce Kulik]: Is that the same thing that Mary Kate was referencing?
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: I have no idea.
[Bruce Kulik]: Why don't you check the chat to see if it's the same link?
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I can't see the chat until after I came in. But I think last year, Peter and I like biked with another Medford family to the Cambridge one.
[Ernie Meunier]: You all state that the Cambridge or Cambridgeville one is well organized. Do they insist that kids wear helmets? Yet again, we got to get back to whether we want to get involved with sanctioning this on our end. And then we have to make sure kids are legally helmeted.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: I don't remember. Last time they did it on a Sunday and they were on Memorial Drive for a lot of it. So it was literally close to cars. And they have a pretty big You know, a giant group of people who. Help block off any intersections so everyone can get through. So I don't think there's really any conflict with cars at all this time. They're doing it on the minute man.
[Bruce Kulik]: And the Fitchburg cut off for the most part with a couple of the conflict with cars isn't really the point of Ernie's. Whether or not we as an official arm of the city are able to sanction something in which we wouldn't be encouraging not wearing helmets while riding a bicycle, which is in violation of state law. Right I'm not judging what people decide to do with their own kids at some point. You know, whether it's legal or not, that's. a parent's decision to enforce, but I'm just suggesting that if we weren't, as with Ernie, if we were not enforcing the helmet regulation, that would not be something that the commission as an arm of the city really ought to be involved in. So we need to figure out how would we go about doing this while staying within the legal bounds.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: It's not a city example, so it might not quite be relevant, but I know for the Tour de Streets event, a lot of other events that I've attended that are big group rides, but Tour de Streets specifically has a family component. I think they cover it by saying everyone's required to have a helmet, but I've never seen them enforce it. But a lot of people show up with helmets because the event says it's required.
[Ernie Meunier]: I was gonna say- On the positive side, I can certainly see we'll be lighting up all the kids' bikes, too. There'll be bike-like kits available and encourage their safety. But yes, that has to go hand-in-hand with minors being helmeted if they are on bikes, whether they're blocked off public ways for, you know, we just can't suggest that kids ride bikes without helmets, whether we light them up tell them it's safe, give them food and candy or rest stops, etc. But, you know, we have to be careful about this.
[Jared Powell]: Yeah, I think it's I think it's clear that we can require that sort of thing at any event and that we would and that's kind of a no brainer. The question is what, what does enforcement look like if if anything, right? Like that's, that's a more sticky wicket.
[Ernie Meunier]: Yeah, I for one won't put bike lights on a kid's bike unless they're helmeted. I just made that a personal rule. that I don't want to contribute to asking a kid to ride at night unless he or she... Do you think they won't ride at night if you don't give them lights? That's not the point here.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, there's a difference between encouraging them to ride at night without providing lights or making sure they have lights and something that they would choose to do on their own or at their parents' discretion.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: There's this thing called harm reduction. If you give someone safety equipment, that is safety equipment that they have, they didn't have before. If you just say you won't give them safety equipment if they don't have, would you not give them a helmet if they didn't have lights?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Like... One thing I, sorry, I'm going to... kind of cut over to another topic that we should, you know, I understand this, but we did also want to get to talking about like a possible speaker series.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, point of order, there's a motion on the floor that either needs to be dismissed or voted upon. Okay. If Kevin wants to withdraw, he can do so, or we can just vote on it one way or another.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: I'd like to just everybody to vote. I mean, I think we have an agreement. I think we can say, yes, we're informational this year. We're going to collect information from groups and towns around us. And we'll hear back at a future meeting, probably the November call.
[Jared Powell]: I would like to amend your motion, Kevin, and add on something that says that as a part of that reconnaissance, we will also think about where in Medford such an event could actually happen. Sure.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Yep. Right. Both what other people do and what would be appropriate to Medford, you know, and a Medford event.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yeah.
[Ernie Meunier]: Great. Does the secretary have to restate the motion? Oh, darn.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Resolve that this committee's role in Halloween events. uh, this year will be one of information gathering about how events are conducted by others and looking for suitable venues in Medford, um, and getting a report back later on both of those things.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Second. Okay. Um, motion to approve? Seconded. Seconded. Okay. Uh, all in favor? Okay. All right. Motion passes.
[Bruce Kulik]: Sorry. Any opposed? Okay. I'm just hearing that.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: All right. Sounds like motion passes.
[Bruce Kulik]: Unless I'm missing something. Okay. Motion passes.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Speaker series, so let's see. Emily brought this up. So apparently, we were actually going to have someone here who was starting up. Okay. So Eric Molinari is starting up the speaker series at Bone Up Brewing that may be of interest to us. The first installment was going to be November 7th. But will be postponed due to election day. So no data on that. I guess the consideration is, do we want to have sort of a speaker series? possibly at Medford Brewing or another possibility is the library. I guess the question is, do we want to be able to have that where we could perhaps talk about biking in Medford or any other topics that we'd like to bring out to the public?
[Ernie Meunier]: Would we have to assure access to all citizens of Medford if it's considered a city event?
[Bruce Kulik]: Thunderville bike committee has very similar items that take place at Aeronaut, or at least they used to on a regular basis. I don't know if that's continuing at this point, but.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, they still have them every month.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, so that particular venue has an area which is away from the beer hall, although I guess technically you could still consume beer at that location, and the public's able to come. Anyone's invited. There's no limit. they seem to think it's okay. I don't know if that's proof enough for us, but obviously it isn't. But, um, I believe as long as the public's able to come without restrictions, there wouldn't be any problem in sponsoring such a series.
[Ernie Meunier]: I was referring to ADA access.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, sorry. Yes. Well, okay. That particular venue certainly has ADA access.
[Ernie Meunier]: Okay.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay.
[Ernie Meunier]: My question is whether we have to be concerned about that. I don't know.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: I mean, like, we should, we certainly shouldn't hold an event at somewhere that isn't accessible. But, you know, that's most places also have to be accessible.
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's a fairly new business, right?
[Ernie Meunier]: Well, when you mention a brewery or a brew hall, I just wonder if that's one of the criteria for us to hold an event there. is that it falls within completely.
[Bruce Kulik]: I would think any location that we hold an event that would be the case, and I would be surprised if such a venue is not inherently accessible as necessary. I just can't imagine that at this point any new business is going to be able to get their license, occupancy license, without that kind of access.
[Ernie Meunier]: Yeah, pretty much for a new building. Should it be required to have a bike rack? Never mind. Maybe that's not. Of course not.
[Bruce Kulik]: There's no law regarding that.
[Ernie Meunier]: I'm just kidding.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: We wish.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: I guess I have a question about the Somerville one. If it's in a place that's kind of close to Medford. Is there any merit in, like, doing our own speaker series versus organizing a ride to Somerville speaker series, which already exists? I wonder if we have it.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's far enough away that people might be disinclined to go to Somerville to do it. I happened to go there because it was previously on the way back and forth to my office. And it was therefore convenient. Plus, you know, I'm willing to ride to Somerville, but I recognize that not everybody else is, you know, I'm sure you're willing to and probably most on the committee.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Well, I'm really close to Somerville, but I think that's a good point. And that it also would be nice to support on that for business. If we think we have enough audience to. Get this going.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: It should be noted that I think it's $300 an hour bar spend minimum for private events. So that is something to consider. I don't know if they would be open to reducing that for a public or a civic event, I guess.
[Jared Powell]: This would count as a private event if it's open specifically to the public.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: It's a private event in the sense that it's taking up a bunch of space with people who are not necessarily there to buy things from the venue. Um, so that, that's, well, that's why they tend to have those sorts of minimums. Um, is because, you know, if you've got a bunch of people showing up who aren't actually going to drink, um, I've got to say that, I've got to say that, I mean, they are not just as does it as a public service, right.
[Bruce Kulik]: As far as I can tell, it's good. It's just good publicity and good. I'm sorry, Becca. What?
[Jenny Graham]: I participated, I gave a talk for the Aeronaut thing. Aeronaut is unique in their business structure where the community part of it is actually built into their model. So they program that space as part of it, and I think they see themselves as not necessarily brewery, but they kind of see this other So I don't know if it's a private event. I think it's done separately. So that's kind of my understanding of that space is large and not the bar where you can bring beer there. They're not like they still have regular patrons in the space, in the regular bar area that are separate. They're not at the event.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, there's also a couple other small businesses like a chocolate shop and at least one food place.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Yep. Yeah, I mean, several visitors on Wednesday nights, but but what's the what's the question here?
[Bruce Kulik]: Is it is it whether we would actually pay for something? Is that what the how did we get into this conversation? I missed something. I think.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: It's more about whether we want to have a speaker series. There are multiple possible venues. Medford Brewing is one that was floated, but that has a possible monetary component to it. Another place that was floated was the library. So I think it's more whether we want to engage in having a speaker series.
[Jared Powell]: I feel like I might be a bit of a broken record on this sort of thing, but this could be a great idea, and it could be terrific. Could, not will. It could be. It's going to require someone to own it and put a fair amount of work into finding people to participate. We've got however many people on this call right here. Would everyone commit to providing a speech? I mean, even if, even if so, that's 13 people, seven, eight, nine of which show up regularly. So that's a pretty, you know, that's not a very deep bench for, you know, a monthly speaker series. So we would need one of us to really like.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm happy to provide a speech like every six months. I mean, everyone would like to talk. So what can I say? And I've got a number of programs I'm willing to provide as well related to different types of bike safety and infrastructure and what they do. I mean, I can go on and on as you know.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Would there be a way, I'm a little behind in my trainings of how we're allowed to operate outside this meeting, but is there a way to like, maybe if we can get two or three people to volunteer to form like a little subgroup that could, you know, update people and ask for help on a monthly basis, but work together to find people?
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Any subcommittee smaller than a quorum is acceptable, basically. As long as there's not a quorum, we can discuss whatever we want outside of meetings.
[Bruce Kulik]: As soon as there's a quorum, then it's... And of course, any decisions we make are not binding. We have to bring them back to the whole group for a vote. And, you know, that's just pro forma, typically.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: I'd be happy to, you know, I don't know that I have quite enough time or network to do it all myself, but I'd be happy to join a subcommittee.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Do we need to motion to create a subcommittee? I think we do. So moved. Yes, yes, we do.
[Ernie Meunier]: Second.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: All in favor?
[Ernie Meunier]: Aye.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: All opposed? Okay, I guess the ayes have it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Who wants to be the ad hoc lead to take up organizing that committee? I will be willing to help on the committee. I don't want to be the ad hoc lead on it, but maybe Leah, you're willing to?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Sure.
[Ernie Meunier]: So do we have to make a motion that she is the subcommittee chair of the ad hoc group, or is that not necessary?
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: I think ad hoc groups, by definition, do not have official positions.
[Bruce Kulik]: Right. Good. Leah, just pick me at some point, and we'll figure out how to get this rolling.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Okay. So far, it's me and Bruce. Oh, and Dawn.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yep.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Great.
[SPEAKER_12]: Well, that's a group. All right. Look at that.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Sounds good. I guess just so that we stay somewhat on time, and I guess this is a good segue. Lily, any sort of infrastructure updates? I'd love to hear about some of those blue bike things that you had sort of alluded to at the beginning of the meeting.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Yes. So. We do have locations for the next 2 blue bike stations. There will be 1 in West Medford square, which I know is kind of been like a big kind of glaring gap and another 1. Which we're hoping to locate in Logan Park. Also, speaking of gaps, Tufts is providing 2 stations, but we still haven't gotten them to commit to a timeline. We're hoping it will be sometime this semester, but they've been dragging their feet a bit, but Todd is very much pushing them to keep going.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_02]: The question on the first 2 sites, did you know if there's a timeline attached to those? The non-Tufts sites?
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Yeah, we're hoping to get them done this fall. Like, we don't have specific dates.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_02]: It kind of depends on. We have to, like, pave a section of.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: of land, we're trying to locate these all off the street on city property so that we don't have to put them in and take them out. We're just trying to get them done as soon as possible, hopefully sometime in November or ideally sooner, but it's a little hard to commit to specific dates because sometimes things just get delayed and then they don't happen and then it's disappointing. But the location being confirmed is a big step in the process because finding good locations has been tricky.
[Ernie Meunier]: Might I then suggest that we reopen the question of having the infrastructure up to the task. If we're going to have many more bikes parked at West Medford, I think a fair number of them will want to go west and east on Route 60. And so I want to put a fire under our under the infrastructure route from West Medford Square to Mystic Valley Parkway, as we've discussed over the years. I think that's a great idea, Ernie.
[Bruce Kulik]: That probably is something we need to talk to Todd about. What? We probably need to speak to Todd about that.
[Ernie Meunier]: Yeah, I know, but I can't see doing one without the other.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: I think that we'll get more Leverage on improving infrastructure if we have more bikes. So, if we wait. To do anything until we have everything we'll never do anything.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: I think at least I don't know about how Todd feels and I don't want to represent his sort of opinions, but the city's position, I think, is really to try to find. As many opportunities as possible to do as much as they can where they can, so I don't know where high street would come into this and how long it might take to put infrastructure there. I don't think it's on the immediate radar the way certain other kind of corridors are, but that doesn't mean it's not important. So.
[Ernie Meunier]: you know keeping up the advocacy and let me let me be a burdensome here and say it's just paint and signage there's no other infrastructure change it's about parking paint and signage so it can all happen within a week that's true unfortunately the way that um
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Any regulatory changes on the streets have to be approved by traffic commission and as we all know, parking is a little bit of a 3rd rail.
[Ernie Meunier]: I understand, but there's not a lot of money involved here. It's about just deciding money.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, in that area, I think we've already analyzed it and it really seems like a. a reasonable approach. I mean, it's kind of like the other end of High Street where the bicycle lanes now exist. Yes, there was some pushback, but the reality is that the parking was so heavily underutilized that it was not a problem. Some people might have thought it was a problem because they had to cross the street or not be able to park directly in front of their place when somebody chose to come there, but we always get that pushback. And we have to make a decision one way or another that we're going to do this. The city's got to make that decision and live with the political ramifications. That's. You know, and our recommendation is to go in that route. So. I know, Ernie, you don't have an excellent point, but, but I also agree with you that. you know, if there's going to be more rent, not rental, blue bike traffic, then yeah, you're right. We ought to step up and have better infrastructure. I don't see the two having to go hand in hand. They won't go hand in hand. The blue bikes are going to go there regardless of what happens. So sever that notion. But I think it is an impetus for us to say, yeah, that becomes a high priority. And we really ought to look at Getting something complete basically between the 2 rotaries, you know, we have a good infrastructure in front of the Brooks school and up to the top of the hill. It'd be great to get that continued all the way to the rotary. And in the opposite direction, so that we have a full quarter. And at least on the West side of high street.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: I agree, and I think it is important to kind of, like, the more people are advocating for this, I think the higher priority it will be for the administration and the and for for Todd. And I will say that 1 of the things that. At least I've been doing more recently, and that I think. Um, it's trying to be elevated is actually taking parking counts and doing the kind of background data collection that will then help support making these infrastructure changes. So, some of the pushback from Winthrop street, um. Even though we know we have data saying that parking was mostly very underutilized, like, people really, you know. Push back against the loss of parking so when we do propose new infrastructure, we want to be able to have really strong data backing it up saying this is what we're proposing. We've gone out. We've done a lot of counts. We've gone at nighttime when everybody's home and asleep. We've gone at random times of day and during events to try to figure out how much parking is actually being used. So that is something we're actively pursuing on a bunch of different orders to try to lay the groundwork for some of the. some of the next corridors that hopefully can get some attention.
[Ernie Meunier]: Well, we could be tasked to do some of that legwork. I, for one, can imagine taking random or scheduled hourly snapshots of that Carta to show use of parking or non-use of parking as an example. I didn't realize that that kind of data could be useful in lobbying for specific projects. So you should let us know how we can help.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: It is, I think that would be something Todd would have to decide about. I will say that there is often skepticism from people who. Don't like infrastructure about the source of that data and I think my understanding is that the city has tried to be pretty careful instead of. You know, saying, oh, we've I guess what I'm saying is there may be some skepticism if we have people that are not city staff members getting this data. Like, we want to be really. I'm not saying that it's a bad idea. I think having more people out there doing counts could be good. But we're trying to make sure that we keep it pretty transparent and make sure we legitimize it. Yeah.
[Ernie Meunier]: Yeah, yeah, sure.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: The other.
[Ernie Meunier]: Yeah, the other thing I'll mention. I'm just worried that you're short staffed for getting that kind of data collection work done.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: That is kind of actually, that's another segue into a semi infrastructure related update, which is that I've been interested in trying to get some volume like ridership counts on certain corridors and Todd actually connected with the Boston region transportation planning staff who have offered to have their staff come. and do some counts for us. I'm not sure how many counts they'll be doing and where, but Winthrop Street is one of them that we'd like to get. What we'd like to do is have them count places like College Ave, where we have an approved bike lane, it's not in yet, so we can do some before and after counts. This is something that we're definitely working on and we will have professionals working on this for us.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: It would also be great to probably count some specific areas that are bottlenecks. Because we know that, you know, oftentimes people will sort of fan out into quieter routes where they can. But, you know, if there are places that are the places that are everyone has to go through, you know, like, well, Medford Square or, you know, certain sections of Main Street. Those are good places to count people.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I was going to say that's a great point. I just wonder. Uh, I refuse to buy through Medford square. I actually can't. Are my cargo bike doesn't fit in, like, cause you get stopped so many times in the middle of the traffic and I can't fit. And there's never any place to park my bike anyway. And so I don't. Go to Medford square, the only place. The only places that I have to drive, or if I have to go through Medford square, or if I'm going to Costco. And yeah, so I'm just curious, like. I hope that the lack of bikes in Medford Square is like screaming through the numbers. Because it's, yeah.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: That's a great point. I know just where you mean, like in between where you get the crossing signal, and then you have to stop. And then it's basically one regular bike's length. But if you have anything bigger than that, you're totally, yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: And my husband actually, he had to do it. I had the car, and he had to take the kids. to go to my son's soccer game at the middle school. He also mentioned that getting out of Medford Square back into West Medford, he was like, I ended up going wrong ways on streets or having to be on sidewalks. I can't safely get in and I can't safely get out of Medford Square.
[Ernie Meunier]: So let me get it straight. For years, or years in the past, we did a lot of bike density counts. With the Catch-22, many times the counts were low because the infrastructure wasn't there, so bicyclists didn't use it. That doesn't mean if we didn't build it, they wouldn't come. In this case, where we're counting parking space usage, that falls out of the fact that we're advocates for bicyclists as a legitimate data gathering, and that kind of activity has to be seen more by a neutral party like the city itself. Is that my understanding? I know we're past time, but it seems to be saying what you're saying, Lillian.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Um, yeah, I think it definitely helps to have. City staff doing parking counts, because that is some of the, um, the most. Really, that's the pushback that we get on bike lanes. Probably 80% of the negative feedback from people who are concerned about bike lane installation is from parking loss. So we want to make sure that we are as careful as possible when we collect this data and that we can authenticate it because we always have people that say, oh, I don't believe this. That's false. I'm not saying. I'm not saying that the commission wouldn't be excellent at collecting this, but I think from a. Perspective of presenting it, it's something like the traffic commission. It's my understanding that the city prefers to do that with their own staff. Just to kind of eliminate the question of whether this is. Questionable right?
[Ernie Meunier]: Thank you.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Um. I think the last item was just the, and this was something that Kevin, you had brought up, the Tufts restoration of Boston Ave after the new dorm completion. I believe, is that the section of Boston Ave?
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: going down to oh gosh uh it basically is the part that they took the trees out of that the green line uh you know it used to just be kind of a forested hillside and the strange curb uh it it's from uh pizza days you're the last civilization from windsor street to the green line station is the area you're talking about except for the part that's already been redone Right, and then it's actually the part that today is, you know, there's Tufts Garage is sitting there, and then outbound from that, there's kind of a scruffy hillside and a parking lot behind the dorm. that they just redid, there's going to be a dorm on that parking lot built into the hillside next to the Tufts garage towards Winthrop. And in the concepts I've seen, Tufts is committed to a much better streetscape than is there right now, a much wider sidewalk, street-level retail, and you know, but sort of cut out of that picture is what happens to bikes and the bike lane that was there. That bike lane was last painted in 2017, so it's kind of long gone between the construction. But I just wanted to get sort of, you know, it's maybe premature, but I just wanted to get Tufts University on record that As part of being done with their work that the street would get back to how it had been, and that included pretty useful bike lane. There appears to be a bike lane on the picture on their announcement of it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Right now, I just want to make sure that doesn't get value engineered out that I want to make to me that they would be required to at least have what the street had initially or some other agreement with the city. If they're doing something else, wouldn't that be right? Lillian.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Um, yes, so briefly we, whatever they were doing, they would have to restore the public way to the same condition or better. And I don't know. This project is still in the early enough stages that I'm not sure whether the city has any particular thing they're going to be asking tops for. Like, I think that would be great to pressure them to do something really good in their renderings. They show an off street bike lane and at least 1 of their pictures. So maybe that's kind of something to.
[Bruce Kulik]: Is there any way to get additional linkage with a project of that nature? Specifically, I'm looking at getting Boston Avenue from High Street to Mystic Valley Parkway repaved. That section has become atrocious.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Unfortunately, probably not. I don't want to say definitively. Usually, anything that they would do has to be directly linked to the impacts of their project. It might be a little much to try to convince them to go further outside that scope, but never say never. We certainly try to encourage in projects like this as much mitigation as we can and we try to push that scope.
[Bruce Kulik]: It's not that area, then the area from College Avenue to Harvard would also be a candidate and that of course is right next to what they're working on.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Right, that there that might be a little closer. I'm not sure.
[Jared Powell]: I had a comment. I'm sure we could. It would be easy to get to a point where you're asking them for things that are out of scope, but I remember last when they were. Redoing the Boston and college intersection. Remember with all the that big grid that they painted me? I know they I know they paid for all that, We were involved with that process, and I know that our participation in that, like they presented to us, like we got in a room with them when their design team was planning that, and they had some things that, I don't remember specifically what they were, but they had definite design components that several of us found objectionable, and they changed them as a result of our comments, and they also added some things that they had not planned on, like the extraordinarily helpful bike box southbound on College Avenue that, to my great sadness, is being destroyed as a part of the GLX paving, which is a real bummer because I found that so helpful. But they've been open to it before, so if it's something that we can convince them as a part of their scope, hopefully they will think kindly about the restoring things to an or better condition and take our feedback seriously. They'd have before.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: That's really good to know. I didn't realize that they consulted and presented to you guys, but that's wonderful. I think that's something that hopefully I will speak to Todd about trying to make sure that that's a step in their process for this project if they're going to do anything related to the street.
[SPEAKER_14]: Yeah.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. Yeah, I know that they have to make it the same or better. I don't know if the city has any recommendations or ever looks at I just feel like Boston Ave is so prime for some sort of protected bike lanes specifically because there are I mean, like, this isn't like somebody parked for work and left their car there. I mean, there are just constantly doors opening on Boston Ave. It's a really high traffic area, you get a lot of people visiting the university who are not familiar with this space, not used to being in a city. And it just I don't know if we ever have recommendations for like you have, it's not just about parking, but like how quickly that parking turns over and how many doors are being opened and how much more dangerous it makes it to bike in those lanes. And I think that really needs to be taken seriously, especially given that it's like the corridor to our green line and like access to public transit, people really like deserve to be safe and be able to get to their transit safely.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: I totally agree, like, it is it is definitely 1 of the most important corridors in my opinion. So, yeah, I share your frustrations.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_02]: And the reason the blue bikes will be like, has it been up and down Boston? I have to go from West Medford to the T. so perhaps that's an additional proof point that can be used in a future discussion.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Also, I mean, first, that project, that's the first I've seen of that project at Boston Ave and North Street there. Did Cummings also get its project to put lab space on top of their parking garage at 200 Boston Ave? In other words, if you click on the link that Noam included, you see the current 200 Boston Ave parking sort of there in the notch, but Cummings has proposed a four-story, you know, block on top of, you know, these guys are presenting it like it's open space. But if Cummings has anything, it's going to be a big building. But in other words, that's suddenly a lot of development and a lot of street interruption, kind of all up and down Boston Ave. And a lot of it is, you know, if 200 Boston Ave, that is actually owned by Tufts and, you know, occupied by university staff. Suddenly, it's like, well, Boston Ave, all of Boston Ave may be in play between Tufts dorm, this Gibson Sotheby's, and But I was going to, I was asking Lillian did. I know that tough Cummings had proposed this. Development on top of the parking garage at 200 Boston. Did that get did that go anywhere?
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: To be honest, I'm not familiar with that project, but I'm happy to look into it and see if, like, where that is in terms of I'm sure they probably had to go in front of the community development board or 1 of the. So short answer, I'm not sure, but I'd be happy to look into it.
[MCM00001143_SPEAKER_09]: Okay, I'll try and find a link to that.
[Ernie Meunier]: Maybe it's useful to remind us that the first go at Boston Ave was done by the prior administration without much, if any, collaboration with us or notice. And I think somewhat as a marquee project to show the administration's activity in the area. So yeah, there's been a lot of talk about how it continues to be unsafe and requires a major redesign, etc. So once again, I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater. At least we got something done where the city got something done. But it's clear that it requires a major revision and not just patch up or return to pre-existing status when repairs are done. It needs to be rethought and done properly.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, and unfortunately, There's a bunch of blocks there where the only way to do it properly is to remove parking. Yep. Mostly the parts that are in front of residential houses tend to be pretty highly utilized.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that is a political nightmare for parking. I mean, there's many places where you can make the argument that the parking utilization is quite low. But Boston Ave, unfortunately, would be really, really tough, I think, because it's almost entirely residential and typically two or three family houses with few driveways, just because there's not space for the driveways. I'm pessimistic that a whole lot can be done there, frankly. And you don't really want to have a cycle track on the opposite side of cars on a downhill stretch like that, because the operating speed of a bicycle, even someone who's not fast, is really too fast for that.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: And there just isn't the width, even. The existing uphill bike lane is already only 4 feet wide and right up against the cars.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, the only saving grace there is that as a cyclist, you're typically going much slower up that lane because it is uphill. And so the door zone is slightly less of a problem.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Right.
[Bruce Kulik]: It would be downhill.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: There's just no room to put in another, any kind of lane on the other side without removing parking, basically.
[Ernie Meunier]: No, I agree, but at least the marking could be more robust, green fields, markings, bollards, reflective paint. You know, there are ways to at least make what can be made in the physical space safer and certainly more visible, especially at night or in the rain. just just by improving paint quality, tiger striping and all the other tricks of the of the tree. We got to do something to make it safer.
[Jared Powell]: And there's probably some marginal improvements there. But yeah, I mean, if you want real improvements, or you're talking about getting rid of parking, which that would be challenging. But cities do it, right? People don't always look at the existing conditions and decide that it has to be that way forever. Things could be different. You'd probably want to know that the people who, the city would probably need to hear, I would guess, that the people who live there are somewhat okay with those going away, which would be a tough sell with all those triple-deckers there, like Bruce mentioned, or they'd need to hear an awful lot of people in favor Of that happening, right? Because they know that there might would be harm. Done by removing parking from people who park there all the time. But the number of people who bike there may appear to be very low. For all the reasons that we that we talked about, but they would really want to know. I think that people would show up and. Use that court or I think they would, but that would be something that. Maybe we could. drum up support for not promising it to people, but, you know.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Reminding people. You ever get the GLX extension one more stop. To Route 16. That would help. Oh yeah, you know that would be less, you know. Useful for people to have cars in that neighborhood.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Not to mention that people. Get really stressed out about supposed out of town commuters parking and parking spots near it. I had a quick question. We've gone very far away from. What my original question was about, but I hope I can still ask it. Um, if we're considering that there's going to be a bunch of. Construction happening near or on Boston. Um, and I said, well, and that. When the final condition we try to get the same or better. Is there any possibility of during construction, like, trying to maintain. Some decent accommodations.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Yes, so, I mean, I think I don't want to misspeak when I said same condition or better like, that is what we would require them to do. That's not necessarily what we would hope. We would, I think, hope for better, or even much better in terms of maintaining access during construction. This is a little bit tricky and I'm not 100% sure if I know whether we have any ordinances about specifically bike access. I know that we make. Safe pedestrian access a condition of their permits. I don't know if there's anything specific about. Bike traffic, but I would personally like.
[Bruce Kulik]: To that for construction, you know, I don't like it. It might not seem like it, but I seem to recall that there's actually a requirement that there must be bicycle accommodation. Through construction, I don't know if it's.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: What I would maybe hope for if we don't have a law about it is that it's not like. I see a lot of places do like a 4 foot pedestrian walkway and just be like, well, bikes go over there too. Um, yeah, well, that's wrong for many reasons.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Yeah, I think sometimes what is considered sufficient bicycle accommodation is just like a sign saying bikes may use full lane, which in my mind is not acceptable. But Bruce, if you can actually, if you don't, if you know what the laws are, you can link me to it. Please do. I'll have a look around. I'll have to. Look at mass general law to see what I can see and yeah, I'm very curious, but yeah, certainly preserving access is super important, but I'm not sure what the right. Lever is to press for bikes specifically.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Is there, like, do you guys, you said pedestrian access and. Like, you won't approve their permit without it. Is there a possibility to just. Do the same for bike access, even if it's not a law.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: I don't I don't know, actually, I mean, if I were in charge, that's definitely what I would do, but I'm not sure. So, I guess I think I'll have to just ask our engineering department to see what they can do with that because I think it's important to be able to preserve.
[Bruce Kulik]: Access for the city solicitor to provide a legal opinion about whether the. So you can do that. I mean, clearly the pedestrian law came from somewhere if it's an ordinance, that's 1 thing, but.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: You know, I policy, I don't think it's it needs a legal opinion. I think that if the city. Wants to require that they probably could. I'm not sure what would happen if they were pushed back. Actually, there is no city solicitor. Currently we have a outside law firm helping with those sorts of things, but I guess probably the best thing for me to do is just investigate this and see if the city has any kind of policy already about this or if this has come up in the past.
[Ernie Meunier]: Bruce, I might guess that there is a state, at least soft governance, in that anecdotally I found when I've gone through construction areas in adjacent towns or just in running around, And there's a policeman there at the work site. They seem to be tuned into assuring that I, as a bicyclist, have safe passage, whether it's to point to a sidewalk that's there already for pedestrian access or not. But I would guess that they have been told to not divert me in the standard motor vehicle detour around a space, but they work to try to get you to go through. I don't know if that's just the good will or... I think you've gotten a little bit lucky, Ernie. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've noticed it's not like years ago, where there's just no way to walk through. And like you say, because pedestrian access has to be guaranteed, maybe they just say, okay, you can get through here, et cetera.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, there's a difference between a detour and accommodation through a construction zone. Yeah, I mean, a detour is, you know, basically they say all traffic has to go around and that's fine for a motor vehicle to go an extra quarter or half mile. But obviously on a bike or pedestrian, that's a big problem. My experience is similar to yours, that anytime there's been access through a site, I generally will ask the flag person or the police officer and say, yeah, hey, can I get through? And yeah, they'll usually point me to like the adjacent sidewalk in that case, and I'll go through the 500 feet or whatever it is. And that's typically when they're like digging a trench for a sewer or that kind of thing.
[Ernie Meunier]: Right, because they're told that they have to provide that pedestrian access. That part of the sidewalk, as an example, can't be chewed up or impassable at the same time as the major work going on. So maybe they just spread that ability to include bicycles or human-powered vehicles, et cetera.
[Bruce Kulik]: And that's kind of nice, but it might- Well, as a matter of law, you're generally permitted to operate on the sidewalk, particularly cases like that where It's not a commercial zone, so that makes sense.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I'm going to have to interject here. It's getting a little late. Do we have any other topics?
[Bruce Kulik]: Motion to adjourn.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_13]: Seconded.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay. The ayes have it, I think. Okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Bye, folks. Thanks, everyone. Good night.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Night, everyone.
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