Recent comments in /f/massachusetts

Alluminatus OP t1_jd98447 wrote

Reply to comment by Hoosac_Love in East West Rail Commission by Alluminatus

100% the north south from Springfield all the way up to Brattleboro need to be rebuilt. The line should be seen as part of the Northern New England High Speed Rail corridor and Upgrades as such all the way to Montreal. The MassDOT did rebuild the track a while back, but it’s mostly single track and I think it was a bit of an oversight to not double track it. It should be 125 mph at least or 150 mph ideally double track all the way through New Haven (since that’s on the same line) and to Montreal.

North Adams actually may get trains in well a decade at this pace tbh lol. The state finished the Northern Tier Rail Study recently and it’s calling for 5 trains a day with North Adams as the terminus. I think it’s a great idea, it won’t be a dedicated high speed rail line, but if done properly the first time, should be a great way of getting around. I’d ultimately like to see it link up to Albany as well, I am not too sure on the feasibility of it.

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9Z7EErh9Et0y0Yjt98A4 t1_jd96u7y wrote

Reply to comment by alexandercecil in They’ve Been Warned: Attorney General Says Suburbs ‘Must Comply’ With Transit-Oriented Housing Law by psychothumbs

>I apologize, but I really do not want to get into the exact town I live in. I do not mean to be rude or stifle discussion, but I am a volunteer elected official in my town. Many people in this post seem to have a lot of vitriol on this topic. I am not comfortable doxxing myself at that level. I have shared more than I normally might in this circumstance because I feel that the discussion is important for all of us to be having.

Fair enough. Please understand I mean this in a sincerely polite way, but NIMBYs have been caught exaggerating, if not straight up lying about, such concerns so many, many times in past campaigns to stifle much needed development and it's really hard for me to extend much generosity when it comes to such claims. Maybe it's true in your town's case that further development would propose near insurmountable challenges that should merit special exemption, but you'll forgive me if I have my doubts.

>In terms of water and sewer alone, my town cannot support this level of development. We literally cannot just choose to spend money and increase our capacity. The public water and sewer services in my town are separate entities from the town government. This is more common than people might realize in Massachusetts, though it is not the way the majority of municipalities are structured. Even if our sewer commission was willing to increase services, which they might be willing to do, they lease capacity from one or more adjacent municipalities since we do not have the density and demand to support a treatment plant. These municipalities are not looking to lease us more of their limited supply. Could this legislation force us to build a sewer processing plant for several million dollars that can only be used by a comparatively small number of people? It may. Again, the full repercussions are not yet known because the legislation is not as clear as it might seem.

Seems like a legit concern. The state legislation should be persuaded to make sure to hit these utility providers with their big anti-Nimby stick too to make sure they do their part to accommodate expansion. I'm sure the Big Bad state has enough energy to slap around any utility providers that cause problems. This seems like a far more fruitful avenue than trying to lobby to prevent all development, because the insane housing shortage is going to make such positions increasingly untenable. I imagine it's easier to influence such policies if a town has earned a reputation of dealing with this dire matter in good faith rather than those that reflexively oppose any development. Now is a great time to get on the winning team and secure some influence to steer policy.

>In addition, the increased housing as specified by this legislation could cause a double-digit percentage increase to our town's population. Our school, fire, and police services are at capacity. Our budget is tight enough that our debt needs are planned out and maxed for many years in future. We cannot add capacity without new infrastructure.

sounds like your town needs to reassess their budget, perhaps including taxes. A growing town means growing expenses, but also growing amenities that justify a tax hike. People who want to live in dirt cheap, rural areas always have the option to move to more remote, out of demand areas. Populations grow, the remote community of yesteryear become outer neighborhoods of a growing nearby metro. Such is life, nothing is forever.

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Hoosac_Love t1_jd95qyn wrote

Reply to comment by Alluminatus in East West Rail Commission by Alluminatus

Wmass track are awful often running transit on freight rails slowing to 10,20MPH

I did the Southbound to DC to see my sister some years back and in Millers falls it slows to 10 MPH.It's 5 and a half hours from Greenfield,MA to Newark N.J and then three hours from Newark to Baltimore.

I'd like to see a passenger train in North Adams but doubting that

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Jew-betcha t1_jd95j0a wrote

Reply to This idea of building outdoor malls with a parking area in the middle by Sayoria

Eh it's just a return to 50s style architecture, and I like open air malls, when they're not built on land that could be easily used for more useful or beneficial things like affordable housing. They remind me a bit of where I lived for a couple years in WA, where the only real indoor mall was tiny & everyone went to the outdoor mall that hasn't significantly changed since the 1950s instead bc they just had more. It's near the Hanford site & the whole place sort of advertises itself as a "nuke town" so the whole thing felt very atompunk/retrofuturist.

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Hilarias_Glucose_Cup t1_jd951ir wrote

Reply to One lingering thought on all the upheaval... by caminandoennubes

If you have ever dug into the world of Reddit super mods none of the behavior this person engaged in would be the least bit surprising. It’s happened over and over again with mods on most of the top level subs. Many of the dog walkers are whacky. As an example, I got banned by the Boston subreddit mods this week for making this same point on the r/subredditdrama post about Linux.

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alexandercecil t1_jd94oph wrote

Reply to comment by Doctrina_Stabilitas in They’ve Been Warned: Attorney General Says Suburbs ‘Must Comply’ With Transit-Oriented Housing Law by psychothumbs

This is interesting. Thank you for sharing! I skimmed the WBUR article but have not had the time to drive into the study it cites. I plan to do that. If the study matched the conditions in my town, and if our own budget can verify this is true with some drilling, then it changes some aspects of the equation for development in general.

Thanks again!

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