Comments on: Near Everything, Yet Close to Nothing

By: jeff

jeff — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:01:20 +0000

You need a scooter. Although in this weather, scootering is a bit cold.

By: Will

Will — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:30:26 +0000

I felt exactly the same way in Roslindale during my life there. Public transportation was virtually out of the question and a car was an absolute necessity.

May I suggest an alternate route–longer but assuredly faster. You’re very close to route 16. Take it west to Alewife, then the Fresh Pond Parkway to Memorial Drive heading east. Take the Kendall Square Exit, the one I used to get to my MIT office. You’re something like five blocks from the Kendall Cinema that way.

By: mindy

mindy — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:41:50 +0000

And that is why I live in Arlington!

By: snarl

snarl — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:24:21 +0000

Oh, I saw “Be Kind, Rewind.” It was pretty funny and clever (very engaging visually, quite surreal). Plus, I find something oddly appealing about Jack Black. I always have.

As for Somerville. I didn’t take McGrath. The route with least mileage (per my GPS) was to find my way to Beacon Street at Porter Square and go straight into Kendall Square from there. In the future, I’m toying with popping onto Route 93 South and getting off near Sullivan Square, and then taking side streets.

It’s just so funny living in Somerville (or the Boston area, in general) that often the most direct route south shows you going north for a bit on the GPS. There are so few straight lines.

By: Lise

Lise — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:18:05 +0000

What movie did you see? BTW, were you trying to take (or run along) McGrath Highway? I think driving through the streets kind of directly towards the river usually doesn’t take too long, to get from where you are to Kendall. At least Kendall garage is right there & ridiculously cheap if you go to a movie.

By: Fred

Fred — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:08:19 +0000

Well, the solution to MUCH of Somerville is Haussmann-ian: flatten it and lay out better streets!

The more pragmatic solution, of course, is to suggest maybe getting a bike if you don’t already have one: small, flexible, lightweight semifast transport – ideally suited to a well-positioned but gridlocked and poorly-served-by-public-transit city (once you’re on a bus, it’s stuck in the same traffic hell). Just a thought…