Veritas et Venustas

Main Street Massacree Redux*

A late 19th century photo of Main Street and Railroad Street in Great Barrington. Note that the trees are taller than the buildings - 306 Main Street, the brick building in the photo, still exists. It is approximately the height of the other loft buildings now on Main Street.That's the way Main Street should be, but most of the trees recommended by massDOT will never approach that size. Many were small ornamentals, planted far apart. (Click on the photo for a larger view)

A COMMENT from me @ Streetsblog, responding to a resident of Great Barrington,

Yes, you're right. The Town Board members are all trying to do what's best for the town. I met with one of them and had a great conversation.

The first point is that they are taking advice from professionals who have a professional bias towards cutting down old trees and replacing them with different trees. Their criteria for what to do is not based on placemaking. The Town Board wants Main Street to be the best place it can be, but there is a natural tendency to trust the professionals advising you.

If you understand that your consultants are giving you advice based on criteria that leads to different results than the ones you want, then your decisions can change.

Second, Departments of Transportation all across the country have developed a phenomenal ability to procure funding and to spend it as they want. Witness the Big Dig. Main Street is not the Big Dig, but neither is it the best way to spend money on the improvement of Main Street. And we are in a time when Massachusetts is short of money.

For a traditional New Englander, the sidewalks ain't broke. The mature trees are important for the economic well being of the Main Street merchants (Railroad Street doesn't need trees, because it is much narrower and a well-contained, comfortable space) and for the creation of a place where citizens want to gather. With different priorities than massDOT's, the replacement trees could be phased in over time.

This isn't an attack on Great Barrington. It's an appreciation of the virtues of its Main Street from someone who has dealt with DOTs all of the country. And one thing I've heard from people in Great Barrington is how much they dislike massDOT's work in other parts of the state. Lenox comes up a lot, and now there's an uproar on Martha's Vineyard, now that they see the results.

John

NEW! Photos of MassDOT work in Millers Falls, Montague, Massachusetts

MassDOT Mistake: How Not to Rebuild Main Street, Streetsblog
The MassDOT chainsaw massacre, Better! Cities & Towns
A Main Street Is A Terrible Thing To Waste, Veritas et Venustas

* The Alice's Restaurant Massacree began at a Thanksgiving dinner at Alice's house in Great Barrington. Her restaurant was in Stockbridge, just a half a mile from the railroad tracks.

AN HISTORIC photo of Main Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. There is a larger version here, along with archival information.

A Main Street Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

I HAVE a guest piece in the Berkshire Record this week on massDOT's $4.8 million Main Street "Reconstruction" in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The article itself is online at Better! Cities & Towns and at Streetsblog Capitol Hill. Here are some extra photos and captions:

A SIDEWALK on the central block in massDOT's Main Street Reconstruction Project in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Studies have shown that mature trees have economic value for the merchants on retail streets, and the book Principles of Urban Retail says storeowners want passersby to pay attention to their shop windows, not the sidewalks. But the massDOT plan will cut down the existing trees and use formulaic changes to make the sidewalks fancier. The result will be a place where fewer people want to walk and stop.

There is a larger copy of the photo here.


A VIEW of the the central block in massDOT's Main Street Reconstruction Project in Great Barrington, Massachusetts while the Bradford Pear trees were in bloom last April. The wide-angle photo highlights the width of the street, although it is less noticeable to drivers and to pedestrians on the sheltered sidewalks. An old photo of Main Street(below) shows trees tall enough to form a canopy over the street. The current trees were chosen by massDOT in the 1960s. The traditional way to introduce new trees would be to phase them in over time, but massDOT and their consultants prefer trees which never grow very large, to be cut down every 20 to 30 years for new street work.

There is a larger copy of the photo here.

AN EXISTING conditions photo of Main Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts above a CAD rendering showing changes proposed by massDOT as of May 3, 2012. Without the mature trees, the space between the buildings on Main Street is too wide to be a comfortable pedestrian space, and the sidewalks have lost their tree canopy and shelter from the sun. Studies have shown that the brick crosswalks are less visible and therefore more dangerous at night and in the rain than traditional striped crossings. The brick crosswalks and the grass plantings draw attention to themselves rather than the beauty of the street. Another before and after view can be seen on the town website.

The Town of Great Barrington has larger versions on their website, along with another pair showing Before & After at the other end of the block, by Rubiner's.

AN HISTORIC photo of Main Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. There is a larger version here, along with archival information.

After the jump, an historic view of South Main Street and another sidwalk view.

A POSTCARD showing South Main Street before it became a modern auto sewer. There is archival information on Wikipedia.

There is a larger version here.

John Massengale, "The MassDOT Chainsaw Massacre," Better! Cities & Towns
John Massengale, "MassDOT Mistake, How Not To Rebuild Main Street," Streetsblog Capitol Hill