✨ Reimagine Elm Street! ✨ Elmway Action Group Kickoff - Monday!

[Joel Paul]

Hey Davis Square Neighbors!

Ready to make Elm Street amazing? Join the Elmway Action Group kickoff next Monday (02/24), 4:30-6:00PM (right before our regular meeting) at the West Somerville Library (small meeting room, downstairs).

We'll brainstorm short-term wins (open streets!), long-term dreams (pedestrian plaza!), and how to work with the city on things like curb use changes. This is a collaborative, fun effort where everyone can contribute ideas and even vote on concepts!

Get your creative juices flowing:

• Option 1 (Visual): Snap a photo of your favorite spot on Elm Street – or a spot you think could be improved – and bring it to the meeting to share!
• Option 2 (Brainstorming): Come prepared with three wild and wacky ideas for improving Elm Street. No idea is too crazy!
• Option 3 (Community Focus): Talk to one neighbor or friend about what they'd like to see on Elm Street and bring their feedback to the meeting.

RSVP by Friday (02/21) so we can get a headcount. Let's make Elm Street shine! ✨

A street transformation in Vienna, for inspiration:

Best,

--

Joel Paul

508.280.2718

jpau...@gmail.com

joelpaul.me

~ Be Kind, Stay Curious ~

[Zachary Yaro]

I can't make it to a meeting at that time, but excited to hear what comes out of it!

Before we started forming the DSNC, and at some early DSNC meetings, I explored some ideas that may fit in with the “short-term wins”:

• Definitely doable
• Restripe Elm for 1 traffic lane.
• As I understand, the city already wants this.
• Organize more events that close Elm to traffic and invite Davis Square businesses to set up in the street.
• Could tie in with Elaine's block party ideas!
• Maybe doable
• (Using the space from formally making Elm 1 lane) Move all the parking to the west side, and make the east side a permanent pedestrian area (& space for dining, bike racks, etc.) à la Phillips Square in Chinatown.
• Effectively extend the closed slip lane from Highland into a street-long pedestrian area.
• Add a new double-wide crosswalk between Sakura (O Ginger) and Davis Square Plaza.
• If it wouldn't ruin drainage, make it a raised crossing!
• This seemed more doable when we were still in the middle of the city redoing the sidewalks; we may have missed the boat.
• Maybe maybe
• Raise the intersections at Chester and Bowers/Grove (and the new crossing to Davis Square Plaza).
• If we can't get the political will for a whole raised block from Day St. to Cutter/Russell, but we can get this as a compromise, raised intersections would be a traffic calming measure, add the missing crosswalk leg, and address the drainage issues at the existing curb cuts.

These were some rough mock-ups I did of that “quick build” relayout of Elm St. and the new crosswalk:

On a tangentially related note, does anyone know any good software for drawing sky-view mock-ups of new street layouts?  Streetmix is great for cross sections, but for top views, I have only ever created the graphics from scratch 😕

Best,

Zachary Yaro

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[Christopher Beland]

BTW, this project was mentioned at the last City Council meeting, and
was referred to the Traffic and Parking Committee. It looks like it's
not scheduled to be discussed at the next committee meeting, though. If
I understood correctly, Mobility Division staff have been directed to
perform a feasibility study.

FTR, you can find the calendar for City Council and committee meetings
at:
https://somervillema.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

and the Mobility Division at:
https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/ospcd/mobility

For folks that don't already know, this was proposed in the draft Davis
Square Commercial Area Plan (p. 75-77):
https://voice.somervillema.gov/davis-square

-B.

[Christopher Beland]

Ah, actually I heard that slightly wrong; the Traffic and Parking
Committee item was to request an update on this project from the
mayor's office. That has happened; this is the reply I found in
Legistar:

>>
Director Rawson mentioned that staff are aligning with feedback and
councilor requests. During special events, buses are diverted and
general traffic is a major consideration. The last few blocks of
Highland Ave might need to be converted to 2-way traffic, with
signalized intersections being part of the equation. Mobility staff is
working with small businesses and residents regarding logistics for
deliveries. Over the net couple of months, Mobility staff will prepare
a feasibility plan. Councilor Wilson asked for the term related to a
particular one-way traffic safety issue and Director Rawson explained
it is called a “double threat crash”, where one vehicle stops for a
pedestrian and another does not. He noted that the city has removed
surplus traffic lanes to mitigate this risk.
<<

-B.

[Christopher Beland]

Will you be at the Monday meeting? I'd like to hear more about your
concerns and how the city could accommodate your business needs.

I'm not sure any parking needs to be removed to make Highland two-way,
but if not it looks like it would need to be made one lane in each
direction. The official plans I linked to say we're *supposed* to be
reducing the amount of available parking in order to discourage
driving, but also say that parking lots in Davis are under-utilized.

-B.

[Christopher Beland]

I just found a report from some Tufts graduate students which
recommends pedestrianizing Elm Street on the weekends; it has some
helpful post-pandemic statistics:

https://sass-somerville.org/downloads/SASS_Final_Deliverable.pdf

It was produced in partnership with Somerville Alliance for Safe
Streets, an NGO that might be interested in collaborating with DSNC on
this project:

https://sass-somerville.org/index.php/who-is-sass/

[Stephanie Galaitsi]

Hello! I was the SASS representative that supervised this project with the Tufts students. We are definitely still very invested in any discussions about giving more space to people in Davis Square, which I've heard is "going to happen" but no one has said when. I'm sorry I can't make the meeting tonight (I'm actually living abroad until June), but please keep me in the loop for any future events.

I wanted to share this episode of the Somerville Wire discussing pedestrianizing Elm St (from 2021):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAC81lXLq-Q.

If I remember correctly, this is the clip where Jack Connelly says that people are going to be upset that they can't get a parking space on Elm, but (he reminds us), no one driving to Davis Square is going to reasonably assume they'll find a parking space on [this section of] Elm anyway - you're going to have to park somewhere further away. I thought this was a pretty sensible response about the parking issue on Elm. 

But of course the issues with the bus stop and handicapped parking are very salient. I'd also love to know what the plan would be for bicyclists, since we still don't have a good route for the community path to go through Davis Square.

Davis Now had a draft of what a pedestrianized Davis Square could look like, but I'm having trouble finding their website. Are they still an organization? 

There have been several conversations about pedestrianizing Davis in the Somerville Facebook group, might be worth looking at.

I hope the meeting goes well today, and let me know what role you see for SASS to play, I can pass it along to the Steering Committee.

Stephanie

[mem...@gmail.com]

For those interested in pedestrianizing Elm Street, here is a conversation with Joe Lynch regarding the considerations and complexity from a licensing standpoint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-tACdXzxaQ

Somerville Live Wire: Episode 11 — How can we make Elm Street pedestrian only?

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[Willie Burnley Jr]

We actually had a discussion about this on the council last month because I put forward an order asking about the feasibility of pedestrianizing Elm St for limited periods of time. Director Rawson gave us some insights into the traffic impacts of that and assured us that they would come back to the council in a few months with a feasibility plan. I will be following up.

You can read the minutes below and find the video here https://somervillema.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1272849&GUID=CF8E86B1-E3E6-4E08-B510-132DCF321850&Search=

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/CABqVqBZ3q2g%2BYmRCox1TND8_fWA8dBFzdtvKT7YUnDMKT5Z-xQ%40mail.gmail.com.