Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Cambridge Cafe Blocks Sidewalk, Bike Lane

These images captured on Tuesday September 8, 2009 at about 5:00 PM shows a delightful European style Cambridge MA cafe taking up most of the sidewalk near Porter Square on Mass Avenue. Pedestrians are limited to one person at a time to pass by this enormous structure on the sidewalk. Two images show foliage hanging into the street blocking part of the bicycle lane forcing cyclists to ride nearer to traffic at this very dangerous intersection. On my way home a young man approached me asking "Did you get your picture?" Later that night a suspected employee of this cafe was at my building residence harassing me because of "business reasons." Are Cambridge restaurants out of control or what? This was a clear violation of the MA Civil Rights statute MGL Ch. 265 Sec. 37, and if he was as suspected working also for the police a First Amendment violation. To discourage more revealing photos a suspected associate of the man made threats saying "You will be hit." Are these members of organized crime making threats or police acting like criminals? But in Cambridge and Massachusetts where laws are optional what does that matter? Cambridge won an award for the most walkable city.



This image looks toward Harvard Square at Porter Square.


This image looks toward North Cambridge from Porter Square.








2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.


Patricia

Neighbor Bob said...

I personally like the way this particular arrangement works as a sidewalk cafe option. I had lunch there recently and didn't see any problems with pedestrian traffic or bike traffic. I saw plenty of bicycles go by -- no one seemed bothered. If anything, pedestrians were more protected from traffic. Quite enchanting, really. The proprietors keep it very clean, and from both a sound and visual standpoint it was much better than staring at the trash in the bike lane and hearing nothing but exhaust from the street.