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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I misspoke when Vineet called me last week
about this. It wasn’t Landmarks that blocked it; it was the Back Bay Architectural
District, one of the Historic Districts. The issue was the lawsuit over their
guidelines for placing newsboxes. They advised us to withdraw the application
for installing bike racks until after the suit was decided. Although they said
their policy on sidewalk structures would permit bike racks (as a government
thing rather than a private thing), they feared that permitting them would
undermine their legal argument. I never understood that, but I (stupidly)
agreed to withdraw the application, even though I had already scouted out a
bunch of locations in the <st1:place w:st="on">Back Bay</st1:place>. Then the
next construction season I was scrambling to get the 100 good racks in the
ground before the June 30, 2003 deadline for getting reimbursed by the state –
we had no city money and were relying on a grant that I had wrote in 1996 (long
before being hired by BTD). There were another 100+ rusty racks that were
languishing on the contractor’s lot for lack of about $6,000 (as I
recall) in payment to the manufacturers. The contractor, Safety Last, wouldn’t
pay the manufacturer, which prevented them from being re-coated. Therefore I
had no racks nor time to get permission from the Historic Commission –
besides, the lawsuit wasn’t settled. I did a web search yesterday and
found that it was finally settled in August 2004 (in favor of the city).<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I did put in racks in the few areas that
were not within the Historic District – <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address
w:st="on">Mass Ave</st1:address></st1:Street> between Huntington and Boylston,
and the south side of <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Boylston
Street</st1:address></st1:Street>. The latter ended up being between <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Arlington</st1:place></st1:City> and Boylston
only, because the owners of the Clarendon to Boylston superblock would have
probably physically stopped us from putting them in. I also tried to do the
John Hancock building, but never got final permission. <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address
w:st="on">Copley Square</st1:address></st1:Street> is brick so I couldn’t
do that. The library had already installed some racks, as had the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Prudential</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Anyway, we are looking to get the city to
clarify its secret, unlawful policy that bikes are not permitted to be locked
to public property (does that include bike racks too?) and can be confiscated
at any time without notice. And then maybe they will install some of the free
bike racks that MAPC is offering. Nah, probably they won’t. Hizzoner
hates bicyclists too much. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>--Paul Schimek<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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