Call the Board of Health, they can issue an order for the landlord to address the infestation - and there's big enough fines attached to noncompliance, that the landlord might just be prompted to take action.

Well, I've never gone to the ISG; I guess I'll have to correct that someday. :)

Even if not an Art person, there's plenty to see in the MFA too - statues & other relics from Antiquity.

Bring it to a pharmacy, they'll take care of proper disposal for you.

I'm deeply sorry for your loss; my own mother passed away in early June, so I know your pain.

On the one hand, I was thinking that maybe despite relatively high revenue, that those towns might be underspending on their public schools.

Or, it's also possible that the money being spent on the schools, however much it is, just is not being spent wisely or effectively.

...

For example, I went to HS in Dracut, and while I was there, the athletic teams got a larger chunk of the school's budget than some entire academic departments.

... or maybe it's an indication that schools are poorly rated for reasons other than their town's available funds to pay for said schools?

What's their per-student spending look like?

>who would ride one that far?

You might be surprised. I've done a 73-mile round trip, from Dracut to Boston and back, in a single day. No particular reason, except to prove I could (the first time) and because why not (the second time). :)

Not on a Blue Bike, but not on a particularly pricey/nice bike either. Just a cheap-ass Schwinn Suburban.

If they're not from Massachusetts ... they may not.

Most of the U.S. does not use or have rotaries. :)

That's the gimmick of Tipping, at least for full-service restaurants: the actual cost of the food is obscured by the fact that the menu lists only the pre-tip price.

$20 steak? No, really it's $24. If you don't tip that extra $4, honestly you're being a jerk, to the server and maybe the kitchen staff as well. Meanwhile, the owner gets to pay the server a lower hourly wage, because theoretically everyone leaves that extra 20%.

If Massachusetts abolished tipping, and the lower tipped minimum wage, instead (somehow!) mandating that the tip be included right in the menu price ... you'd see those menu prices go up between 20% and 25% literally overnight.

Private property, and as long as the dog is not a service animal, it is entirely at the discretion of the property owner, or their designated representative (see: manager) whether or not dogs (cats, birds, iguana, whatever) are welcome or unwelcome.

I'm sure there;s more to it than just number of dispatchers.

The MBTA has been deferring critical maintenance for too long. :(

The best neighborhood, is one you can afford, paying no more than 1/3 of your gross income towards rent & your commute ...

... so that you can actually put a decent amount into savings, especially tax-deferred retirement accounts. The best time to start saving for retirement is when that date still seems impossibly far away.

Everything else is window dressing.

>almost saying "No no no no" or something.

That's an odd way of spelling "Ho ho ho ho" ... :D

Vagrancy.

I disagree. Motorists operate that way, with the expectation that everyone else is wrapped in the same multiple tons of metal, plastic, and glass with a hundred "spare" horsepower in their back pocket to help get out of the way.

Bicyclists have none of that.

Pedestrians have even less.

>Bikes are not subject to the same rules at all?

Yes, bicycles ARE subject to the same rules in general.

​

>Can use bike lanes, can ride against traffic on many one-way streets, should skip the line at a red light to use the 'bike box', should use right-most lane if not in bike lane or turning, not allowed on highways etc.

There are some bicycle-specific elements to the law, but otherwise yes we do have to follow the same rules.

Use of a bicycle lane is no different in concept from use of an HOV lane, or a Bus-only lane, for example. Use of a bicycle-specific marking (e.g. a bicycle box) is the same sort of thing; you're still obeying traffic control markings - in this case, the paint on the street.

​

>I understand that your intent is good, but treating bikes exactly like cars is a good way to put bikes in danger. Bikes shouldn't have to be exactly like cars to use the road.

Tell it to the Massachusetts Legislature. They make the laws, not I.

​

​

>As for rules of the road -- are you as upset by drivers speeding?

FUCK, YES!!

And running red lights and stop signs, too.

As a cyclist by preference (I have no car, no license, and no desire for either) ... cyclists who behave that way immensely infuriate me. Because: they give the majority of us who obey traffic laws a bad name as a group.

...

As for making a similar rule: there is no need. A bicycle on the road is subject to all of the same rules as a car or truck. No exceptions, no excuses. So the rule that says a motorist has to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk? Also says a bicycle rider has to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk.

We are supposed to obey every light, every sign, every road marking, every last niggling little rule, the same as motorists are supposed ro.

And most of us do, at least as much as car and truck drivers do. :)

Look, I know you meant this as a joke, but ... as someone who doesn't drive, who walks or bicycles everywhere ... this kind of stuff is infuriating AND ACTUALLY DOES HAPPEN. Behavior like that has directly threatened my life more than a handful of times.

So, please. Not even in jest.

I could get behind something like this ... if it had provisions for expanding to include other counties along the way.

Whether it was multi-state, or just Massachusetts: I'd want there to be a mechanism for other counties to opt in and join the system.

And as part of that growth, I'd like to see some uniformity on several fronts, across the entire system. Fares, levels of service, interoperability of fare cards (which does somewhat exist currently: I use a Charlie card up here in the Lowell Regional Transit Authority, right now), signage, and so on.

I want it to be relatively seamless to cross the entire system.

And ideally, I want the busses, trains, trams/streetcars, and whatever else to run so frequently I never need to look at a schedule. :)

>I would take a realistic solution over thinking that the state is going to change its entire way of life in the next hundred years, sorry.

You mean like how we did, when we turned the whole state into a car-centric sea of asphalt parking lots?

If anyone here has been less than genuine, it is you. Good riddance.

>I agree in principal but the MBTA is so organizationally broken and seemingly incapable of being fixed, there might not be a better option.

Because it was set up that way.

​

>smaller transit departments

IOW, further balkanize the system. This is a bad idea. Right now, you could go from Norfolk to Manchester-by-the-Sea, just within the MBTA's core service area. It's all one system; the fares are consistent across the whole thing, as are policies and rules that passengers must adhere to.

Meanwhile, out here, away from the MBTA?

To get from, say, North Adams down to, oh, Chatham?

BRTA, FRTA, PVTA, WRTA, GATRA, and CCRTA ... SIX different transit authorites. Six different fare systems; six different sets of rules; six different web pages to find your way around when looking for schedules.

You absolutely do not want to do that to the MBTA's service area.

...

Also, trust me on this: even if you did it, and balkanized the whole thing anyway? SERVICE WOULD NOT IMPROVE ... it would get worse. I've lived with that worse, all my life ... and the LRTA (Lowell Regional Transit Authority) SUCKS BALLS, and makes the MBTA look like a continuous orgasm of delight and joy by comparison.

>they need ticket sales to provide services.

Except, really no they do not. They need funding ... and there's nothing saying that funding must come from ticket sales .... except, well, you, at hte moment.

If the State decided to throw $3B at public transit ($1B at the MBTA for non-commuter-rail use, $1B making the commuter rail a true, regional / statewide network, and another $1B to improve public transit outside the MBTA's service area) ...? Once service improvements actually happened, and increased ridership ... fares could be REDUCED. Possibly even eliminated altogether.

​

>You can’t demand what you aren’t willing to pay for.

I want my tax dollars to pay for a statewide transit authority, with a statewide system of public transit.

​

>It’s fair for riders to pay more for the T, especially since the whole state does not get to use the T.

And do you know why they don't get to use it? Because we balkanized the f_cking system. Because we've got dozens of little penny-packet "regional transit authorities" rather than a single entire-State transit authority.

Build out the commuter rail to be a true regional rail system. Take all those penny-packet RTAs under a single umbrella, standardize fares and levels of service across the entire state. Make sure there's good connectivity across the entire system. Make it so you can go from North Adams to Chatham on public transit, without it being a multiday odyssey involving twenty or more RTAs.

Most of those towns and cities have existing Transit Authorities.

Merging them under a single umbrella, statewide so that they had a uniform budget, uniform standards, a uniform fleet of vehicles (and just like toilet paper, if you buy busses in bulk, each one is cheaper than if you buy them one at a time). Apportion the state money available based on both population, and level of service. Let those various towns then pour some of their own money in to the LOCAL system if they choose.

Service literally everywhere would improve.

>The state will probably never fund them at a level where they don’t need to depend on ridership

Actually, they already do provide more funds than ridership does. Of their roughly $2B annual operating budget? Less than 1/3 comes from fares ... the other 2/3 come from other sources, primarily tax dollars.