The Salem News follows up on yesterday’s petition drive at Salem Depot. Mayor Driscoll expands on one detail of the project I found interesting:
The mayor has formed a committee to explore a possible public-private partnership and to try to push Salem to the head of the long line of communities hoping for more train parking.
Plans for a new station have changed slightly, the mayor said late yesterday. Officials are now looking at a smaller building that would cost less to build but still provide close to the 1,000 spaces Salem officials want. [emphasis added] It would be built on a site that would not include city property, the mayor said.
I don’t much care about the specific number of parking spaces, indeed I don’t drive at all so I would not care, except for the great need that the courthouse already poses (for the past 20 years, not just the new facility.)
But I want to see a sheltered platform. And food service and convenience stores as you find at North Station and Government Center. Handicapped access that isn’t a rotting ramp. And the end of those f---ing stairs!
I want our train station something that’s done right, a rare government project that makes Salem better than it was before it. A facility that commuters and visitors to our city can be proud of.
We may have budget concerns but we must not compromise on that idea. We’ve done that too often in the past.
From the comments in the Salem News, it’s apparent that in our cynical state, we can’t or don’t dare to even see that little distance ahead. To borrow from Deval Patrick, “Together We Can’t.”
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