Sign of the (Halloween) Season

The carnival next door to SATV started going up this morning.

Sidewalk Meeting Set

The City Council Committee of the Whole will review the sidewalk ordinances tomorrow (Thursday, October 15th) at 7 PM, Council chambers.  Several of us of the Commission on Disabilities will be there.

Not coincidentally, Tavern in the Square has started construction of their outdoor seating area.  That would be a done deal.  But the Commission will work to make sure it doesn’t affect sidewalk access elsewhere downtown.

Not Thinking Pink: Sentimentalizing Illness

This week’s Salem Gazette was printed on pink paper to promote breast cancer research.  In October, everything is pink, as corporations sprout pink ribbons, pledging money to breast cancer research.

Not everyone likes pink.  Quoting from “Sick of Pink”:

When Kim Zielinski was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 at the age of 33, well-meaning friends inundated her with products bearing a little pink ribbon. Each product’s maker promised a cut of the sales price to a breast cancer charity, and these friends felt they were supporting the cause and, by association, Zielinski. A petite brunette who’s now 35, she was enormously grateful for the millions of dollars that these pink-ribbon products direct each year to charities that fund breast cancer research and education.

But it wasn’t long before she got a little sick of the pink. “I felt kind of hateful,” says the insurance company sales manager who lives in Charlestown. “I was like, ‘What makes you think I like pink now?’

“I think that the pink ribbon, as a symbol, tends to pretty up what is a pretty crappy disease. But a pink ribbon is easier to look at than the disease itself.”

The marketing of breast cancer disturbs me.  We’ve been marketing illness and disabilities for a long time.  The cycle usually goes something like the following.

1. Someone has a disease, a disability or an illness.
2. They’re at least cute, photogenic, or articulate.  They’re probably Caucasian, too.
3. A disease-of-the-week movie gets made (remember those?), or an article in People, or the morning entertainment shows do a feature.
4. A charity is formed to get money for research or “awareness”, the latter is often just a celebrity showing up at a fundraiser or on TV.
5. Rinse and repeat

There have been many such cycles for many illnesses and conditions, some more “successful” than others.  The Susan G. Komen For the Cure Foundation is amongst the most visible for any disease.

The foundation’s website doesn’t really tell us much about Ms. Komen:

Susan G. Komen fought breast cancer with her heart, body and soul. Throughout her diagnosis, treatments, and endless days in the hospital, she spent her time thinking of ways to make life better for other women battling breast cancer instead of worrying about her own situation. That concern for others continued even as Susan neared the end of her fight. Moved by Susan’s compassion for others and committed to making a difference, Nancy G. Brinker promised her sister that she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever.

So, Ms. Komen got breast cancer and died.  So do many other women (and sometimes men).  Did Komen die so she could have a foundation, to be elevated to Heaven, to have a cruel disease and a hard ending?  Did she die to be sentimentalized?

Here’s a conversation in the near future that I immediately imagined:

A patient waits, alone, in her doctor’s office.  She’s terrified.  She got The Call or The Letter and is waiting for news.  News she doesn’t want to hear but can’t avoid.

The doctor enters.  “Good morning, Ms. Jones.  I’m sorry to tell you that your breast biopsy tested positive.”

“I have cancer?”

“Yes, but it’s not bad news.  I’m working with a foundation to fund your treatment and they agree you’re an excellent candidate.”

“You mean remission?”

“No.  You might not make it.  But it’ll be a good story and a great PR campaign.  We might be able to get money for your family, but you’ll need to work with us.”

Or this office visit elsewhere on the same day.  A patient, man or woman, has also gotten their same bad news.   The doctor is more blunt:

“I’m sorry.  I can’t help you.  I wish I could but the PR on your condition isn’t favorable.  Face it, Mr. Jones, most people think your colon cancer is your own fault.  Don’t be mad at me, it’s what my funding sources say.

People who have needed transplants or experimental treatments have often had to play the PR game to get money for treatment.  Bake sales, raffles, and telethons.

Increasingly, ordinary people with “ordinary” medical conditions have had to play the same game.  They have to hold raffles and bake sales for their care, too.  They will be judged.  They will have to air their complete medical histories to the world, hoping that they and their loved ones will be worthy of charity, hoping against hope that some celebrity gets their condition so they’ll get noticed.

But even this can backfire.  Over the summer, Farrah Fawcett died of cancer.  When a celebrity gets sick, many people idealize what happens.  Slate quotes a fan:

When Fawcett announced her apparent cure in 2007, one writer wished that her mother, who had died of cancer, "had half of the courage and fight that Farrah has." These war metaphors, which pervade the coverage of celebrity cancer cases, perpetuate the false notion that survival is directly related to how hard the patient tries to live.

That’s a terrible remark.  I sincerely hope that person hated her mother, because that is not something said or meant out of affection.

My own mom died of complications from colon cancer and diabetes, and fought to live for the last three years of her life.  She was finally taken down by a hip infection that left her in agony for three weeks.

She just wasn’t sentimentalized like Farrah was.  Ryan O’Neal, a longtime friend of hers, has been quoted a few times after her death.  He hasn’t said much, but reading between the lines, her death was a hard one, as are most cancer deaths.

But we were too busy watching her ascend to Heaven to notice.  I’m not sure if my mom ever made it there.  Colon cancer and diabetes are, after all, our just deserts for not being personally responsible.

At least, they could have a better PR agent.

UPDATE:  Barbara Ehrenreich thinks the same, and doesn’t like pink ribbons either.  (I like Ehrenreich and have read most of her books, and her blog.)

Salem’s Steps of Doom to Disappear?

According to the Salem News, these steps of doom may go away in a few years:  The state is funding the reconstruction of Salem Depot.

I won’t consider this one in the bag until the construction crews show up.  There’s still the meeting tomorrow night, and if it’s anything like the courthouse meeting, we could be at this a while longer.

In the meantime, I’m going to redouble my efforts, with the Commission, to improve pedestrian access on Bridge St. and place talking audible signals at every signaled crossing downtown. 

First Thoughts on the MBTA Garage Proposal

As I mentioned in my last post, the MBTA has released design plans for the new Salem Depot.

Quoting the executive summary, these are the goals and highlights:

The intermodal center design will include 750-900 garage parking spaces, five bus
berths for MBTA buses, drop-off / pick-up parking spaces, taxi parking spaces, covered
storage, enclosed waiting, elevators, and an accessible ramp. The height and massing
of proposed structure will respect the historic context of Salem downtown. Exterior
building materials are anticipated to include masonry and brick in keeping with site
context and existing municipal buildings. All facilities will be designed to meet code
requirements and accessibility guidelines.
Four design options were developed to address the functional needs of Salem Station.

All options include the following features:
Six total parking levels (includes ground and roof levels)
Lower building height on Bridge Street side (4 stories at 44 feet tall)
Median building height on North River side (6 stories at 66 feet tall)
Clear pedestrian connection from Bridge Street to train platform via raised plaza
Additional vehicle ingress/egress from Washington/Bridge Street intersection
Higher grade level floor-to-ceiling height for buses and more natural light
Improved and direct handicapped access to train platform via covered ramp
Safer pedestrian access via dedicated sidewalks on city and river sides
Straight façade on Bridge Street side respects urban character of street
Scalloped façade on North River side breaks up building mass
Express ramps at center of building allow for safe and fast vertical circulation.

I believe the design is a good start.  We have not yet seen any drawings or conceptual views in the context of the existing parking lot, but it appears that the garage won’t impact on the North River vista, at least not any more than the other projects in the area, such as the court complex.

Many people, myself included, had the idea that the garage structure would be built right up to the ramp fronting Bridge St.  In fact, the Commission on Disabilities had debated this point a few years ago, during the first abortive attempt at a new depot design during the Usovicz administration.

Several commissioners had hoped that there would be direct access to the street from the parking garage.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) this isn’t going to be:  Salem owns and will continue to own the crescent of parking spaces just inside the entrance to the station.

So, there will be a pedestrian ramp from Bridge St. to the 2nd level of the new garage, which will pass over the traffic lanes at ground level.  The ramp can be seen in the opening illustration, in several variations;  some open, some enclosed.

Salem has very few enclosed ramps, and those all connect buildings:  The Salem State College Library to Meier Hall (soon to be demolished), the ramp that connects the Davenport building at North Shore Medical Center to Shaugnessy Rehab, and the newest ramp that connects One Salem Green (now owned by Salem Five) to Salem Five’s main building.

This will be the longest ramp of its kind in Salem and the first to pass over a roadway.  Visitors to Boston’s Back Bay may recall the walkway that connects the Prudential to Copley Place over Huntington Ave.  That walkway is not a favorite of many architectural critics.  Unfortunately, the siting of the garage doesn’t leave many options.

There will be a car entrance next to the current pedestrian entrance on Bridge St.  I’m not certain how well that’s going to work out, particularly for courthouse-bound walkers.

I’m particularly concerned about access to the bus terminal portion, since I use that mode very frequently.  This is Option 1:

The bus platform is quite a long ways from the street.  In general I’d like not to have to walk so far to the bus.  On those days that I’ve taken the train in to Boston, I’ve stood on the platform at the very end of the station and wondered out loud if it would be quicker to walk to the Carlton School (visible from the platform!!) to get the train.

I like Option 2A just a bit better:

The bus bays appear a little closer to Bridge St.  Keep in mind, though, that only five of the bays are “live” and take passengers;  the other two are layover berths.

The differences in the other options pertain to where the taxi stand and the kiss-and-ride areas are located;  I have no opinion on those.

On the train platform itself, three options have been presented.  Currently, it is a low-level platform with a mini-high platform at the very end of the track (within sight of Carlton School!)  That is one option.  Another option would be to make the entire platform high-level (as at Newburyport and Central Square) but there is a curve in the track that makes it difficult to get ADA compliance.  The last and preferred option is to make the northern half of the platform high-level and the southern half near Bridge St. low-level as it is now.

There are more considerations that will probably be addressed at the meeting.  Another quote from the executive summary:

The design team will provide precedents for proposed parking facility to further the
development of exterior treatments, planning, operational efficiencies, and architectural
design. Please see Review Draft Memorandum dated 16 August 2009 attached in
Appendix 10.6 for further design discussion from the City of Salem. Planning items to be
further reviewed and developed include:
Security for underside of bridge entering second level of proposed parking facility
Pedestrian access from Federal Street and North Salem neighborhoods
Lobby area for waiting with amenities such as coffee and newspaper vendors
Covered bus loading area
Operational efficiencies to be resolved include:
Pedestrian circulation within garage
Decision for entry/exit to be attended or automated
Determining appropriate number of entry and exit lanes
Improve efficiency in parking layout
On site vehicular, bus, and “kiss and ride” circulation

The City (or at least the mayor) wants an enclosed, heated waiting area.  I’d suggest security for the ramp itself be considered, particularly if it is enclosed.

Construction would be completed in December 2011, two years from now, assuming it takes eight to ten months to complete the environmental permitting. 

This also very much assumes the City and state can go forward without any delays.  

We’ll see this Tuesday.

Morency Manor: Apartment work is over for me

Morency Manor Renovation 2009-10-04 002, originally uploaded by dmoisan.

Five weeks later, the work in my apartment is finally completed. It involved moving a window from one wall facing 10 Federal, to the other wall facing 205 Bridge St. This is done so that a 2nd elevator can be built next to my unit.

It took more time than we were told it would (almost always the way) and the contractors could have communicated with me a little better (name a job with too much communication!) but it was done without much stress.

I'm hoping to document the rest of the project but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to see; the construction site is at an inaccessible corner of the property and foliage is everywhere.

2009 Salem Haunted Happenings Parade

Another great Haunted Happenings parade this year!

SATV will broadcast it live on Channel 3 and on the web; go to their website for a link.