Feedback on Responses to the Survey Question

COLIN:
Understanding one's background and knowing the place of raise is very important because the character and personality of an idividual can be shaped by the events, activities and even the phyical conditions of that environment. I believe Colin did answer my question successfuly. The story about how he never fully enjoyed growing up in a small town in New Hampshire because of the unpredictable events that usually happens in a small community. People knows everyone and things like gossip can be common to see in a small group. He also explained how does the same place today seems different and as an adult. In my past I have also had places like that. Some I didn't like when growing up and today I do, others I did like and today i don't. My gramparent House was a good example. Growing up, I spent many Summers at their house. I love to stay there for weeks and see all my causins. As a kid, staying there was always happy and my grama used to cook a lot of meals. As I got older and became more involved with work and moved further away, my visits there became very seldom. As I got older I began to realize that so did my gramparents. Things change around the house in the physical and social aspect that made me not liking going there anymore. Very Good!


MATT:
I really like Matt's answer. His story of how living in Lincoln was very positive to him. I can see how living in a suburban town can differ from the city. Growing up in a quiet zone with houses spaced apart can be sometimes exciting, specialy for a young kid that enjoys playing in the woods. Growing up everything change, and we have to adjust to the places life takes as an adult. I too have my memories from growing up. I spent 7 years of my childhood living on a condo unit with my sister and parents in a suburban town of Sao Paulo, Brazil. There I cultivated many friends, which I did see them almost every day. Living on a condo of almost 500 units on a woody area, I knew a lot of people and as a kid I did too enjoyed playing paitball with my friends. That was just one things we loved to do! Today, my life is in the city and my woody grounds are the highway!


NANCY:
Nancy gave a good example of a positive and negative feeling about her growing up place. She mentioned ho much did she like to live in Long Island in new York and that she enjoyed the open aspect of the ocean landscape. She says the ocean was a place for her to get away from everything and if she didn't have lived close to the ocean she would not have a place to get away. She also gives an example of how, at the same time, never did enjoyed living in the house settings of her neighborhood becouse of the way it was planned. She felt lock down for the square shaped of the house she grew up and how the landscape was most likely ignored. Thanks for you answer Nancy!


SARA:
Sara's love for the trees has certainly positively impacted her growing up. Because of her interest in the, presumably the only tree near her house, as a kid she became facinated but the physical aspect and characteristics of that natural tall element, that today she expresses it as an influencial factor to her personaly as an adult. Good answer!


SUSAN:
I love Susa's story about how the house where she grew up on the city was a happy place with a playgroung and that she used to pick up fruits from the tree near by her house with her childhood friends. She continues saying how it was a happy place but as an adult she no longer sees her house as a playground. Life events can transform the aspect and feeling of a landscape. Things that you did enjoy in the past can no longer be enjoyable as adults. The passing of someone you love, the chage of neighbors can also affect one's feeling about a certain space. Thanks for sharing you Story Susan!


TED:
Ted's love of nature and fishing has influenced him to became a landscape architect. I can see that by growing up on a place like Maine anyone can be influence by the beauty and natural resource that Maine has to offer. Great answer Ted!

Observations on Newbury Street Parking

The purpose of this assignment was to investigate and observe a particular element on Newbury Street. My part of the project, was to study parking issues on Newbury Street between Mass Avenue and Fairfield Street. To complete the project I needed to investigate issues like, parking pros and cons, how much parking cost? where do people park? Is it efficient? What does it like? etc. This observations were made on a holiday early this week around the hours of 4-6pm. For each block I gave an approximate 40-45 minutes time for this study.

HERE IS MY BRIEF ANALYSIS:

I begin my observations by starting to walk from Fairfield Street toward Mass Avenue. One thing that is inevitable about Newbury Street, and that everyone will agree with me, is that parking can be a serious headache for residents, visitors and commercial vehicles. To start, the scale of the street is too small to host all the vehicles that it attracts every day. For my experience as a long time street parking user at Newbury Street, there are days of the week and certain hours of the day that parking becomes almost impossible.

During the week, after 4 pm parking space becomes more difficult to find by the hour. One needs to be persistent and go around the block a few times before they find a parking space.

Some of the first issues I observed was that is very common to see double parking in the street. Usually it is a vehicle waiting for a parking space or a quick drop off. For the most part of the day, parking takes the entire block leaving no space go empty in the block. Because parking space is very hard to get, double parking is certainly thus it creates traffic jams in the street. At times, a particular vehicle can take about 15 minutes to cross 3 blocks alone. That is how bad traffic gets.








However this double parking happens quite often, it is illegal and drivers are always on alert for parking and police officers to avoid a ticket.

Another issue I notice on Newbury Street parking, since all three blocks length differs from one another, the amount of parking space availability also change between them. For instance, between Fairfiel Street and Gloucester Street, the block can only hold about 51 parking spaces. Between Gloucester Street and Hereford Street the block is shorter thus fits only about 36 cars between both sides. Between Hereford and Mass avenue however, the block is longer thus fitting the most amount of cars (about 50-60), but parking can be quite competitive with all the commercial trucks and valet.

Parking space is not divided neither painted on the pavement, so the way it goes is, each block will fit as much cars it can.






Because street parking is shared between visitors, residents and commercial vehicles, depending on the time and day of the week, it can creates another problem. Parking is already limited and by having to divide between three different uses makes it harder. Another factor about parking, is that fire hydrants are installed on the right side of every block. Fire hydrants are important for the city, but it takes from parking. You can also find in the sidewalks is the parking electronic meters for making parking payments.

THE FOLLOWING DIAGRAMS SHOWS HOW EACH BLOCK LOOKS LIKE:

New Bury Street Block Between Fairfield Street and Gloucester Street:

Street Lenght = 506.74 Ft




New Bury Street Block Between Gloucester Street and Hereford Street:

Street Lenght = 373.48 Ft




New Bury Street Block Between hereford Street and Mass Avenue:

Street Lenght = 652.03 Ft




While parking payments method is in still transition from quater meter to electronic meter, Newbury Street among a few others in the Backbay, was one of the first to adopt the eletronic payment system. With the eletronic payment system, in my opinion, cars no longer have a specifield parking space in the street. Now street blocks can fit as much cars is possible. A good example of that is Fairfield Street, a perpendicular street to Newbury Street. It still uses the old quater methods.






Because every block vary from one to the other in physical and usage context, parking spaces are limited for the public. Street parking are necessary to be shared between the local business and residents. Also, a couple of other factors that takes a parking space from the public are fire hydrants and handcap parking space. I Notice however, that fire hydrants are only in one side of the street and is always on the right side of the street going west.






I believe that an urban street like Newbury needs to provide parkings space for all different usages, creating a solution for this problem is not part of this research and documentation.

STREET PARKING COSTS AND PAYMENT METHOD:

Street parking is calculated by the minutes and the hours that one use as parking space. Drivers are charged $.25 per 12 minutes adding a total max of 2 hours per parking space ($1.25 for aan hour, $2.50 for twoo hours). Meter payments are control by parking officers that routinaly circulate the block to verify that each car has a sticker on the window as proof of payment. If drivers don't renew of remove their cars fom the space, the are subjected to a parking thicket in the amount of $25.00 per infraction. Now with the electronic payment methods, visitors can easy purchase their tickect using their credit cards or cask.



COMMERCIAL USE BETWEEN HEREFORD AND MASS AVE:






Commercial trucks and vans are very regular at Newbury Street betwen Hereford St and Mass Avenue. Specialy in the left side of the street adjancent to the retail stores and restaurants. Newbury Street is always a fun subject to study. The street provides a diverity in all physical context and social aspects. I have enjoyed doing this research!