I am a bus or Blue biker so i don't know much about scooters. i do see some folks taking a scooter on Washington St in Somerville. Not sure how far they are going.

Personal assessment: I would be concerned about pavement conditions, there's a lot of construction going on along Washington Street. Not sure how comfortable i would be on a scooter.

On Blue Bike, Washington Street, to me, is a moderately comfortable street. Not totally comfortable but generally okay with very little door zone biking.

>It would be nice if there were bodycams to get a definitive answer but that is being held up at city hall, not the police. It would be nice if there were more tools, like tasers that could’ve been deployed, but again - that’s on city hall.

Man, I didn't know that's where the body cameras stalled out...yeesh

Marc McGovern, a Cambridge city councilor, told MassLive that body cameras have been long supported by both the former and current city police commissioners, the city’s police union and several city councilors.

“Unfortunately, despite agreement, the city has not allocated funds for body cameras, thus there is no body camera footage,” councilman McGovern wrote in a newsletter statement.

Interesting idea! It looks like there are bike lanes the whole way (or bikes can take the lane). That prevents me from having to ride the entire distance. I also don't need to worry about ownership and I could easily take the bus if the weather is lousy. I wonder about vehicle availability, but a quick glance says there are multiple stations within a few blocks of both start and end points.

I wonder how that would compare to an electric kick scooter. The benefit of the scooter is that I can use it to get to/from Oak Grove and less chance of getting sweaty.

I'm sure that cops never killed anyone without a reason. Certainly not in the US.

Yes, I agree. Never stop improving..

But if what the police are saying is true - this may well have been the last remaining option. It would be nice if there were bodycams to get a definitive answer but that is being held up at city hall, not the police. It would be nice if there were more tools, like tasers that could’ve been deployed, but again - that’s on city hall.

The problem I have is that almost everyone is taking this tragedy as an opportunity to push their anti-police agenda. The Muslim Justice League and others are trying to make this a race issue when it’s not. Some City councilors are again using tragedy to shit on police, calling for them to disarm and disband. Councilor Zondervan actually asked why do we need armed police to respond to dangerous calls and that firefighters don’t go into burning buildings with guns. Councilor Azeem asked was it necessary to chase a man who was self harming with a knife. Either these people are out of touch with reality or they just use any tragedy to push their agenda and hope people really aren’t paying attention to the details.

Cambridge looking for new ways to waste government funds, shocking.

Sure, but you need to think bigger picture.

We need to make investments in our society so that the situation you describe doesn't end up happening, and so that we don't get to the point where shooting them is our last remaining option.

The outrage over this is dumb. If an armed person covered in blood isn't listening to reason and charging at you, you'd shoot them too if you had a gun. I understand that people want somewhere to direct their anger and put blame on someone but for once, this shooting was completely justified.

Tbh, the answer here is that some people need to have help forced on them. Same goes for people dealing with severe drug addiction. Frequently, people dealing with these issues are unable or unwilling to seek out the help they need. We cannot just assume that everyone has family or a support network. Forcing treatment on people isn’t a pretty solution, but it may help some people who wouldn’t otherwise receive any treatment.

Maybe - or maybe the family he was living with could’ve. Is it reasonable to think that a 20 year old, otherwise healthy person had his first mental health episode and went right to cutting himself, running around the neighborhood with a machete then charging at police? Or were there earlier signs that the family missed or ignored? Both are possible.

I've yet to see an actual suggestion that would have resolved a person running at the police/others with a machete but people keep claiming the police overstepped their bounds.

Sometimes shit is just bad. You can't send unarmed negotiators without zero protection, especially in situations where the person has a dangerous weapon.

> I think the city has great services if one seeks them out. No one is talking about this young man’s history. Was this the first episode? Was he suffering from some undiagnosed mental illness?

Can we expect a person who is experiencing mental illness (and therefore lacking reliable mental function) to identify that for themselves and seek out resources?

An unarmed response to mental health calls seems like a tragedy waiting to happen. A non-violent situation could easily turn the other way quickly. A Co-Response would be much safer.

I think the city has great services if one seeks them out. No one is talking about this young man’s history. Was this the first episode? Was he suffering from some undiagnosed mental illness?

You're quite right, the whole country is a mess when it comes to mental health and it would be great if our city could lead the way on making things better.

Not one department in the country would have an unarmed response respond to a Mental Health call with any type of weapon involved.

Could split the difference and to OL + Blue Bike.

Transit only is OL to Sullivan + 91 or CT2 depending on how close one is to Vassar Street or Prospect Street in the Ken-Cen area.

I have lived in the Netherlands, and while Cambridge is fairly walkable to say "Cambridge has excellent public transportation and is a biker’s paradise" is an absolute travesty and an indictment of the US as a whole. Public transit is acceptable if you live near the T, barely adequate for daily commuting if you rely on the bus, and there are only a handful of safe biking routes (e.g. by the Charles or along Alewife linear park).

[deleted]

The comment about municipal boundaries is really apt. Cambridge is 6.4 sq mi with only a few areas that are less dense. Boston's score gets dragged down by places like Hyde Park and West Roxbury. New York City's score gets dragged down by Staten Island and Queens.

It's hard to really compare places because what "feels like" the same place and municipal boundaries don't always overlap. It's why people say "Camberville" since it often feels like the same place and distinct from Boston which requires crossing the river.

In Los Angeles, there are parts of the city that are separated from the rest of the city by 5-7 miles of mountains. It would be like considering Nahant or Hull part of Boston since it's only separated by a few miles of water. Likewise, how many New Yorkers have never set foot in Staten Island?

I think a lot of people in Boston have never been to Hyde Park or West Roxbury simply because they don't feel like a part of their city - not to exclude them, it's just that they feel apart from a lot of Boston in the way Staten Island feels apart from Manhattan or the Valley feels apart from the rest of LA. There are all sorts of informal boundaries of where people go and where they don't which aren't the same as municipal boundaries.

Even in Cambridge, scores vary. On Brattle St, it can be down in the 60s: https://www.walkscore.com/score/159-brattle-st-cambridge-ma-02138. In Central, it can be slightly higher at 97: https://www.walkscore.com/score/619-massachusetts-ave-cambridge-ma-02139. I don't tend to go to West Cambridge much because it feels a bit apart from the part of Camberville where myself, friends, and the shops I go to exist.

Still, while it's hard to compare places, Cambridge is a really walkable place. Manhattan would probably score higher if it were evaluated separately from NYC as a whole and that's probably why Cambridge and SF beat NYC - NYC is just much larger and includes some more suburban places as a result. Even then, the intense walkability of Manhattan really buoys the score for NYC.

EDIT: Oh, and Somerville gets an 89: https://www.walkscore.com/MA/Somerville. So the Camberville area is really walkable.

>Thanks!

You're welcome!

Thanks!

It's just the scores from walkscore.com so it's not their methods: https://www.walkscore.com/MA/Cambridge

As much as I love the results, who is this random Twitter person and why should we trust them and their methods?

Awesome!

Thanks! I’ll check this out.