Salem Wharf / Blaney Street Update

Work continues to progress on the new Salem Wharf being built on the Blaney Street pier. I have a dog, and frequently walk him around this area. I have to say, the amount of activity down here is pretty impressive. At the same time, there's also a pretty prime example of the typical ego stroking that goes on with these taxpayer funded projects. But first, the progress.

I snapped this shot on Saturday, March 19th. You probably can't see them, but there are several workers out towards the end of the pier, working on a Saturday. Yes, Saturday work on a public project. Impressive, yet, I wonder what that cost us. Notice the empty area to the right of the picture. We'll be talking about that in a second.

Saturday work? Shocking!

 I found myself down this way again one evening early this week. Look what has now appeared in the empty space in the photo above! An ego-stroker for public officials. What makes this one such a galling waste of money is that it is located at the water line, probably about 60 feet from the "Danger Construction Area Do Not Enter" sign and usually locked gate. You really can't read it at all.

All you can really see from gate is the fun new Salem logo

On this particular evening they seemed to have forgotten to lock the gates, so I ignored the "Do Not Enter" warning and went to get a closer look at this new sign.

I'm shocked that Ted Kennedy, Scott Brown and Jason Silva were somehow left off

 Clearly this sign is nothing but a waste of money, as it's not legible from outside the construction fence, meant to stroke the egos of people, mostly pols, who also clearly don't need the ego stroking. Their egos are plenty healthy. Couldn't we have saved the, oh, probably $750 it cost to make and install this sign?

Feel free to go check it out for yourself, but you may want to wait a few weeks. You see, though it hasn't really been publicized, the city is closing all of Blaney Street starting tomorrow, April 1, 2011, for a period of at least two weeks. Big deal, right? Well, There are at least 15 or so cars that park on Blaney Street, or in driveways accessed by Blaney Street. That's right, the people who live there have all been told they won't be able to reach their homes or buildings during this two week period, and will have to find elsewhere to park. As I was working on this blog post I received the following from a loyal reader:

Subject: Blog

I think you should do a story on how there is already such limited parking in the area surrounding Blaney Street and now they are closing off Blaney Street for (at least!) two weeks and suggesting that everyone who usually parks on Blaney Street AND everyone living in the condo building, apartment house and Mr. Mackey have all been advised to use the White Street "lot" which holds -- maybe -- six cars, if everyone parks perfectly. This is going to be super convenient. And maybe throw in how construction people and Salem PD have felt free to use the private driveways on this street as a private parking lot for the past several days. Even saw a cop give a resident attitude when they politely asked, "May I help you?" when the resident came home in the middle of the day to find two strange men sitting in a strange vehicle IN HIS OR HER OWN DRIVEWAY. I mean, it's not like methheads have been using these parking lots at all -- OH WAIT, yes they have.

I can't imagine living in one of the several properties that has frontage on this project. Can't be fun at all.

Adding to the fun, the current rumor is that Witch City Segway is moving into the empty commercial space at the corner of Derby and Blaney. I'm sure that Derby Street is the right place to teach novices how to ride Segways. That's a great idea. Have to give it to them though, first site coming off the Ferry is a Segway rental? Smart. Dead customers, not so much.