Kenmore Square seemingly can’t catch a break - but soon it will
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. A record store on fire off the Beacon Street/Commonwealth Avenue.
Ok, two Blade Runner references in less than a week is just lazy (especially since they both allude to the same darn quote). Slapstickish pop-cultural references aside, Kenmore Square just can’t get out of its rut of unfulfilled promise. Like now, with the hotel finally complete and cool lonuges and bistros moving in, the Square has been turned into a bottleneck because of the otherwise much welcomed razing of the Kenmore Square bus-stop shack. Eastbound Mass. Ave. is now down to two lanes, which not only means constant backups, but also that Hotel Commonwealth’s valet and door staff has practically no lane at all to work with.
The temporary bus stop on the north side of the Square creates a similar traffic snarl as buses, trucks, and cars more or less inevitably block each otheras they try to squeeze into the reduced number of lanes. Or has the number of lanes been reduced? The confusing lane paint job isn’t particularly helpful: Are there two lanes for Beacon Street and one for Brookline Avenue, or is there just one lane for Beacon Street, or one plus one shared with the Brookline Avenue traffic? I’m not sure.
But this, too, shall come to an end, and out of the mess will rise a Kenmore Square better than it ever has been. Silber’s vision will soon become reality and we’ll all be better for it.
