A great response from the City of Salem

A few days ago I raised the question on this blog about a dangerous situation at State and Winter streets, involving a bike lane, gravel being used in the repaving work there, and some possible unintentional BMX-ing. I wrote about coming on to this dark pile of gravel in the middle of the night and almost running right into it because there was no warning about its presence.

Before...

When a reader suggested I contact my City Councilor about it, I did so. Now, even though I'm a public person (due to my vocation as a parish priest), I am by nature rather less eager to make a fuss. I had never contacted my City Councilor before (probably thinking she was way too busy for the sort of thing I would likely bring up), but I did feel I had a personal stake in this issue. So, I e-mailed Laura Tesler, received a kind response back very quickly, and found she had copied my e-mail and accompanying link to the blog post to Peter Fernandez, director of the Department of Public Works.

He, in turn, got right back to me with a thoughtful e-mail and assurance that something would be done about the situation (to be fair, a couple of small traffic cone/pylon thingies had been put there already by the time I took the above picture the next day). Subsequently, I've entered into a little e-mail chat with him about some things related to all this, and I hope it will continue as a low-key but helpful connection towards the bigger goal of effective multi-modal transport here in town.

Best of all, this was what I found on Saturday when I pedaled by the State and Winter intersection:

...and after!

That is a great response! Thanks to all who helped make it happen (a reader, a City Councilor, a Department Director, and those who put the signage in place, and perhaps others I don't know anything about). I know life is complicated and that situations often don't work out as we hope...but it is important to express gratitude when they do.

It really does take a village, I guess.