Peter Furth, Professor of Civil Engineering at Northeastern University, says he's cracked the code to fixing the congestion and unsafe conditions at Keany and City Squares: two short northbound green cycles at City Square instead of the current long one.

If that long green northbound period is replaced with two short green periods, each lasting 16 seconds, the number of vehicles that can be discharged per cycle will rise to 35 [from the current 28]

Starting Monday, the North Washington St bridge will switch to two northbound lanes during evening rush hour in contraflow pilot program.

The periodic construction look-ahead notice for January 8 – January 21 included the following:

Contraflow Pilot

House Bill H.5080 was quietly enacted and sent to the Governor in one of the the last acts of the 192nd Court.

The subject of the bill has a long history - much longer than the current legislative form that it has taken. Most recently, Senate Bill S.3148 substituted major parts of the language and the enacted form seems to have specific wording to prevent it from being used as a precedent. Section 1, E:

The North End Waterfront Neighborhood Council (NEWNC) will hold its monthly meeting on Monday, December 12th at 7pm. You can attend and participate in the meeting virtually via Zoom. Use the following link to join on the night of the meeting:

https://mit.zoom.us/j/92117897046

There a no voting items on the agenda, but two items of interest:

• Update on the Old North Church from director Nikki Stewart
• Community chat!

I don't know what Community Chat is, but it sounds nice! See you there.

Full agenda

Baystate Herbal Solutions seeks to open an adult use recreational marijuana dispensary at 464 Hanover Street. The North End community is already familiar with Baystate due to the community meeting hosted by ONS back in September. You can read our coverage of the community meeting at which more than a dozen people, including residents and condo owners at 464 Hanover, Parents of Eliot School children, and other North End residents spoke in opposition to their plans.

In the beginning (going back at least 20 years - but I'm not sure how much longer before that), there were three pickup days: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Recycling was picked up on Fridays only, but trash was picked up Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Trash and recycling needed to be out before 7am on pickup days and no earlier than 5pm the night before.

The five (yes, five) North End Precincts largely voted in line with each other, the City, and the State in Tuesday's election.