[bscb-l] list moderator--attention

Fri Aug 12 11:16:28 EDT 2011

Will someone please step in and tell people on this list to stop attacking me for simply bringing up an idea they disagree with?  I have brought up several ways we could help the T with funding problems, not just eliminating the special free rides for blind people.  Apparently I'm not even allowed to suggest that we lobby for better state funding for the T?  I did address the specific issues raised in the original post when I agreed with Frank Ventura that the primary noise problem is coming from the exhaust fans on the roof of the trains themselves, and so we will have to be patient and wait for the weather to cool down when those exhaust fans on the trains are not running so hard to keep the train engines from overheating.  For now we will have to find somebody to ask which train is which.  Of course that's an inconvenience, but compared to the people who need elevator service who cannot even use Porter Square station at all for the next who-knows-how-many months, it's really not the end of the world just to have to ask someone which train is which.  I'm saying that this problem is real but there isn't an "easy fix" for it so we will have to be patient and things will get better in a few weeks.  If we want the MBTA to make big changes to acoustics or ventilation systems or whatever, then we will have to help them think of where to get all the money do make those changes.  Otherwise we will have to be patient and work around the problem as best we can.

If there is a moderator on this list--and based on his calm behavior, I assume it's still Bob--will the moderator please step in and do something to return this list to a more open-minded forum without people saying "you're not allowed to bring up ideas we disagree with because we already told you to be silent a year ago"?  What kind of discussion list is this if we're only allowed to say things that certain people happen to agree with?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Annmarie Strazzullo" <a.strazzullo at comcast.net>
To: "alice dampman humel" <alicedh at verizon.net>, "Bay state (Massachusetts) discussion list" <bscb-l at acb.org>
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 8:39:11 AM
Subject: Re: [bscb-l] funding for the T

The issue of blind people paying has nothing to do with these changes, as far as I am concerned.  And Alison, don't you be email-screaming at me.  I pay for the Ride, and when I am able to again take the subway part of the time, I will.  Remember, MCB could really go to task with the T and get them to make blind people pay, but it hasn't encouraged it and doesn't encourage it.  

Annmarie  
*** 
Music is a healing force all living spirits sing.--Joanna Shenandoah

-----Original Message-----
From: alice dampman humel [mailto:alicedh at verizon.net] 
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 8:30 AM
To: a.strazzullo at comcast.net; 'Bay state (Massachusetts) discussion list'
Subject: Re: [bscb-l] funding for the T

Exactly. Subways are loud, no doubt about it. But every bit of 
extraneous noise that can either be reduced or eliminated 
entirely will help.
    The New York subways, for example,  are incredibly loud. But 
it's a different kind of loud somehow. The noise is fairly 
localized, for one thing: it comes primarily from the trains 
themselves. So once they stop, noise diminishes, and you can hear 
things better. But the T seems plagued with loud, interfering 
noise coming from many sources, and that's what we can work on 
pretty much right away, I think.
Alice
alicedh at verizon.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Annmarie Strazzullo" <a.strazzullo at comcast.net>
To: "'alice dampman humel'" <alicedh at verizon.net>; "'Bay state 
(Massachusetts) discussion list'" <bscb-l at acb.org>
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 7:58 AM
Subject: RE: [bscb-l] funding for the T

To me, you eliminate some of that noise, you can hear other 
announcements.

Annmarie
***
Music is a healing force all living spirits sing.--Joanna 
Shenandoah

-----Original Message-----
From: alice dampman humel [mailto:alicedh at verizon.net]
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 7:58 AM
To: a.strazzullo at comcast.net; Bay state (Massachusetts) 
discussion list
Subject: Re: [bscb-l] funding for the T

Hi, Annmarie,
    You are so right. This is also something that has been
brought up both here and to the T. The T did in fact have a ban
on amplification at some point, but it has either been rescinded,
or the musicians ignore it, and no one bothers to enforce it.
This would be another thing to bring up at the next
transportation meeting, and either get the ban reinstated or
encourage the T to enforce it if it indeed does still exist.
Alice
alicedh at verizon.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Annmarie Strazzullo" <a.strazzullo at comcast.net>
To: "'Bay state (Massachusetts) discussion list'"
<bscb-l at acb.org>
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 5:23 AM
Subject: Re: [bscb-l] funding for the T

Another way to eliminate noise in many stations is to have the
musicians that might be playing there turn their volume down and
not be so loud.  When I rode the T more, that, above almost any
other noise, drove me crazy.  When I get back to occasionally
riding the orange line, I wouldn't be surprised if the musicians
that play there are equally as loud as they were.

Annmarie
***
Music is a healing force all living spirits sing.--Joanna
Shenandoah

-----Original Message-----
From: bscb-l-bounces at acb.org [mailto:bscb-l-bounces at acb.org] On
Behalf Of alice dampman humel
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 4:04 AM
To: Bay state (Massachusetts) discussion list
Subject: Re: [bscb-l] funding for the T

and we're also all best served when we read the other person's
words carefully, listen to what he/she is saying and respond to
that, not go off on some completely irrelevant tangent and/or
start arguing hotly about a point the other person has already
conceded.
    Annmarie asked how this whole discussion got started again
anyway. It got started when Alison in what I see as an act of
incredible intellectual dishonesty decided to blame blind people
for their own problems and trot out her old gripe about blind
people being permitted by the MBTA itself to ride free as a
completely bogus explanation for the excessive noise from the
fans at Park Street and other stops that causes navigation and
train identification problems for both blind and sighted
passengers. And the disconnect just gets worse and worse, so I,
for one, see no point in continuing the discussion.
    Bob, when is the next transportation meeting? Perhaps this
noise problem can be presented and addressed? Alison insists that
fixing the problem will be prohibitively expensive, but that is
of course not necessarily true. For example, assuming there is
not some reason it is impossible, the standing and hanging fans
could be turned off, which would eliminate at least some of the
noise and costs nothing. I realize that the exhaust fans or
whatever they are that crank up as the green line trains sit in
the station is actually much louder as someone pointed out, but
eliminating some of the noise, even the lesser noise, is a step
in the right direction, and maybe something can be done about the
exhaust noise as well...doesn't hurt to investigate.

Alice

alicedh at verizon.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Hachey" <bhachey at verizon.net>
To: "Bay state (Massachusetts) discussion list" <bscb-l at acb.org>
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 1:12 AM
Subject: Re: [bscb-l] funding for the T

Hi all,
BSCB has taken no official position as regards funding for MBTA
or other
transportation services as we have done for services from places
like MCB,
Carroll and Perkins.  However we have advocated to block proposed
cuts in
service for both the RIDE, fixed route MBTA and other fixed route
services
throughout the state.
I personally have advocated for increased funding for all public
transit
services statewide.
While taking a position officially that funding for public
transit should be
increased might be to my or other's liking, the recent discussion
here
reveals that there may be sharp disagreement as to whether or not
BSCB
should advocate officially for increased funding of public
transit services.
This is a decision that is probably best made at a future board
meeting with
input from the next Annual Convention.
I invite others to join in this discussion and I would remind all
of us
that, while we may disagree strongly over issues we are all best
served when
we disagree agreeably.
Bob Hachey
BSCB-L Moderator

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