That was my backup plan for the orange line shutdown, how did it work out for you?

You seem to be naming suburbs (with the exception of Allston) on the T or commuter rail with 128. Have you considers that trains don’t run without riders? If you want less people, be prepared to live nowhere near anything interesting and/or your job or school and to spend a minimum of two hours a day driving.

Anyone remember when the giant “new” BU dorms went in? Anyone?

After hearing nothing but how “the students” were ruining the neighborhood, thousands of them were gone. Into the dorms. Rents in Allston and Brighton held steady, or even fell. Suddenly all of the news coverage switched from “wild house party ruins everything” to “how is this poor mom’n’pop landlord going to be able to pay off the mortgage (on their investment rental property)?” The sky was falling.

Too tired/late to look up citations, but if you build a ton of housing that existing residents move into, it depresses the prices of the vacated housing.

Try contacting the House Rabbit Network. They currently have bunny yoga sessions in Andover available for $35, open to anyone.

They are also looking for volunteers. While volunteering is probably helping clean rabbit pens or yards at their HQ or a foster home, I’m pretty certain it would come with bunny petting, if not a full on bunny brushing and grooming session.

We have a heated mattress pad. All of the heat stays with you and the airspace under the blanket, and most of them work on a 12 hour timer. We can keep the thermostat colder at night because we have the heat where we need it.

I don’t remember the brand, but I bought it at Bed Bath and Beyond a year or two back. I don’t remember if it was about $100 before the 20% off or after, but it was pricey enough I made sure to get that coupon. Only wish I’d bought it sooner.

RCN just jacked my rate for that speed from $45 to $105/month, and I did not catch it fast enough to avoid paying for the first two months.

Switched (back) to FiOS - I hate Verizon but they were offering the same service for $70/mo (after various discounts like, oh you have cellular with us) WITH A TEN YEAR RATE LOCK.

Man, I hate dealing with Verizon, but a ten year rate lock means 9 years I don’t have to be hyper vigilant about this BS.

Thanks - their federal street location isn’t too far out of my way.

This Dean’s Beans?

It looks like they stocked at a shop near Back Bay…

I have less than 0 time, so while this is interesting, it falls into the category of things I’m never going to find time to do 😅

I’d like to drink good coffee & support local business, but I was doing neither of those because the Trader Joe’s blend I had was good-enough and I could throw a bag in the cart when I was there.

I think it’s at least 15 min from back bay (I work east of back bay) so I’d probably plan on going a day when it’s ok to get into work a bit late & leave late.

Makes sense, an americano from there is my guilty pleasure when I commute into South Station.

I’ve had a cup Little Wolf on my way into work - I asked about their brewed coffee and was told that the [forgotten bean type/blend name] from Mexico was a medium roast. It tasted like nothing but charcoal to me… is this typical, or did I get a bad cup?

Good advice!

They seem to ship, but is Plymouth their only store? They list B2B sales but not the stores offering it…

Where all over the city is pretty much at or west of Mass Ave ;)

It’d be a hike, but worth checking out in person (to decide on a coffee/try it out) before going to online orders (so easy!)

Better is better.

I think it was the Barista Blend and it was a) easy to get and b) drinkable. Everything I’ve tried since that was easy is undrinkable, so it’s time to put a little more $ and effort in, and get something good.

Thanks! Any recommendations?

There was 1 kind I found drinkable … now down to 0.

I picked up some at a coffee shop in Sudbury I like, but I only go there when I visit my dentist (so once every 6 months) but that ran out. So I tried a recommended “premium” brand from Costco that ended up being undrinkable.

I think it’s also available at Clover Food Labs, and there’s one in the Financial District I can get to.

Thanks for the reminder (can’t think, no coffee) I do like their coffee!

It’s really more like the 12 days of Allston Christmas, starts about 8/20 (when people start curbing things they don’t want to move) and continues until the trash day after 9/1

But is it parkable all over?

Newton toSeaport used to be part of my commute, while I used the T for most of it, I walked a fair bit:

• walk to commuter rail
• Commuter rail to South Station
• Silver Line to Seaport
• walk to job

I don’t know if the proposed non-biding question is the -right- use of the funds, but we’re run a surplus and re-built the rainy day over the last few years. Surely there are places that could use the funds. (Not meaning to attack, I just have a reflex response to “we can’t pay for it” when we had a tax refund)

The current wait time at DDS (disability services) to have your application reviewed by someone with the appropriate medical degree is over a year. Your medical releases will expire before the person who is tasked with it gets around to calling providers. Perhaps we could hire more reviewers?

Similarly, the DDS reimbursement rate for PCA’s (personal care assistants) to help disabled people with everyday life tasks is currently less than $20/hr. Even if you’re approved for a specified number of hours of care, the reimbursement rate is too low to get the care you need. A proposed budget amendment earlier in the year included raising the rate to $20, but it’s sponsor was convinced to remove it.

We could revise the chapter 70 formula to send more money back to schools (especially those with low income students, ELLs, and disabled students - places where we know the foundational level doesn’t match the actual cost to educate)

We could actually staff MBTA maintenance to the levels recommended in the FTA report (we’re currently at either 80%, or 60% if you don’t use mandatory overtime, of the number of workers needed to maintain the system)

I’m pretty sure every department that has a secretary (Education, Transportation, etc.) has unmet needs. Let’s fund some of those.

The 57 is super frequent, so you won’t get stranded.