Even though I’ve been deep in grant writing, I’m pretty certain this soon-to-be-activated street light at the corner of Arlington and Marlborough is new:

The view from the other side of Arlington street:

Has anyone heard anything about this? None of the local papers mentioned it. I think it’s long overdue, ever since the lights were installed at Beacon and Brimmer to prevent tourists from getting killed trying to get to faux Cheers Bar (am I the only one who dies inside every time someone asks for directions to the Cheers Bar?). People get really frustrated by that light and, once it turns green, come flying around the corner upon Arlington, and blow right through the crosswalk. Though, as I’ve noted before, what’s good for pedestrians isn’t necessarily good for cars. Here’s where this is located on the map:

The “x” marks the location of the new street light

One thing you’ll notice is that it’s impossible to drive around the block–if you turn right on Marlborough, and then right on Berkeley, you then have to turn left onto Beacon. If you think this has to do with pedestrians, you’re wrong, although it does have to do with walkers of a sort. Street walkers. During 1970s, the corner of Arlington and Beacon was where a lot of johns went to pick up prostitutes. People would hop off Storrow Drive and drive around the block, find, erm, a ‘friend’, and drive off. Not exactly the kind of tourism the city was hoping for, so the traffic pattern was changed. Hard to believe today, since the penthouse of Zero Marlborough (the corner of Arlington and Marlborough) recently went for $8.8 million.

I bring this up because one of the inactive lights looks like this:

I’m assuming the lights will be rotated, since right now they’re facing the wrong way down a one way street.

A pleasant surprise, but I hadn’t heard anything about it.