As droves of new and returning college students prepare their assault on Greater Boston this weekend the rest of us here plan our travel accordingly. It certainly doesn’t feel like a year has passed since I helped move my sister in to her Brighton apartment, struggling to find parking (and room to breathe) in a crowded neighborhood full of new renters on move-in day. On Monday, Labor Day, I’ll once again help her move to a new apartment in Brookline, fully aware of and prepared for the busyness that’s sure to accompany the morning drive through Boston. She’s not a student, just the victim of an untimely relocation
New tenants and students are part of the culture of the city, encompassing multiple colleges and universities that help breathe life into Boston’s business and arts. But for a few days leading up to and following the college year, Boston can be a difficult place to navigate—even more than usual.
One problem that crops up more often during move-in week is that some trucks don’t exactly fit under some of Boston’s ancient (some would say quaint) overpasses. Last year, Boston.com posted a gallery dedicated to pictures of trucks that valiantly tried but didn’t make it. Storrow Drive and Memorial Drive are notorious for their low bridges and when trucks get wedged in (and it always seems to happen), traffic backs up quickly, spilling over into the narrow, winding neighborhoods of Boston and Cambridge.
For such an intelligent city with a host of great schools, it’s ironic that moving day truck drivers can’t figure the relatively simple problem that an 11 foot high truck cannot fit under a bridge with a ten foot clearance. I’ll chalk it up to out of town drivers.
But despite the potential for a few days of traffic headaches, the Labor Day weekend is a great time to be in Boston. For us here at CHEN, it marks the end of an exciting and busy summer (although not technically until September 22) and the beginning of what we hope will be an equally busy fall. To me, the beginning of fall feels more like the beginning of a new year than January 1st. Change is abundant in the upcoming weeks, with Labor Day signifying the beginning of the school semester, and the weather turning swiftly to temperatures I find to be the most comfortable of the year. It also marks the beginning of another season of Patriots football, a welcome respite from a depressing Red Sox season, and in recent seasons more often than not a breath of fresh air on a Monday morning.
Let’s just hope Boston can make it through the weekend without any more dinged up overpasses.