Tag Archives: streets

Somerville, Cambridge say Elm Street safety projects underway

14 Aug

The two cities are collaborating on improving traffic flow at an intersection dangerous especially for bicyclists and pedestrians.

A bicyclist on Elm Street encounters traffic coming from multiple directions. The Elm-Beacon Connector project will create new bike lanes and traffic flow to ensure a safer intersection.

Somerville is finishing the bid process for the quick-build construction portions of the Elm-Beacon Connector project, with the goal of completing the safety improvement project by Thanksgiving. Adam Polinski, a senior planner for Somerville’s Mobility Department, said in an email to Cambridge Day that the bid process is nearly complete for markings and signal work. The city has begun changing out signs.

The project, which includes collaboration with Cambridge, will calm Elm Street, making crossings at Willow Avenue and at The Mix (the former Porter Square Shopping Mall) more pedestrian friendly. A raised crosswalk will also be added at Cherry Street by the Kennedy Elementary School, while Mossland Street will be converted to a “Neighborhood Way.”

Beyond the general safety improvements, the project will provide a separated bicycle lane from Davis Square to Union Square with a spur to Beacon Street, feeding into where a raised and separated bike lane runs to Inman and Kendall squares. Cambridge, through its Beech St. at Elm St. Pedestrian Safety Project,  will make similar safety improvements on Beech Street, which connects Mass. Ave. to Elm Street.

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Piranhas

7 Aug

‘Piranhas’: Naples’ youth sharpen their teeth with an eye toward surviving into adulthood

 

By Tom Meek
Image result for piranhas movie

The mean streets of Naples (Italy, not the retirement destination in Florida) get their due in this gritty portrait of youth born and baptized into mob crime. It’s a vicious circle of too short life where guns and ruthlessness rule the streets. “Piranhas” will call to mind every pack of misguided youth engaging in dubious/criminal behavior film, from “The 400 Blows” (1959) to “The Florida Project” (2017) with flourishes of Scorsese thrown in. It’s not on par with those, but it tries.

The preamble, with two teen gangs bristling and chest thumping over rights to a prize Christmas tree from a mall, is one of the film’s most telling and rewarding scenes. Afterward, in a ceremonial bonfire-cum-initiation rite, we learn that these little fish with sharp teeth are from rival mafia clans. As “Piranhas” builds, it’s not as cut and dried as to who’s the enemy; motivations and codes are murky and fluid and Naples is seedier, more chaotic and far less glamorous than in the “Godfather” films. We follow the cocky, charismatic Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli), blessed with pop-star good looks and full of big plans, but addled by limited acumen. In short, he’s a loaded weapon, and it’s with a cache of automatic-caliber arms and alpha male tendencies that he begins to realize his aspirations – he’ll even dress in drag to get the job done.

The film, directed by Claudio Giovannesi (“Fiore”), who also filmed parts of the hit Italian crime television series “Gomorrah” based on Roberto Saviano’s novel – never quite fully builds out the characters beyond Nicola; they feel like castoffs from better engineered mob movies. Saviano, something of a sensation not only for his works but for the attention they garnered from the capos depicted in it, co-wrote the screenplay with Giovannesi and others from his novel “La paranza dei bambini.” To be certain, it crackles and sparks at points, but it never catches fire. Di Napoli carries it all with his angelic countenance. If only his Nicola, on a well-trodden path, only had a soul to sell.

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