Design a Better Malden

[ant8904]

For/if anyone is interested in hearing about the committee. I just went and came back. It turns out that it was an interview. They asked me a few general questions like what areas are like what are the most walkable area (I said areas around Oak Grove and that Waitts Mount) and least walkable (Riverside and the areas near Route 60 in Malden Square). They also ask a few other things like how much do I think can be accomplished in a year and how to best sell walkability to Malden.

Hopefully they like my answers well enough, but in hindsight, I feel I could have answer question like selling to Malden and accomplishment a bit better. Also for a person who went through so many job interviews not too long ago, I feel I should be more comfortable on the fly too.

Apparently, despite being in the middle of the work day, they are interviewing 11 people just this one day. I hope I will get in, but I have to admit it looks a bit more competitive and difficult than I thought.

[fatnoah]

My advice to anyone who wants to improve downtown Malden: go a couple miles up the road and look at downtown Melrose. They're doing it right.

I agree. Every time I drive through the area or cruise by on the Orange Line, I think about what a dynamic area it could be. With it's convergence of bus routes, Orange Line and Commuter Rail, it generates plenty of foot traffic. Unfortunately, there's not coherent plan or walkable business district such as exists in areas such as Melrose or Winchester.

My only complaint for Melrose's downtown is the parking. There are enough spaces, but the parking is fragmented and it can take time to find free spots during prime times. Malden Center seems to have decent, centralized parking that could serve a revitalized business district.

[statler]

Melrose is built in a traditional (and almost wholly intact) Main St layout.

Malden has two main squares and is bisected by a major 4-6 lane artery. Also much of Malden's cohesiveness has been razed in the name of 50's urban renewal.

There are still some intact blocks but they mostly separated by some sort suburban design element (highway, massive lawn, parking garage, RT128 Style office building, etc)

It would take an incredibly large scale redevelopment of downtown to really knit it back together to get anything like the pedestrian friendly, human-scale of downtown Melrose.

[ant8904]

I presume the 4-6 lane artery is Rt 60?

That highway makes no sense to me. From both sides are regular 2 lane roads and it handle all traffic just fine. Somehow, some genius have the idea that approaching the town center and just the town center would somehow spawn cars out of nowhere giving a need for a 4-line divided highway.

Somehow for just for 1 mile only, Rt 60 needs to be a 4 lane highway where everything before and after is a regular road and nothing really feeding the road to have more volume.