Wednesday’s post “Adequately Explained by Stupidity” generated quite a few responses, which led to a deeper dive into the whole mess. In particular, readers Chris C., Chris D., and David F. helped me get to the bottom of things. Sadly for me, it seems likely that things are not quite as stupid as they initially appeared. Still, they’re at least a little stupid.
The first thing to note is that close inspection of the “after” image from the previous post shows that the mailbox may not be bolted down:
You can see that there is a bolt in the foot on the right, but the other visible foot has no bolt at all. There’s also a loose bolt there on the sidewalk, just under the USPS logo. Looking more closely, I suspect the bolt on that front right foot is not in the ground at all.
Once this was brought to my attention, I took a closer look at the “before” image:
Though I passed by this box in its goofy between-two-benches location on multiple days, I confess I never confirmed it was bolted down. At a glance, it appeared to be. Now, however, that seems unlikely. We can see all four feet in the above picture, and only that front right foot has a bolt, which likely is not secured into the ground.
The second thing to note is that the sidewalk to the right of all this is new. You can see that in the first image above.
In the previous post, I linked to the location on Street View. Here’s a screenshot of the road from last October:
The sidewalk was in rough shape last year, whereas now there is freshly poured concrete. And if you look down the intersecting street, Maple Avenue, you’ll spot a USPS blue box. Here it is in another view:
All of this leads me to a new theory of events. The city recently dug up and replaced the sidewalk at this corner, and when they did, they must have moved that collection box. It seems it was placed between the benches for some number of days or weeks, which was certainly fairly dumb, but at least it was only temporary.
With the sidewalk now finished, the box can be restored to its previous location down Maple, or secured on the busier Cambridge Street. That work is still to be done, at least someone moved the box out from between the benches.
The above detective work was completed using nothing but the photographic record and my keen insight. This morning, however, I again biked past this location. I stopped yet again, to review it in person.
I can now confirm that the box is indeed unsecured in the new location:
I actually had a letter to mail, so I made use of the box. Is it actually in service? I hope so.
This sign, also yet to be reinstalled, tells me this intersection has an official name. Ridiculously, Charles A. Brusch opted to be an MD, rather than a DMD or DDS.
I also spotted this trash can sitting in the street, awaiting its own reinstallation:
Stepping across the intersection, I roughly recreated the Street View side angle. As you can see, cones abound.
While the sidewalk replacement itself may be done, the overall project is clearly not actually complete. They did manage to install a parking sign, but the box and other items haven’t yet been properly returned to their homes. The current state of things is quite sloppy. But at the very least, it seems likely there never was a plan to permanently install the collection box between the benches. Thank goodness.
