To the editor:

I read about the $1.3M in new sidewalk construction on Maple Avenue and Lincoln Avenue.

While I applaud those projects, there is no way that they would be more impactful in terms of safety, or school system budget, than the supposedly "high priority" project to complete sidewalks on Massasoit Avenue, especially given the fact that there are already sidewalks, flat profiles, and relatively broad bike lanes on those roads. Old timers in my neighborhood have repeatedly said completing those sidewalks been high priority for 30 years and to not get our hopes up. Understood it's a "state road" but give me a break - if there's a will, there's a way.

Everybody knows that Massasoit is a tragic accident waiting to happen. Our kids in the Hampden Meadows neighborhood (which apparently isn't a neighborhood at all when discussing the topic of "neighborhood schools") routinely weave in and out of speeding traffic just to go to the very much nearby middle and high school — instead, they clog buses for comically long trips to those nearby schools. This stress on busing will only compound due to the recent decision to abandon Hampden Meadows and concentrate all elementary kids on this side of the river at Sowams.

In sum, we in our neighborhood have a soon to be abandoned school with no plan on what to use it for. We have a horribly dangerous road with no sidewalks for the most dangerous stretch. Our kids basically have to rely on the kindness of neighbors to get anywhere safely. 

I love my neighborhood, and my neighbors, and maybe it sounds like a bit of sour grapes, but it's not hard to see why people around here can't help but feel that our kids are simply not a priority in this town.

Thanks,

Leo Espindle

Barrington