That pesky not-really-a-crosswalk that connects one side of Washington Street to the other near where the new Smith & Wollensky restaurant will be has crept out of the crypt and is back causing confusion for pedestrians and motorists.
As you might recall, we solved the Case of the Crazy Wellesley Sidewalk last year, learning that the Belclare developer had been in touch with the town and was working to cover over the crosswalk with black paint. The crosswalk had been painted onto the street temporarily back in 2016 while Belclare gussied up its building for those paying well over $1M per condo.
But then the “temporary” crosswalk was left like that for months, leaving people to wonder whether it was a crosswalk or not. It looked like one, but it also went straight through a metered parking space. It caused all sorts of grief for Blue Ginger, whose patrons could never figure out if they were parked illegally or not. I always worried someone was going to get hit there, with the pedestrian thinking it was a crosswalk and a driver assuming it was not.
Indeed, the crosswalk did eventually get painted over this past September, but it appears as though the road treatments over the winter did away with the black make-up, and now the crosswalk has reappeared.
According to the town, a painting crew will spring into action at least before the Boston Marathon on April 16, but probably sooner.
