CALL ME SNAKE

I’ve been around the block, so to speak. I’ve lived in Cambridge a long time and have walked and bicycled through most of it–some streets hundreds, if not thousands, of times. And my vote for the windiest block in Cambridge is the stretch of Green Street between Pearl and Magazine, especially two-thirds of the way toward Magazine. I’ve bicycled on the stretched several times in the past two days where I could barely make any forward progress owing to the wind gusts. I did not experience gusts like that on any other stretch of road during those same days.

In fact, over the years this block has consistently been the windiest I’ve come across in Cambridge. I still remember a time about 7 years ago when I went with my daughter, then two years old, by bike to the florist in Central Square to get flowers for Valentine’s day. It was an extremely cold day–below zero wind chill–and my daughter was on the baby seat. (She insisted on going along, even though I tried to talk her out of it.) We barely made it through the stretch because the wind, and wind chill, was so brutal.

Fortunately she survived and the flowers did too. Another thing that has survived since then and probably before is that stretch of Green Street as the windiest block in all of Cambridge. But I think I’m repeating myself.