Speaker 1: It's nice, Dan ray I'm going you easy Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Madison Rogers, and I hope you have a
Speaker 2: great weekend and a couple of days off. I know
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to the weekend. It is Friday night,
Speaker 2: June twenty seventh.
Speaker 3: We are a mayor.
Speaker 2: What's it four days now, less than four days, three
Speaker 2: plus days away from July. We're almost halfway through the year.
Speaker 2: My name is Dan raym the host of Night's One.
Speaker 2: I'm heard every Monday through Friday night right here on WBZ,
Speaker 2: Boston's news radio. And as I mentioned last night, and
Speaker 2: I said, we'll always mention, Rob Brooks is back in
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Speaker 2: me directly or to Rob. Actually to to me through
Speaker 2: Rob a thirty second commentary. Now, we obviously want people
Speaker 2: calling the show, because this is a talk show. Once
Speaker 2: we get to our caller guests, which we begin after
Speaker 2: nine o'clock, I'll get to our four guests very quickly.
Speaker 2: So please do bring that down onto your device and
Speaker 2: then you can be in contact. You can just if
Speaker 2: you don't have time to call in and give us
Speaker 2: a quick little shout out within thirty seconds, tell us
Speaker 2: what you're thinking. So that's my pitch for the night,
Speaker 2: and that's my free gift for the night. And we
Speaker 2: have four interesting guests different top here, some of which
Speaker 2: I understand better than the others.
Speaker 3: But the first one.
Speaker 2: I think all of us understand, and that is as
Speaker 2: we travel this summer, or as we travel anywhere anytime
Speaker 2: during the year, we're going to learn. Now, what are
Speaker 2: the germiest places. I'm not talking about countries. I'm talking
Speaker 2: about the germiest locations on you travel itinerary that you
Speaker 2: can be exposed to with us as Derek OLIVERA he
Speaker 2: is a global consultant with ISA or ISASA. I have
Speaker 2: been trying to figure out what the ACRONYMSA stands for. So, Derek,
Speaker 2: you work for the company. I assume you know what
Speaker 2: it is. What does ISSA stand for? And welcome to
Speaker 2: Night's side?
Speaker 4: Hey getting me? Then thanks for having me. So I
Speaker 4: has to say stands for the International Sanitation Supply Association.
Speaker 4: So we are the world's largest association when it comes
Speaker 4: to janitorial and healthkeeping.
Speaker 2: All right, well that's great. So you are an expert
Speaker 2: here and you folks, I guess have figured out the
Speaker 2: germiest places that people will encounter while they're traveling. And
Speaker 2: they're not the places that most of us might think of.
Speaker 2: The places that are the germyst give us a let's
Speaker 2: walk through them, because some of them have surprised me,
Speaker 2: really surprised me.
Speaker 4: Go right ahead, so I can give you four of each. Well,
Speaker 4: if we're talking about the airport in transit would whether
Speaker 4: it be planes, trains or buses. And at the hotel, sure,
Speaker 4: so the first one would be the security events, right,
Speaker 4: So or we all put our personal belongings before we
Speaker 4: pass through those metal detectors. So those bens, thousands of tens,
Speaker 4: that's those bins daily and the studies have shown that
Speaker 4: they carry more viruses than airport toilets. And we have
Speaker 4: rarely going on.
Speaker 3: Do you want to headset by the way or no?
Speaker 4: No, I'm on my phone.
Speaker 2: Okay, good, okay, because I want to make sure I'm
Speaker 2: not talking all of you. I didn't understand when you
Speaker 2: say security events, you're talking about the we call t
Speaker 2: SA and you put your bag on the uh.
Speaker 4: Exactly, those those gray bins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, the gray bins. Oh the grape that you
Speaker 2: put your bag in and then it moves through. Oh
Speaker 2: why why are they so good?
Speaker 4: Before going in? Of hands touched those daily and they
Speaker 4: never clean them.
Speaker 3: They never cleaned them. Oh my, very rare.
Speaker 2: That's that's that's one I would not have thought of.
Speaker 2: Good one, God, what can you do? We're gloves or
Speaker 2: or what's.
Speaker 4: Wash your hands after manipulating them?
Speaker 3: Good? Good point, good point. Okay, So that's one.
Speaker 4: What else we got We got the touch screens so
Speaker 4: check in kiosks and gates, So again, rarely disinfected and
Speaker 4: yet heavily used by travelers.
Speaker 3: Okay, good point.
Speaker 4: Airports, seating armors, the cloth seats, the obviously limited cleaning
Speaker 4: and perfect spotf for terms to thrive. And then the
Speaker 4: fourth one at the airport would be the water fountain.
Speaker 4: So everyone touches them, but very few people clean them.
Speaker 4: And obviously they're obviously in damp environments, which is great
Speaker 4: for turns and bacteria to grow.
Speaker 2: Where the troops are having a ball at the airport.
Speaker 2: What about on planes itself? What about they don't clean
Speaker 2: the seats on planes? The plane lands, people get off,
Speaker 2: everybody wants to get on and.
Speaker 3: As quickly as possible. What about planes?
Speaker 4: So that's a great point, right, So obviously we've been
Speaker 4: to the airport before and we see that you know,
Speaker 4: we're waiting for our plane. Our plane arrives at the gate.
Speaker 4: You know there there's fifteen minutes interval for those that
Speaker 4: you know that incoming flight to disembark, and then fifteen
Speaker 4: minutes for us to embark. And we know that they're
Speaker 4: not doing a great job cleaning their planes, and that
Speaker 4: fifteen minutes. So we have the trade tables. So one
Speaker 4: of the dirtiest surfaces on the plane obviously used for
Speaker 4: eating resting heads. You know, changing diapers. Oh so not
Speaker 4: that the cleanest placed on a plane. Yeah, absolutely, I've
Speaker 4: seen it all. Seat belt seat belts are very very
Speaker 4: clean between flights. Yeah, overhead air vents and the light
Speaker 4: buttons right, what we call for the stewards, that button
Speaker 4: that we're pressing, not great, not cleaned very often. And
Speaker 4: then bathroom handles right, the door handles, the flush buttons
Speaker 4: highly touched, poor event poorly ventilated and often clean quickly
Speaker 4: between uses.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know all of these things, if you think
Speaker 2: about them, they're they're exactly what we should think about.
Speaker 2: But I got to be honest with you. All the
Speaker 2: flights have taken I've never brought with me. I think
Speaker 2: I want to bring hand sanitizers with me, or maybe
Speaker 2: some clean wipes.
Speaker 3: I'm serious.
Speaker 2: I don't want to sound crazy, But so you've got
Speaker 2: a few other places also, elevator buttons, elevator buttons so.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so at the hotel, absolutely, elevator mountains, the TV
Speaker 4: remote control right, rarely sanitized, but every guest touches them. Yeah,
Speaker 4: light switches, high contact services that can harbor bacterial for days.
Speaker 4: Everyone's touching those bedspreads and decorative pillows. I don't know
Speaker 4: if you guys have seen, but Vegas right now is
Speaker 4: going through a pandemic with bed bugs. So bedspread fits
Speaker 4: right into their washed fairly frequently than sheets and pillowcases.
Speaker 2: Boy, I'll tell you this is something I had never
Speaker 2: thought of, and it's going to change my attitude towards traveling.
Speaker 2: As a matter fait, I'm probably not gonna want to
Speaker 2: travel anymore.
Speaker 3: I mean, the.
Speaker 2: Traveling has become very much less fun than it used
Speaker 2: to be. I mean, now the gates are always a
Speaker 2: half a mile away. It's not that I'm getting any younger,
Speaker 2: but the people, the crowds, everybody gets up, the travelers. Now,
Speaker 2: when the plane pulls into the gate, everybody jumps up.
Speaker 2: It's like nobody's gonna move for ten minutes. They won't
Speaker 2: even open the door, but everybody's standing there. They're trying
Speaker 2: to pull their over bags down. They're bopping their neighbors
Speaker 2: with their bags. I mean, it's have you noticed howl
Speaker 2: ear travel has become bus travel?
Speaker 3: That's my thought. Are you are you with me on
Speaker 3: that or no?
Speaker 4: Yeah? So I obviously for my job, I travel a lot.
Speaker 4: And the thing that I hate the most is actually
Speaker 4: get into the airport and get on the plane. It's
Speaker 4: I think people have lost their common sense and it's
Speaker 4: it's become a jungle out there.
Speaker 2: So what do you do, Derek? You must have some tricks?
Speaker 3: Do you do? You bring wipes with you, handy wipes
Speaker 3: or something. What do you do?
Speaker 4: So, so here's my travel tip, right, so Kerry, disinfectant
Speaker 4: wipes or hand sanitizer, minimum sixty percent alcohol and wash
Speaker 4: you wash your hands frequently, especially before eating or touching
Speaker 4: your face.
Speaker 3: Big go.
Speaker 2: If we had the discipline to follow those rules, your suggestions,
Speaker 2: not rules, we would probably be more healthy at the
Speaker 2: end of our trips because we don't think about this.
Speaker 2: We really don't think about this. So Vegas now has
Speaker 2: bed bugs?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so it's it's it's it's common knowledge. I've
Speaker 4: read a lot of articles in the last couple of
Speaker 4: days that a lot of major hotel chains are suffering
Speaker 4: now with a large bug infestation.
Speaker 2: Well, the Chamber of Commerce must love that, huh. I
Speaker 2: mean it makes sense. It makes all the sense in
Speaker 2: the world. It makes all the sense in the world
Speaker 2: when you think about it. Wow, Derek, this this was
Speaker 2: great your organization. If folks would like to get in touch.
Speaker 2: You know folks who will come on the show generally
Speaker 2: they're plug in a book or they're plugging an organization.
Speaker 2: Who would be in my audience who could avail themselves
Speaker 2: of the services of ISSA.
Speaker 4: I mean, anyone that has any commercial real estate, you know,
Speaker 4: residential cleaning, you know common spaces, real estate managers, anyone
Speaker 4: that's looking to improve, you know, the sanitation of their buildings.
Speaker 4: They can reach out to us ISSA dot com. You'd
Speaker 4: be more than happy to help.
Speaker 3: And you're everywhere.
Speaker 2: We're broadcasting probably right now in about thirty five states,
Speaker 2: just with terrestrial over the air radio. Is there a
Speaker 2: specific part of the country where you have a greater
Speaker 2: footprint or are you equally everywhere in all forty eight states?
Speaker 2: Be fifty states.
Speaker 4: We are a global organization. We are worldwide. We have
Speaker 4: offices in Asia, we have offices in Europe, America, Canada.
Speaker 3: Okay, yep, that's great.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to make sure, and we have people
Speaker 2: listening to our show, by the way, all over the
Speaker 2: world on the internet, so maybe we'll generate some business
Speaker 2: for you. You certainly know what you do, and I appreciate
Speaker 2: you taking the time to talk with us.
Speaker 3: Tonight, particularly in Friday Night.
Speaker 2: Derek OLIVERA he's a global consultant for Isaissa dot Com.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it, Derek, Thank.
Speaker 4: You much, my pleasure.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Okay, talk to you again. We get back on to
Speaker 2: talk about a bit of a dust up in Worcester.
Speaker 2: The Worcester Zoning Board has rejected the construction of a
Speaker 2: seventy five foot digital billboard that neighbors opposed. So they
Speaker 2: say you can't fight city hall. Well, this group of
Speaker 2: neighbors apparently did fight, or at least they they went
Speaker 2: to city Hall and they won. We're going to talk
Speaker 2: with Afton Pratt. She's the municipal government reporter for the
Speaker 2: Worcester Telegram and Gazette, a great newspaper. Will be back
Speaker 2: on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 7: It's Night Side with Boston's news radio Porright.
Speaker 2: Welcome back with us is Afton Pratt works as a
Speaker 2: municipal government reporter for Worcester City for Worcester Telegram and Gazette.
Speaker 2: After I assume that means you're a city hall reporter,
Speaker 2: right Dan.
Speaker 8: I mostly cover city council and other city hall matters,
Speaker 8: So yeah, that's what I'm doing for the Telegram. Right now.
Speaker 2: Okay, it sounds fancy when it's municipal government reporter, but
Speaker 2: I'm thinking of the old city hall reporter. That's the Beat. Okay,
Speaker 2: so we're gonna talk about a Worcester zone. How long
Speaker 2: you've been with these telegramm the TNG, as we say.
Speaker 8: Uh, today marks three weeks actually, so pretty new to
Speaker 8: the Beat and the Telegram.
Speaker 2: Welcome three weeks and you're already on night side in
Speaker 2: the capital city.
Speaker 3: This is great. Where where did you work before Worster?
Speaker 3: Sure if I could ask?
Speaker 8: Well, I actually just graduated from grad school. I just
Speaker 8: got my master's in journalism, so I've been living in
Speaker 8: Tennessee for the past five years, but I'm from Massachusetts.
Speaker 8: So it's great to be back in a great tee,
Speaker 8: back in an area I love so much.
Speaker 2: Oh that's great. So I'm always curious how people get
Speaker 2: into business. Will pardon me for asking, but would you
Speaker 2: get the graduate degree?
Speaker 8: I got it from the University of Tennessee.
Speaker 3: So you're a volunteer, right, well they called the vaults.
Speaker 8: Yes, I am a huge Tennessee volunteer fan for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow, Peyton Manning's neck of the woods right, Yes, saw
Speaker 2: I'm on campus a few times walking to.
Speaker 8: Class, which is a pretty surreal experience.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: All right, so tell us about this. There was a
Speaker 2: company that wanted to put up a seventy five foot
Speaker 2: digital billboard which they were going to have I guess
Speaker 2: it was going to basically be seventy feet high so
Speaker 2: it could be seen by people with it on two
Speaker 2: ninety when the Master and.
Speaker 8: Park it was on to ninety I believe it was. Yeah,
Speaker 8: it was being placed right along a neighborhood that ran
Speaker 8: alongside the highway, which is why there was such an
Speaker 8: outcry from residents about it. You know, didn't want to
Speaker 8: have to see the digital billboard from their windows when
Speaker 8: they're trying to sleep at night.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's that is a big story for that neighborhood.
Speaker 3: The neighborhood in question that doesn't have it.
Speaker 2: You know sometimes there's like little sub sections of communities.
Speaker 2: It's part of Worcester. But was there a neighborhood name associated.
Speaker 3: With it or no?
Speaker 8: Yeah, what I went out. They also they're in the
Speaker 8: Indian Lake community and lived alongside the lake. A lot
Speaker 8: of them had property on the lake, which was another
Speaker 8: huge issue. Was you know, wanting to be out on
Speaker 8: the water and having this huge billboard from the lake
Speaker 8: that they could see, and you know, they didn't want
Speaker 8: that in their neighborhood. Didn't want to see it when
Speaker 8: they were trying to just enjoy a day out on
Speaker 8: Indian Lake.
Speaker 2: Now, sometimes these things happen all of a sudden, quietly,
Speaker 2: and people wake up one day and realize, what's this.
Speaker 2: Someone must have figured out there was something coming into
Speaker 2: the neighborhood. What's the backstory if you can share that
Speaker 2: with us.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I heard about it from a Facebook post actually
Speaker 8: made by a member of the community. So I went
Speaker 8: out there and talked to him and he put me
Speaker 8: in touch with some other people and who were featured
Speaker 8: in the article as well, But they said the same
Speaker 8: thing that they only had heard about it about a
Speaker 8: week prior to when the zoning Board of Appeals was
Speaker 8: having their meeting to decide whether to put it up.
Speaker 8: So it was a pretty quick turnaround time. It was
Speaker 8: not advertised well, a lot of people in the neighborhood
Speaker 8: didn't know about it, and then a few community members
Speaker 8: went out and spoke to people on the street and
Speaker 8: let them know what was happening. And you know, that's
Speaker 8: when people started getting upset about it.
Speaker 2: And I've never heard of this outdoor advertising companies called
Speaker 2: Ken Joe K. Does that have a footprint in the
Speaker 2: central Massachusetts area. Is that a fairly big outdoor advertising company.
Speaker 8: No, this would have been their first billboard in Massachusetts
Speaker 8: at all. I believe they were operating in other states.
Speaker 8: They're an established company, but they don't have any billboards
Speaker 8: or any property in Massachusetts. It would have been their
Speaker 8: first one.
Speaker 3: Wow. Wow.
Speaker 2: So these residents were able to take the fight to
Speaker 2: city hall. Does this look as if it's over or
Speaker 2: is Ken Joe threatening to try to go into court
Speaker 2: and overturn the ruling from the zoning board since the
Speaker 2: end of the story essentially is what I'm asking here.
Speaker 8: From what I saw from Kenjo at the meeting, I'm
Speaker 8: not sure if they'll appeal it. The zoning board gave
Speaker 8: them the option to withdraw the permit before they took
Speaker 8: a formal vote, and they chose not to, and then
Speaker 8: the zoning board took the formal vote. Everybody voted, know,
Speaker 8: so it's possible that they could go back and try
Speaker 8: to have it overturned, but I'm not sure currently if
Speaker 8: that will be what they end up doing, or if
Speaker 8: this is a done deal for them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they could have withdrawn.
Speaker 2: It without prejudice, which would have given an automatic chance
Speaker 2: to go back.
Speaker 3: I assume that that was the incentive.
Speaker 2: That might have been offered. Does the zoning board feel
Speaker 2: that this particular area is a residential area and a
Speaker 2: commercial enterprise like this is something that their vote will
Speaker 2: will withstand, you know again.
Speaker 3: Review judicial review.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the.
Speaker 8: Outdoor advertising company, when they were talking to the zoning board,
Speaker 8: they said one of the reasons they wanted to put
Speaker 8: that billboard there was because Wooster has pretty strict zoning
Speaker 8: laws on where billboards can and cannot go, and this
Speaker 8: was essentially one of the only areas in the city
Speaker 8: where it would have been allowed. But yeah, the zoning
Speaker 8: board and residents felt adamant that this shouldn't be the
Speaker 8: zoning laws in this area shouldn't allow for that, and
Speaker 8: the chairman of the zoning board, you know, let people
Speaker 8: know that this is something that could possibly changed if
Speaker 8: it goes through city council and everything, But right now,
Speaker 8: the zoning laws do allow for billboards to be there.
Speaker 2: So did the zoning or rather, did the billboard company
Speaker 2: go to residence and offer any mitigation.
Speaker 3: To them or anything.
Speaker 2: Was there any hey, if you do this, we'll make
Speaker 2: sure that the streets are plowed properly. Or was it
Speaker 2: just simply let's give it our best shot and see
Speaker 2: if we can get it past the zoning board.
Speaker 8: I didn't hear anything along those lines. I believe they
Speaker 8: said they talked to some residents. All the residents who
Speaker 8: showed up at the zoning board meeting said they hadn't
Speaker 8: been spoken to. It was new news to them. They
Speaker 8: hadn't been reached out to by the advertising company. So
Speaker 8: from what I gather, they hadn't really done anything in
Speaker 8: the neighborhood to try to get people on board with this.
Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to this, but I assumed
Speaker 2: that they would have been obligated to have given notice
Speaker 2: to at least the abutters, to the to the area
Speaker 2: that they were going to erect this billboard. So I mean,
Speaker 2: you just kind of go in and not tell people
Speaker 2: what's going on. You have to give them some notice
Speaker 2: and have to hopefully publicize it a little bit ahead
Speaker 2: of time. But it sounds to me like the homeowners
Speaker 2: have won, and hey, I wouldn't want it in my backyard.
Speaker 2: I certainly don't understand why anyone would want it in
Speaker 2: their backyard either. So uh, welcome to, welcome to, Welcome
Speaker 2: home to Massachusetts often, and hopefully we'll get a chance
Speaker 2: to do some more of these stories, because these are
Speaker 2: the best stories. They're they're they're close. I've done these
Speaker 2: stories as a TV reporter many years ago, and they're
Speaker 2: they're close to poll It's it's it's just it's that
Speaker 2: you really can get it as a reporter, really get
Speaker 2: the story behind the story, and that's what makes us
Speaker 2: so exciting.
Speaker 3: So thanks very much for this story. I enjoyed talking
Speaker 3: with him. We'll talk again, yeah.
Speaker 8: Of course, and thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3: You're welcome. You're welcome.
Speaker 2: When we get back, we're going to talk about restaurants,
Speaker 2: specifically noisy restaurants. We'll explain right after the news at
Speaker 2: the bottom of the air. I'm about a minute or
Speaker 2: so late, but we'll get We'll can't kill it up,
Speaker 2: I promise. We have two more guests, and then we
Speaker 2: go to our topics of the night coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 7: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Madison.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about restaurants and the clamor that
Speaker 2: apparently now is in too many restaurants in America. With
Speaker 2: us is Chris Burdick. Chris has written a book called Clamor,
Speaker 2: How Noise took Over the World and How We Can
Speaker 2: Take It Back. He's a science journalist, former staff editor
Speaker 2: at The Atlantic and Mother Jones.
Speaker 3: Chris, Welcome to Night Side.
Speaker 6: How are you, sir, I'm great, Dan, Thanks for having
Speaker 6: me here.
Speaker 3: You're very welcome. When did this book come out? Is
Speaker 3: this recent?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it just came out in May.
Speaker 3: Good. That's great. Well, it doesn't matter to me.
Speaker 2: Some I don't care if a book is five years
Speaker 2: old or five weeks old. I think it's important, and
Speaker 2: particularly when it's new. And frankly, I sometimes a lot
Speaker 2: of the questions I ask during these interviews, As you know,
Speaker 2: there's no script of questions here. So let's start off
Speaker 2: with the book is How Noise took Over the World
Speaker 2: and How we Can Take it Back. But it looks
Speaker 2: to me like the piece we're doing here is an
Speaker 2: opinion piece on how restaurants got so noisy. Explain to
Speaker 2: me we're kind of drilling down here. If we're going
Speaker 2: to focus on restaurants, tell us about it.
Speaker 6: Sure, well, you know, the book is focusing on how
Speaker 6: noise took over the world, and there are two parts
Speaker 6: of that. One is just more and more people. It's
Speaker 6: just math, you know, more people were living closer together,
Speaker 6: using more and more noise, producing stuff, more roads, more airplanes.
Speaker 6: But we've compounded that by what I call sonic shortsightedness.
Speaker 6: And that's where things like restaurant noise come into play.
Speaker 6: Where we've made choices when we design our buildings and
Speaker 6: when we plan our restaurants, when we build our cities
Speaker 6: that have just been not aware about the noise that
Speaker 6: we're going to create. So with restaurants, this was in
Speaker 6: the nineties a decision or a number of decisions to
Speaker 6: follow a trend to take all the upholstery out, to
Speaker 6: take all the sound absorbing carpeting and drapes. Everything is
Speaker 6: a hard surface, so that makes the sound just bounce
Speaker 6: around endlessly. And then another decision was to bring the
Speaker 6: kitchens out from behind the walls and put them in
Speaker 6: the middle of everybody. And then another one was to
Speaker 6: increase the energy by cranking up the the music.
Speaker 2: So well, you were you're absolutely right, But wasn't that
Speaker 2: just those were the trends of the day. I mean,
Speaker 2: I knew that. I knew a restaurant where all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, there was like an open pit in the
Speaker 2: middle of the restaurant and you looked at it, and
Speaker 2: when you went there the first time, you thought, wow,
Speaker 2: that's pretty cool. It's interesting. You watch the chefs, you
Speaker 2: see them cook all of that. But the other thing is, look,
Speaker 2: I can remember my favorite restaurants from like the seventies,
Speaker 2: when I was just coming of age and I had
Speaker 2: enough money that I could actually go to a nice
Speaker 2: restaurant or take someone to a nice restaurant, and you'd
Speaker 2: have carpeting and they'd be drapes, and you just felt
Speaker 2: it almost felt like home. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: like in the nineties, it seemed all of those great
Speaker 2: restaurants disappeared, and we ended up with a lot of
Speaker 2: restaurants that have good food. Don't get me wrong, but
Speaker 2: you know again, you're right, it's all plastic. Tables are
Speaker 2: on linoleum floors, and whenever someone moved the chair, you
Speaker 2: could hear the squeak of the chair and the ceilings.
Speaker 2: You're yeah, but I just viewed it, and I watched it,
Speaker 2: but I just thought, well, this was the new trend,
Speaker 2: and whoever was all change for the sake of change?
Speaker 3: Unless if I'm totally wrong, please tell.
Speaker 6: Me no, you're right. I mean, it was the trend,
Speaker 6: and you know, it was just a matter of when
Speaker 6: people were doing this, they didn't have the wherewithal or
Speaker 6: the thought to It's easy to understand kind of the
Speaker 6: drama of having the kitchen in the middle of the place.
Speaker 6: That's cool. To have the look of a you know,
Speaker 6: fifteen foot window with you know, the exposed ceiling. All
Speaker 6: of that is kind of intuitive. You can draw that
Speaker 6: out an artistic architectural rendering that makes intuitive sense. But
Speaker 6: to kind of understand what that's going to sound like
Speaker 6: when you have five hundred people in there eating and
Speaker 6: you've you've cranked up that music that everybody loves, and
Speaker 6: then what happens is called the Lombard effect, which is
Speaker 6: kind of this automatic thing that we do when things
Speaker 6: get loud, we start raising our voice to get over that,
Speaker 6: you know, and then that just that adds to allowed.
Speaker 2: Me, well, everybody, Yeah, if you're at a Celtics basketball
Speaker 2: game or a Bruins hockey game. It's not a library,
Speaker 2: and you you're sitting next to somebody and talking about
Speaker 2: it and wats that play over there. Everybody's raising their voices, so,
Speaker 2: you know, But you go to a restaurant not because
Speaker 2: you want to be in a hockey game or a
Speaker 2: basketball game or a baseball game. You go because you
Speaker 2: want to be able to talk to the other person
Speaker 2: across the table or on you know, if you've got
Speaker 2: four people at a table, that there can be a
Speaker 2: conversation that everyone can hear, and if they if you
Speaker 2: do have music or whatever, I find for example, Uh,
Speaker 2: the worst places that I go to a gym and
Speaker 2: the music that that is picked, there's no there's no
Speaker 2: music as far as I'm concerned, other than disco that
Speaker 2: everybody's gonna like. But I'm told, young people, don't, you know,
Speaker 2: give me Donna summers all day long, you know. And
Speaker 2: but but someone else is going to want to, you know,
Speaker 2: want other other type music.
Speaker 3: And it's always loud. It's always loud.
Speaker 2: So I got my earplugs and I'm trying to watch
Speaker 2: TV and listen to TV and all, you.
Speaker 5: Know, all all of that.
Speaker 3: But restaurants, do you think at some point.
Speaker 2: Some restaurants. There's a restaurant outside of you. You you're
Speaker 2: not from our area, correct, Chris, where are you located?
Speaker 6: No, I'm from Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm local.
Speaker 3: I mean, okay, so let.
Speaker 2: Me mention it Ken Steakhouse on Route nine in framing him.
Speaker 6: Okay, that hasn't changed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great restaurant. Uh, it hasn't changed. Uh
Speaker 2: in a long time. The men used the same I
Speaker 2: remember the great restaurants in Boston from the seventies, the
Speaker 2: eighties and the nineties, Anthony's and Jimmy's down in the waterfront. Now,
Speaker 2: obviously they change the seaport and and and the value
Speaker 2: of the land. The land became more valuable than the restaurant.
Speaker 2: But there were great restaurants that just disappear. And sometimes
Speaker 2: my feeling is, why is it that always it seems
Speaker 2: to be the best restaurants are the ones that disappear first.
Speaker 2: The lousy restaurants that are rip offs for some reason,
Speaker 2: they stay in business.
Speaker 3: It's one of my pet peeves. Have you noticed that
Speaker 3: or or am I just cranky?
Speaker 6: I don't know. Yeah, you know, it's a it's a
Speaker 6: tough business, and I think a lot of them. Uh,
Speaker 6: you know, it's hard for anybody to hold on in
Speaker 6: that in that in that business. So I don't know,
Speaker 6: I haven't noticed that particular trend.
Speaker 2: Well, it seems to me that the restaurants that I
Speaker 2: like the best are the ones that go out of business.
Speaker 2: Uh And and generally, what I'm looking for is exactly
Speaker 2: what you're talking about. A place where you can go
Speaker 2: and there's enough space between the tables. You pay maybe
Speaker 2: a little extra, but there's enough space. They're not cramming
Speaker 2: you in so that every time you move your chair
Speaker 2: you're bumping into the person at the next table, who.
Speaker 3: You have no idea who they are. That's another thing.
Speaker 2: They crowd more people into the room, which has to
Speaker 2: contribute to the noise level as well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it sure does, because then you're getting the cross talk,
Speaker 6: and that's one of the hardest thing. It's not just
Speaker 6: the decibel level, it's also the number of voices that
Speaker 6: you're trying to contend with because your brain has to
Speaker 6: sit through that to kind of focus on the voice
Speaker 6: that you want to hear. So that is an extra challenge.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The corollary of that is you're on the airplane, and
Speaker 2: the plane has yet to take off. And the guy
Speaker 2: who's sitting next to you across the aisle, he has
Speaker 2: to have his he has to make his final phone call.
Speaker 2: He context or anything like that, but he has to
Speaker 2: make his final phone call, and he has to impress
Speaker 2: upon as many people as he can.
Speaker 3: This is a big deal.
Speaker 1: Now, you know, I want to get this thing done
Speaker 1: before six o'clock tonight.
Speaker 3: So I want you, guys by tomline Land, where are
Speaker 3: we going? Oh yeah, in Toronto, that this thing better
Speaker 3: be on my jest. You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And you realize that the guy's probably not talking to anybody,
Speaker 2: He's just making making himself themselves sounds important. And I
Speaker 2: look at those guys and like, really really anyway, But
Speaker 2: that that that comes down to the ignorance quot that
Speaker 2: I think more and more people are allowing to invade
Speaker 2: their their their their personal space. Chris, let's hope for
Speaker 2: better and more quiet uh and and just better restaurants,
Speaker 2: better dining experiences, and yeah.
Speaker 6: From from your lips to God's ears.
Speaker 2: Then all right, now, look, let's let's plug the book again.
Speaker 2: Clamor How Noise took over the World and how we
Speaker 2: can take it back. That's available. I assume Amazon, do
Speaker 2: you have a website people can go to Chris, let's
Speaker 2: sell some books here, go ahead.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, sure, it is available anywhere books are sold.
Speaker 6: But a one stop shop if you want to have
Speaker 6: your pick is at www dot Chris Burdick dot com.
Speaker 3: And Burdick is b E R D I K.
Speaker 2: And by the way, as I tell everyone that www thing,
Speaker 2: that's so nineties. We don't need that anymore. Just Chris
Speaker 2: Berdick dot com. Keep it simple, okay, Chris, I enjoyed
Speaker 2: the conversation. You're you're selling, you're selling. We'd get along. Thanks, Thanks,
Speaker 2: my friend. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, thank Manright, good night, we get back.
Speaker 2: We're going to have a special extended summer traffic report
Speaker 2: for all of you. I know many of you out
Speaker 2: right now are heading to the Cape. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk about next hour. There's an interesting piece in the
Speaker 2: Globe today written by a guy named Billy Baker who's
Speaker 2: on the Globe staff. The headline is Cape cod Worth
Speaker 2: the miserable traffic. You bet it is, Billy. We'll we'll
Speaker 2: talk about that and we'll get a traffic update from
Speaker 2: one of the most aptly named traffic reporters in the
Speaker 2: history of traffic reporting. Zach Transport coming up, and then
Speaker 2: later on tonight we'll talk about the Supreme Court decians
Speaker 2: and at eleven tonight, I'm looking for some positive stories
Speaker 2: at that's our twentieth hour. I want to know something
Speaker 2: that might have happened to you this week where someone
Speaker 2: helped you. I have a story to tell where a
Speaker 2: guy helped me last Sunday night. I'll explain that some
Speaker 2: of you have heard it already, but it was an
Speaker 2: extraordinary It was almost as if my guardian angel was
Speaker 2: on my shoulder that night. And I'm sure you've had
Speaker 2: some similar experiences. So we're gonna have a lot of
Speaker 2: fun right now between now and midnight. Stick with us.
Speaker 2: My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside. Rob Brooks is here.
Speaker 2: When you call, the first person you talk to is
Speaker 2: Rob Brooks. Second person tonight you'll be talking to is me.
Speaker 2: Because we have no guests lined up tonight, it's you,
Speaker 2: me and Rob Brooks and tens of thousands of people
Speaker 2: listening to us. Don't be intimidating back on Nightside after this.
Speaker 1: If you're on night Side with Dan Ray, I'm w BZ,
Speaker 1: Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get right to I guess the aptly
Speaker 2: named Zach Transport, WBC traffic reporter. Zach, When did you
Speaker 2: change your last name to Transport?
Speaker 5: Hey, Dan, how you doing? No, I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 5: You know, my last name has always been Transport. Surprisingly,
Speaker 5: you know, with my family name, we've had it. I
Speaker 5: believe I was told by my family. We've had it
Speaker 5: since they came over on Ellis Islands, so we've had
Speaker 5: it forever. And it was that before we came over
Speaker 5: there too, so there was no changeover as well. So
Speaker 5: that is the original name. I am Zach Transport. I
Speaker 5: am a traffic reporter and that's what I do every
Speaker 5: single day, and I love it.
Speaker 2: I heard that you changed your last name to Transport
Speaker 2: and your last name was Storo drive.
Speaker 5: That I think that might be an ugly rumor. Dan, absolutely, Yeah.
Speaker 2: All right, So let's let's take a quick look at
Speaker 2: how we're doing tonight. This is Friday night. Yeah, ten
Speaker 2: minutes of nine people are on the pike heading west
Speaker 2: to the Berkshires. Theeople are heading north to New Hampshire,
Speaker 2: Vermont and Maine. They're heading south to New York Walk
Speaker 2: to uh and of course to the Cape. Yes, how's
Speaker 2: it look out there right now?
Speaker 3: It's a nice night.
Speaker 5: I mean, it is a pretty nice night out there.
Speaker 5: You know, it's really not too bad getting out to
Speaker 5: the Berkshires, which you know, I do love the berk
Speaker 5: Shares out there. It's really sweet out there, a very
Speaker 5: beautiful area. Especially you have tangle wood, all sorts of
Speaker 5: great stuff out there. You know, it's it's pretty good
Speaker 5: right now getting down to the Cape too. But you know,
Speaker 5: I do have a couple of things to talk about
Speaker 5: with the Cape. You know, everybody knows the Sagamore and
Speaker 5: the Born bridges are always rough to get over, you know,
Speaker 5: getting over those bridges. But right now it does look
Speaker 5: pretty good. But the thing about the Born and the
Speaker 5: and the the Sagamore Bridge, we did have a thing
Speaker 5: many years ago. Now, the Sagamore got that update with
Speaker 5: the flyover that was supposed to cut down the trip
Speaker 5: over the Sagamore Bridge, and I think it's done a
Speaker 5: pretty good job.
Speaker 2: Dan Uh, Okay, you know I go to the Cape.
Speaker 2: I go to the Cape pretty often. As a matter
Speaker 2: of fact, next hour I'm gonna talk about is it
Speaker 2: interesting piece in the Globe today, since you're a traffic guy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was written by a fellow I don't know him,
Speaker 2: and we invited him to join us as schedule would
Speaker 2: and permitted. Billy Baker, who's on the Globe staff is
Speaker 2: Cape cod Worth. The miserable traffic and the subheadline was
Speaker 2: even after four sublime days in Chatham and on Nantucket.
Speaker 3: Chatham and Nantucket. I mean, that's not bad.
Speaker 2: A Globe writer isn't all that sure, So we'll have
Speaker 2: some we'll have.
Speaker 5: Some fun with that, absolutely, that's sure.
Speaker 2: And of course there will be some repairs done on
Speaker 2: both the Born and the Sagamore.
Speaker 5: That's exactly right. There's a couple of projects coming up
Speaker 5: to do some major repairs on the Bourn Bridge and
Speaker 5: the Sagamore Bridge, and they're going to do replacements pretty much,
Speaker 5: I think, building right next to those bridges so that
Speaker 5: folks will be able to get over the bridges and
Speaker 5: onto the cape, so that they can still experience the
Speaker 5: beautiful beaches while not being disrupted there. I mean, you
Speaker 5: will get that disruption of course with the traffic, you know,
Speaker 5: with these repairs and stuff with the construction. But you know,
Speaker 5: right now we are seeing too, you know, I think
Speaker 5: the patterns have changed a little bit as well, at
Speaker 5: least done from what I've been told, because of people
Speaker 5: working remotely as well. So we're seeing people. The busiest
Speaker 5: days of being Thursday actually with folks getting down there,
Speaker 5: and then Fridays too, you know, we have our the
Speaker 5: late mornings early afternoons are very busy with folks you know,
Speaker 5: getting there. And then something too is is Saturdays. You
Speaker 5: know a lot of time that's the changeovers for for
Speaker 5: rentals that people have on Cape, so people have that
Speaker 5: that to count for as well. So best thing really
Speaker 5: to do actually is flip on BZ and we'll have
Speaker 5: a traffic report for you every ten minutes and then
Speaker 5: we'll be able to get you where you need to
Speaker 5: go getting on and off Cape and also getting out
Speaker 5: and around the rest of great New England states, you know,
Speaker 5: like New England, New Hampshire. Like you said, we have
Speaker 5: folks getting up there, and some great beaches out there too,
Speaker 5: and some beaches out in Rhode Island too as folks
Speaker 5: head down. So yeah, we will be here to help
Speaker 5: you out get get where you need to go.
Speaker 2: And notice, by the way, folks how Zach slipped that
Speaker 2: promo in there. I mean, that was very professionally done, Zeal.
Speaker 2: Thank you very professionally. I think call one thing you said,
Speaker 2: I just want to make sure I understand that.
Speaker 3: Sure. So when they do the replacements for.
Speaker 2: The Sagamore and the Bourne, Yes, they're going to actually
Speaker 2: build new bridges and then eventually take down the old bridges.
Speaker 3: Is that the plan.
Speaker 2: It's not like they're going to turn uh, you know,
Speaker 2: the the current bridges, just repair the current bridges and
Speaker 2: maybe for a while have only one lane of traffic
Speaker 2: going in each direction, and there's two lanes of traffic
Speaker 2: in each direction. Now they're actually going to build separate
Speaker 2: bridges over a period of time.
Speaker 5: I think they were doing something similar to what was
Speaker 5: done in New York with the with the Cuomo Bridge
Speaker 5: when they redid that where they built it old tap
Speaker 5: and z Yes, were they built right next to the
Speaker 5: bridge exactly?
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, well that'll be good because the only problem
Speaker 2: there will be all the people who will will slow down.
Speaker 2: It's like the problem when when there's an automobile accident.
Speaker 2: I love it that, you know, the people slow down.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, the car look at that. Mabel, look
Speaker 3: at the car. There's a boys car there. Slow down.
Speaker 3: I know it's on the other side, but they got
Speaker 3: the blue lights on. Whoa look at Oh that was horrible.
Speaker 2: And people are behind them honked and get going you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know they'll be going over the bridges.
Speaker 3: Let me see. Let me slow down here and see how.
Speaker 5: Much Yeah, let me see how much progress it has
Speaker 5: been done. Let me see what they've been doing about.
Speaker 3: And Mabel, can you take a couple of pictures out
Speaker 3: the window.
Speaker 2: I know you don't know how to work the cell phone,
Speaker 2: but just give it a shot.
Speaker 3: Oh no, you drop the cell phone up? We got.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, exactly exactly. You know, it's just it's just amazing.
Speaker 2: So so the commute, uh tomorrow morning, yes, Saturday morning,
Speaker 2: is that gonna be the tough commute?
Speaker 5: Yeah, Saturday morning is always bad because that's when, like
Speaker 5: I said, those rental health companies do the changeover for
Speaker 5: checking and check out. But you also have people who,
Speaker 5: you know, they wait till the last min They're like,
Speaker 5: I don't know, do I want to pack the car?
Speaker 5: Do I put the chairs?
Speaker 3: And we do?
Speaker 5: We have enough time for one more beach Session's right, yeah.
Speaker 5: And then also people coming you know, down if they're
Speaker 5: if they're going for a long trip, you know, and
Speaker 5: they're coming let's say they're coming in from from Natick
Speaker 5: or something I don't know, coming in, you know, they
Speaker 5: want to go in. There's always trouble at the brain
Speaker 5: Tree split. Right, there's traffic down there by that lane
Speaker 5: drop in in Weymouth there because people at Derby Stream.
Speaker 5: No one knows how to efficiently merge in there. So
Speaker 5: there's always these like trouble spots that you look for.
Speaker 5: You look on you know, ninety five as you get
Speaker 5: down there's a couple of different ways that folks can
Speaker 5: get down there coming in from from Western mass you know,
Speaker 5: and there's signs all over the place. Again, like I said,
Speaker 5: BEZ will help you out, but a couple of those
Speaker 5: trouble spots to really look out for the brain Tree Split.
Speaker 5: And then again basically if you're I don't know, like
Speaker 5: if you're if you have if you're having trouble about
Speaker 5: where you want to decide where you want to go,
Speaker 5: and you're coming in from four ninety five, you have
Speaker 5: a quick second to make a decision at forty four
Speaker 5: if you want to take the sagamore or if you
Speaker 5: want to take the born, and so if you stay
Speaker 5: on forty four, you'll be able to take the sagamore
Speaker 5: and avoid the born rotary, which I would always do.
Speaker 5: I like avoiding the rotary because I don't know rotaries.
Speaker 5: I don't know. It gets me because you get in there,
Speaker 5: you're like, oh is it my turn? I don't know.
Speaker 5: You think it's return And then there's someone who comes
Speaker 5: in at the last set.
Speaker 3: So the key, the key to are you from New England?
Speaker 5: Originally I am not from New England.
Speaker 3: Okay, here's the key, Zach.
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you right now as you go
Speaker 2: into the rotary. The worst thing you can do is
Speaker 2: slow down. The second worst thing you can do is
Speaker 2: look to your left, because once they lock eyes on you,
Speaker 2: just go full speed ahead. Doesn't matter. They'll get out
Speaker 2: of you. It works every time. I'm only joking. I'm
Speaker 2: only joking. You have to be very careful, absolutely very.
Speaker 5: Very careful, very very careful, and always follow the signs.
Speaker 2: Hey, Zach, I appreciate it very very much. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much for joining us, and we'll talk again.
Speaker 5: You're luck absolutely, thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Dan.
Speaker 2: All Right, when we get back, we're going to carry
Speaker 2: the whole topic of the Cape traffic. Bill Baker Billy
Speaker 2: Baker in the Boston Globe Today wrote a piece, is
Speaker 2: Cape card worth the miserable traffic? I'll explain the piece.
Speaker 2: I disagree, mister Baker. I really do wish we could
Speaker 2: have had you on tonight, but I want to hear
Speaker 2: from you, particularly if you're in the car and if
Speaker 2: you're heading to the Cape.
Speaker 3: Of course, the Cape is worth it.
Speaker 2: And I will make the argument and win the argument
Speaker 2: because no one else is going to argue against me
Speaker 2: on this one. We're coming back right after the nine
Speaker 2: o'clock news