The documentation on the developer plans for 16 Clarke Street indicates that Raymond and Clarke Street are two-way streets (except for the Mass. Ave. corner, which is one way). As a resident of Raymond St. since 1980, I can assure you this is a misnomer. The streets are jammed with cars trying to park and get through most of the time. It is impossible for cars to pass each other in opposite directions when there are cars parked on the side, which is most of the time. With lots of maneuvering and curb jumping to try to stay out of oncoming traffic, and not to be hit by a car, cars can get by each other.
There is a reason my children, starting back in 1982, were not allowed to ride the school bus on Raymond St.: because it is too narrow for the bus to get through — and that was before the town put curbs in, which made the traffic situation worse. That was when Susie was in kindergarten and she was supposed to have a bus on her street.
You cannot enter Clark St. from by the statue because that portion of Clark is a one-way street. In fact, both Raymond and Clark Streets function as one-way streets and are impassible most of the time as two-way egresses. Two-way streets? This impacts the historic district dramatically because the massive traffic congestion is occurring feet and yards from the Minuteman statue and Belfry Hill. Even a school bus is not allowed down Raymond as per the enclosed photos taken on a Thursday at 11:30 a.m. in the morning — you can see the single car takes up most of the road. All the parking spaces are full most of the time.
This impacts the historic district further by making access to the statue and to Belfry Hill by tourists — and to and from the library by residents — difficult. In some cases, it makes access to the historical park zone from tourist buses impossible. If there are cars waiting to run you over all the time, this is not a very pleasant on what is supposed to be a historically-realistic visit.
The new building would conservatively add 330 auto transits per day to an already very congested area. It would create massive backups on Raymond St., making it virtually impassible for the people who use the street now to go to the library, the tea house, karate, doctor visits, and many other destinations in that area. The offices on Raymond and Muzzy Street already fill the streets; what does it do to add 330 more cars to that current usage? Parking is now impossible on these streets. What does it do to add 150 new cars to an already one-way street parking situation? The only way to navigate Raymond and the back section of Clark is to pull off sometimes to go up on the curb. This does not make a two-way street.