NStar crew at Langley/Beacon on March 30, 2011

It isn't the case that NStar is entirely to blame for the blight of double telephone and electric poles around town, so let's start right out by saying that Newtoncenter.com is not assigning blame to the guys who string the wires. On the other hand, in a well-run city (or an authoritarian city, take your pick) -- think Chicago, New York, even Boston -- with a mayor who has some cojones, it would work like this: Mayor: (thinks to himself, driving around town) Look at all these double poles*. This place looks like the freakin' South Bronx.

*Double Pole = two telephone poles bolted together. Incredibly ugly. When a pole fails (like, when it gets bent because too many wires cause it to keel over) the company that owns the pole puts in a new one, moves its wires to the new one, but if there are any 'foreign' wires on the old one, cuts off the old pole and attaches it (with the foreign wires) as an 'outrigger'. This is caused because one company (NStar, the electric company) can't touch the wires belonging to the other company on the same pole (Verizon.) In Newton, half the poles are owned by NStar and the other half are owned by Verizon. Each company has so-called 'poleage' rights - as regulated utilities, they are allowed to use the other company's poles to run their wires. Comcast and RCN also have poleage rights, but don't own poles themselves.

Anyway, back to the story:

Mayor : Hey, Assistant! Get the boyos from Verizon and NStar in here for a meeting.

Assistant: Right, boss! Right away, boss!

(later that same day: Mayor's office. Mayor, Nstar exec, Verizon Exec sitting around drinking latte and chatting.)

Mayor: I get that you can't touch his wires. But howcum you can cut off his pole and move it, then? Seems inconsistent to me.

Verizon exec: We can't have any downtime! Only trained people can touch our wires!

NStar guy: Yeah! What he said! Plus, we're understaffed!

Mayor: Ok, boys, here's how its gonna work. You claim to be understaffed and I agree, you are. But it takes 4 times longer to do the job the way you're doing it now, so that argument also makes no sense to me. So, figure out a way right now to let each other work on (that is, move) wires from pole to pole regardless of who owns them. If necessary have an inspector from each company at every job. But read my lips. No More Double Poles! And get to work getting rid of all the old double poles in town ASAP whenever you see one. Here's a list of 'em. (slaps list on table)

Oh, and by the way? If this takes longer than it should, like two weeks, then forget about getting any details from our police, and get ready for every single thing you want to do in the town of Newton to go under "extensive environmental review." Cause I'll bust your balls.(winks)

Nstar guy and Verizon exec: Yes boss! Right away boss!

And, as it is written, so it shall be done.

Raw Material

Finished! Pride in Workmanship, The American Way.

After shooting this, Newtoncenter.com strolled around town taking a few more photos of local double poles.

Another example. Note the bottom 'air gap'.

That green box is the only thing still on the old pole (left).

One of our favorites. The old pole is in the paved thoroughfare!

This classic example of 'temporary' has been in place for at least 4 years.

HOW TO READ A TELEPHONE POLE
The highest-voltage wires are on top, and voltage decreases as you get closer to the ground. Hence, the 480V lines are usually on the extreme top, and the lowest tier is cable or FiOS fiber for internet and television.