Fresh Pond Mall — Local services in Cambridge

I went to school above the McDonalds. I volunteered for Friends of the Alewife above the McDonalds. The Smoke shop next to the McDonalds is closed.

Down from the McDonalds is Whole Food, where the Mom of my classmate from above the McDonalds made the very best food.

There was a girl at the Petco two stores down from the McDonalds who worked there purely to take care of the animals. She was good-hearted and maybe would have found her people in Bay Area. But she should take all the animals with her, especially ferrets. I got guinea pig food here. ... Ferret interlude- RPI, ferret on the loose behind the ancient heater pipes in the kitchen. Was that Hong? ... Not for nothing but I have the McDonalds App and am madly devoted to this store and everybody in it.

Watch out to not moosh the wooly bears when you go down the secret woodland path from rte 16, and enjoy the homemade stairs that replace the sideways shopping cart which prevents you from spraining your ankle when you jump off the wall to the...

Through the years of being a student, an instructor, a lecturer and working on a thesis, with very little money to spend and a home to set up and life to survive, this was one of the places that helped make it.

Zayers is now closed, but then was a reasonable place to find household things and clothes with very reasonable prices. Later there was a first of the series of stores that had good clothes and some brand names on offer for half or less, so dressing oneself in slightly upmarket clothes was less painful. Marshalls and other stores with similar low prices - Target for one, Ross another, but then not on east coast or at least not in Boston - I discovered later, but those days not that much was possible on public transport.

And being close to Fresh Pond it was possible to have a nice walk in good...

The outside part of the property needs a facelift. The parking lot is dark at night, and there are so many variables with the flow of traffic. I drive slow and still, people come from every direction. Yesterday a person on foot had come walking straight into the parking lot from what might be a hole in the fence. It's a dark corner and it's on the side where the hotel is. There's greenery along the fence that obscures any person approaching and a driver can only see them when they are almost right in front of the car. Pedestrians don't have good access until they get to the one marked path that leads to the Whole Foods. Maybe they could paint another pedestrian walkway or crosswalk. And put in lighting that evenly covers the...