Link:
With state officials expected to soon announce plans to build the GreenLine extension to Somerville and Medford, reaction in those citiesdiffered dramatically yesterday.
While Somerville officials were ecstatic about the project, Medford officials were cautious.
Yeah, I mean, the T has really messed up everyplace else it’s been, like Davis Square or East Arlington …
You have an incredible unification and support for this," saidSomerville’s mayor, Joseph A. Curtatone. ”I understand the concerns ofthe Medford residents, but they need to look at what the Red Line didto Davis Square. Davis Square was a dump, and now it’s thriving."
Seriously, what’s wrong with those nervous Nellies in Medford? (David, can you fill me in?) Is it really a matter of parking in West Medford? That seems like a solvable problem any number of ways, from parking permits to new lots. And Medford really needs a few T stops — getting around there without a car (or with) has always been a pain. Won’t the T take cars *off* the streets?
It has always seemed to me that Medford is one of the towns that does population density pretty well, warehousing middle-class folks in decent highrises and other relatively small-footprint housing developments. So much the better if they have more and faster ways (i.e. trains) to get to work.
And this is really pretty cool:
According to Stephen Mackey, president of the Somerville Chamber ofCommerce, the Green Line extension is predicted to create 7,000 housingunits, and 25,000 or more jobs in 7 million square feet of newcommercial development, largely around the Inner Belt and Brick Bottomareas of the city, both near the Boston-Cambridge line.
The areas adjoin the $2 billion-plus North Point development in EastCambridge, a planned community of housing, office buildings, lab andretail space on 45 acres of what is now railyards and industrial space.
I’ve been wondering when we were going to use that space properly. 7,000 housing units is a big deal. With the space crunch in this area, maximizing what we have is that much more important. And we don’t do as good a job of it as even places like Chicago, which has tons of decent, relatively affordable high-rise housing.
Come on folks, do the deal.
Update: Chris at Left Center Left makes a connection to some of our other posts that I actually hadn’t thought of myself… (weird, it’s like he’s inside my head!)
How could they possibly refuse? LMAOMy husband wonders often what the MBTA could have done with 1/4 or less of the funds used for the Big Dig – how much better would the public transit system be if we’d invested that money into it? Bang for buck, I bet it’d have been spectacular.Here in Lowell, they’re gearing up for a revamp of the LRTA bus routes…taking an unused parking lot at the Gallagher Terminal (the commuter rail station) and turning it into three rows of busstops. All the buses, I’m told, will terminate there instead of downtown, a huge improvement. Hopefully they carefully consider the new schedule as well, and maybe have some buses running past 6pm…
The railroad crossing at the West Medford commuter rail stop is a disaster – there are endless studies being conducted on how to make it better and nothing ever happens. But it is routinely rated as one of the most dangerous crossings in the state because of the large number of trains that go through it combined with the large amount of pedestrian and vehicle traffic that cross it (I believe it even makes national “most dangerous” lists). And the traffic jams it causes (esp. at rush hour) are surprisingly awful for a little square like West Medford. And the parking thing is real, since people who don’t live within walking distance need to get from their homes to the nearest T stop. Result: people drive from all over the place to get to the T stop, leave their cars in West Medford all day, and pick them up when they’re coming home. New parking lots? Forget it – nowhere to put them. Permits? Not sure what good that would do. A number of streets near the stop are already “resident only,” which simply forces commuters to find different streets to park on, until those streets get sick of it and become “resident only” (or the equivalent “no parking 7am-9am,” another way of keeping commuters out) as well. Public transit assuredly keeps some cars off the streets, but others it just moves around, concentrating them near T stops with on-street parking rather than in parking garages downtown.I’m not saying I’m necessarily agin’ the Green Line coming out this way. I am saying that the issues raised by Mayor McGlynn (who I like quite a lot) and others are real and need to be thought through carefully. My understanding is that everyone supports extending the Green Line into Medford at least to Tufts; the only dispute is how much further it should go.
I guess I’m not really sure that a Green Line extension would make the problem much worse than it is now, since there’s already a commuter stop there. (Maybe they should connect it to Alewife, and create the WORLD’S LARGEST PARKING COMPLEX there).They should really dig and cover that West Medford crossing, no doubt.In general, it’s better for those cars to be in West Medford than to drive all the way downtown. I can’t blame Medfordians for not preferring that solution, though.
I just know I’m for the expansion of the Green Line because it could mean more employment for my husband. ;)All right, I’ve gone and done it (and it was FAR too damn easy…man, does DNS ever propagate quick these days). My new experiment in blogging is at http://www.leftinlowell.com. You may or may not see it yet, if the DNS isn’t through propagating.It’ll look a lot better in the future, but I really do need to get some real work done today. đŸ™‚
Hrm, Left in Lowell … is that like the Tim LaHaye Left Behind series?
Actually, I sorta liked the name, because there are a lot of people in Lowell that feel left behind, or left out. We have a lot of immigrants and poor who are underrepresented. Actually, I’ll have a post on that sometime…complete with a map if I can get my electronic hands on it.Not to mention, it goes with my other website, “localinlowell.com” (I’ll start a series! Yay me!) That one is for a small business directory I’m creating to try and get people to “shop local”. (It’s a MUCH more major project than starting a blog…sighs)
Actually, there’s a fairly good reason that some people are nervous about MBTA extensions: anywhere that a stop appears, housing prices skyrocket for half a mile in all directions.
Jake, as far as Somerville is concerned, that horse has already left the barn. The appreciation from T stops nearby can’t possibly compare to what we’ve already seen in the last five years. I suppose it would make a difference if the market crashes hard in the next several years, because Somerville has appreciated further and faster than other towns and has that much further down to go because it has institutional disadvantages compared to other places.
Kerry Healey announced the Green Line extension at a press conference in Union Square, Somerville this morning. Also new stations on the Fairmont line in Dorchester, improved commuter rail parking, and 2x service to Worcester.The state is dropping the Arborway restoration project and the Red Line-Blue Line connector.