Green Line extension community meetings

[cos]

The Green Line Extension is currently planning the new route and T stop locations. Locations under consideration are in or around Brickbottom, Union Square, central Somerville (Ball Square, Magoun Square), Tufts, and Mystic Valley Parkway / west Medford. They're holding a series of community meetings starting this week to discuss the possible routes & station locations and find out what people want.

The web site has a flyer [PDF] listing the meetings and summarizing what they're about:

• Mon, Jan 28, Somerville High - focusing on stations proposed for Washington Street, Gilman Square, and Inner Belt/Brickbottom neighborhoods.


• Tue, Jan 29, VNA - Magoun Square and Ball Square neighborhoods


• Thu, Jan 31, Tufts - College Ave & Winthrop Street neighborhoods, including Tufts campus


• Wed, Feb 6, South Medford Fire Station - Mystic Valley Parkway area


• Tue, Feb 19, Cummings School - Union Square area

Do you want a T stop on the Tufts campus? It could happen, but it's not certain, so make it more likely by showing up at the meeting and saying so!

Comments

[etana.livejournal.com]

Fuck Tufts. I want a stop on Highland Avenue, preferably in front of my house. Then I'd go to Union Square more often, dammit!

[cos]

Which of these will you go to?

They're proposing three different possible routes for the line, and Union Square may be a separate spur (the way Ashmont/Braintree on the red and B/C/D/E on the green are).

[ron_newman]

Union Square will definitely be a separate spur, since the alternative of tunnelling under Prospect Hill was rejected years ago for its expense.

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this! I didn't know when the meetings were.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

If there's a stop at Tufts, will that mean that Tufts students will take the Green Line downtown to go clubbing?

Conspicuously absent from the list of stations is "West Medford." Linking up with the commuter rail stop seems to me an obvious thing to do--did the West Medfordites scuttle this plan?

[cos]

I did mention "west Medford" in my post. *mildly confused at your question...*

I believe the meeting that will discuss the possibility of a west Medford station is one on February 6th.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

Your post mentions West Medford, but the flyer appears to carefully avoid saying "West Medford," instead always saying "Mystic Valley" or "Route 16." Some further research has revealed that the Medford Green Line Neighborhood Association has recommended against a station at West Medford in favor of a terminus on the other side of the river, with a pedestrian path to West Medford. That's a long walk.

I don't care much about whether the stop is in West Medford, per se. But it does seem like you want commuter rail riders to be able to transfer. I can just imagine how pedestrian-unfriendly a 1/3 mile walk across a river to a suburban-style shopping center would be.

I think the real issue is not so much the stop as the terminus. Many of the above-ground D-line stops in Brookline and Newton are quite unobtrusive, and it's not like West Medford doesn't already have a diesel commuter rail train going through it already. But where do the trains turn around?

[ron_newman]

Trains shouldn't have to "turn around" in a loop, since they can run in both directions. Only a couple of stub tracks are needed at the end, with a crossover.

[ron_newman]

The West Medford people don't seem to want the extension, and I've heard that building it to there might require substantial property-taking (hopefully just yards, not houses, but still....). The current idea seems to be to terminate it at Route 16 next to the former Wild Oats.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing that liquor store there is toast, then? A slight problem here is, aren't the tracks up on a bridge over the parkway *and* the river?

As far as extending: looks like mostly commercial properties to the north side of the tracks across the river in Medford. There's a "Circuit Street" to the south side of the tracks though, I'm assuming that would have to stay put.

You know what? Put the frigging terminus at North Street. If West Medford doesn't want to deal with 500 yards of light-rail passing through their pristine corner of the universe, let them walk.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

If there's a stop at Tufts, will that mean that Tufts students will take the Green Line downtown to go clubbing?

Yes, but they'll have to leave the clubs by, what 12:15 am?

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Or earlier. Or they can take cabs. This is a weird point.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Which, mine, or the point to which I responding?

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

No, not weird at all. It means that Tufts students going downtown won't be coming through the heart of Davis Square (and past my front door) at all hours. Potentially very good for the neighbors, not so good for Store 24 and maybe a few other casual stops along the way from the Davis T to Tufts.

[bettyw.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the "Maps" section of the website listed in the meetings flyer does not have any links yet. But If you look at the PDF of the Medford meeting last week (https://www.commentmgr.com/projects/1228/docs/Jan%2023%20presentation.pdf), the 2nd slide does have a map, though you'll need to increase the magnification to 300% to read it easily.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

The Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership (STEP) site has a google map mashup with proposed green line stops. http://www.somervillestep.org/green_line/

[cityofbeige.livejournal.com]

I wish they would connect the green line to the red line somehow, since they're running it really close.

[cos]

Most of the proposed green line expansion would be streetcar style, alongside the existing Lowell Commuter Rail line tracks. Think of the D branch of the green line, I think that's about what it'd be like. The advantage is that there's already a rail line there, with a clear path and rights of way and everything. To connect to the red line would require a lot of extra eminent domain seizures of property, clearing a path, making a new tunnel, etc. It'd probably be much more expensive and disruptive than the whole rest of the project. Since then green and red already connect at Park Street, I highly doubt anyone would think another connection would be worth the trouble and expense.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

I went to last week's Medford meeting. Interestingly, a large number of Medford people don't seem to want the green line coming their way! (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/01/27/green_line_extension_divides_city/?page=1) They've got a lot of the same fears that Arlington residents had back in the 1980's.

Pretty much every one of the skeptics, BTW, started out by saying how old they were and how long they'd lived in Medford.

Many make the assumption that public transit is something you drive to, leave your car at, and then take the T into Boston with, and they're assuming that something like the Alewife parking structure will be built on Rt. 16. They don't seem to recognize that one can walk to a T stop!

The existence of counter-examples (the green line goes through Newton and Brookline, for example, without parking issues or causing property values to fall) doesn't seem to soothe them.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

It's really stunning, I used to rent in the Hillside and think having the green line right there would have been a godsend. (The buses suck!) I'm pretty sure that the majority would agree and that a common ground can be struck with the vocal minority showing up to these meetings.

[cos]

It may be that the people most likely to be wary of the T are also the ones most likely to come to this kind of meeting. People who have lived there all their lives and whose parents were born there are probably more likely to follow neighborhood level politics & know about meetings, and most of the wariness about the T would come from them, I believe. People who really want the T may be large in number, but may not be well represented at the meetings.

The world gets built to the needs & desires of people who show up.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

One thing I heard said about five times was "Medford is not Somerville".

It seemed to mean something different to each person who said it, but one I talked to later was able to articulate her meaning pretty well. For her, the subway ties a city into Boston, making your city urban. Not having a subway connection keeps you distinct from Boston, so you're suburban.

Again, though, this theory doesn't quite explain why Newton and Brookline can be on the green line and still be both upscale and distinct from Boston. It may be that many of the nay-sayers have never actually ridden on the green line.

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

Nonsense. If god meant us to walk, he wouldn't have given us rickshaws.

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

I'm still waiting for mine.

[joylewis.livejournal.com]

It would be great if there was a way to write in a vote for one of these if people are unable to make the meetings. Is there someone to write to? Mimi Graney?

[fefie.livejournal.com]

Mimi Graney is the director of Union Sq. Main Streets. The EOT's and MBTA's site for the Green Line Extension project is here:
http://www.greenlineextension.com/

There is a Contact Us page for sending in comments. There is also a Share Your Opinion page which they claimed on Monday night will eventually display comments people send in.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

I'm all for allowing Medford to collectively shoot itself in the foot. Which makes me think--where should this thing end? Traffic is already pretty nasty on Route 16, and a terminus will cause an increase in traffic. So here's my crazy idea: Run the line to Rt. 16 and then take a left and keep on going right to Alewife. I'll probably think better of this idea as soon as someone weighs in....

[ron_newman]

If the Route 16 T station does not have a parking garage, it will not increase traffic at all.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Not true. A lot of people drive and park on the residential streets around Davis and then walk to the T, and that's with permit parking. Does Medford limit parking to residents? I would presume that people would do the same at the terminus, especially given that Medford is not nearly as densely populated as Somerville, thus there will be fewer people within walking distance. Also, T stops that are in low density areas (like Medford and Newton) tend to get a lot of drop-off and pick-up traffic, and taxis. I don't think the increased traffic outweighs the benefits of having light rail public transit, but you've got to be realistic. Here's another idea: run the greenline straight out to Rt. 128 and put a gazillion-space parking garage there.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

Did anyone go to the Ball/Magoun Square meeting last night? I wasn't able to attend. I can't imagine the station being anywhere except where the old vets office was.

[cos]

I was planning to but was sick and stayed home. I'm also curious about it.

[fefie.livejournal.com]

I went. The crowd was huge, like the meeting the night before (though not much overlap). VHB's proposed sitings for both Ball Sq and Lowell St. stations were unusual from a community point of view. The Ball Sq station was not in Ball Sq
(instead, at Harvard St) and the Lowell St station was not near the
community path but further, directly abutting MaxPak on Lowell.

VHB got push back on both proposed station sitings, to put Ball Sq station in all Sq and put the Lowell St one on the community path.

There is a discussion about it on the STEP listserv today.

[cos]

Thanks! I quoted you on Going because someone there commented that he'd missed it too.

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

I went, I thought it was a good meeting, though others have said it was a little disorganized. They seemed open to feedback about moving the Ball square station back towards ball square, rather than next to St. Clements (which everyone was pretty against). The problem is that the bridge on broadway would need to be widened if a station was put in there. Also, they would need to sieze property which they were trying to avoid.

The plan, if people were not aware, is to expand the region directly around the communter rail line to put in the greenline trains. There was some concern about safety as well as platform size. The stations would need to have some amenitites, such as escalators and possibily elevators. So they will look less like Allston or Brookline T-stops then I had expected.

Overall I'd say everyone I heard speak up was for the project, but many people had concerns about station location, noise and traffic.

Anything I missed?

[ron_newman]

I'm still not sure why the stations will need escalators or elevators. One of the points I tried to make at the meeting was that Longwood station in Brookline is the ideal -- you walk directly off the street onto the platform, and can cross the tracks at grade to enter the Riverway park. I see no reason that pedestrians shouldn't be able to cross all four tracks (two Green Line, two commuter rail) at grade.

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

I heard them say that they were concerned about safety -- random people wandering in front of commuter rail trains. I agree though, I think the less the better, a simple stop with some benches and a light or two is ideal to me.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

I think that makes sense at places where the commuter rail does not stop; wasn't someone done in by an Amtrak train somewhere along the Attleboro line within the past few years?

I'm not sure you'd need to do it if providence shines upon us and the Green Line makes it out to West Medford (hey! why not move the West Medford commuter rail stop to Route 16?)...

[cos]

When it comes to safety, the most important aspect is that anything which makes the T more convenient will get people to use it more, and some of that will cause a reduction in people driving their cars, which are much more dangerous. If one option results in 1 more person killed by a train per decade, but reduces the number of car trips by several thousand each week, that option is saving lives and also preventing many serious injuries.

[fefie.livejournal.com]

Anyone make it to the Green Line meeting at Tufts last night? I couldn't get to it.