Public Meeting Tonight - Green Line Extension to Somerville

[bigrock.livejournal.com]

Support your fellow Somervilleians tonight!

Us folks in the Somerville/Medford should all go. Not only is the project needed for Somervile, it is required to be built by 2011 as one of the conditions required to allow the Big Dig to be built.

There will be another important public hearing on the Green Line extension through Somerville on Monday, Feb. 28, at 6:30 p.m. at the Somerville High School Auditorium, 81 Highland Ave. It will be a strain to turn out a large crowd of residents for the third time in four months. But we must do so.

http://www2.townonline.com/somerville/opinion/view.bg?articleid=186793

and some proposed maps :

http://www.somerville-t.com/maps_thumbs.html

Currently, the Green Line ends at Lechmere.

Comments

[catalyst.livejournal.com]

We also have a disproportionately high childhood asthma rate
     air pollution alone is a fairly weak argument for a light rail extension, in my opinion:

(1) - keep in mind that what i advocated was building light rail *elsewhere*, not not building it at all. to whatever degree it helps with local air pollution, choosing to invest in one place just means somebody else's pollution is worse, so once again, good public policy means figuring out how to make the rail-per-population ratio equitable. i fail to see how somerville rises to the top by that measure.
(2) - it is freeways that are responsible for most air pollution, and east somerville residents do not make up such a large percentage of the traffic on 93 that there would suddenly be nobody driving if that neighborhood had an alternate way to commute.
(3) - according to this table (http://www.mcdin.org/asthma/asstats_data.htm), somerville actually doesn't have a high asthma rate. medford's on the list, but notice that it's 7th behind those aformentioned poorer areas on the south side that don't have any rail.