GLX project will move forward, scaled down and with conditions

[fefie.livejournal.com]

Summary of today's MassDOT Board and MBTA Fiscal and Management
Control Board meetings regarding the future of the Creen Line Extension project on Wicked Local Somerville:
http://somerville.wickedlocal.com/news/20160509/glx-gets-crucial-go-ahead-vote-but-with-strict-conditions

The presentation + full report given to the MassDOT Board and MBTA Fiscal and Management
Control Board by the interim GLX team:

http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/Board_Meetings/GLXReviewFinalPresentation05082016.pdf

http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/Board_Meetings/GLXBOARDREPORTFINALv2.pdf

Comments

[veek.livejournal.com]

So, basically, here's what happened with the community path as I've seen it unfold.

At the Somerville High School meeting, a "scaled down" version of the path going to White Street in Cambridge was presented. It involved a half-mile break in the path along Route 28, which we were invited to use for, what, biking? Pushing strollers? The people, in no uncertain terms, called bullshit on the notion of Route 28 being an acceptable pedestrian/bicycle roadway. In addition, it was publicly noted that that stretch of road happens to be in a relatively poor part of town.

So instead of putting that half mile back, they're stopping the path at Washington Street. The poor part of town, the one nearest to the highways and with a garbage treatment plant nestled in there, doesn't GET a community path.

And nobody, nobody — not even Mayor Curtatone, who has been fighting for a full implementation of what's been owed to this city — is speaking up about this.

Gross.

[ron_newman]

Where is the garbage treatment plant?

[veek.livejournal.com]

Not far from Brickbottom. Or did they close that?

[ron_newman]

On Poplar Street? The city demolished that three years ago, and I think it closed a year or two before that. The city wants to designate the property for an "art farm".

[veek.livejournal.com]

Great, thanks for that correction.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

After reading your comment, reading the report, and looking at Google Maps, I'm confused. According to the report document, the community path was originally supposed to follow the tracks from Lowell Street to Water Street (basically Lechmere) in Cambridge, but the revised design will end at Washington Street in Somerville. Looking at Google Maps, there is nothing but industrial/commercial buildings between Water Street and Washington Street along the tracks. Where are these poor pathless victims of yours living? In the school bus yard?

As an aside, for better or worse, there won't be any "poor part of town" near Union Square when the GLX is complete.

As another aside - I don't think you'll want to be pushing strollers on the community path now that it's going to be down in a pit next to four active railroad tracks. It doesn't strike me as a pleasant place to take a walk. It's going to be pretty utilitarian.

[veek.livejournal.com]

There's a large residential area east of Route 28 and south of I-93. Many of the people living there commute via Lechmere. Even if you're talking strictly utilitarian, that's a big chunk of road that would've been useful to the less well-off residents of Somerville—but would remain nearly invisible to those in the more affluent areas—that now will not be built. Convenient, that many of the people living in the area I mentioned were not well represented at the community meetings. (The reasons behind that are complicated and have a lot more to do with economic inequality than with civic disinterest.) Their interests are not being served by this thing going forward.

I fear you are right about the gentrification factor, but it's not the weather. It can and should be affected by human agency.

Strollers aren't just for strolling. They are also, among other things, for commuting and for running errands. Many people who use them for these purposes are less well off, perhaps don't have cars, and are hugely affected by lack of decent walking space, however utilitarian.

[irilyth]

> Strollers aren't just for strolling. They are also, among other things, for commuting and for running errands. Many people who use them for these purposes are less well off, perhaps don't have cars, and are hugely affected by lack of decent walking space, however utilitarian.

People with strollers (whether affluent or not) are also more affected by walking space quality than people without, since you're much less maneuverable with a stroller than you are by yourself. Walking on the shoulder of a road can be harrowing; doing it with a kid in a stroller is a pretty unpleasant experience.

[veek.livejournal.com]

Oh, absolutely — and this goes for wheelchair users and people with other mobility issues, as well. All these populations are already vulnerable, and this project neglects them further.

[ceo]

What's also an issue there is that most of the stations will have ramps instead of elevators to get to the platform, in some cases with 20' of elevation change. That's going to be a problem for a lot of people, particularly the ambulatory but mobility-impaired for whom ramps aren't much of an improvement over stairs.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

Could you give me an address in the neighborhood you are referring to? I see no residential neighborhood between Route 28 and I-93 in the area between Washington St and Lechemere. The only area I could imagine that you are thinking about is the area along Washington Street east of the tracks, but that neighborhood will have access to the community path at Washington Street as well as the Washington Street GLX station, and is also fairly close to Sullivan Square.

Also, it seems rather patronizing to believe that the residents of whatever neighborhood you are referring to didn't come to the meeting because they are too underprivileged and needed you to speak on their behalf. Did they elect you? Perhaps they just didn't care.

[veek.livejournal.com]

I've walked around residential areas east of McGrath between Broadway and Washington Street. I'm not going to seek out an address for you, and encourage you to do research on your own. I also encourage you to do more research and thinking about representation in public debate from a social justice perspective, particularly along the lines of primary languages spoken by populations/English proficiency, and people simply not having the opportunity to come to meetings because they work a different shift from the 9-to-5, or have small children, or are not online or on the right robocall lists to find out about these meetings (and it's not like people plaster paper announcements in their neighborhoods).

[keithn.livejournal.com]

I have done research, which is what led to my questions. Perhaps you were turned around on your walk and didn't realize where you were.

Also, the one time I went to a Cambridge City Council meeting, it was packed with hotel workers, many who didn't speak English, and none who were wealthy, and none who worked regular hours. They were upset about the ownership change at Le Meridien and wanted the city to boycott the hotel; a symbolic gesture, yet one that they showed up in force for. I don't think it's up to you to decide what is and isn't important to people. Perhaps they'd rather spend the money for the path on a million other things instead - first among those things, an increase in available affordable housing. All the GLX and path is likely to do for them is price them out of their homes. Perhaps they hate the idea of the path for bringing gentrification to their neighborhoods - you don't know and you don't speak for them.

[ron_newman]

Yes, there's a large residential area in East Somerville, but it doesn't abut the now-truncated part of the proposed path, since it's on the northwest side of Washington Street.

[ron_newman]

The only residences I know of in Somerville, southeast of Washington Street and east of McGrath Highway, are "The Cobble Hill Apartments" (mostly for senior citizens, I think?), and Brickbottom Artists Building.

I'm not happy with the truncation of the Community Path either, but the section that was removed is useful mainly for commuting to East Cambridge and Boston, not to serve adjoining residences (since there aren't many).

[keithn.livejournal.com]

Thanks for confirming that, Ron, so I know I'm not crazy. The Cobble Hill Apartments are on Washington Street, so they will have easy access to the new station and the path. Veek mentioned Brickbottom elsewhere in this thread, so perhaps Brickbottom being left off the path is what they are really upset about.

[ceo]

Friends Of The Community Path has proposed an alternative design, here. It's 100% off-street and retains all of the original path's access points. The GLX planners are saying it's still too expensive though.

[cutieperson]

Wow. I'm disgusted they used a picture of someone being pushed in a wheelchair instead of someone wheeling independently. I guess it's at least representative of how impossible the grades on most ramps are, but it's still gross.

[cden4.livejournal.com]

The point of that photo is to show the type of lightweight bridge structure that they are proposing. (Every photo can't include every possible type of user.)

[cutieperson]

My point is that if you choose a wheelchair user it shouldn't be the tired, fucking gross depiction of all of us as dependent on other people!
If you want to go with the argument that it's just about the bridge there was zero need to include a wheelchair at all.

[maclou.livejournal.com]

Is there a wheelchair in those pictures?

[keithn.livejournal.com]

There is not. There is a man pushing a stroller. Portions of this thread have flown off into delusional outrage-land.

[ron_newman]

That's definitely a stroller.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I concur, that's a stroller.

[ron_newman]

Page 5 of the first MBTA document has a table describing changes to each station. This table says that Washington and Ball Square stations will have no escalators, elevators, ramps, or stairs. How will people get in and out of these two stations?

(It also says Union Square won’t have these things, but maybe it won’t need them if it’s a street-level station.)

The current Lechmere station has fare gates, but the new one won’t.

Page 7 of the same document has a table of changes to bridge design. This table says that the sidewalk will be removed on the Broadway and College Avenue bridges. This is a very bad idea! Maybe the “new pedestrian bridge” at College Avenue can replace the sidewalk there, but it is entirely unacceptable to remove a sidewalk from a major street like Broadway, especially right next to a new T station.

[nonelvis]

Page 6 of that document clarifies how Ball Square access will work: the station will be at grade, and there will be a crossing on the tracks.

I'm pretty concerned about removing the sidewalk from the Broadway bridge, though. Maybe by "sidewalk" they meant some kind of special, separate walkway leading to the station, much like the caged walkway that's been added on the School Street bridge near City Hall? I sure hope so, anyway, because my husband and I (and loads of other people, of course) need to walk across the Broadway bridge on a regular basis.

[ceo]

That has to be a mistake. The plan as it was presented at an earlier meeting was two lanes, bike lanes, sidewalks with no parking or right-turn lane.

[nonelvis]

That's what I'm hoping. It doesn't make any sense at all to literally cut off a well-trafficked pedestrian route down Broadway.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

> The current Lechmere station has fare gates, but the new one won’t.

Because nothing says speeding boarding like everyone having to pay the driver as they board...

[ceo]

It was said at one of the meetings that the T is planning to implement all-doors boarding at Green Line surface stations, which is why they can eliminate the fare gates. (Paying the driver at these stations is basically impossible anyway, since they're all center-platform.)

[daviscubed.livejournal.com]

The "conditions" still seem pretty major to me. Like "We got the deficit down from 1 billion to 70 million, but we don't know where the other 70 million is going to come from." It shouldn't be a showstopper, but that gap allows someone who wants to squash it to do so, doesn't it?