Davis Square business owners didn't want the T

[fenway1912.livejournal.com]

While doing some research on the T this afternoon I came across something in the Somerville News from 2004 where the former Mayor of Somerville recalled that the Chamber of Commerce didn't want the subway to come to Davis. Brune tells how he as an alderman and then later mayor wanted the subway, yet the T wanted it to go to Arlington which wanted no part of it and that is why it ends in Alewife today.

I was looking at ridership numbers on the T and while the figures are a few years old i was surprised that Davis handles more passengers than Alewife which is something I am sure wasn't planned on 30 years ago when the subway extension was being designed.

Anyone interested this is what I wrote on my blog
A look at T's ridership numbers

Comments

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

Thank god they defeated that stupid highway plan. Unless it's implemented incredibly badly, mass transit almost always pays for itself manyfold in the end; it's a real shame Boston is one of maybe half a dozen American cities that grasps that.

[fenway1912.livejournal.com]

I shudder to think what Somerville would be like today if the Inner Belt had been built.

For those who wonder why the Rte 2 expressway stops suddenly at Fresh Pond it was supposed to continue into this.

The Inner Belt I-695 (http://www.bostonroads.com/roads/inner-belt/)

It came very close to happening shudder
The selected route begins at the interchange between the Southeast and Southwest expressways near Massachusetts Avenue and Southampton Street, and extends in a westerly direction via Roxbury Crossing to connect with Huntington Avenue, Jamaica Way and Brookline Avenue. From this point, it extends in a northerly direction to cross Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue paralleling the Cottage Farm (Boston University) Bridge across the Charles River to connect with the Western Expressway (early I-90 alignment). From this point, the Belt Route passes through Cambridge in a northeasterly direction to Somerville, making an interchange connecting with the Northwest Expressway (unbuilt US 3-MA 2) in the vicinity of Washington Street. From this interchange, it travels in an easterly direction paralleling the Boston and Maine Railroad, crossing its main yards to an elevated interchange just west of City Square, where it connects with the Northeast Expressway (US 1).

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

I forget, didn't some local politician fight to use the inner belt money to bring the red line to Davis Sq.?

So instead of destroying a neighbourhood, the money was used to make it better than could have been conceived.

[fenway1912.livejournal.com]

I forget, didn't some local politician fight to use the inner belt money to bring the red line to Davis Sq.?

So instead of destroying a neighbourhood, the money was used to make it better than could have been conceived.

That would have been one Tip O'Neil who onlu lived down the street from Davis Sq on Orchard St

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Oh, in addition to Tip O'Neil. There was a local State Congressman (I think) who was very instrumental. There was a wonderful article in the Somerville News a few years ago on the 20th Anniversary of the Opening of the T Station about just how much of a role he played. Oh well...

[fenway1912.livejournal.com]

There is a link to that article at the beginning of this thread

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Brune, that's the name I forgot. Everybody in Daivs Sq. now has a lot to be thankful for.

[ron_newman]

Gene Brune was Ward 6 alderman, then mayor, and now Register of Deeds, but he was never a congressman or a state legislator.

[aki.livejournal.com]

Wait... where exactly does mass transit pay for itself? Certainly not in Boston...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Regrettably, mass transit does not pay for itself through collected fares, at least not in Boston.

Mass transit is extremely expsnive to construct and operate.

For example, the red line tunnels between Harvard Sq. and Davis Sq. are deep bore tunnels. The rough rule of thumb for estimating the cost of tunneling through an urban area is $1 billion per mile.

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

It pays for itself in a societal rather than a money context. Mass transit has all these positive multiplying effects stemming from being able to move masses of people around very cheaply - it's almost always the most efficient mode of transit, in terms of total resource costs to build and operate it. But the service itself usually has to be subsidized by somebody, I admit. Trying to make it pay for itself monetarily hasn't usually worked so far, as far as I know, presumably because demand falls with the rise in fares.

[aki.livejournal.com]

The fact that more people use Davis than Alewife doesn't surprise me - Davis is a community center in a highly residential, pedestrian area. Alewife may have parking, but there's really no other reason to go there. Davis gets not only residents, but visitors to the restaurants, movie theater, Tufts, etc.

[aki.livejournal.com]

PS: Also, just in personal experience, the number of people on the train later in the morning usually doubles at Davis (and halves in the evening).

[ron_newman]

Alewife station looks like it was built to handle many more buses than it actually gets. I'm wondering if there was a whole planned network of bus routes that never got implemented...

[fenway1912.livejournal.com]

There was for example the #77 was supposed to be rerouted to Alewife but Arlington didn't want that either

Designing and Building the Red Line Extension (http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/rappaport/downloads/building_boston/rogers_redline.pdf)

This should answer some questions

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

It does not surprise me that some were opposed to the subway back then. Even as late as the early 80's, the meme was still out there that transit brought undesireables into suburban neighbourhoods. Mass transit was associated with the worst of the city, not the best. I don't think anyone could have envisioned what the T did to Davis Sq.

[ron_newman]

It still puzzles me that Arlington did not want a subway that would bring people to their town from Cambridge and Somerville. Even without the subway, we're still going to Arlington to shop, eat, see movies, and occasionally buy houses and condos. Stopping the Red Line didn't keep us away. What were you really afraid of, anyway?

[fenway1912.livejournal.com]

It still puzzles me that Arlington did not want a subway that would bring people to their town from Cambridge and Somerville. Even without the subway, we're still going to Arlington to shop, eat, see movies, and occasionally buy houses and condos. Stopping the Red Line didn't keep us away. What were you really afraid of, anyway?

The same reason that Hyde Park didn't want the Orange Line. fear

Some of the meetings back then were just plain nasty

[gildersleeve.livejournal.com]

I am certainly grateful for the subway in Davis, but I can appreciate some of what people oppose; not the fear-mongering/race baiting part, but the desire for slightly less of a 'city' feel. After all, the people who like the access of the subway can live in Somerville. etc., and those that want a more suburban feel can live elsewhere.

Our community decided we wanted it, theirs didn't - isn't that why we all live in different places?

Davis would not be what it is today without the T of course, and the property values would not be as high, many businesses like the restaurants, theaters, etc would not be as viable, but there are a few negative effects from the subway. The amount of homeless people in the square is much higher today than 30 years ago (of course there are huge societal issues at hand there too, but many of them are not local and would not find their way to Davis if the train did not go there) and making the square a major commuter area has increased litter, etc. However the positive effects on the neighborhood clearly outweighed the negative (and if you remember what Davis was like in the 70's, you can see why it needed the boost). Arlington on the other hand seems to be doing quite well (as you mentioned, restaurants, theaters, shopping) without a train and had never experienced the decay that Davis did in the past. My rather longwinded point is that they live there and decided what was best for their neighborhood, and our neighborhood made its choice too - both are nice places, and thankfully, not identical.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Well, you have to put yourself in the mindset of the 70's and early 80's. Throughout the Country, mass transit was (erroneously) viewed as a harbinger of urban decay. It's just the way people thought.

[tracy-rolling.livejournal.com]

This is so interesting. Thanks for posting this. I love learning about Somerville. It's a fascinating little city.