Letter to the Jamaica Plain Gazette

Greg Selkoe, Member, Arborway Committee

To the editors:

I write to express my opinion on an issue that is important to Jamaica Plain and that I believe represents a great opportunity for our business community. The issue is the restoration of the Arborway E- Green Line Trolley. There are many good reasons for the return of the streetcar, ranging from the environment (State Department of Environmental Protection regulations mandate trolley restoration) to the fact that the new low-floor trolleys are highly handicapped accessible and would offer easy access to the main subway system for the disabled. But I want to focus on how the restoration of the E-Line Arborway trolley is good for business.

Improving and supporting the JP business community is something that I feel strongly about. I am a native of Jamaica Plain and have been shopping in JP center since I bought my first pack of gum at Hailer's at age 4 in 1977. In January, I published an 80 page guide to the Jamaica Plain neighborhood and its restaurants. I am also a member of the business committee of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council. I feel strongly that trolley restoration will provide a great boost to the Centre St. business area.

There are two principal ways that the trolleys' return will be good for business. First, it will encourage outside people to come to JP. E-line restoration would provide JP Centre with a continuous and direct link to downtown and the entire central subway system. Along with that comes something we should not underestimate, the drawing power of trolleys. Trolleys are what made JP what it is today. We are an original "street car suburb," and we should celebrate it and capitalize on it. Trolleys are a great marketing tool for a neighborhood (think of San Francisco) and something which creates a powerful sense of place. The streetcars' return would set us apart from all other city neighborhoods and the suburbs. People from outside JP come to shop and dine in JP Centre because what it offers is unique. The streetcar will clearly add to its uniqueness.

The second major positive for JP Centre relates to the effects that getting more people out of cars and using public transportation will have on the climate of the Centre St. business area which is often choked with cars and fumes. Wisely, the City of Boston is moving away from thinking in terms that are beholden solely to the automobile, and our progressive thinking neighborhood should be a leader. If Boston truly is "Americas walking city", then our urban streets should be pedestrian friendly, shared by cars, public transportation, bikes, and people. We need streets where all manner of goods and services are accessible by foot and the T. Many locals shop in JP Centre because it is close by, and a large percentage walk there. Getting more people on the T will make it a more pleasant shopping experience and will keep people returning.

JP Centre today has reached its capacity for automobiles and is more congested than ever before. We need to think carefully about how to get people to take the T to and from JP Centre. With many in the JP population without an automobile, we need to think about modes that are accessible, visible and permanent. Bus routes are changed, cut-back and canceled by the T all the time. Those who argue that the trolley car is an antiquated, out-of-date system have not done their research. The trolley is experiencing a resurgence. Energy efficient, low floor, handicapped accessible light rail cars are used throughout Europe and in other cities. For those who think buses have been and will be an adequate replacement, just look at the numbers. Buses do not inspire usage; trolleys do. The MBTA's own statistics support this statement. Ridership on the Centre St. #39 bus route fell from approximately 28,000 in 1988 to approximately 18,000 in 1996. Orange Line ridership stayed roughly static throughout this time. Even if we assume that some of this loss resulted from riders shifting to the Green Line service when it was extended beyond Brigham Circle to Heath St. in 1989, the drop in ridership is tremendous. The drop in ridership can only translates into a large increase in automobile usage (as the 1988 MBTA Arborway Study predicted) and the effects of this increase can be seen on the Centre St. corridor daily. (The MBTA Arborway Study estimated daily trolley ridership at 50,000).

At a recent business forum sponsored by the JP Business Committee, some business people seemed to feel that lack of parking was the cause of all of JP Centre's woes and that creating more parking was the answer. Creating more parking in a few appropriate places is useful, but in general, we should not encourage more cars as something that would be good for JP Centre. Instead, encouraging people to use other means of transportation to the shopping area and getting people out of cars and walking around is the answer.

We need to find a balance for Centre St. Many places such as Central Sq. and Coolidge Corner have attempted to find a balance between cars and pedestrians through traffic calming measures. Streetcars are a traffic calming measure. Like the steps taken in these thriving business areas, the E-Line trolley will help contribute to order and traffic flow while at the same time transporting up to 150 people. Arborway restoration is not an anti-automobile campaign but instead a pro-street campaign that calls for shared use of the street, not dominance by one mode.

With the return of the street car, JP could once again have one stop service bringing Bostonians and out-of-towners alike from the central subway system right into the Centre St. shopping district. The streetcar line would be a permanent and substantial beacon, keeping Centre St. and its E line marked clearly on subway maps throughout the Boston area. Everyone will know that if you want to check out one of the many great restaurants on Centre St. in JP, all you have to do is jump on an outbound E-line car. Cities such as Portland and San Francisco have put in new trolley lines. Memphis began its downtown revitalization effort with the re-introduction of the street car running down Main Street. An example of a nationwide effort to repair the damage caused by the auto-dominated suburban mentality of a few decades ago, when large parking lots ripped gaping wholes in the urban fabric as the answer to the downtown's demise.

We will be kicking ourselves in the future if we squander something that is so tied to Jamaica Plain, permanently giving up something that more and more urban communities covet and want to install. JP with its many restaurants, interesting boutiques, quaint streets and unparalleled urban green space can compete with any other section of Boston for tourists and visitors from other towns and neighborhoods. One hears of the popularity of "new urbanism"; we have got the real thing right here in JP. What could be more of a pull to John and Jane from Every Mall USA than a journey on a street car (in the summer an open car leased from the Shore Line Trolley Museum) into a diverse, living, breathing urban shopping district. "Out-of-town visitors are statistically averse to making even one transfer in their use of transportation modes" [Nicols,W., Boston Globe, 3/22/98, pp C 1-2]. With the E line trolley JP Centre is a direct, guaranteed, easy trip. In Jamaica Plain, we pride our selves on being a forward thinking bunch. JP has always been a leader, continuing to push for livable urban neighborhoods, and walkable shopping districts. We need to think outside the framework that we have been programmed to believe: that accommodating the automobile at any cost should be our number one priority. Citizens and businesses of JP, please support trolley restoration. The MBTA promised Jamaica Plain they would restore E-Line trolley service, and we should hold the MBTA to its word.

The street car is an economic engine that should not be missed.

To get a copy of the MBTA's agreement and written material on E-Line trolley restoration, contact the Arborway Committee at 51 Eliot St. or call me at 524-0302.

Greg Selkoe