Letter to the Boston Phoenix
In response to its 6 Jan 2006 editorial, "On the wrong track"

Franklin Salimbene, Chair, Arborway Committee

9 January 2006

Letter to the Editor: Re Arborway Transit Project

Your editorial in this week’s issue of the Phoenix demonstrates how good journalists sometimes engage in very bad journalism. A review of the factual record on the Arborway project might have helped the Phoenix from falling into this trap. First, your editorial blindly accepts that restoring Green Line service to JP would increase congestion along Centre Street. Yet, two MBTA studies conducted by different consultants in 1987 and again in 2001 both concluded that resuming Green Line service would NOT have any more of an adverse impact on congestion that the current bus service has. Former EOEA Secretary Ellen Herzfelder in her 2003 Certificate for the Arborway project echoed the same point when she stated that traffic issues exist irrespective of the type of transit service on Centre Street. Second, your editorial is premised on the idea that automobile access to Centre Street is the key to business success. Yet, the JP Centre-South Main Streets initiative found in its 2003 survey of shoppers on Centre Street that 79% of customers arrived on Centre Street by public transit, foot, or other alternative means, not by automobile. Third, your editorial maintains that Green Line service would serve the central city far more than the JP neighborhood. Yet, the experience of the Red Line extension to Davis Square in Somerville shows the opposite—that interconnected rail transit increases access to neighborhood business centers without the burden caused by over-reliance on the automobile. Finally, your editorial totally ignores the fact that the Arborway transit project is the only outstanding transit commitment that has been designated as an environmental justice project by the MBTA in its 2003 Environmental Notification Form. Who shall speak for environmental justice? Obviously, not the Phoenix! And to add insult to the injury that your editorial might cause, you preface your comments with the disclaimer that the Phoenix is a staunch supporter of public transit. On this score, methinks that the Phoenix doth protest too much.

Franklyn P. Salimbene, Chair
Arborway Committee

PS—I will send along to you a copy of the Arborway Committee’s review of the Arborway project and the MBTA’s campaign of disinformation regarding the same. The review also includes analyses by two independent, nationally recognized authorities.