Letter to the Jamaica Plain Gazette
On planning for the Arborway restoration project

Edwina Cloherty, Member, Arborway Committee

25 January 2002

I write in response to the comments made by Vineet Gupta, Director of Planning for the Boston Transportation Department regarding Arborway restoration: "The BTD is "very commited to the JP community and the MBTA on working on this project, but there are issues the T needs to address."

Let us examine these issues.

I respectfully point out that the business district will undergo a loss of parking during street reconstruction whether or not the streetcar service is replaced. If streetcars are not restored, tracks, catenary and poles must be removed; sections of sidewalks that contained the poles and the street will need to be reconstructed. Surely the BTD and the PWD would insist upon complete reconstruction and removal of support elements.

As to the other "issues" which he asserts must be addressed by the MBTA—public safety (police, fire, EMS access) loss of loading zone, circulation of cars, bicycle access and pedestrian safety—have they not needed to be addressed by the City for lo these many years?

Just what do drivers of emergency vehicles do under current congested conditions? My guess is that they are smart enough and familiar enough with their district to have alternate routes figured out, that they avoid Centre Street during peak hours—and they know when these occur. That's their job! Did the BTD refuse to support the Big Dig with its massive disruption of downtown business and residential districts because of public safety issues? Come on, Mr. Gupta. Centre St. will be a piece of cake for you planners.

I recall in the late '80s the efforts of the JP Neighborhood Council's Public Safety Committee and Councilor Hennigan to get enforcement of both parking and moving violations on Centre St., particularly between Burroughs and Green Streets. Parking in crosswalks, bus stops and handicap ramps, double parking, U turns, crossing the double line to get around buses occur with abandon along this busy section of Centre St. It took more than a decade to get the beginnings of consistent attention paid and that owing to Captain Flaherty (E13). He was the first District Commander in the city to crack down on motorists not yielding to pedestrians in unsignalized crosswalks long before it became a BPD citywide effort) This action alone has made it safer—for those who obey the pedestrian rules.

I'm pleased that the BTD is concerned about pedestrian safety and bicycle access for this stretch of the Arborway line. Is this the same BTD that just last Spring jettisoned the plan cooperatively developed in 1995 by "the community" and public agencies (MHD, BTD)? This plan, if I remember correctly what I read in the Gazette, provided for expanded pedestrian/streetcar platforms and a bicycle lane from Northeastern University to Mass. Ave. Alas, the BTD decided that cars needed wider lanes to travel faster (40 mph) at that location. So much for BTD concern for the safety of those pedestrians and access for that group of bicyclists.

Frankly, I look forward to an end to such empty statements from the City. It needs to come to this table ready to take actions—some of which are probably decribed in its costly and much- trumpeted Access Boston 2000-2010 Neighborhood Transportation Study. The MBTA did it during the '70s and '80s and gives all indications that it will do it again. Don't disappoint us, Boston. Turn your "concern and commitment to the JP community" into action. We're ready!

SIncerely,

Edwina Cloherty