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Not everybody loving the plans to re-do Blue Hill Avenue
By adamg on Sat, 03/02/2024 - 11:58am
The Dorchester Reporter talks to people with reservations about the $44-million project, which would include new center bus lanes.
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Comments
Now that's a surprise. We
Now that's a surprise. We have become the epitome of
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.”
― John Lydgate
If the West Rox Road Diet
Is an outline of what’s to come. Sit down and save your breath. Wu is going to do what she wants and doesn’t give a shit what you have to say.
And everything will turn out fine
You might have a point, if Centre Street was full of boarded up businesses and tumbleweeds ,
or if Wu had inherited her title rather than being elected by a majority of residents *because* we want things like this to happen.
The Bulletin did a followup article recently and couldn't find one business willing to claim that the new traffic patterns actually hurt them, even the ones that were proudly and vocally campaigning against the changes. https://bulletinnewspapers.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/4/8/114832579/wr_ros_b...
That's why we have elections
It might be hard for you to know (and you're an anon, so probably driving through from Milton with your windows rolled up and doors locked) but maybe, possibly, a majority of people voted for her to do this … so it's what the people want, not what you want.
She definitely shouldn’t give
She definitely shouldn’t give a shit what non Bostonians have to say. Their opinion means nothing. Or cry baby drivers who illegally double park all over Blue Hill Ave. It’s incredibly pathetic when drivers, who take up all the damn public space around here, throw temper tantrums about one little bus lane.
Reframing things
Some things never change: locals hate change, are afraid for their precious parking spaces, prefer a different solution (that they can’t identify).
It’s not news, but each round of this mewing is the result of progress: streets becoming safer and neighborhoods becoming more livable, from Mass Ave. in Cambridge to Centre in WR to Cummins Hwy. and Blue Hills Ave.
center st
A couple of weeks back, the West Roxbury bulletin ran a "Center St four months later" article on the road diet and everybody not named Steve Morris had good things say about it. Sometimes people have to just see it to believe it, unfortunately. Some remarks noted how surprising it was to see so many bicyclists given the winter, and how much safer traffic has been for both drivers and pedestrians despite these being the exact goals of the project stated in the original BTD presentation all the way back in 2019.
I should note that Mr. Morris stated that he's seen fewer bikes than normal and that some unspecified business have seen huge year over year declines. Some people are going to continue to dig in on this stuff
Definite improvement
I ride or walk through every day and it has been a big improvement. I'm expecting it to be even more apparent when the weather warms up and more people are walking around and biking.
What’s the over under
on when Boomerrang Wu flips on this decision?
When new facts present themselves
Mayor Wu changes her decisions when she learns new information that warrants a new opinion. I absolutely prefer politicians who are able to hear new things and act, rather than those who disingenuously draw a public line-in-the-sand and won't be budged from the rhetoric but will actually act according to whatever keeps them in power.
this is so interesting
we have one comment that says Wu does whatever she wants, and we have another that says she flips at the first sign of opposition. both comments are apparently anti-Wu.
Same hat - different hat box
Barbara Crichlow (news article) has a lot of experience with this. She was on the front lines when the MBTA tried to push this way back when.
About 15-20 years ago the MBTA hatched a plan to put Bus #28 into a dedicated reservation from Jackson Station to Mattapan Station. Part of that is already in place now, and low and behold, it follows the former trolley route that once went down the middle of the impacted streets.
At the time the MBTA sold the feds the plan as being "shovel ready" (Obama Administration era) and that is how the #28 bus got its first fleet of 60ft articulated buses, in advance of any construction. When the plan went to the neighborhoods there was a resounding push back. No one in those neighborhoods wanted it. While neighborhood meetings were held, the MBTA organized them in inconvenient places and inconvenient times.
Finally after months of this, elected officials from the city council and state reps took the MBTA to task for their lack of connecting with the community.
The big issue with the design at the time was that the bus reservation would be encased in Jersey Barriers, and street crossing to residences and business would only be at specific intersections, spread-out, eliminating reasonable access for a lot of people living in, and doing business in, those locations.
There was also a public health outcry because this is one of the neighborhoods with the highest asthma and lung disease rates in Boston, and the construction would exacerbate that.
In the end, the MBTA shelved this plan and instead went on to try to adjust the #28 route by consolidating bus stops, spreading them out, to make travel time quicker for the full route. That also did not go well with the people most impacted who live there.
And so now the MBTA has rolled this out again. Whether their commitment to localized meetings happens is yet to be seen. People like Pressley (news article) were here for the last round and they remember how the MBTA tried to push this through, maybe because they accepted federal money and did not follow through on the agreement? Might be something for an investigative TV reporter to look into. After all the #28 buses purchased were based on that "shovel ready" plan that never happened.
This is not a new plan but one that is being resurrected. Sad to say that the newbies at the T planning this may not be aware of what happened the last time, nor be interested in learning. There is a lot to be learned from the last round, and it had nothing to do with whether it was a good idea or not, but how it was presented and how health concerns were never getting a decent answer. Don't expect this to go smoothly.
The 28X
Tried to please everyone and wound up pleasing no one.
It basically said "we'll keep all of the travel lanes, and all of the parking, and put in bus lanes, and it will be 90 feet of concrete and we'll lose all the trees but, look, bus lanes."
Almost like they learned from that (this was City-led, too, not the T).
The demise of the 28x in 2009
Was because of no community input. The demise of the 28x in 2024 will be because of community input.
Mayor Gridlock
is gonna do whatever she (and her lobbyist/donors who totally own her by the short hairs) wants to do and she doesnt give one fig about you or the rest of the city
Who is that, again?
Who owns Wu? Would love to know.
She won 64% of the vote in the election and won more votes than anyone since the 1980s but … sure, it must be because everyone just listened to the lobbyists.
Ah yes, its those well-known lobbyist/donors
Big Bus in coordination with the Sinister Bike Cabal, under the supervision of the reverse vampires.
If you have a problem with gridlock
Maybe stop driving?
The "Center Bus Lanes" seem
The "Center Bus Lanes" seem to be working on that portion of Columbus Avenue through to Seaver Street were they are currently installed. It even looks like they have some type of handicapped access setup..
You will always be able to
You will always be able to find people who don't agree with something that the government is doing. As long as the agencies making the changes are doing so in good faith and have made a best effort to get as much input as possible when making decisions, that should be fine. From what I have seen, the City has been doing more outreach about this project than any other one in recent history. Not everyone will like every aspect of the plan, even after tweaks are made, but you cannot please everyone. You can only do you best to meet the needs of as many people as possible.
(There's also an "afraid of change" factor where some people will oppose the plan no matter what.)