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A man who knows something about gridlock says BC expansion plan could cause gridlock
By adamg on Sun, 02/17/2008 - 9:24pm
Harry Mattison posts a copy of a letter from Brighton resident Fred Salvucci to the Boston Redevelopment Authority's BC expansion project manager on the potential impact of the college's proposed buildout on traffic from Cleveland Circle to Brighton Center. And he says that unless the college takes steps to mitigate the increased traffic, the result would be a gridlocked neighborhood.
Salvucci knows from gridlock - perhaps more than anyone, he is responsible for the Big Dig, which started when he was transportation secretary under Mike Dukakis.
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Comments
I'm not sure how much
I'm not sure how much traffic the expansion plan is going to add. A large majority of students don't have cars. Faculty and staff are already forced to pay for parking spaces since they barely have enough to meet current needs. Athletic and other special events may increase traffic at times, but how much more traffic would it really add to the area? BC runs a decent shuttle service, which would presumably be expanded along with the campus expansion.
Unfortunately I think it will really be up to the MBTA to ensure traffic levels don't get out of control. Riding the B line from Boston College to Kenmore can be downright miserable at times.
FORCED to? Really?
It's a condition of employment that they drive to work (and pay for a parking space) rather than taking the green line? Seems a bit of an unethical hiring practice...
Well ...
If the university is willing to pay an extra two hours of daycare time a day to keep people out of cars, then maybe not so "forced" to drive. Not everyone who works at HSPH, Harvard Medical, BC, etc. lives west of Boston.
Two hours. TWO HOURS. That IS what it gets down to. Ride the T and plan on it taking an additional TWO HOURS EACH DAY or drive. I know this because I was somebody who faced that decision - had kids in daycare, couldn't do a TWO HOUR commute to get TEN miles. I found that BIKE was the best answer to the problem overall (40-50 minutes), but not always.
Yes. Really. That bad.
Well, the other alternative
Well, the other alternative is to expand the T. Most of the lines could be extended, branches could be added, a ring line around the city could allow people to travel on the outskirts without having to go through the center, and so on. Mass transit systems are subject to Metcalfe's law: the value of the system increases as you add nodes. Add more lines and more stations, and the T will be more useful to more people, increasing ridership. Reduce fares and ridership will increase further. Frankly, I'd be perfectly happy to fund the T -- after a clean sweep of its management and other bad apples -- directly out of the general fund, with fares reduced to a nickel or so. We generally subsidize roads, bridges, tunnels, and such. We don't really expect them to finance themselves, but they're important enough to justify tax-based funding. Mass transit is really no different.
I worked at BC for many
I worked at BC for many years.When I was there parking was free for staff. I guess its $150 a year now (or $150 per semester). Even when you could park it was quite a long walk from the garages to the building I worked in.Most of the non faculty staff do not make much money working at BC. It's the students that should not be allowed to park on campus.Their whole little world is right there for them.They can eat, live and party right on campus.Many of the staff (custodians, food service,etc....)dont live along the green line. And even if they did, that is quite a long ride and I dont care where you are coming from.If you live in Dorchester you need to take the redline to park street, and then switch to the green line to boston college, which is a long long ride.Let the students take the T and let the people who make their lives so wonderful on campus park close to where they work.hey eeka you could probably just fly in on your broom and not have to worry about it at all.
Unfortunately I think it
Riding close to Boston College is much, much worse. Nothing like getting dumped at Washington St. every day, week after week because the train has been out to BC.
There is not a single BC
There is not a single BC proposal that has not met resistance from the "BC neighbors." These people do not understand how to coalesce around a few issues to get what they want. Instead they fight ridiculous battles over things like artificial turf.
The Turf
They fight over things like the turf because come spring there will be several hundred people standing around the turf screaming for their team.These people paid good money for the houses they live in before BC became the big school it is today.Now BC is no longer a commuter school and they are jamming up a neighborhood with things the neighbors dont want.I can understand if you moved in over there anytime after 1990 but if you were there before that you have every right to complain.
If you want to live in
If you want to live in silence and solitude you best move beyond 495. Having to overhear cheers from a soccer game may not have been what you signed up for back in 1950, but cities do change for better or worse.
What if the city wanted to put a little league complex on the site in Brighton? Would that have been met with such opposition? Probably not, even if the traffic would have been worse. Students can at least WALK to a complex on their own campus.
BC hasn't been a small
BC hasn't been a small commuter school for quite some time. I would never live near a university either way since expansion is almost inevitable. If people didn't realize that with a college comes students and with students comes some partying, then I'd say that was a bad real estate decision on their part.
Rob
I totally hear what you are saying. The thing is that BC is not like the others.BU, Harvard, NEU all in neighborhoods clearly designed to expand with the times. They are and were schools with endless expansion possibilities. Boston College was a small men’s commuter college up until the early 70's I believe. Most of the people who are unhappy now aren’t even in the same Chestnut Hill zip code that the main campus is located in. The people who live in the soon to be affected areas bought their property along the borders of St Johns Seminary in Brighton.Im quite sure they never expected the church to allow pedophile priests to run rampant in the archdiocese for 50 years. Because of this the church became cash strapped and sold out the whole area and archdiocese to pay off the lawsuits. Now all the people who have lived in these homes, in some cases for over 75 years are being forced to deal with the college’s expansion plans. This is not something anyone expected when this small school moved up to chestnut hill in the twenties. So please stop telling me that these people are getting what they deserve.
They live across the street
They live across the street from the main campus as is! How can one live on Lake St, Foster St, Radnor Rd, etc and not expect to have college kids in your neighborhood? I do not understand it. BC is literally across the street. It's not like Commonwealth Ave is a protective moat or something. It's like living two blocks away from Fenway Park and being shocked and appalled that drunk fans might walk down your street.
As for the ring leaders of the "BC Neighbors," I'd love to see one that has lived in his/her home for 75 years as you stated. I will feel some sympathy for that person. But since that applies to very few of the neighbors actually complaining, I'll stand by what I said above.
Rob
My family has lived in the same house in Brighton since 1912. My grandmother is 95 and has friends on Lake St she has known her whole life. I’m not saying that these people are unaware of the college across the street. The problem is with the expansion which is going to cross Comm ave and come down Lake and Foster Streets. Do you think everyone over there is new to the neighborhood? I know over the years many of the properties have changed hands but not all. My family lives 2 miles from campus and we are selling because our neighborhood has changed so much over the years. The old ladies die; the realtors take the houses and break them up into 4-5 bedroom apartments. Is it my grandmother’s fault that her parents bought a house in Brighton in 1912 and now it is a student ghetto? I don’t think they knew what was coming 90 years down the road. If you need to see proof go look at some land records for Lake Street and see when many of the houses were last sold. They have coexisted with the college and its other expansion plans over the years but now they want to build baseball stadiums and dorms 100 yards(or less) from the homes. It’s not fair or right. Its all about the money I guess
Comprehensive Planning
It's a new concept on Boston, but it has been employed nearly everywhere else in the world.
Sad thing is, the very people who are most likely to be gobsmacked by inevitable change seem to be the very people who fight tooth and nail against planning processes,initiatives, and mandates.
That is why there ain't any planning with teeth in these parts. People fear change, insist it will never happen, destroy attempts to guide and channel it, and then can't do a damn thing when they get steamrolled.
Welcome to Massachusetts. Could have had comprehensive statewide land use planning 40 years ago, couldn't deal with the concept that change will happen no matter what and will bite you in the ass if you don't plan for it.
No disrepect meant here, but
No disrepect meant here, but I'd say it's pretty unrealistic to think that a neighborhood won't or shouldn't change after 90+ years. I grew up in West Roxbury and I highly doubt it will look the same in 2100 as it does now. Nor would I ever expect it to.
Rob
I understand that cities grow and evolve. I know Boston today is not the same Boston my great grandparents lived in 100 years ago. All I am saying is that the schools should show more respect and compassion for those who came before them. This is not about me and you Rob, I am just trying to get my point across to others who think the locals are all living in the dark ages. I love Boston and I love Brighton. I loved growing up exposed to all sorts of people I never would have met if I had been raised in Butte Montana. I just wish people would stop and think about the people that were here before them. I wish the schools, with all their money, would be more a a friend to the neighbors than an adversary.
Planning ahead would have helped
Why is the system set up such that people must hope and pray that the schools treat them right? Why did people give the schools and the old boy network in power so much power over their communties that they need to beg?
If there were proper planning documents in place starting 30 years ago, there would be a blueprint for where the schools would expand or could expand when they needed to, and it would be along the lines that the community agreed too.
The fact that Massachusetts communities refused to draft such plans isn't the fault of the schools who always planned to expand and now wish to do so on land that they now own. It is the fault of extreme denial, placing faith in personality cults of certain politicians over direct civic action, and way too much heirarchy.
Boston does have plans in
Boston does have plans in place..they just suck.
Your reasoning is all over
Your reasoning is all over the map, no offense. I get your general point but like I've said, I don't find it very persuasive or applicable. Either way, agree to disagree.