Work to change Centre Street in West Roxbury from four to three lanes could begin in October, Wu, other officials tell residents

Mayor Wu and City Streets Chief Jascha Franklin-Hodge told a packed auditorium at the Ohrenberger School tonight they are committed to making Centre Street safer through a reconfiguration that will include reducing the number of travel lanes on each side from two to one, with a new third lane in the center for left-turn lanes at intersections and for various "flex" uses, such as letting first responders speed to emergencies.

The plan, for which Franklin-Hodge said work will begin in October, will also include pedestrian islands at intersections, reconfiguring traffic lights and moving parking spaces away from the curb to create "protected" bike lanes along the curbs.

Franklin-Hodge acknowledged the devil is in the details and said the city will hold at least three separate meetings for residents and small-business owners to offer advice on issues such as bus stops and preserving parking spaces.

Both he and Wu said traffic data, from both 2019, when the idea was first proposed after the death of Marilyn Wentworth, show the road is simply unsafe. It has higher numbers of crashes than "peer roads" in Boston and across the state, as well as speeders and other drivers who create safety problems.

Creating single through lanes on each side would slow drivers down and end lane weaving and "double threat" crashes, in which one driver stops for a pedestrian, who then gets slammed into by a driver in the neighboring lane who doesn't stop, he said.

Franklin-Hodge added that the city can do all this while losing only 8 of the roughly 224 parking spaces along Centre, and that it's possible that could be reduced to just 5 spaces. Also, he said, the city will track what the changes do to the side streets off Centre and, if need be, would look to installing speed bumps and other measures to slow down any speeders.

Tensions ran high as both opponents and supporters - many of whom wore green tops - came to the microphone to offer their opinions, in an auditorium that seemed to be relatively evenly split. But through it all, only one person was outright booed - Catherine Vitale of Dorchester, who used to stand outside Wu's house screaming through a bullhorn at 7:30 a.m. but who is now running for an at-large City Council seat. Vitale's arguments that "it's not the government's job to keep us safe!" and that the Centre Street plan is "bullshit!" followed by a rant about crime in places like Dorchester proved too extreme for a number of people in the auditorium.

Wu, who lives in neighboring Roslindale, said she is in West Roxbury several times a week - as a mother to two young sons, who play lacrosse and soccer there. "I'm gripping tightly onto the hands of my kids" whenever they have to cross Centre, because it's just so unsafe, she said.

She was echoed by West Roxbury parents and residents who said they constantly worry about their kids crossing the street or who sometimes go shopping elsewhere for fear of getting hit. One man said he shouldn't have to worry about his sons, 9 and 13, when they go to a store for some gum.

One resident said her brother died getting hit by a car at a young age, that that forever changed her life and that she does not want anybody else to go through that. Another, a pediatric nurse, told Wu and Franklin-Hodge to "sign her up" for any needed work to change Centre Street into something safer. Saving just one life would make it all worth it, she said.

Supporting the plan was City Councilor Kendra Lara (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain). "The really important step is making sure Centre Street is safe for everybody," she said.

Sarah Breuer, who is mobility impaired, said she would love to have a Centre Street where she could cross safely. She said when she is in her wheelchair, she is no taller than a kindergartner, which means drivers speeding down Centre might not even see her, so she dreads trying to go from one side to another.

Opponents cited many of the same arguments that they used to kill a similar proposal in 2019, that eliminating travel lanes is too extreme, that maybe the road would be safer if bicyclists stopped running red lights, if pedestrians got their heads away from their phones, if BPD actually enforced existing laws.

Jose Diaz said people should reject the idea that government knows best. One Centre Street business owner said the proposal would harm the neighborhood's senior citizens, because they don't ride bikes or walk, and need to drive places, such as her store. Abner Bonilla, who lives on American Legion Highway in Roslindale, urged West Roxbury residents to fight the proposal. He said American Legion, which is now down to one lane in front of his house, is still unsafe because people still speed.

Steve Morris, who led the fight against the plan in 2019, and who printed up lawn signs in 2021 to keep the plan dead, said, again, that it seemed the fix was in and, after noting all the green shirts in the auditorium, said it was obvious bicyclists were up to their old tricks. He was joined by another resident who said more explicitly it was all a plot by bicyclists: That the changes would fail, then the city would turn all of Centre Street into a pedestrian path with free-for-all parking.

Brian Kenneally added a new argument: That Marilyn Wentworth, who walked with a cane, "was not in the crosswalk when she was unfortunately killed, so please stop saying that." Other opponents then raised that issue as well.

Kenneally: She wasn't in the crosswalk.

One supporter of the plan allowed how, OK, people should walk in crosswalks, "but if you don't, you don't deserve to die."

Wentworth's son, Matt, was the last person of the night to speak. He did not address the allegation about his mother, but said he was there to support the plan, that after all the grief he and his father, Al, went through, he just wants to keep it from ever happening to anybody else.

As Al Wentworth (in white tee shirt) and others listen, Matt Wentworth urges support for proposal: