Dear Neighbor,
Last Monday, as you have certainly read and heard, the first new station on the Green Line Extension was opened in Union Square. I was asked to speak at one of the three ribbon-cuttings as a representative of the state legislators. This newsletter starts with those remarks, and then has some mre notes on the GLX and the day's events, including a rally for affordable housing.
REMARKS AT RIBBON CUTTING
I’ve been asked to represent the many state legislators who have worked toward this day. They include former Sen. Anthony Galluccio, former Reps. Denise Provost, Carl Sciortino, and Tim Toomey. My current colleagues were all present at the event: Sen. Sal DiDomenico, Reps. Christine Barber, Mike Connolly, Sean Garballey and Erika Uyterhoeven.
We celebrate not just the opening of the first GLX stations, but the decades of community activism that made it possible:
The mothers who tried to block the construction of I-93, the neighbors who fought and succeeded in stopping the construction of the Inner Belt through our neighborhood, the Conservation Law Foundation which sued to get the commitment to the GLX as part of I-93 mitigation and then again when it was threatened, the hundreds of activists who filled the Somerville High School auditorium twice when the project was about to be canceled, the advocates who persisted with STEP, the Friends of the Community Path, and the Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance, as well as the elected leaders recognized today.
Many times in the past 30 years, this project seemed to be at a dead end. But the dedication and persistence of so many people, most of them unnamed today, and many of them no longer with us, got it over every roadblock.
This is an important milestone, but our work is not done.
Now many people think the GLX will permanently end at Tufts/West Medford. But we will not stop until it reaches Route 16.
The GLX was approved as mitigation to offset increased air pollution from traffic on I-93. But for 40 years, the people closest to I-93, along Mystic Ave and in East Somerville, have suffered health damage and death due to that pollution. How do we make up for those lost years? The GLX is not enough. The damage continues. We have to build barriers now to stop the pollution and the noise.
As we celebrate the enormous economic growth unlocked by this project, we can't forget the people left behind and pushed out by the rapid rise in property prices and rents. Apparently everyone in North America wants to live in Somerville. But the things that make our community so attractive won't exist if the immigrants, the working people, the long-time residents, the artists, as well as small businesses and family-owned triple-deckers are gone. There are solutions we can and should adopt immediately to slow displacement, protect existing affordable housing, and promote home ownership, as well as build new affordable housing for all ages and family sizes. It will be tragic if the people who need and use public transit the most can't afford to live near it.
Thank you to everyone who contributed over the years to this achievement. Thanks also to all the taxpayers, without whose contributions this would not be possible. Without their support, its maintenance and operation won't be possible. And thanks to everyone who continues the effort to expand public transit and other public benefits that make our lives richer.
OPENING DAY
At 4:50 a.m. last Monday, March 21, the first passengers got on the Green Line at Union Square. Early risers included Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, Rep. Mike Connolly, former mayor Joe Curtatone, GLX Program Manager John Dalton, and many others, including many regular commuters.
Mayor Ballantyne invited people who'd advocated for the GLX to ride from Union Square to the new Lechmere Station. Many, many people joined in. All the living Somerville mayors were on board: Gene Brune, Dorothy Kelly Gay, Mike Capuano, Joe Curtatone, and Katjana Ballantyne. So were Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo Koehn, Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, along with lots of long-time advocates like Karen Malloy, Ellin Reisner, and Wig Zamore. (Karen and Ellin are in the photo with Reps. Connolly and Uyterhoeven.)
Former Rep. Denise Provost was there to celebrate too. She was among the earliest and strongest supporters of the GLX; her 2016 article was a comprehensive view of what we really need from the GLX.
One side note: the new fare collection system didn't work most of the time. This made me think about how much time and money it will cost to install and operate the planned newer system, and whether it wouldn't be better to make public transit free, like public schools and public parks.
At 10:00, at least 70 people joined a rally organized by CAAS (Community Action Agency of Somerville) to call attention to extreme rent increases resulting from the GLX. One woman told how her rent had increased $600/month, although the landlord had made no improvements. For more on the rally and the fight against gentrification see CAAS's website.
Then at 10:30, some officials rode a bus to the Maintenance Facility, and then the train to Union Square for the first ribbon cutting. Then back on the train, which cut another ribbon en route to Lechmere. You can see the video on the link.
At Lechmere, several hundred people, including workers who are building the GLX, gathered to hear speeches by many elected and appointed officials. Since the press reported so well on the event, I won't try to recap here. There's local coverage from the Somerville/Medford Journal/Transcript. (photo by Alex Feldman)
HISTORY LESSONS
Union Square is the first new branch of the MBTA in more than 30 years. (In 2014, we celebrated the opening of the Assembly Row station on the Orange Line, the first new T station in 27 years.) And there's more to come this summer as the rest of the stations open.
Wikipedia says the first suggestion of the GLX was in 1922. For more on the history of the GLX, see this STEP article about 1973-2000, this Globe article, or this one.
It's worth remembering the people who protested the building of I-93 and the Inner Belt more than 50 years ago. Jim Bretta was there, and wrote an inspiring letter about it after a commemorative demonstration in 2019. I had recently moved to Somerville and joined the Ward 2 Civic Association which participated in the protests; it was an exciting time of incredible grassroots organizing that led to many changes in our city.
More on transportation equity soon.
Stay safe, stay in touch,