Bob La Trémouille reports.
1. Introduction.
2. EOT’s alternatives to the bus tunnel are in blatant violation of the Secretary’s Certificate upon which the Phase 2 process is based.
a. Added Fenway Park Station.
b. Tunnel to BU Bridge.
c. Summary.
3. Games from the City of Cambridge.
a. Report from a Cambridge appointee.
b. Future of the Cambridge City Manager.
c. Results of a changing of the guard in Cambridge?
4. Allston.
5. Marilyn Wellons comments.
1. Introduction.
The Citizens’ Advisory Committee for the Urban Ring met in Boston City Hall on Monday afternoon, July 28, 2008.
The Executive Office of Transportation (EOT, hope I translated right) announced it is expanding on the grossly expensive bus tunnel proposed for the Longwood Medical Area as part of Phase 2, buses, of the Urban Ring transportation proposal.
This expansion would be done through two "alternatives" based on this massive tunnel.
The basic proposal connects buses from Yawkey Station (near Fenway Park and Kenmore) to Louis Pasteur and Longwood (in the heart of the Longwood Medical Area) and then to Ruggles Station. The entire route is underground and very expensive. It would cost $1.5 Billion of a $2.2 Billion project that is supposed to be regional.
The 1.5 mile busway would service two buslines. One is a renumbered CT-2 bus. The other is a renumbered CT-3 bus. It is proposed to have one stop, at Louis Pasteur and Longwood.
Additionally, Boston has proposed an alternative in Allston which would be further west than the existing proposal.
2. EOT’s alternatives to the bus tunnel are in blatant violation of the Secretary’s Certificate upon which the Phase 2 process is based.
There are two new alternative tunnel routes proposed. No cost estimates were provided but both would raise the price tag on the tunnel part of the Urban Ring.
a. Added Fenway Park Station.
One alternative would move the spot at which the northern end of the tunnel comes out of the ground closer to Yawkey Station.
The purpose of this change is to allow room for a station connecting to the Fenway Park station on the Green Line Riverside line.
This station would bring the tunnel buses much closer to Green Line passengers. This change would, however, require that Longwood passengers travel on only one branch of the Green Line, at least for the last few hundred yards. It would also create a station fairly close to the Kenmore Station on the Urban Ring Phase 3 subway line.
Without this change, the basic proposal would run the renumbered CT-3 Bus to Kenmore from Yawkey to pick up Green Line passengers. That would have quite major traffic impact especially in rush hours.
b. Tunnel to BU Bridge.
The other alternate tunnel would connect to the BU Bridge system. It would turn the bus tunnel at Park Drive / the Fenway Park station rather than going straight ahead toward Yawkey. The bus tunnel would then run under Park Drive and Mountfort. The bus tunnel would turn to the north just before the current BU Bridge roadway system. This tunnel would connect to the highways to be built over the Grand Junction railroad bridge and to the highways proposed to Harvard’s Business, Science and Med School campus in Allston.
Two additional stops are proposed, one at the Fenway Park station apparently connecting to the Riverside and Cleveland Circle lines and the second just south of Commonwealth Avenue in what is now a parking lot, connecting to the Commonwealth Avenue line.
c. Summary.
These alternatives would be in clear violation of the directions of the Secretary of Environmental Affairs in her certificate that initiated the current planning process. The Secretary ordered that nothing be done in Phase 2 which would interfere with the options in phase 3.
The bus tunnel connecting to the BU Bridge system would be the BU Bridge crossing. Building that tunnel in Phase 2 would decide which of the two Charles River crossings be would used in Phase 3.
Putting the phase 3 crossing tunnel in phase 2 would decide Phase 3 Charles River crossing determinations AGAINST the Kenmore crossing which is far superior from a transportation and an environmental point of view.
Problems with the change that would only add a Fenway Park station and move the portal slightly are much less major but not insignificant. That new stop would put two stops on the Urban Ring for the Riverside line, pretty close together, this new bus transfer, and the excellent Kenmore Station. This would hurt performance on the Urban Ring and provide no real improvement in service.
3. Games from the City of Cambridge.
a. Report from a Cambridge appointee.
The increasing violations of the secretary’s certificate are very reminiscent of a report an Audubon Circle (Park Drive and Beacon) resident got from a female friend appointed to a Cambridge entity.
My immediate reaction, before hearing anything else, when I heard the friend was a Cambridge appointee, was that the friend should not be trusted because of the lack of trustworthiness of many representatives of the City of Cambridge both disclosed and, much more importantly, undisclosed. This is not a condemnation of each and every member of such committees. Rather, it is recognition that these people can wind up on the receiving end of false statements.
The friend told her that the Phase 3 Kenmore Crossing was dead.
Looks like the City of Cambridge or one of its friends is trying to decide the issue without allowing it to be considered.
b. Future of the Cambridge City Manager.
The Cambridge City Council is on the verge of figuring out what to do with a jury verdict on civil rights abuses by the Cambridge City Manager. A Middlesex Superior Court jury has found illegal retaliation by the Cambridge City Manager in his firing of a black female department head for filing a civil rights claim.
It looks like the Cambridge City Council will have to decide between appealing the $4.5 million jury verdict or paying it and disciplining the Cambridge City Manager.
c. Results of a changing of the guard in Cambridge?
Perhaps the environmental dirty tricks will stop under a new City Manager? Firing him would still leave severe problems which would have to be cleared out in the development department. Firing him would not kill the massive army of an organization he and his predecessor have created through the development department over 35 years.
4. Allston.
The City of Boston has proposed an Allston alignment further west, near what is the Brighton Mills (Shaw’s Super Market) complex on Western Avenue.
The chair promised to send me a copy of the letter.
5. Marilyn Wellons comments on 3. c., above:
Your point about Cambridge if and when Healy-Rossi leave is very well taken.
As we're seeing, it's not easy to get rid of a rat infestation following uncontrolled construction projects.
