MGNA: Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance

Available for download in pdf format.

Petition and Demographic Data Support Route 16 Station for Green Line Extension to Medford/Somerville

The Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance (MGNA) today presented state transportation leaders and local elected officials a citizen petition and a demographic report in support of extending the Green Line to Route 16 (Mystic Valley Parkway) on the Medford/Somerville line.

At today’s meeting of the Green Line Project Advisory Board, MGNA delivered a petition with 2,022 signatures stating support for extending the Green Line to Route 16.

In addition, MGNA presented census data analysis that showed a Route 16 station would put Green Line service within a half-mile walk of 9,116 residents of Medford, Somerville and Arlington who would not have such access if the extension were terminated at a College Avenue station at the intersection with Boston Avenue.

The MGNA report also pointed out that a Route 16 station would provide transit service within a half-mile walk of five environmental justice neighborhoods that would not be similarly served by a terminus station at College Avenue.

The Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) is currently evaluating the College Avenue/Boston Avenue site and Route 16 (Mystic Valley Parkway) as possible locations for the terminal stations. EOT is analyzing factors such as environmental impacts including air quality, right-of-way impacts, costs, and ridership projections. A decision could come as soon as September.

“The citizen petition and demographic data quantify MGNA’s position that a Green Line station at Route 16 has community support, and that it will help the extension project meet two of its most important objectives – improving air quality by providing better transit alternatives to car travel, and providing fair and equitable service to environmental justice communities,” MGNA said in a statement.

The petition signatures were collected online and in paper form over seven weeks, from June 5 to July 31, 2008. Petition signers added numerous comments in favor of a Route 16 station, particularly citing the need to improve public transportation options in the wake of record fuel costs.

“In today’s world of high gas prices, this addition could provide many of us with a cleaner, faster and simpler way of transportation. [It] would be nice to leave my car and walk to the T,” wrote Medford resident Rick Weir.

“The Green Line at Route 16 is an ideal location to be served by transit,” wrote Medford resident Roberta Cameron. “The site directly abuts around 250,000 square feet of existing office and retail space, as well as two affordable multifamily housing developments, with a substantial density of single and multifamily housing in Medford and Arlington, as well as a school all within close walking distance. This dense, mixed-use neighborhood would not be served at all by a station a half mile to a mile away.”

The Route 16 demographic data was analyzed by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyst Benjamin Krepp and GIS research consultant Barbara Parmenter. Using 2000 U.S. Census data, the most recent available, they determined which portion of each census block group fell within prescribed distances, or buffer areas, of the Route 16 station location, then estimated the population within each buffer area.

By putting nearly 10,000 additional residents within a ten-minute walk of Green Line service, a Route 16 station increases the potential for the project to shift more person trips from autos to transit, and therefore to improve regional air quality in the corridor, a legal requirement that emerged from the Big Dig project.

And, a Route 16 station would help provide fair and equitable access to stations, ensuring that the project adheres to environmental justice principles that no segment of the population should be denied environmental benefits, or bear a disproportionate burden of the environmental impacts.

Click here to read the Petition Summary Report.

Click here to view all the petition signatures.

Click here to see a map showing the location of petition signers.

Click here to read the Route 16 Demographic Study report.

The Executive Office of Transportation has posted to the Green Line extension project website new, more detailed drawings for the proposed stations, which will be
discussed at Monday’s Project Advisory Group meeting.

Here is a quick summary of the new plans:

BALL SQUARE

+ The station lobby is attached to the north side of the Broadway
Bridge, with access from bridge
+ The platform is further north (behind the bowling alley buiding,
which appears to remain intact)

COLLEGE AVENUE

+ The station lobby just north of College Avenue, designed into the
curvature, with ramps leading to station from both College Avenue
and Boston Avenue.
+ The platform is further north of College Avenue, along Boston
Avenue, but ending before reaching abutting homes on Burget Avenue.

ROUTE 16/MYSTIC VALLEY PARKWAY

+ The UHaul building is gone, but there is no parking deck shown.
+ The station lobby is in the far northeast corner of the property.
+ The platform is south of the lobby, extending to just past the
northeast corner of 200 Boston Avenue.
+ There is a dropoff/pickup lane with an entrance from Boston
Avenue, in between the 200 and 196 Boston Avenue buidings, and
exiting (presumably exit only) at Mystic Valley Parkway.

Here is a link to all the station drawings on the project website:

http://www.greenlineextension.org/currentmaterials.asp

Monday’s Project Advisory Group meeting will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. at the St. Clement’s Parish Hall, 579 Boston Ave., Medford.

Please note that this is a change of location from the original meeting schedule that was announced in April. Shiloh Bapstist Church in Medford, which was scheduled to host this meeting, requested that it be moved because it anticipated it would not have room to
accommodate as many people as attended the May advisory group meeting at St. Clement’s.

The meeting agenda and directions follow:

GREEN LINE EXTENSION
PROJECT ADVISORY GROUP MEETING

Monday, June 2, 2008
4 – 6 P.M.

AGENDA

Introductions

Update from EOTPW

Station Concepts
- Station Locations
- MBTA Program
- Preliminary Concepts

Union Square Alignment(s)

Proposed Operating Plan

Next Steps

Public Comment

- - -

DIRECTIONS

St. Clement’s Parish Hall is located at the intersection of Warner Street and Boston Avenue. Warner is the continuation of Harvard Street on the other side of Boston Avenue.

The Advisory Group meeting is on the lower level, which you can enter from the Warner Street main entrance (the sign next to the door says “St. Clement’s Parish Schools”). The room is down a few steps.

The handicapped entrance is located in the walkway space between the church and the school. It can be reached from Warner Street or from the school parking lot. The doorway leads to an elevator, which goes to the lower level (you will arrive in a hall outside of new Parish Hall).

There is one handicapped parking space and there may be some spaces available in the school’s parking lot by the time our meeting begins.

On street parking for non-residents is available on Boston Avenue and on St. Clement’s Road but only on one side of each street, so please read the signs to make sure you are not choosing resident parking.

Here is a google map of the location:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-
a&q=579+Boston+Ave,+Medford,+MA+02155,+USA&z=16&iwloc=addr

Nearby MBTA bus routes that serve the area (specifically PowderHouse Square)  include the 89, 94, and 80.

If you have questions or require access accommodations, contact:

Regan Checchio
Public Affairs Manager
Regina Villa Associates
51 Franklin St., 4th floor
Boston, MA 02110
Ph: 617-357-5772 ext. 14
Fax: 617-357-8361
E-mail: rchecchio@reginavilla.com