February 14, 2001
Via email
David Mohler
MPO TIP Coordinator
Central Transportation Planning Staff
10 Park Plaza, Suite 2150
Boston, Ma. 02116-3968
Re: Proposed amendment to the FY 2001 Transit Program
Dear Mr. Mohler:
The Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods is an association of community civic organizations formed to promote genuine public process and to participate in decision-making on issues of citywide importance. We are compelled to address this proposed amendment because it so clearly impacts the quality of life in the urban center. In our comment letter on the recently certified Regional Transportation Plan we stated that the importance of environmental justice and resource allocation equity (Draft Policy 6) should make them the first substantive priority and integral to every aspect of the Regional Plan. The decision to defer once again the funds for the Green Line Accessibility Improvements ($33,842,803) and to transfer them to the South Boston Piers Transitway is clearly unjust and inequitable.
There are 221,350 daily boardings on the Green Line according to CTPS data (Transportation Plan, Table 9-6). In comparison, daily commuter rail boardings are only 93,400. According to the Transportation Plan's description of the Key Stations Program (now almost 10 years old) all of the commuter rail stations except four are ADA compliant but the downtown Green Line stations, Government Center, Arlington, Copley and Kenmore remain inaccessible for the mobility-impaired. Three years ago the city of Boston's Transportation Dept. commented on a similar amendment to the FY 1998-2003 TIP and urged the MPO and the MBTA to discuss ways these funds could be prioritized. Now in 2001 the Transitway boondoggle is the priority, a project that according to the MPO's Transportation Plan will primarily attract riders who previously walked from South Station to Fan Pier (page 108). As the Sierra Club comment letter on the Draft Transportation Plan so eloquently stated "The wisdom of public investment in transit projects is not at issue here...[rather it is] whether this investment benefits all parties equally or if certain groups (landowners and developers along the South Boston Waterfront, and suburban commuter rail riders into South Station) are getting...a disproportionate share of the benefits ".
At the Boston MPO Sub-Signatory Committee Jan. 9th meeting, Dennis DiZoglio, the MBTA Director of Planning, justified the request to reallocate the funds by explaining that the Accessibility Improvements are behind schedule because the T is waiting to see what the local private developers will pay for; ie, Kenmore Station and the new Fenway Park and Commonwealth Hotel plans and the future development of the Lechmere Station area. The MBTA has stated that future capital improvements will have to be funded by private investors and "public-private partnerships". The Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods rejects this strategy; it will privatize transit and will privatize planning for both transportation and development. Public transit must remain a public service. Environmental justice depends on that.
Sincerely,
Alison Pultinas
ABN delegate