City floats latest Cass Blvd. plan at community meeting
New bus lanes, street widening dropped; community still skeptical of plans
On the Web
For more information—including meeting minutes and slides and links to the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan, the Urban Ring plan, area development proposals, and—see the project website: www.cityofboston.gov/transportation/melnea.
The Boston Transportation Department last week unveiled its latest revision of Melnea Cass Boulevard redesign plans, reviving a process stalled by community resistance at several stages over the past three-and-a-half years. The new plan no longer includes the bus rapid transit lanes that were a key part of earlier versions.
The last public meeting on the project was in March 2013, when residents expressed alarm at the revelation that the street would be significantly widened to accommodate dedicated BRT lanes. That design, which included 108-foot-long pedestrian crossings at some intersections, was vigorously protested.
One of the outcomes of the 2013 meeting was a series of walk-throughs along the street in which city officials conferred with elected officials and community members, including Friends of Melnea Cass Boulevard, a group formed specifically to push back against the widening of the street.
Feedback from these on-the-ground discussions and prior community meetings led to a decision to hold off on the bus rapid transit lanes, which is a faster bus system featuring high-capacity vehicles, widely spaced stops and dedicated bus lanes.
“Center-median BRT is going on a shelf,” said Patrick Hoey, the BTD senior transportation planner who has moderated the half-dozen public meetings on Melnea Cass redesign thus far. “We heard loud and clear what the community was concerned about.”
Yvonne Lalyre, a longtime neighborhood resident and a co-founder of Friends of Melnea Cass Boulevard, spoke early during the event and expressed appreciation for the growing transparency of the process.
“We don’t endorse everything in the new plan,” Lalyre said, “but we feel the department has been listening to us, and the process has been successful.”
The new design includes off-street two-way bicycle tracks on both the north and south sides and wider sidewalks further removed from street traffic. The plan preserves the existing two lanes of automobile traffic in each direction. It adds street parking at some points and left-turn lanes at some intersections, including Washington Street, where new commercial development is expected on several long-vacant parcels. The “slip lane” that now allows rapid right turns onto Melnea Cass from Tremont Street will be closed off for improved pedestrian safety.
Melnea Cass Boulevard will not be widened, but some of the crosswalks are still 70 to 84 feet, leading to concerns about the pedestrian experience.
“Don’t forget the elders,” cautioned state Rep. Gloria Fox.
Several attendees called for walk signals to be timed longer to accommodate older residents. Others worried about an especially long crosswalk at Albany Street near the Orchard Gardens K-8 School, and asked for traffic calming measures.
Lalyre said the south side bike lane should be omitted in order to save trees. But others support the added south side bike lane, saying it could encourage bike transportation to and from Dudley Square and the new Tropical Foods store. A bike lane currently runs along the north side of the street, part of the South Bay Harbor Trail meant to connect Ruggles Station and Lower Roxbury to the Boston waterfront.
The current plan removes 151 trees (50 fewer than in the 2013 plan), adds 167 new ones, and retains 336, Hoey said, resulting in a net gain of 16 trees.
One attendee suggested traffic lanes could be reduced by a foot or so to help narrow the street. Bicycle advocates urged planners to look to the new Commonwealth Avenue improvement plans for good ideas on safer intersections.
The street redesign has been under discussion since 2011. The BTD is the lead agency among a group of city and state agencies involved in the project, funded with roughly $9 million in federal and state money along with $600,000 in city of Boston funds. Officials have repeatedly described the plan as integrating the goals of Boston’s “Complete Streets” initiative, the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan (RSMP), and the state-led Urban Ring project that includes a BRT corridor linking Roxbury and other Greater Boston communities.
Most residents agree on the need for a safer, more attractive thoroughfare, but early on, there was a sense that the current planners were not aware of area planning history, and along the way sharp questions arose on the need for new BRT lanes and the street widening and excessive tree removal that would result.
State Rep. Byron Rushing stood up to remind everyone that Melnea Cass Boulevard is one of the after-effects of the massive demolition for a planned I-95 highway extension through Boston in the 1960s. Hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed, and the curving boulevard was built in 1981 on one of the paths bulldozed at that time.
“I don’t want us ever to forget that no matter what you dislike about Melnea Cass Boulevard, if it wasn’t for this community, it would have been an eight-lane highway going through here. We stopped that,” Rushing said.
“So when we come to redesign, it is appropriate that the community be asked,” he added. “[At the first meeting in 2011] people felt they were not being asked. But people in the community took leadership. The whole community now has a place to have a say that they know will be listened to.”
After the meeting, Rushing said he feels the process is now on the right track. Friends of Melnea Cass Boulevard co-founder Kay Mathew also had positive words, especially about how community activism changed the plans.
“I’m feeling optimistic,” Mathew said. “This was a real grassroots victory.”
Rushing, Fox and other attendees called for another walk-through to examine the new plan and another public meeting before the design proceeds.
Hoey noted that the past year’s walk-throughs had also generated some interim action items that will be done in the next few weeks, such as refreshed pavement markings and VMS (variable-message sign) boards displaying safety reminders to drivers on the fast-moving thoroughfare. He agreed to schedule a walk-through for June, while his team also examines ways to save more trees and create safer intersections.
“We’ve made drastic changes to get to where we are,” Hoey said. “We’re moving in the right direction, right? And now we’ll tweak things based on this meeting to make it better.”
