Since the announcement of the Green Line extension from Lechmere to Mystic Valley Parkway, scheduled for completion in 2015, many have wondered how the Somerville and Tufts communities will be affected.
It certainly will make Boston much more accessible for Tufts students and area residents. Currently, the only T stop in the Somerville area near Tufts is the Red Line stop in Davis Square.
Increased accessibility is particularly important for the area surrounding Tufts, as most of Somerville's residents rely on public transportation. Somerville is also the most densely populated city in New England, with 77,478 inhabitants in an area of four square miles, according to the 2000 Census.
"Somerville has 5,000 people per square mile without access to a car," Wigton Zamore, a founding member of Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership (STEP) and the Mystic View Task Force (MVTF), told the Daily.
What many are worried about, however, is that while the extension will make commuting much easier, it may also push lower− to moderate−income families out of the area as Somerville becomes more appealing to wealthier individuals.
"[Neighborhoods] often get gentrified, [which is] definitely a fear," Shirley Mark, director of the Lincoln Filene Center for Community Partnerships at the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, said. "A lot of people would be happy if the impact on housing didn't change drastically — if families living in Somerville now could still live there 10 to 15 years from now."
Zamore believes that although protecting the community's diversity is important, the extension may not be as problematic for low−income families as some think. He explained that most T stops act like a bull's−eye, with lower−income families tending to live near the rail line and higher−income families tending to live farther away from it.
"Wealthy people don't like living close to a T stop," Zamore said.
Thus, the extension is unlikely to inspire housing homogeneity, as it did when the Davis Square Red Line stop first opened in 1984.
"When the Red Line came into Davis Square, it changed the dynamic," he said.
When the Red Line was extended through Davis Square in the '80s, he said, its presence had an incredible impact on the character of the area, which at the time was in decay. The Green Line, however, has different associations than does the "sophisticated" Red Line that connects the city to elite schools like Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to Zamore.
"The Green Line is also not as high−speed as the Red Line," Zamore said. "[It is] appropriate for absolutely preserving the character of the community."
The extension will also bring with it more paying customers and visitors, which will ameliorate the area's financial troubles, Zamore said.
For the Tufts campus, the effects of the proposed extension plan will be significant, as it will create a stop right at the campus's doorstep, at the intersection of College and Boston Avenues, by October 2015.
For the first time, Tufts' undergraduate campus will be directly connected to its medical and public health campuses, Zamore said.
Currently, he said, the commute time between the campuses has been an obstacle to potential cooperation and multidisciplinary study across schools. Zamore, who is working on a research project at the Boston campus, explained that half or more of the graduate students who are involved in the study must commute from the main campus — and don't enjoy it.
"It will be easier for students who take classes on both campuses and easier for faculty and staff who work university−wide," Mark said in agreement.
According to Mark, the extension could also encourage university members to be more actively involved in Somerville communities beyond Davis Square.
"We have a commitment to our host communities," she said. "[The extension] will make it a lot more feasible to get closer to the high schools, Union Square and neighborhoods that aren't as feasible today."
Sophomore Erica Satin−Hernandez, a Tisch Scholar who works for the immigrant advocacy organization The Welcome Project, can currently only get to her job by taking the 89 bus, which runs infrequently and takes up a lot of her time. The Green Line would cut a lot of time off her commute and leave her with more time to focus on her academic work.
"It runs once an hour when I'm going to work, and it's not reliable, so sometimes I end up walking 45 minutes," she said. "[The Green Line] would be really helpful in getting to work, and I think there are a lot of people who will end up relying on it heavily. There are environmental issues involved in extending the transportation, but if you need it, you need it."
Zamore believes Tufts has been involved in the Somerville community in the past but hopes the Green Line will work to further the connection.
"[The new line will] provide foundation for [more] citizenship efforts and extend the range of Tufts students across different parts of Somerville," he said.
