Many prominent neighborhood organizations were ignored in a 30-day review of streets projects including bike and bus lanes released by the Basic City Services department last week.
According to the review, the city met with “neighborhood groups and other local stakeholders, including residents and area business owners.” But leaders of three neighborhood groups said they had not been consulted.
“[The review] refers to meetings held with community members,” said Martyn Roetter, the chair of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB). “NABB was not asked nor did it participate in any of them. I do not know if individual residents of the Back Bay were.
It includes no data or evidence underlying its findings.”
Roetter
said he had previously asked for NABB to be included in these meetings,
when he was first notified about the review by the mayor’s office in
February. The review includes specific recommendations for Boylston
Street and the Back Bay, one of which Roetter said he found
“disturbing.”
The
review states that because “drivers have had ample time to become
familiar with the parking protected bike lane on Boylston [Street,]”,
the city should replace the flex posts there after the Boston Marathon
this spring.
“Are they
oblivious to the numbers of out-of-town visitors who frequent this
location at certain times and will obviously not have had time to become
familiar with its characteristics and layout?” Roetter said. “It is a
glaring example of the mistakes you can make when you pay no attention
to local knowledge, which is one of NABB’s and others’ messages about
the failure of city hall to listen despite all the time and efforts it
is putting into Community Engagement.”
Neither
Mike Broher, the review’s overseer, nor a city spokesperson returned a
request for comment asking which neighborhood groups had been consulted.
Marie
Fukuda, the co-chair of the Parks and Open Space Committee for the
Fenway Civic Association, said her organization had also not been
included, despite having been asking to meet with the city for over a
month.
“We had
discussions with [the transportation department] regarding a contraflow
bike lane on Hemenway Street,” Fukuda wrote in an email. She said she
had expressed safety concerns for the lack of pedestrian crossings and
the high speeds of cars on the road.
“We
were told at the time that these would be implemented even if the
community objected. After reading about the city’s revisitation of
plans, we have reached out numerous times but not been afforded a
meeting to discuss these yet,” Fukuda said.
According to the city’s website, that bike lane is currently under construction.
The
review states that it did not cover all streets projects in all Boston
neighborhoods, but that more meetings would occur in the near future.
Colin Zick, the president of the Beacon Hill Civic Association, for
example, said he had not been consulted, and the review did not cover
any projects on Beacon Hill. However, Zick said that he had been talking
to city officials about the issue of longevity with bike lanes since
2020.
“We look at this
from, not what’s just good tomorrow or what’s good this year, but
what’s going to be best in the long term,” Zick said. “Many of us are
going to be here for the long term, so we’re not interested in a quick
fix.”