Last night I challenged all the happy back slapping at the Boston Bikes update, especially related to their efforts to bring equity to their program. I also made some pretty sarcastic Tweets in response to the glowing ones that were coming out of the event. I couldn’t even stay and I just had to get out of there the entire exercise was so disappointing in what it showed to me.
Why am I such a grump? Believe it or not I come from a really positive background. I’m a life time community activist as a result of that and my upbringing. My mother always wore a smile on her face and always looked for the silver lining. I do in many ways, but when it comes to receiving City services in Dorchester I’ve become a full out grump. Why? Because no matter what the issue or service, we typically end up with broken promises and half assed execution. Sadly, Boston Bikes plans for expanding our biking infrastructure and Hubway is following along that path.
The most irritating thing about the entire exercise is the Three E’s that Nicole Freedman introduced at her first Update 5 years ago, especially the first one Equity. When that came up this year, we got informed of the Youth Bike Training Program and the Roll it Forward program. Great! Now we have kids who know how to ride safely with nowhere to ride? Besides, having attended one of the giveaways, the ‘training’ was slack and I hope others go better than what I saw. If that’s Equity, it’s a disappointment for sure and the same old same old. We also have 600 lower income folks with Hubway cards who can only use them when they’re down town and not near their homes out in the neighborhoods. Where’s the equity in that?
Here’s what EQUITY really means to me.
Equal access and delivery of services, like a more aggressive approach to expanding Hubway in ALL of Dorchester. Just because grand standing life time City Councilor Charles Yancey held things up trying to senselessly get one put in on the outskirts of town, doesn’t mean we all think that way. But given there are two/three in Dorchester, South Bay, JFK station and UMass it’s easy to see some quick nearby choices to expand into Dot. Try Savin Hill Station? The new Purple Line Stations in Dudley and Geneva Ave. Franklin Park? All of them are contiguous to recently installed bike infrastructure and they are handy to Roxbury and JP stations that many Dot folks are familiar with through driving or taking the bus. Then do a similar layer, Fields Corner, Codman Square, Talbot Ave Purple Line, Franklin Field…
Equal access to aggressive planning. What ever happened to finishing lanes on Mass Ave to where it begins in Everett Square in Dorchester? I should have brought that up, but was so riled up it escaped. That is ripe for a cycle track in fact. Instead we got new turn lanes by the new train station there. And just an aside, who’s going to pay $6 to take a slow train into South Station? Is that equitable? I guess it’s better than when they closed them 40 years ago… We also got sharrows on streets that are WIDE enough to accomodate bike lanes on Dot Ave and Neponset Ave which is a confusing mish mash of sharrows and lanes switching in and out going in both directions. Love the sharrows on Morton Street where you NEVER see anyone riding on what is a major automobile access road across town. There’s more too, but you get the point.
Just to review: Dorchester 20% of the area of the City of Boston, 120,000 residents or about 20% of the City of Boston. Guess what 20% of the City of Boston isn’t poor. We have a hospital, some of the leading health centers, 25% of the city’s schools, a major college, a river, a major highway, and waterfront a Presidential Library. We house the most diverse population in the city in terms of ethnic and racial make up as well as financial well being. It’s where the future of America lives.
There’s so much to say I’m sorry about how unorganized this has been. To cut them some slack, Boston Bikes is just like the DPW, Boston Park Department, the state DCR and Transportation Department, the T and anyone else who provides services to our part of town. I have to add to that a community that I would bet would deliver one of the top selling Trader Joe’s or Wholefood stores in the country (ALL the original stores in South Bay mall held that distinction btw) and instead we get a Harvard School of Government initiative to market used expiring food and you can see it extends to businesses too. Whatever we get is given reluctantly and done half assed and then we get yelled at for not being grateful. I’m still positive minded enough that I’m still trying, unlike many of my other cynical neighbors who think it’s a waste of time to even bother. That’s why you don’t see more of us out there advocating, why bother they’ll just screw it up? Small wonder I’m a grump.
