Looking toward Mattapan Square where the proposed center-lane bus infrastructure would be constructed if the plan were to move forward. Several months of planning is yet to come on the project, though many meetings have already happened, but already there have been plenty of naysayers. Seth Daniel photo
With planning already underway for an overhaul of Blue Hill Avenue – including the addition of a center-lane busway along on the corridor from Grove Hall to Mattapan Square – most of the candidates for the new Second Suffolk Senate seat are offering various critiques of the proposal.
The four major candidates sounded off on the $60 million project at a forum on July 20 at Roxbury’s Hibernian Hall sponsored by the Communities of Color coalition. While much in the Blue Hill Avenue plan is up for debate, city transportation officials have indicated in community meetings that the center-lane bus proposal is likely a non-negotiable part of the planning.
At the forum, the first question about the center-lane bus was asked of Dianne Wilkerson, who is making another run for the senate seat she last held over 10 years ago. She called the proposal “stupid,” adding, “the controversy is people are living with decisions that people make, and they don’t always know how they’ve been made, and they don’t make any sense what they do and there’s no process to un-do something that’s clearly stupid,” she said.