Today’s edition of The Herald brought to light the fact the new Lechmere station seems to be another quintessential bait-and-switch development scheme.
The MBTA agreed to a land-swap deal with the developers of NorthPoint in Cambridge (those new towers you pass between Science Park and Lechemere are the first phase of the complex). The developers get to tear down Lechmere station and build another condo building, while the T gets a new station.
In theory, it sounds rather nice, however the station is being moved to the other side of a highway. This is fantastically convenient for those who choose to invest in space within the NorthPoint complex, but it presents the rather obvious problem of placing a heavily-used station on the opposite side of well…a highway.
As part of the land-swap/new station agreement, the developers promised to construct an I.M. Pei-designed skywalk that would make it possible for us lowly folk to meander over the lanes of traffic and perhaps grab a train alongside those who have coughed up the rather large sum required to land a condo or office at NorthPoint, and enjoy easy access to the new station as an added perk of their residency.
Somewhere along the way the plans changed. Silently of course. The renderings showing the skywalk have vanished, there is no mention of it anywhere on the NorthPoint site, and when the Herald pushed the issue, they confirmed what many had feared.
But David Fink, a top executive with the company that controls the NorthPoint site, contends the glass overpass turned out to be a budget buster.“It’s not practical, frankly,” he said.
Classic bait-and-switch.
“Let us build something that will harm the community, and we’ll do something else to mitigate that, OK?”
*time passes*
“Hey about that project to offset the impact of your development…”
“Yeah, we’ve decided that we’re just not going to bother with that. Suck it.”
If the Big Dig mitigation agreements (Red/Blue connector / Arborway restoration) are any indication, the city, and especially the T will just roll over and take the hit. They have shown that legally-binding contracts are less important than what The Powers That Be want, and when it comes to developers vs. the community, you can easily guess who is probably going to come out on top.
What it boils down to is that we get to put our lives at risk to cross the highway every time we want to use what is ostensibly a public service open to all, while those paying for space in NorthPoint will simply have to stroll past a few condo towers to reach the nice, new station built just for them – and nobody with the ability to change matters is likely to do a damn thing about it.
July 6th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
There had been some discussion that the new station might just go by “NorthPoint” rather than keep the name of the community surrounding it, and it’s pretty
Well, at least it’s pretty.
July 6th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
I accidentally hit “SAVE POST” while in the middle of an edit. Oops.
July 6th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I don’t see the lack of a skywalk as a loss for pedestrians at all. I attended a presentation that showed how the McGrath Highway is planned to be reconfigured in that stretch to be more a boulevard and less of a highway. The area around NorthPoint is supposed to become much more pedestrian-friendly because the T station is moving.
Personally, I would rather see the area be made more pedestrian friendly at ground level instead of making pedestrians go up and over the traffic. Plus, would a pedestrian-bridge crossing preclude people from crossing at street level? If so, I suspect people who don’t want to climb stairs or a ramp would try to cross at-grade anyway, at much risk to themselves.
Leverett Circle and Charles Circle both used to have pedestrian bridges that forced pedestrians to go over the road. Now, both areas have nice wide crosswalks and much slower moving traffic. I definitely prefer the current arrangements to the former.
Also keep in mind that the T station needs to be relocated to the other side of McGrath to accommodate the Green Line extension to Medford.
July 6th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
While I agree that the station must be moved to allow for the extension to Medford, no amount of reconfiguration of the highway will be able to counter the fact that the vast majority of riders will be forced to contend with serious traffic when attempting to enter or exit the station unless they are a resident of NorthPoint.
Pedestrian bridges are not ideal, but they certainly seem preferable to the alternative that promises vague benefits to the community.
One only needs to look at the situation over at Science Park with the loss of the pedestrian bridge there to see how things will likely play out at the new Lechmere station.
July 7th, 2007 at 12:19 am
What do the businesses around Lechmere think? You’d think the folks at the Cambridgeside Galleria mall might care about the fate of the station, since a large number of their customers use it to get there… If anyone’s looking for another big corporate group to get into the fray, that’s where I’d look first.
July 7th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Erica, that’s a very good point. I’m not sure exactly what percentage of Cambridgeside Galleria customers arrive by the Green Line, but my personal observations suggest that a very significant amount of their daily foot traffic originates at Lechmere station.
I would venture a guess that the folks over at New England Development are unhappy with the notion of their customers being forced to cross seven lanes of traffic. Which even with a “reconfiguration” is still seven lanes of traffic.
July 13th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
McGrath Highway is pretty easy to cross on foot from the current location to the proposed location as is. While it is a broad street, it is a highway in name only – in fact it is on the ground level or this would be a moot issue. With further re-design of the area, it should become even more pedestrian friendly.