Paris Alston: And as we walked the block, we spoke with Assemblywoman Brandy Fluker Oakley, whose district includes much of Mattapan, where she grew up. She says the redesign is inevitable.
Representative Brandy Fluker Oakley: Blue Hill Avenue already has a double parking ban, and there are a lot of businesses there that rely heavily on their customers being able to park, or double park, to get the services or goods they need. And what I’m most concerned about is what’s going to happen to those businesses while the central bus lane is being built to make sure they’re not displaced? I think the problem is: if we want people to not drive so much, we need a reliable alternative, and the MBTA has not proven to be that reliable option.
Alston: Part of the $44 million grant making this redesign possible is dedicated to neighborhood development. Does this bus lane have the potential to make Mattapan the neighborhood it can and should be?
Fluker Oakley: I don’t know if we — that means those who are from Mattapan, still living in Mattapan or those who are new to Mattapan — have a shared vision of what it should be. Like in any group dynamic, there are people who are more outspoken, people who have a different opinion or are more shy or less likely to share that different opinion, and then the loudest voices become the voice, even if that doesn’t necessarily reflect the entire community. And so I hope that through that process, knowing that the bus lane is coming, communities might have the opportunity to consciously choose what they want to see. To the city’s credit, when they were developing the plan for Mattapan — which was initially approved under Mayor Walsh’s administration and then continued under Mayor Wu’s administration — they spent a lot of resources talking to community members, finding the voices that we don’t normally hear, listening to what people want to see and what they want to see happen here in Mattapan. So I know there’s work to be done, but I also know that the people I’ve been with at the community meetings have said, “I didn’t know this was coming.” So it’s a case of people still feeling like they’re not part of that process. And so I think there’s definitely more work that can be done there.
Alston: Given this background, do you think there were other places in this neighborhood where the $44 million investment could have gone?
Fluker Oakley: Short answer: Yes. But the fact is, it was a federal grant as well, so we have to keep that in mind. So I don’t blame the city for grabbing that money because they recognize the congestion and the population growth, because we’re reducing housing, because we recognize climate change and want to do something about it. So there’s a lot of good reasons to grab that money. It’s not just the city that suddenly wrote that check. There was a grant. They saw an opportunity and applied for it. I think housing is very important. I think our education system still needs a lot of attention.
Alston: How else does the state invest in this area?
Fluker Oakley: My district has the Neponset River running through it. But not all parts of the district have access to the river, so I think it’s critical to give people access to nature and green spaces. We have several restaurants here in Mattapan that you don’t know about unless you live here. And how would they even get there if they knew about them? So I think the more we invest in our public transit, the better it will be for Mattapan as well.
Alston: Well, that was State Rep. Brandy Fluker Oakley, thank you very much.
Fluker Oakley: Thank you, Paris.
Alston: You are listening to GBH News.
