Steve Kaiser speaks up at the FEIR Community Forum. ~Photo by Andrew Firestone

Andrew Firestone

As the $953 million Green Line extension inches closer to reality, state officials are still making last minute changes to the plan – and one politician is calling the most recent change “stupid.”

At a community meeting June 30 a new plan to cut the proposed Route 16 terminus in Medford was unveiled, leaving the last spot on the proposed line at College Avenue near Tufts University.

Activists and officials are pushing for the terminal to be placed back in the plans.

Senator Patricia Jehlen, a Somerville Democrat, compared the measure to be the equivalent of redoing a house without putting in proper plumbing, calling the line without a terminal in Medford “stupid.”

Laurel Ruma of Medford said a stop near Route 16 would make her neighborhood safer. “I firmly believe that we should have more safe conditions in our neighborhood,” she said. “I work and walk home late at night. I have access to Tufts police reports, and there has been an enormous amount of sexual assaults, robberies and ugliness along that corridor.” Ruma said she believed that increased activity would cut down on crime.

A second sore spot was the extension of the bike path, which was slated to run alongside much of the proposed Green Line route. Initially conceived as a coordinated effort with MassDOT, a $16 million shortfall in funding has put the bike path on hold. Lynn Wiesman, of Somerville, spoke to Fitcher of the necessity of the path and pushed for MassDOT to help fund the it outside of its design, that MassDOT has taken responsibility for.

“The path has not only regional significance but regional support,” Wiesman said, expounding upon the connection the proposed bike path would make between places are far out as Lexington into the city of Boston itself as well as connecting the Green Line to Somerville Schools.

Chamber of Commerce President Stephen Mackey, who called the path “an intricate part of the fabric of an urban community.”

Residents at the meeting said they were worried about traffic impacts the construction will have on Somerville’s dense neighborhoods. Devin Oliver, referring to a plan to rebuild the Ball Square bridge for the proposed station, recalled the gridlock traffic that occurred in the 1970s during its initial construction. “Somebody better take a look at that before they build something that is going to be a disaster,” he said.