By State Senator Pat Jehlen

We celebrate not just the opening of the first GLX stations, but the decades of community activism that made it possible:

The mothers who tried to block the construction of I-93, the neighbors who fought and succeeded in stopping the construction of the Inner Belt through our neighborhood, the Conservation Law Foundation which sued to get the commitment to the GLX as part of I-93 mitigation and then again when it was threatened, the hundreds of activists who filled the Somerville High School auditorium twice when the project was about to be canceled, the advocates who persisted with STEP, the Friends of the Community Path, and the Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance, as well as the elected leaders recognized today.

Many times in the past 30 years, this project seemed to be at a dead end.  But the dedication and persistence of so many people, most of them unnamed today, and many of them no longer with us, got it over every roadblock.

This is an important milestone, but our work is not done.

Now many people think the GLX will permanently end at Medford/Tufts.  But we will not stop until it reaches Route 16.

The GLX was approved as mitigation to offset increased air pollution from traffic on I-93.  But for 40 years, the people closest to I-93, along Mystic Ave and in East Somerville, have suffered health damage and death due to that pollution.  How do we make up for those lost years?  The GLX is not enough.  The damage continues.  We have to build barriers now to stop the pollution and the noise.

As we celebrate the enormous economic growth unlocked by this project, we can’t forget the people left behind and pushed out by the rapid rise in property prices and rents.  Apparently, everyone in North America wants to live in Somerville.  But the things that make our community so attractive won’t exist if the immigrants, the working people, the long-time residents, the artists, as well as small businesses and family-owned triple-deckers are gone.  There are solutions we can and should adopt immediately to slow displacement, protect existing affordable housing, and promote home ownership, as well as build new affordable housing for all ages and family sizes.  It will be tragic if the people who need and use public transit the most can’t afford to live near it.

Thank you to everyone who contributed over the years to this achievement.  Thanks also to all the taxpayers, without whose contributions this would not be possible.  Without their support, its maintenance and operation won’t be possible.  And thanks to everyone who continues the effort to expand public transit and other public benefits that make our lives richer.