Several local organizations
including Groundwork Somerville, Somerville Community Corporation,
STEP, and the Somerville Community Health Agenda have banded together
to create the Community Corridor Planning Project, a collaboration that
aims to work together in order to create an organized and collective
community voice that will impact the development process.

"We
want to amplify community input with an organized community process so
that when we give our input to the city, we have a stronger voice,"
said Meredith Levy from the Somerville Community Corporation. "It's
important for all of us to help plan for the future."

Once
completed, the Green line extension will provide a projected seven
stops beyond the current Lechmere Station location, including stops in
Union Square, Brickbottom, Gilman Square, Lowell Street, Ball Square,
College Street, and Mystic Valley.

Each of these locations were
represented at the meeting by concerned and interested residents during
small group activities in which neighbors discussed the positive and
negative attributes of their current neighborhoods and how the Green
line may affect those attributes. Ultimately, organizers were looking
to generate ideas from these discussions to present to city planners
that are designing the Green line corridor in hopes of creating a space
that is beneficial for the residents of the areas that will be affected.

The
city of Somerville sent two of it's senior planners, Keith Craig and
Brad Rossem, to present some of the statistics and data that has been
collected in order to aid in creating a Citywide Plan. According to
Craig, a citywide plan is essentially a comprehensive vision for the
future of Somerville, and includes the needs and wants of Somerville's
residents.. The Green Line corridor is a very large component of the
citywide plan and the planners made it very clear that community input
and opinion is integral to the process as it begins to get off the
ground.

According to the statistics presented at the meeting,
Somerville is a very transient immigrant city, with two-thirds of it's
population being renters and some sections of the city are as high as
80% renters. The installation of the Green Line throughout Somerville
will of course increase mobility throughout the city. Currently, 35% of
Somerville residents are within walking distance of the one train
station in Somerville. By December 31, 2014, it is estimated that 85%
of Somerville residents will be within a ten minute walk of a train
station.

The participant response to the meeting was
overwhelmingly positive. Most felt they had a stronger grasp on what to
expect over the next several months and years, and many felt they
learned something or were exposed to ideas they hadn't yet considered.
Some participants expressed concern for a loss of safety, which has
improved over the last five years, while others hoped that small ethnic
businesses would remain in tact with rising rents.

Victor
Oliveira, a young volunteer at the Somerville Boys and Girls Club and
high school student thought it was an eye-opening experience. "I've
always thought about the Green Line expansion as a good thing without
considering the negative. I never thought about safety issues or a loss
of diversity. This has been really interesting for me."