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| Construction began last weekend on eight billboards along Interstate 93.~Photo by Bobbie Toner |
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By Keith Cheveralls
The
MBTA began construction last weekend on eight billboards along
Interstate 93, ending, for now, a two-year battle between the City of
Somerville and the MBTA. Championed by the financially troubled MBTA as
a lucrative source of revenue, the billboards had met with opposition
on legal grounds from the City of Somerville, as well as opposition on
aesthetic grounds from local residents.
But the city lost the
lawsuit it filed against the MBTA – which alleged that the MBTA did not
have the right to bypass Somerville's zoning laws – and the voices of
local residents seemed to carry little weight in the face of the
billboards' potential to generate $10 million in revenue over ten years
– nearly as much as that generated by the MBTA's other 183 existing
billboards combined.
Nevertheless, many feel that whatever financial incentives the billboards possess are outweighed by aesthetic concerns.
"I
think it's disgusting," Robert Doherty, a member of Somerville's Fire
Department for 35 years, said of the billboards' appearance. "I know
that the MBTA is desperate for money," he explained, "but I don't think
they should deliberately mar the landscape of Boston in one direction,
and Somerville in the other direction. It's an insult to both cities."
The
legal battle over the billboards dates back to 2006, when Alderman Bill
White overheard a discussion about the billboards at an unrelated
government hearing. The cities of Somerville and Medford jointly sued,
contending that erecting the billboards did not constitute an
"essential government function" of the MBTA. State agencies can only
disregard local zoning laws when they can demonstrate that such an
"essential function" is at stake.
"We took it as far as we
could," Tom Champion, Director of the City's Executive Office of
Communications, said of the legal battle. "We are very sensitive to the
fact that the MBTA needs to raise revenue however it can," he
explained, "but we think it should work within local zoning
regulations."
The Boston Herald reports that both the MBTA and
the T Rider's Union consider the billboards a way of producing revenue
without burdening the T's customers. But ,with the MBTA facing a
deficit of $162 million next year, it is not clear how much of an
impact the billboards will have on the MBTA's financial situation.
For Doherty, the legal and financial issues involved are less important than the message the billboards send.
Noting
that the anniversary on March 3rd of Somerville's incorporation as a
city nearly exactly coincided with the beginning of construction, he
called the billboards "a heck of a birthday present to Somerville from
the MBTA."
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