When the Green Line extension finally rolls through Somerville in five years, it will be justice for a community overlooked and abused by transit decisions for more than 50 years.
But there will be pain too. Housing costs in once affordable neighborhoods will skyrocket and thousands of Somerville families will likely be displaced by rising rents.
Just as troubling, businesses that have been a mainstay in Ball Square and the Inner Belt will be demolished and taken by the state in eminent domain proceedings.
Bob Rosselli has worked at Ball Square auto repair for 40 years. To make way for a Green Line stop in the neighborhood his business will be sacrificed. In the Inner Belt, a maintenance facility will displace MS Walker liquor distillery, an 80-year-old business with 300 employees.
A city is partly a collection of its memories – Somerville residents are likely to give directions by referring to “the old Broadway theater” or “the old Star market” depending on how long they have been here. Progress has casualties: in this case, they’re longtime businesses and employers. In the future, it will be something else.
The View From Prospect Hill – 7/21
But there will be pain too. Housing costs in once affordable neighborhoods will skyrocket and thousands of Somerville families will likely be displaced by rising rents.
Just as troubling, businesses that have been a mainstay in Ball Square and the Inner Belt will be demolished and taken by the state in eminent domain proceedings.
Bob Rosselli has worked at Ball Square auto repair for 40 years. To make way for a Green Line stop in the neighborhood his business will be sacrificed. In the Inner Belt, a maintenance facility will displace MS Walker liquor distillery, an 80-year-old business with 300 employees.
A city is partly a collection of its memories – Somerville residents are likely to give directions by referring to “the old Broadway theater” or “the old Star market” depending on how long they have been here. Progress has casualties: in this case, they’re longtime businesses and employers. In the future, it will be something else.