By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

Let’s talk about where you’re going to be next Wednesday. That evening at the Somerville High auditorium we have a big community meeting with state officials concerning the Green Line extension. Everybody is welcome to attend and that is roughly the amount of people we’d like see there: everybody.

We may not be able to fit tens of thousands into the auditorium, but that’s the number of people this project affects. We’ve waited decades for the reintroduction of rail transit to the heart of our city. The work is under way. $700 million is already sunk in the project whether we build it or not. We have come too far and we are too close to having it operational not to bring it over the finish line. That’s why you need to be there. We want to emphasize the scope and importance of this project. And the decision makers need to hear it from you. I’ve been out talking and testifying about this over and over. But this is your meeting. We need your voice this time.

As we all know, state officials are working diligently to get the project’s budget under control. We fully support that effort. The good news is our interaction with state officials, from Governor Baker to Transportation Secretary Pollack to all the people on the MBTA team, has dealt with how we’re going to get this project done, not if. People have rolled up their sleeves and put in late hours to turn the GLX into a reality. We’re talking about extending an existing line along an existing right of way through the most densely populated city in New England with $1 billion in federal funds to help pay for the work. This puzzle can be solved.

It’s also critical from a regional perspective. The roadways in Greater Boston are choked with cars. We are the 6th-most congested region in the country. Just trying to get from Somerville to Boston and Cambridge has become a challenge. A completed GLX will shift 50,000 trips per day to public transit. That has an environmental impact too. Vehicle emissions from trips starting or ending in Somerville total roughly 250,000 tons of carbon into our atmosphere every year. Being a coastal region, the Boston area stands to lose more than most due to climate change. If we don’t drastically reduce our carbon footprint, then Boston is one of the cities that may not be around after the glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica melt. Dramatically increased public transit is essential to reducing our contribution to that melting.

Then there’s the jobs and economic growth attached to the project. Growth around the GLX is expected to total more than $4 billion in private investment, 30,000 permanent jobs, 30,000 construction jobs, 10,000 new homes and $3 billion in projected tax revenue by 2040. We talk a lot about jobs growth and economic vitality. Nothing will deliver more of that than the GLX. The return on investment for this project is extraordinary. It’s billions of dollars every year pumping through the Massachusetts economy. The key to unlocking that investment, those jobs and that growth is the Union Square stop. We have plans to turn it into a major innovation and creative center for our region. Not only will it be fantastic for Somerville, but it will be an economic engine pumping money into the whole of Massachusetts.

Ultimately we need the GLX to deliver all of the promised stops. Union Square may be a critical economic juncture, but we have residents and small businesses in Magoun and Ball squares equally reliant on the GLX and the completed Community Path. In Tufts we have a major university and regional thought leader that needs to put on our main transportation grid.

Along with all of this comes economic equity. The Urban Land Institute estimates the cost of owning a car for a Somerville resident to be $9,000 a year. That’s a potential backbreaker for a working family. That’s money that could be spent on improving your lot in life and sending your kids to college. Instead it’s being driven into having a vehicle you need to get to the job that, in some cases barely, keeps your family afloat. If we want more economic opportunities for everybody of all socioeconomic levels there is a clear answer: build more public transportation.

That transportation also must feature quality accessibility. Anyone with a mobility issue, whether it be someone in a wheelchair or a senior citizen, will tell you that there’s a massive difference between theoretical accessibility and actual accessibility. We understand the state must cut costs on the project, but platforms that can be easily accessed by anyone must be an absolute. We need to hold ourselves to a high standard to make sure the GLX works for everybody in our community.

The other critical point I want to make here is that time is of the essence. As I mentioned before, the work is already underway and $700 million of taxpayer money has already been committed. Delivering it on time is inextricably linked to delivering it on budget. The $1 billion in federal funds for the GLX will not be available to us forever. Also we know from experience that the cost of doing this project only goes up over time. It would have cost fractions of the current budget had the GLX been completed in the 1990s or 2000s. Making sure we stick to or beat the construction timeline is critical to keeping the GLX on budget.

Nothing is more expensive than delay, particularly because the GLX will remain at the top of the MBTA’s to-do list until it gets done. The state has a backlog of projects that need to be undertaken in the next few decades after it completes the GLX: Red-Blue connector, North-South connector, Blue Line extension, etc. All of that gets more expensive over time as well. Figuring out how to do the GLX responsibly sets us up to deliver those future projects. It also brings economic growth to help pay for those projects.

So Wednesday, April 13th at 5:30-9:00 be at the Somerville High auditorium or at least at the high school concourse to show state officials just how committed we are to the traffic alleviation, environmental improvements, jobs growth and socioeconomic equity that comes with the GLX. It’s the project with the power to transform how people live in our community. If you’ve never been to a public meeting, this is probably the one you want to make. This project directly impacts everyone in this city. Be heard, be seen. Make sure you stand up for the best transportation project on the board anywhere in this country.