Bluntly Speaking by Ross E. Blouin, Publisher of The Somerville Times

A large group of property owners in Ward 7 showed up for the Wednesday night meeting at the West Somerville Community School. There were more than 120 in attendance and the residents were in no mood to take in the dog and pony show put on by Community Development and Ward 7 Councilor Katjana Ballantyne.

The city powers have decided to put in a bike path on Powderhouse Blvd. and this would necessitate a parking ban on one side of Powderhouse Blvd. The residents thought otherwise. The meeting soon turned into a shouting match as the residents attempted to be heard over city officials who tried to string the meeting out with deflecting topics and unnecessary talking points that attempted to derail the thrust of the property owners to stay on point. Their point was that the city had no plans of where to put the 150 displaced automobiles. Councilor Ballantyne did her best to avoid the question of Tufts University occupying both sides of Packard Ave. by a prior unknown arrangement with the city. The meeting ended with the disgruntled property owners leaving without the answers they wanted.

If a bike path, suggested 10-foot width, ran from the Powderhouse rotary up to the corner of Curtis Street it would require parking to be eliminated on at least one side, supposedly the right side, the result would be narrowing the auto lanes down to as little as 10 feet in each direction. The property owners believe that this would ruin the existing wide expanse of the Boulevard and create an unnecessary strain on parking especially when Tufts is in session. Many property owners were also outraged at what this would do to property values and tenancies. Questions were also raised concerning elderly residents who would have to walk farther. Many of those attending were also concerned with the implications involving Doherty’s Funeral Home…the last funeral home in Somerville. The parking dilemma at Doherty’s barely drew mention by city officials. Again there were no city contingencies for the displaced cars or accommodations for Doherty’s Funeral Home. It quickly became apparent that the proposed ideas were unworkable at best and hair-brained at worst.

If the bike path were implemented it would have to run in front of a church, a daycare center and the Community School. Again the city had no explanation on how the bike path would extend through this area … it would become “The Bike Path To Nowhere”. Many property owners felt that Powderhouse Boulevard is fine just the way it is and there is no need for “A Bike Path To Nowhere”.