Miracle After Decades of Delay, Work Begins on Brighton's A-Line Track Project
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(it. t t. , , 't I I It I• • '°) l I ~ ' • t . ' I 4 • • t I It It I I Mighty Char· Th er rJ Community Newspaper Company www.townonline.com/allstonbrighton DECEMBER 22 - 28, 1998 Vol. 3, No. 36 Aholiday miracle After decades of delay, work begins on Brighton's A-Line track project By Debra Goldstein TAB Staff Writer ellow construction equipment dug out the first tier of the A-Line trolley tracks Yon Cambridge Street last Wednesday, ending nearly three decades of frustration for Brighton residents and public officials who have been lobbying for their removal. The former A-Line stopped carrying pas en gers in 1969. Since then, all of the unusedA Line tracks in Watertown, Newton and Allston had been tom out. But Brighton's stretch which runs along Cambridge Street from Union Square lo Washington and Tremont streets at the Newton border - remained. Community members had complained for vr:ars· that the tracks' presence on Btighton 's three main thoroughfares were a safety hazard and an eyesore. Work on the project - a city and state-funded ventme which will cost more Mayol' Thomas Menino arid state Rep. Kevin Honan were among those who celebrated the start of Bl'ighton's A-Line track removal project last Wednesday. than $10 million lo complete - was original ly slated to begin last year. But it had been however, as an elated crowd - including "It's been a long struggle. The citizens of this "I think it will stimulate the business com held up by several bureaucratic delays both Allston-Brighton and city of Boston officials, community have wanted this for so long." munity and the economy," said Honan. ''This from the city of Boston and the common community activists and curious passers-by State Rep. Kevin Honan (D-Brighton) pre is a wonderful day for the neighborhood. It's wealth of Massachusetts. - came out to herald the start of the project. dicted the completed project would benefit the the largest public project that has been started Much of that was forgotten last Wednesday, "Thank God," said Mayor Thomas Menino. neighborhood significant} y. TRACKS, page 31 The price of poverty An inside look at the life of a welfare mother n a two-room apartment at the While much has been said about the Archdale Community Housing thousands of Massachusetts families complex, five children watch who are losing their benefits under the television by the dim glow of a .. state's welfare reform initiatives, there bare bulb. has been little talk about the families In the kitchen, their mother, that remain on the welfare ro1ls and Celeste Walker, 32, sits quietly have a difficult time navigating an smoking. Tears are in her eyes and the often-confusing maze of bureaucracy to ,. smoke cmls around her face. She cries for help them find a better life. many reasons: her living situation; the five For three months, TAB photographer kids in the front room; the two other chil Darren McCollester tracked Walker as she dren she gave up for adoption in June; and struggled to find an apartment that is big the one who died in September of Sudden enough to house her children, deal with Infant Death Syndrome. the death of her 4-month-old daughter and Alex and Lydia Price eat breakfast in the kitchen of their apartment in the Archdale Conununity Housing Walker, a single mother, has been find a job that will pay her enough to sup complex in Roslindale. receiving welfare benefits since 1985. port her five remaining children . TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY DARREN MCCOLLESTER • STORY BEGINS ON PAGE 28 TAB Community PROGRESS REPO T BRI A c ED Food Drive WEEK OF 12/20: 2, 700 LBS. ............................................................................. see page 3 \ , I + I I < .. \ ~ t • I j • l • • • t I f I 1 , I t f I 4 t. l I , I ' t t • >I • ) , ~ ~ 4 f • ' t , ' • • • t t ' ' ' I t ~ J 4 t o • I t f I j , I t • I t + ) t , ' f • . ' 'I' Page 2 The Allston-Brighton TAB, December 22 - 28, 1998 www.townonline.com/allstonbrighton I I STREETSCAPE IMPROVEMENT OF THREE GATEWAY AREAS TO CHINATOWN PROPOSED Two and a half years after receiving a $20,000 grant from the Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund Chinatown Placement of small oriental designed round, single pedestal stone tables keg shaped stools are included to encour Main Street has submitted a master feasibility plan to the City Trust Office for funding of streetscape renovation age use of the park by community members. Proposed artisan stands, located on the widened sidewalks in front of the three gateway areas in Chinatown. The areas are the Liberty Tree Square, at the intersection of of the Bell Atlantic building, would help create an opportunity for local Asian American artists to exhibit their Washington, Boylston and Essex Streets. Phillips Square, at the intersection of Harrison Avenue, Essex and work and encouraging more public activity by making the site a place visitors could view and purchase Asian art Chauncy Streets, and the China Gate Park Area where the Central Artery Tunnel Project proposes to reduce and artifacts. Surface Road from six to three traffic lanes and eliminate the Chinatown exit off south 93. A second feature includes restoration of Oxford Place a street that connects Harrison Avenue and Oxford Street. Liberty Tree Square: ' This long neglected residential, no-vehicular street is presently lit at one end by a single wooden lamppost. Its According to David Hackett Fisher, history professor at Brandeis University and author of"Paul Revere's Ride", significance to Chinatown history is that town houses along the street, built in early l 820's, were some of the first the Liberty Tree Square is one of the most important Revolutionary sites in Boston and the nation. It was at this dwellings in Chinatown that became available in l 920's for purchase by Chinese Americans. The plan calls for site that from August of 1765 the Sons of Liberty met under a large elm tree, dubbed the Liberty Tree, to protest new lighting, removal of the covering asphalt and sidewalks, uncovering the original cobble stone surface and the British Crown's levy of new taxes on the colonies. Indeed, the elm tree as a symbol ofliberty was so strong improving drainage. These changes would not only encourage more pedestrian traffic along this street but also that British soldiers were ordered to cut it down at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. would create a more livable environment for Asian American families living on Oxford Place. Today, the square i also a major gateway into Chinatown, an ethnic enclave that has long contributed to the cul China Gate Park Area: tural heritage and history of Boston. The square, easily reached from the Green Line Boylston Street station at By the year 2004 changes projected by the Central Artery Project for the Surface Road adjacent to Chinatown the Boston Commons and the Orange Line Chinatown Station located in the square, was made part of.J:he Adult will provide new opportunities to develop much needed urban open space for Chinatown. The CAT project is Entertainment Zone by city fathers. A a consequence the area has deteriorated and became blighted. The recent committed to deliver at the end of construction wider sidewalks, standard street lighting, a narrow linear green relocation of the Registry to the renovated Liberty Tree Building, the construction of the Millennium complex and park space, limited' to seed and loam only, and special pavement of small area in front of the China Gate. Our the upcoming Silver Line along Washington Street heralds significant renewal of this area. intent is to go beyond what the CAT plans to deliver since Chinatown needs to have a major urban park to relieve Chinatown Main Street's plan makes a single large elm, planted in a tree planter incorporating the original its congestion and density. bronze Liberty Tree plaque, the focal and symbolic point of the square. In addition, the plan calls for erection of The plans calls for having more easily maintained paved surface and less lawn landscaping particularly since tall Liberty Beacons that would help to illuminate the square. To complement and re-emphasize the historical continuous green lawns are rarely identified with Asian urban design. Use of paving patterns would also help to aspect of the square the base of the Liberty Beacons would be inscribed with quotations on liberty and freedom integrate the area into a "plaza" that would provide a continuous space for community celebrations and events, derived from various nations of the world. The object of the plan is to create an attractive site with a strong civic such as the August Moon Festival and Chinese New Year, which many Bostonians attend. Generous tree presence that would be meaningful to dome tic as well as foreign visitors. plantings, to create greenery and shaded areas, are included to encourage community usage, as is the installation Phillips Square: of special lighting, appropriate street furniture and well-designed trash receptacles. Another feature, designed to The intersection of Harrision Avenue, Essex and Chauncy Streets is a major pedestrian thoroughfare between encourage community participation and involvement, is the construction of a non-religious shrine on a raised Downtown Crossing and Chinatown. The object of the plan is to transform part of Phillips Square into a park and landscape platform honoring a historical figure with whom the community can identify. The renovation of the to widen the sidewalks of Harrision Avenue so that trees can be planted from Essex to Kneeland Streets.