Car Talk

More Fenway development will bring pollution

by Laura A. Siegel

Will more development increase pollution in city neighborhoods? The Fenway Action Coalition thinks so. Members of the group joined about 100 other residents and activists at a Boston City Council hearing last Tuesday. Led by councilors Mickey Roache, Michael Ross, and Chuck Turner, the hearing explored the effect of development on Boston neighborhoods, especially the Fenway.

"We're experiencing a great economic boom," said Councilor Michael Flaherty. "We're inviting more people to Boston. We're also inviting more cars and trucks." Turner spoke specifically about Roxbury, but his words apply to the whole city. "We welcome economic development," he said. "But people are beginning to raise the question of what will be the effect of this development on our health. How do we mitigate the negative aspects of development? How will we deal with traffic?" As Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) planning director Linda Haar put it, "We need to have jobs. But we need to understand the impact of creating that job."

Part of that impact is increased traffic. "There are an estimated 18,000 commercial parking spaces in the Fenway -- 40 percent of the land use," said Jim Morgan, who is on the steering committee of the Fenway Action Coalition. "Residents are living and breathing in a nonstop tailpipe. The noise makes sleep and even conversation on the street difficult."

And it's about to get worse. "There are 18 development projects in the Fenway," said Fenway resident Lauren Dewey Platt. "With those come thousands of parking spaces" -- approximately 2300 to 2500 new spaces, according to Vineet Gupta, policy and planning director of the Boston Transportation Department. The proposed new ballpark would bring an estimated one million more cars per year into the neighborhood.

Even without those cars, gridlock is already a problem. That can be more than an annoyance, especially to people with disabilities. "I once waited 20 minutes for an ambulance to come when I had a child who wasn't breathing," said Fenway resident Carolyn Crockett, who uses a wheelchair. "EMS said they were stuck in Red Sox traffic."

And the pollution that cars release may put residents' health at risk in other ways -- especially the kind of air pollution known as small particulate matter. A monitoring station in Kenmore Square has revealed high levels of this dangerous substance. More than half of Boston's particulate matter comes from outside Boston, borne on the wind from places like New York and Washington, explained Bryan Glascock, director of the Boston Air Pollution Control Commission. Local sources include diesel engines, home heating, and vehicles.

So what are the solutions? Morgan, of the Fenway Action Coalition, had the most concrete suggestions. First, he said, get rid of the BRA, an agency that has widely been perceived as putting development ahead of responsible planning. Helen Cox, a 40-year resident of the Fenway, echoed the general sentiment when she said, "The BRA could care less about what we're saying. The city is acting as if the ballpark is a fait accompli."

Next, Morgan continued, impose a freeze on commercial parking. Many residents seconded that idea, but city environmental officials resisted it. "Parking freezes contribute to suburban sprawl," said Glascock. Zoning controls, he said, are a better and more flexible way to restrict parking.

The state permitting process is another way to control the pollution that development often brings, said Toni Pollack, director of Boston's environmental department. So is comment from environmental agencies and the public. Pollack explained that the department "follows every large-scale development" and tries to keep it in line.

Will the administration pay attention to what Boston's residents have to say? That remains to be seen. One thing is clear, though: residents will fight to make sure their voices are heard over the buzz of the bulldozers and the clang of the cranes.