Taking the lead, continued

by Laura A. Siegel

The name Assembly Square comes from the site's Ford assembly plant, where Ford manufactured the Edsel until it closed the plant down in 1958. In 1980, the factory became a mall, which, except for a Kmart and a Building 19, now stands empty. The city's largest commercial and industrial district, Assembly Square is also home to two big-box stores (Home Depot and Circuit City); industrial uses that include a steel-supply company, a wholesale brick dealer, and a truck-storage facility; an office building; a movie theater; the Good Times entertainment complex; and a few small businesses. Vacant land and parking lots cover the rest. The Mystic River forms the site's northern edge. Route 28 bounds the west, Charlestown lies to the east, and I-93 rises to the south, cutting Assembly Square off from the rest of Somerville.

Despite its dismal past, people are now calling Assembly Square "Somerville's Last Frontier." The fact that some long-time observers see so much potential for the area after two decades of decline shows how the image of Somerville itself has changed from gritty to up-and-coming. And developers, not surprisingly, want to exploit the opportunity. The Boston Herald reported June 30 that a slice of Assembly Square is even under consideration as a possible site for a new Fenway Park, though no one has contacted the city about it. The mayor is open to the idea. "It would add a lot to the city," says Kelly Gay. "It certainly would help the development. It would enhance everything we're doing down there."

It helps that Assembly Square is situated close to Boston. "You don't have to squint to see [downtown]," as Joseph Favaloro, a member of the Assembly Square Advisory Group, likes to say. Two miles from Boston City Hall, and right on the Mystic waterfront, Assembly Square's location is easily its biggest asset. Plus, it has billions of dollars' worth of transportation infrastructure that has never really been tapped -- more than any comparable undeveloped site in the area. The highway passes right through. So does the T's Orange Line, above ground, though it doesn't stop.

The Mystic View Task Force formed two years ago to create a vision for the site -- distinguishing itself from most neighborhood groups, which usually react to proposals already on the table. Its members are all volunteers and Somerville residents. The group has been unusually active in creating an agenda for the city and successful in getting attention and action from the mayor.

The mixed-use neighborhood that Mystic View and the mayor envision might include office and research-and-development space, several kinds of retail, and a public market. There could be housing and artists' studios, hotels, cinemas, theaters, restaurants, and cultural institutions. To bring this into being, the city wants to strengthen transportation links -- to build a water-taxi landing and bicycle and pedestrian paths, along with the T stop.

The whole plan hinges on that T stop. Nodes of mixed-use activity, where people can work, eat, and do errands in one spot without a car, tend to form around transit stops. A T stop would draw people to the area, make it attractive for office space, and reduce traffic. Just look at how a T stop transformed Davis Square.

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Laura A. Siegel can be reached at lsiegel[a]phx.com.