E-Mail This Article to a Friend On the wrong track Plus, Bush is even more lawless than you thought

Heaven knows that the Phoenix is a staunch supporter of most mass-transit efforts, but plans to resume trolley service from Arborway Station in Jamaica Plain along Centre Street just don’t make sense when all of the factors are considered.

It is true that the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority promised to reinstate trolley service as part of an agreement with environmental groups that were understandably concerned that the completion of the Big Dig would result in more automobile traffic into the city of Boston and, as a result, in more air pollution.

When that promise was made more than 10 years ago, it struck many informed observers as more convenient than realistic.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that state officials agreed — perhaps cynically — to bring back trolley service in the hopes of eventually reversing themselves at a more convenient time.

Well, the time to make a final decision is almost upon us and the fact is that auto congestion along Centre Street is even more intense now than it was years ago.

That’s because Jamaica Plain, like parts of Dorchester, Roslindale, and East Boston, has enjoyed a rebirth. The JP renaissance has been longer in the making and the neighborhood change more complete. The newer, often younger residents are for the most part more affluent than the older blue-collar residents and, as a result, JP households include more cars.

Centre Street serves as a neighborhood business center. The trolley line services the central city far more than its immediate neighborhood, taking passengers from what is essentially an urban township into downtown areas. It would be nice if it could be argued that the trolley will take cars heading for the central city off the streets. But that’s more wish than reality.

The reality is that trolleys running along Centre Street will make already congested traffic even worse. Most of the cars moving down JP’s main thoroughfare have business in the neighborhood, not downtown. As things now stand, parking in the area is inadequate at times of peak demand. The small, independently owned businesses in the neighborhood already face a squeeze. But it’s a squeeze they’ve learned to live with. Making it worse, however, would hurt the valuable commercial services they provide. In addition to hurting small, local businesses, the congestion would not decrease air pollution. It can be argued that stalled, idling cars can be as much — if not more — of a problem.

That is not to say the #39 bus that services the area and connects with Copley Square is an adequate solution. Service needs to be improved in a number of ways (see Deirdre Fulton, "T-easing Pollution"). But even if bus service is maximized, the overall situation will be far from perfect.

JP’s dilemma illustrates how an old, congested city like Boston has to wrestle with a number of competing factors in an effort to take even a stab at an imperfect but workable solution. A heartfelt and noble desire to resume trolley service is a better idea in theory than in fact.

A DANGEROUS MAN

If American history has taught us anything, it is that sooner or later most presidents act as if they are above the law. George W. Bush has taken this unfortunate tendency to dispiriting and dangerous new lows.

Much of the nation is focused on the fact that Bush violated a federal law that explicitly required him to get warrants — easily obtained — from a special and secret US court before spying domestically on American citizens suspected of planning acts of terrorism. Although that court has rarely refused to grant a warrant, Bush chose to ignore the easy and lawful way and opted instead for the easier and illegal way. His way. And he has ordered the Justice Department to prosecute the whistle blower who exposed him.

Bush’s contempt for the law continues. He recently took administrative action that will, he believes, allow him to ignore the anti-torture provisions that Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona wrote into the latest Defense Appropriations Act.

Never mind that after Bush initially resisted McCain’s provision he pretended ultimately to endorse it. Bush is, after all, a proven liar. He lied to the nation about governing from the center. He lied to the nation about when he made up his mind to wage war on Iraq. He lied to the nation about Iraq’s possession of a nuclear-weapons program and about other weapons of mass destruction. He lied to political opponents like Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts in order to get support for so-called educational-reform legislation. So why should it surprise us that he misrepresented himself when he claimed to join fellow Republican McCain’s attempt to stop US-sponsored torture?

With very little fanfare, Bush has signed an administrative "statement" that says, in effect, that he intends to ignore the anti-terror provision that Congress saw fit to give the power of law.

To the best of our knowledge, only the Washington Post and Slate have taken note of this development.

Ronald Reagan began this dubious practice in the hopes of heading off, or at least mitigating, judicial challenges when the executive branch ignores legislative directives. Bush’s hope is that by saying the McCain amendment might inhibit his powers as commander in chief, he will be free to ignore its provisions. The courts have yet to grapple with this sort of presidential dodge, but his Supreme Court nominee Joseph Alito employed it as a lawyer in the Reagan administration, and we should assume that Alito and his conservative brothers on the court will rubber-stamp its practice.

Bush may not be a dictator, but he has clearly set the nation on a path that could result in a future dictatorship. He is a smug, self-satisfied, and self-justifying opportunist who has no respect for any of the legitimate checks and balances that our system of government seeks to impose on the presidency. He is a dangerous man.