3 min read May 2023 – Invest: spoke with Stacy Thompson, executive director of nonprofit LivableStreets Alliance, about its successful management of the Orange Line shutdown, the challenges of zoning laws in Boston and why the alliance focuses on access and equity despite being known as a “transportation” organization.
What are some highlights or milestones for the alliance over the last 12 months?
We are known as a transportation organization but we often say we are an access and equity organization. We achieve that by focusing on our shared public spaces and streets. This includes walking, biking, public transit, greenspace and affordable housing. We are in the middle of every conversation around all these things. A pinnacle moment for our region over the last 12 months was the Orange Line shutdown. There is a success story in how this problem was managed. A major transit line was shut down for an entire month with three weeks’ notice. We worked closely with partners to build alternative bike routes and to safely move people. It wasn’t a catastrophe and the shuttles worked well. There was a surge in biking and walking and there were no serious crashes because of increased traffic. It is a win because many people don’t believe that government can work or be collaborative. It is unusual for multiple agencies to move that quickly. Everything fell into place against the odds, so that was a hidden success story in a larger debacle.
What are some big challenges concerning affordability and transportation in Boston?
There is no one big challenge. We lead a coalition called the Great Neighborhoods Network that looks at the intersections between sustainability, housing and transportation. The intersections are where the pinch points are, with the biggest problem being our land use policy. Multifamily zoning is difficult and it is mostly single-family zoning. People perceive that the default way to move around is by car but many people can’t use or afford cars. Kids and senior citizens can’t get around in a car and that is all part of our workforce and economy.
If we don’t have transit access that is tied to dense housing, then we have a problem. If you build housing next to transit and that transit only runs once an hour, then it is a problem. If you build housing next to transit and you can’t cross the street easily to get to the stop, then you have a problem. If you can’t get to the grocery store or daycare, you have an issue. The bigger issue in Massachusetts is that we tend to say we have a housing crisis and a transportation crisis but we have to look at how they are linked. The everyday person wants to have good access to services easily, so they can move about their daily lives. That requires an intersectional approach.
How is the Boston area addressing sustainability in transportation?
It is a mixed bag in Massachusetts. Some communities like Lexington are going above and beyond what is required by law and other communities are trying to do everything they can to limit the amount of housing that is being built close to transit. We have oversimplified transit-oriented development (TOD) by just making it about placing housing and transit in proximity but it is about more than that. It requires a greater vision of access within your residential area. If it doesn’t consider that, then it isn’t a very good development.
How do you construct your team at the alliance?
We are not a strictly volunteer organization. We have nine full-time employees here and they are all female, in an industry usually dominated by white men. It is important that we reflect on the people whom we are serving. That is core to how we operate. We also have a large volunteer base. One way we operate that we are known for is our street ambassador program. We basically pay people to be advocates in communities and they talk to people on the ground. A recent project is attempting to build a transit line in an underfunded community that rejected the project a decade ago. There are many complexities in the neighborhood that we need to surmount. We have a team on the ground that is collecting information on bus riders, so we can better study and address the issue.
How are you making transit more affordable?
We believe transit should be partially or fully fare free. Fares are not a stable source of revenue and they never have been. They don’t fund transit, so it should be a public good. When citizens are so dependent on transit, it can’t be unstable. It must be reliable and stable, so that is a mindset shift that we need to make. We need to make the urban lifestyle sustainable and convenient. Boston is the perfect fit for many people because it has a suburban lifestyle in an urban setting.
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