Differences aired at Tuesday hearing in Mattapan Square

City officials and their key supporters reiterated their support this week for the advance of plans for a controversial center bus lane on Blue Hill Avenue, while a considerable number of the residents spoke roundly against the idea at a City Council hearing held on Tuesday in Mattapan Square, though most of them said they support other improvements to the long-neglected corridor.

The infrastructure overhaul project encompassing the well-travelled corridor between Grove Hall and Mattapan Square has been in the works for many years, including a failed attempt with a previous plan in 2009. The bus lane is but one aspect of the far-reaching project, but to date it has been the most controversial element, with talk of dedicated bike lanes a close second in inviting discord.

The William E. Carter Post was bustling with energy on Tuesday afternoon beginning at 4 o’clock as more than 100 people rolled through to offer opinions at a Council Post Audit Committee meeting that was conducted well beyond City Hall at the initiative of Councillors Julia Mejia, Brian Worrell, and Tania Fernandes Anderson.

Several councillors attended the meeting in the Carter Post at Mattapan Square. Seth Daniel photo

“I think we all deserve nice things and new things, but not at the expense of a real community process,” said Mejia at the outset of the meeting.

Added Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, “I am concerned that there isn’t enough community buy-in.”

Worrell and Fernandes Anderson used the occasion to reiterate their long-held positions against the bus lane, but in favor of an overall revitalization of the iconic avenue. Other councillors in attendance included Enrique Pepen, Ed Flynn, and Erin Murphy.

The clear takeaway after two hours of testimony was that most residents and business owners would like to see new sidewalks, street trees, better enforcement, new paving, and other amenities – but not buses operating up and down a center lane.

“I am in favor of change, but reasonable change, and putting a bus lane in the middle of the street on Blue Hill Avenue is not reasonable,” said Norma Lawrence, a resident of West Selden Street for more than 50 years, who seemed to speak for many in attendance.

“I try to support the businesses on Blue Hill,” she added, “but if I can’t find parking, I just go to another community, which I hate to do…I’d like to see something that’s more beneficial to the community rather than something that just frustrates the community.”

It was standing room only for a good part of the Council hearing on Tuesday. Here, audience members listen to a panel of transportation advocates. Seth Daniel photo

Earlier this week, Mayor Wu and key supporters like state Rep. Russell Holmes – who represents the corridor – reiterated their overall support to The Reporter. Though saying specific design details remain open for discussion, like bike lanes, they’re also adamant that it’s time for long-deferred upgrades to allow one of the city’s most heavily used roadways to move forward.

“The priority is the bus for the people who live in this neighborhood,” Holmes said in an interview with the paper and also during a panel discussion at Tuesday’s meeting. “If we go right down to Mattapan Square, there are probably 20 people standing in front of the old McDonald's waiting for a bus at this very moment with horrible conditions.

“I would like them to get a priority,” he said. “I would like the priority to be the people who live here and not the people who drive through here. And that was basically the whole point of all of this.”

Last Friday, Wu said that in the aftermath of Tuesday’s meeting stakeholders would see the project isn’t a done deal.

“Whether or not there's a bike lane here, that is all to be decided,” she said. “I think there's going to be designs presented without the bike lane designs [and] with a bike lane design to reflect different conversation pieces that have happened.

“But we want to move people faster and more conveniently, and we want it to help out people in Boston as opposed to preferencing the people outside Boston who are trying to get by and through our communities as quickly as possible.”

But discussion on Tuesday highlighted differing approaches on how to move people along the corridor, and how to create a thriving community there, too.

Café Juice Up owner Denise O’Mard insisted that a combination of enforcement and some changes to parking restrictions would fix a lot of the congestion without the need for the bus lane. She suggested 15-minute parking in the business districts and new loading zones. In fact, she said, business owners are the worst offenders in creating double-parking, triple-parking, and related congestion.

“I confess. I am a business owner that’s in violation of the 30-minute limit like every other business owner,” she said. “You should ticket us if that’s what it takes. The customers have nowhere to go but if we’re not there and someone makes sure no one exceeds a 15-minute limit, I believe most of the congestion and double-parking on the corridor will be significantly reduced.”

She countered that putting in a new bus lane will result in major construction, which she fears would strangle her business for years only to end up offering less room for customers’ cars.

“My customers arrive by car, and I talk to them about this, and they are adamant that they do not want the center-lane bus,” she said.

Deacon Anthony Banks, of Morningstar Baptist Church – a mega-presence on the corridor – acknowledged that the church has grown and as a result has created a parking pinch-point on Sundays, when churchgoers park in the median and side streets; still, he said, a bus lane isn’t the way forward.

“We know these things are important, but we want to see any more money [meant to be] invested in building a center lane down Blue Hill Avenue instead invested in the community and our businesses,” he said. “Blue Hill Avenue is a major thoroughfare and to restrict it to one lane would create a big problem for all of us.”

Said Barbara Crichlow, referencing the failed 2009 “28X” plan, “We visited the same community you are visiting now, and they didn’t want it. My issue is how many times do we have to say we don’t want it before you understand we don’t want it.”

Construction worker Michael Alex said he has observed the bus lane on Columbus Avenue and is skeptical. “I hope that whatever you do traffic will flow, but I don’t know how it will flow with one lane,” he said. “On Columbus Avenue, it’s like one car up on the other moving like sheep to the slaughter.”

Other voices were aligned with the mayor and Rep. Holmes.

Long-time resident Jerome Frazier noted his support for the bus lane, as did life-long resident Kenya Beaman, who is a city Planning Department employee.

“I support the project, and I know I am in the minority,” she said. “I don’t do much here now because I go to Dudley, Quincy, or Braintree, but I want my discretionary funds to stay in my community…I want Blue Hill Avenue to be vibrant again and we can leave our homes and get a drink here. My thing is that I don’t want to go to Seaport all the time.”

Fatima Ali-Salaam, chair of the Greater Mattapan Neighborhood Council (GMNC), revealed that its board has officially taken a stand against most of the plan.

“Over the years we’ve seen plans arrive to great fanfare promising transformation, progress, and equity but these promises now must be delivered with substance, clarity, and deep and consistent engagement,” she read. “The GMNC stands ready to collaborate, but not to rubber stamp…Blue Hill Avenue deserves better and so do we.”

An issue cited by the GMNC is the lack of full funding for the project. In addition to the $15 million already pledged to the project in federal money, Boston has pledged $18 million and the state— via the MBTA— has assured another $11 million.

But the project’s full budget will require more money, some of it hoped-for through a “rolling grant program” offered by the federal government for shovel-ready projects. Given that, a major subtext to Tuesday’s session was how the project might be impacted by the Trump Administration’s hostile posture toward Massachusetts at large, and Boston in particular.

The city and MBTA filed jointly for approvals— and their applications were advanced in a March 2025 decision, according to Chief of Streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge, who has noted that it’s not yet clear how long it might take for the project to get more federal dollars and that there’s no guarantee it will be forthcoming, particularly under the Trump watch.

“We really don't have any sense of the timeline that they're operating on if they're moving this at all,” he said, noting that city and state planners are working to bring the project to 30 percent design phase this year.

“There's a lot of elements that are still up for discussion and input, so while we're waiting for clarity on that, we've continued to make a lot of short-term investments in the corridor. Upgrading streetlights, repaving, refreshing fit pavement markings, adding green infrastructure in parts of the corridor to just create a little bit more beautification.”

But he qualified that with a reality check: The project – for all the rancor and opinions shared on Tuesday – is in a bit of a slow period and federal funding is ultimately going to determine the scope and scale of what the city is able to deliver for the community.