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My thesis so far is that the town of Arlington, Massachusetts, would be better off not receiving a government grant and leave Massachusetts Avenue alone rather than refurbish it.
So far, pretty much every single person in the town that I have found does not support the project, which is astounding. The police hate it, every citizen hates it, the fire department hates it, local businesses hate it, the DPW hates it. The only people that seem to like the idea is Arlington board of selectmen, who only want to go foreward with the project because it means that the state will pay for it. This will be a key topic of the essay.
Another piece of info that I have recently gathered is that up until the mid 80’s, mass ave was two lanes with a median in the middle (the same way they want to make it). As of now it is 4 lanes with no median, which, at the time of its reconstruction, was supposed to be safer. Now, they say that it will be safer for only two lanes, yet emergency services are complaining that it will take too long to travel down the avenue in case of an emergency.
I will then move to the topic of environmental consciousness. The town says that the new bike lane they wish to implement will support use of bikes and eco-friendliness, except for the fact that the town already has a 2-lane BIKE ONLY mini-highway, called the bike path, that is traversed every day by thousands. Also, due to the harsh winters, it is hardly believed that there will be much bike riding.
All in all it seems that there is a lot of controversy regarding this, and my essay will hopefully contain a lot of debate on the topic.
