The debate over Blue Hill Ave has become increasingly polarized. As someone who was born and raised in Roxbury, this conversation is deeply personal to me. I know these neighborhoods because they shaped who I am. Today, some support the proposed center-running bus lane. Others oppose it and have called instead for an Orange Line extension. All sides have spent weeks debating traffic, parking, travel times, and transit access.
But there is one conversation that is almost entirely missing. What will this investment mean for the people who already live here? Whether Blue Hill Avenue ultimately gets a center-running bus lane, an Orange Line extension, or another major transit investment, history tells us that improved transit access often increases property values, attracts new development, and puts upward pressure on housing costs. Those changes can be positive. Without planning, however, they can also displace the very residents the investment is supposed to serve.
That is exactly why I filed SD.4041, An Act relative to transit planning and anti-displacement protections. The bill would require major discretionary transit expansion projects in neighborhoods at high risk of displacement to include an anti-displacement plan before state funding moves forward. That plan could include strategies to preserve affordable housing, strengthen tenant protections, support homeownership, protect small businesses, and negotiate community benefits that ensure existing residents share in the opportunities created by new investment.
This legislation is not about stopping transit projects but rather ensuring transit investments benefit existing residents instead of pricing them out of their neighborhoods. Some will argue that requiring an anti-displacement plan creates another hurdle for transit projects. I disagree. We routinely study traffic impacts, environmental impacts, engineering challenges, and construction costs before moving forward with major infrastructure projects. Planning for the people who live along the corridor should be just as fundamental. Protecting residents should not be viewed as an obstacle to progress. It should be part of responsible planning.
We have seen this story before. When Somerville debated the Green Line Extension, residents raised concerns about displacement. They were not against transit. They understood that better transportation would bring new investment and opportunity, but they also knew it could increase rents and make it harder for longtime residents to stay.
Their concerns were taken seriously. Community Benefits Agreements were negotiated. Affordable housing requirements were strengthened. The city created an Anti-Displacement Task Force and expanded tenant protections. Leaders recognized that transit and anti-displacement planning should go hand in hand. If those concerns were valid in Somerville, why are they not part of the conversation in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan?
Blue Hill Avenue runs through some of Boston’s most historic Black communities. Our neighborhoods have also lived through redlining, urban renewal, highway proposals, and decades of disinvestment. Time and again, residents have been promised that change would benefit everyone. Too often, longtime families and small businesses have borne the greatest costs while others have reaped the rewards. That history gives residents every reason to ask what another major public investment could mean for housing affordability and neighborhood stability.
Yet as the debate continues, we hear endless discussions about traffic patterns and bus speeds. We hear debates over center-running bus lanes versus rail. What we rarely hear is how we will ensure that the families who have lived along Blue Hill Avenue for generations can still afford to live there ten years from now.
That should concern all of us. If the center-running bus lane moves forward, light rail, or if an Orange Line extension is ultimately pursued, we should already have a plan to protect existing residents from displacement. Waiting until housing costs rise is too late. By then, the damage has already been done.
Transit should connect people to opportunity, not disconnect them from their homes. The question before us is bigger than a center-running bus lane or an Orange Line extension. It is whether we have learned from the past. We should not have to choose between better transit and stable communities.
We can deliver faster, more reliable transit while also protecting the people who have called these neighborhoods home for generations. That is exactly what my legislation seeks to accomplish, and it is a conversation our community deserves to have before decisions are made, not after.
Senator Liz Miranda represents the Second Suffolk District in the Massachusetts Senate, serving the Boston neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, the South End, Roslindale, and Fenway. Born and raised in Roxbury, she has championed legislation advancing racial equity, economic justice, housing stability, public health, and opportunity for historically underserved communities. She serves as Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights, and Inclusion, Vice Chair of the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities, and as a member of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.
