Neighborhood Voices on the Red Line Route
DAN TRACY
Dan Tracy, a retired lawyer, has lived in Canton for 21 years, long enough to see Boston Street evolve from a gritty, portside thoroughfare with broken sidewalks to a grand, tree-lined, waterfront boulevard with heavy commuter traffic. Trying to cross the street during rush hour is a near impossibility. The same could be said for trying to pull a car into the roadway from an adjacent parking lot.

And while many opponents of the Red Line cite that heavy traffic as a reason not to build an above-ground rail line on Boston Street, Tracy favors the project for that very reason. “Installing the Red Line surface line would end two lanes of traffic — and substantially reduce the traffic,” he says. “That’s a good idea. That’s not a bad idea.”

If construction of the Red Line is going to make it easier and safer for pedestrians to cross Boston Street and improve access to the waterfront, he’s for it.

“Most folks agree that the Red Line is very important for the city,” says Tracy, who moved downtown from Towson. “The problem becomes whether it’s underground or above ground.”

Tracy thinks an above ground rail line would cause “considerably less noise and air pollution” than the cars, trucks and busses now traveling Boston Street. An underground rail system gives a commuter another way to travel into the city, he says, but the commuter can still drive. But build an above-ground rail line and “you have gone a long way to eliminating the driving option. It would really incentivize people who commute on Boston Street” to take mass transit, he feels.

At a meeting hosted by the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance two months ago, Tracy watched a videotape that featured comparisons with light rail systems in Portland, Seattle and Phoenix. Baltimore residents who traveled to those cities described the rail lines as sleeker, smaller and quieter that the light rail that runs down Howard Street.

“They were, almost to a man, exceedingly impressed,” he said, and they felt their concerns could be addressed.

But Tracy is not without some concerns of his own. “The size of the portal and its configuration and its location are going to be very important,” he says. He intends to monitor the project’s progress to see if those issues are addressed.

-by ANN LOLORDO
Ann LoLordo was a longtime editor and reporter for The Baltimore Sun.

BREWED RECENTLY ON THE RED LINE . . . .
today:
“Transit line may be nice but it’s not for ‘us’”
previously:
“Transit Line Could Uplift a Struggling Baltimore Community”

“Transit Line a Burden, not a boon, for thriving, car-centric Canton”

“Time for Some Myth-busting on Baltimore’s Red Line, Says a Believer”

“Baltimore’s Red Line? Better for Developers Than Transit Riders.”