Leggat McCall | BHA Bunker Hill | Charlestown

There is an intense focus on public transportation in this development - its the densest part of town, and has the concentration of environmental justice populations. 77% of Charlestown households own a car, which is crazy being so close to town.

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While I agree with you on all counts, I am immensely curious as to the methodology artifacts that result in every MA EJ report I've seen showing the Autoport, where there is not a single residential unit, as of highest concern. Also, MGH. There's other criteria and stressors by which I could see it being included, such as proximity to emissions and other exposures, but that isn't included in the cited block criteria.
 
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While I agree with you on all counts, I am immensely curious as to the methodology artifacts that result in every MA EJ report I've seen showing the Autoport, where there is not a single residential unit, as of highest concern. Also, MGH. There's other criteria and stressors by which I could see it being included, such as proximity to emissions and other exposures, but that isn't included in the cited block criteria.

Might be because of the rejected Charlestown Haul Road. That build was supposed to take 100% of terminal truck traffic off Medford St. by grafting a backdoor into Sullivan via extension off the Schraffts driveway, and shape-shift majority of the trucks that cut Chelsea St. to City Square to the haul road where the somewhat longer distance requires many fewer traffic lights and right-angle turns. That in turn would enforce a measure of GPS discipline for the trucks to funnel towards Massport's preferred get-outta-town routes instead of the choose-your-adventure neighborhood jaunts that prevail today (much like Southie Haul helped thin the herd on spread of neighborhood shortcuts).

That's definitely an environmental justice consideration for all 12 blocks of residential-facing Medford St. the half-mile west to Sullivan, and the entirety of Chelsea St. to City Square in that map. The neighborhood rejected the Haul Road by getting whipped into a NIMBY frenzy over Sullivan getting 'truck-bombed' when that's really not how this slave-to-the-GPS trucking era works, but the local pols started screeching up a storm before a marble-mouthed Massport could explain that this wasn't as bad as they feared...so communication was fucked from Day 1 and it got predictably turfed. Since there's never been any alternative accommodations proposed after the failure of the Haul Road proposal for reshaping truck loads on Medford/Chelsea at the two entrypoints to the terminal, that wholly explains the 'hot' enviro justice colors on the first few blocks of facing residential by each entrance where the trucks are making their turns.

I'm similarly confused as you are, however, by the terminal itself being lumped in with the same color-coding. The effects & needs are more easily explainable by footnoting the neighborhood blocks most amplified by the terminal traffic outflow issues (and potential fixes therein) rather than lumping it in under the same justice criteria. Simplest explanation: it's just a bad map draw.
 

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