They haven't really declared war. They've just raised their voices. Declaring war would be more akin to they hired a bunch of lawyers or mounted a legal challenge to stop the entire project.
Most likely they'll win a small battle of a 100 units or something being chopped off and this will go through. Meanwhile I continue to be amazed by how moronic many of the "Old" Boston residents are with regards to just about everything.
Being a product of the Bunker Hill project, I feel like I am in the unique position to be able to give an informed perspective that many of the forum members are missing on in regards to this project and the first thing I want to say is that these residents are not moronic. The issues they raised are valid and one that I have personally experienced during my first 23 years that I have lived in Charlestown.
Really the one issue that needs to be correct that should soothe the problem is improved infrastructure. The fear that the increased population can heavily strained existing infrastructure is very true. Charlestown is severely under-served by public transit, with two bus route running through populated area, route 92 and 93. Route 92 runs infrequently on weekdays and Saturdays and doesn't run on Sunday. Route 93 runs more frequently but runs in 20 minute intervals on Saturday and 40 minutes to an hour interval on Sunday. This compared to other neighborhoods where multiple routes run the same area and intervals on Sunday are around 15-20 minutes.
On top of this, Charlestown also doesn't have a heavy/light rail running through the area. The Orange Line, which runs against the highway, serves a minuscule amount of residents in the area. In an area where a significant portion of the population is low-income and relies heavily on public transit, any large development in Charlestown should be accompanied by more investment in public transit/infrastructure in the area (the effectiveness of running more buses however is limited as I will explain in the next paragraph).
The main road that connects Charlestown with downtown Boston is the N. Washington Bridge. The decaying N. Washington Bridge acts as a choke point during rush hour, creating heavy traffic going in and out of the city. At times, I remember it can take around 20-30 minutes to cross that small span which often results in bus clustering together which decreases efficiency. Running more bus down this bridge would do nothing to improve the situation. A better solution is to replace the bridge with a 6 line bridge (like it used to be) to allow traffic to flow better.
In regards to the fire trucks. In comparison, East Boston, another neighborhood separated from Boston by water, is currently served by 3 fire stations. Charlestown, is currently served by 2 and would have to serve a significantly more dense area than East Boston. An easy solution is to incorporate a small fire station in the project (or even have a station built under the Tobin Bridge). Other public services, like schools, can be fixed by expanding the existing facilities there or incorporating them into the project.
