![]() One community member spoke about how a property developer is renovating her building into luxury apartments, with plans to increase the rent to three times the current cost.Ĭity Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen spoke about how Massachusetts’ lack of rent control has contributed to rising housing costs due to the GLX. The Community Action Agency of Somerville held a bilingual press conference called “ Don’t Let the Green Line Become the Gentrification Line! ” on March 21, just before the official opening of the GLX at Union Square, where tenants and organizers shared their personal experiences with gentrification. The rising property values and rent increases coincide with the end of Somerville’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium, leaving many tenants in a precarious position. told the Daily.īut the costs of gentrification may outweigh the benefits. “T he benefit of that for the city is that it will receive a lot more commercial property tax, which will allow us to shift our balance from relying so much on residential taxes, … which should give us more money to fund a lot of the initiatives we care about, including affordable housing ,” Burnley Jr. says will look “dramatically different” in the next few years. The opening of the transit extension at Union Square i s just one of the many changes coming to that area of Somerville, which Councilor-at-Large Willie Burnley Jr. “ It just also happens to be a double-edged sword when that also means that in today’s housing market, public transit is also an amenity that greed-driven property developers and landlords can use as an excuse to jack up rent.” “ Having mass transit as a public good is important for the city, ” Nicole Eigbrett, director of community organizing at the Community Action Agency of Somerville told the Daily. ![]() The new transit infrastructure has prompted a wave of speculation by property developers, causing rent prices and eviction rates to increase dramatically. Many community organizers and state and local representatives have been outspoken about the complexity of the issues that the GLX introduces. However, the real estate and commercial development that accompanies the extension may worsen the housing inaccessibility issues that the area currently faces. The GLX project has been in the works since 1990 and will offer greater access to public transportation for areas in Medford and Somerville where MBTA light rail service was previously unavailable. The Medford branch of the GLX, which will terminate at the Medford/Tufts station currently under construction next to the Joyce Cummings Center, is slated to open in summer 2022. The addition extends the Green Line’s service from Lechmere station to the new Union Square station in Somerville. The MBTA Green Line Extension officially began service with the opening of its Union Square Branch on March 21, 2022.
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