The Boston City Council voted Wednesday to compel testimony from MBTA General Manager Phil Eng about the disputed Blue Hill Avenue redevelopment, escalating a disagreement over proposed bus lanes and transit service in Dorchester and Mattapan.
The subpoena follows Eng’s absence from a council hearing about the corridor. WBUR reported that the redevelopment carries a $163 million price tag. The debate includes whether the avenue should receive center-running bus lanes or an extension of the Orange Line, according to Universal Hub.
Councilor Miniard Culpepper of Roxbury spearheaded the effort to require Eng to attend, Universal Hub reported. The earlier council-sponsored hearing took place in Grove Hall the previous week and addressed longstanding concerns about replacement service for the former elevated rail line.
The circumstances surrounding Eng’s absence are disputed. According to Boston.com, the MBTA maintains that it gave advance notice that its general manager would not attend. A councilor disputes that account. The supplied reports do not resolve the disagreement over whether that notice was communicated.
A dispute over transit equity
Beyond the question of attendance, the council’s action reflects a larger disagreement about what kind of transportation investment Blue Hill Avenue should receive. NBC Boston reported that some city leaders frame the issue as one of equity for the corridor’s largely Black neighborhoods, which they say have faced decades of inadequate transit service.
The proposed redesign would add bus lanes to the busy avenue running through Dorchester and Mattapan. Those lanes are at the center of the current controversy, but the council committee’s inquiry also reaches back to commitments associated with the removal of elevated rail service in the 1980s.
According to Universal Hub, the Grove Hall hearing focused specifically on the four decades since the state promised service comparable to the former elevated line. That history is part of the push to consider extending the Orange Line along the avenue rather than proceeding with the center-lane bus proposal.
Universal Hub described the committee’s work as examining the civil rights implications of retaining the bus-lane plan instead of pursuing the rail extension. The question before councilors therefore extends beyond the street redesign itself to the type of transit service available to communities along the route.
A formal demand for testimony
NBC Boston characterized the council’s decision to formally summon the MBTA chief as unusual. The vote turns councilors’ effort to hear from Eng into a demand for his appearance before the committee examining the project.
The accounts describe a vote seeking testimony, not a council decision to replace the bus proposal with an Orange Line extension. Eng’s absence and the unresolved disagreement over advance notice have become a separate point of contention alongside the underlying redevelopment debate.
What’s next: The subpoena seeks Eng’s testimony before the council committee, where members are examining the Blue Hill Avenue proposal and its implications for equitable transit service.
