Members of the Somerville City Council have expressed impatience with the slow pace of progress in making safety improvements to McGrath Highway pedestrian areas.

By Joe Creason

The regular City Council Meeting held on May 13 began with a moment of silence. The remembrance was for a couple Navy veterans and long-time Somerville residents, who passed away before many felt it was their time to go.

Richard Daily Sr., age 94, was a husband and a father who leaves a legacy of 14 great grandchildren. Along with serving in the United States Navy during World War Two, he was a retired long-time employee of the school supply company J L Hammet.

Marshall Mac, age 72, served in the South Vietnamese Navy during the war in Vietnam. After being forced to spend time as a prisoner of war, Mac sought to escape the country with his family by boat. Though he had navigation skills as a seaman, Mac and his family were attacked by pirates who robbed them of their supplies, including their boat’s engine which left them adrift in the ocean for 10 days.

The Mac family was rescued by a cargo ship that took them to a refugee camp in Thailand where they awaited sponsorship for travel to the United States.

McGrath Highway hit-and-run victim Marshall Mac.

After decades of living for the community, Mac suffered life threatening injuries in a horrific traffic accident while he was crossing McGrath Highway on April 13. Mac passed away while in a coma on April 29.

“This individual was a survivor. It is an indescribable tragedy that he was killed while crossing the street in Somerville. We must do everything we can to make sure that this does not get repeated,” said Ward 5 Councilor Mark Niedergang.

Referred to by many as the “Corridor of Death,” the thoroughfare of Mystic Avenue and McGrath Highway has seen three residents killed by cars in just the last two years.

According to the City Council, MassDOT is set to begin safety improvements for pedestrians soon, though the most impactful improvements have been pushed back to begin in 2023. This is in addition to the fact that MassDOT is fast tracking a major steel viaduct rehabilitation project on I-93 in 2022.

The steel rehabilitation project is being expedited in the same area where pedestrian fatalities continue and safety improvements have been postponed.

“It’s shameful that MassDOT is putting private property in the form of cars over the lives of people,” said Councilor At-Large Wilfred N. Mbah.

According to Niedergang, city officials and state representatives have been persistent in asking MassDOT to build sound walls along I-93. This would protect residents from fine particle air pollution produced by cars which are known to cause serious health consequences with long term exposure.

Although the steel rehabilitation as a large-scale project provides the prerequisite opportunity in which the sound walls could be built, MassDOT has not added them to the construction plans. 

“(Steel rehabilitation) is clearly MassDOT’s priority. They don’t seem to care nearly as much about our residents who are being killed crossing the street,” Niedergang said. “Pedestrians have to cross at Mystic and McGrath, they don’t have a choice.”

The Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets is sponsoring Highway Justice for People: Mystic and McGrath on May 26 at 6:00 pm. The event will demand that MassDOT prioritizes the safety of people over the movement of cars. Members of the media will be present at the rally.

In other business, City Councilors submitted another resolution with regards to the treatment of the Tufts University dining hall staff. A student activist group known as the Tufts Labor Coalition backs the resolution and states that it stands in solidarity with the dining hall workers.

“I really admire the young people who live in our community, and certainly the students up at Tufts who have had the back of the Tufts workers on this,” said Ward 7 Councilor Katjana Ballantyne.

A student from the Tufts Labor Coalition was present at the meeting and stated that the Tufts Administration had shown its true colors during the pandemic, exposing the administration’s supposed stance on social justice as mere rhetoric.

According to the student, dining hall staff were left guessing about the status of their compensation at the height of the lockdown. He said that one worker even reported having to use her own sick time just to bury her husband who had passed away from complications from Covid-19.

Also, the mayor communicated a Proclamation for Women’s Advancement, Equity and Opportunity in Somerville.

“This proclamation comes as a result of a resolution I wrote and submitted in February which was prompted by the fact that women lost three decades of progress in under a year due to the pandemic,” said Councilor At-Large Kristen Strezo.

According to Strezo, women reported all the job loss claims in January 2021. Many women were employed in some of the industries hardest hit by the pandemic, such as retail and hospitality.

Additionally, the Council submitted an order to appropriate a bond in the amount of $5,000,575. The bond will be used to acquire the Armory Building located at 191 Highland Avenue. After discussion in the most recent Finance Committee meeting, the Council voted unanimously to acquire the property at 191 Highland Avenue as well as to approve the bond cost.

And in celebration of the 56th anniversary of the passage of the Older Americans Act by the United States congress, the Council passed a resolution to make May, 2021, Older Americans Month.