Yesterday evening, the Purple Line Transit Partners and Montgomery County’s Department of Transportation closed the Lyttonsville Place Bridge. The six-month closure will allow for the demolition and reconstruction of a new bridge to accommodate the Purple Line light rail.
Though local news outlets have covered the controversial bridge closing for the past several months, not a single journalist has written about Lyttonsville residents’ claims that the bridge closure and a detour using a street closed during urban renewal in the 1970s is environmental racism. And, no journalists have covered the community’s search for a civil rights lawyer to take up their claim that the detour and bridge closing violate the National Environmental Policy Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by introducing impacts to the community that should have been evaluated under the law’s environmental justice requirements.
Newly opened Stewart Avenue cut-through into residential Lyttonsville neighborhood. This street was closed during urban renewal to protect Lyttonsville from commercial and industrial traffic from a newly created light industrial and commercial zone that Montgomery County created along Brookville Road after demolishing African American homes, stores, and a church with a cemetery that was moved outside the community.
The National Environmental Policy Act and other planning laws were enacted to plan for and mitigate the impacts of large-scale infrastructure projects like the Purple Line. yet, there are several substantive claims that there are deficiencies in the environmental impact statement, including the failure to protect Lyttonsville residents from situations like this.
Community meeting, May 17, 2018.
But don’t necessarily listen to me. Let the residents speak for themselves. Here is a partial transcript from a community meeting held in a nearby elementary school May 17, 2018. Convened by the Purple Line Transit Partners, the Maryland Department of Transportation, and the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, the 90-minute meeting enabled affected residents to tell planners and the many elected county officials present that there is something wrong with the way that the Purple Line was planned and its construction.
Some key points:
- Purple Line planners never consulted with Lyttonsville residents about impacts introduced by the proposed bridge closure and cut-through detour.
- Purple Line planners were so unfamiliar with the Lyttonsville landscape that they proposed putting temporary protected walkways in roads that already had sidewalks.
Community meeting, May 17, 2018.
JOEL TEITELBAUM: The message really is this: That at no time has any of you State, PLTP, or the County — Mr. Cupples is so to speak the low guy on the totem pole here — consulted with the people of Lyttonsville. [applause]
No one, no one — you guys have got to come down to the ground level. Your plan for Maine, Kansas, and all that, misses Lyttonsville. Doesn’t get it. You haven’t been there. You don’t know it. You’ve got to go through the civic association, the Purple Line Community Advisory Group from Lyttonsville and pay attention to what they say. And the same thing for Rosemary Hills and Rock Creek Forest. You don’t have a clue as to what’s going on down at the community level and you don’t have a clue about what the actual problems are going to be at those areas.
[applause]
All you’re thinking about is diverting traffic from the Lyttonsville Place Bridge. You’ve got the wrong idea. Straighten up, act like Mr. Craig but come down to our level. Thank you.
CLARIDGE HOUSE RESIDENT: I live in Claridge House; there are several of us here. I face what’s going to be the new Lyttonsville Bridge as well as the trail as well as everything — all of that construction. How is the noise level going to affect us because I have not heard anything about how they’re going to reduce the noise from trains, with the additional traffic that’s going to come because of the station that’s going to be under the bridge now, how you’re going to handle all of that because we live in a very quiet neighborhood.
DEBRA WYLIE: I just want to comment, you, the gentleman — not you, sir — you said that the people should have a little patience with these guys. First of all, you’re talking about these people’s lives. You’re talking about their homes. You’re talking about disrupting neighborhoods, communities and I think that you guys, the state, the county, the government, did not take into consideration how you are affecting all these people who have lived here and built their families here.
And for you to say that these people need to take into consideration what you’re doing, it’s a job to you. You go home every day. Your lives are not disrupted. These people losing their business, they’re losing customers. I mean this is really affecting the people and this should not have just come up after you destroyed all the trees and then come around talking to the community. This should have been started, these conversations should have been started over a year ago where [applause] people would be prepared for this and then you wouldn’t have all this over here where people are giving this resistance. I mean you think that it’s easy for everyone. It’s not easy for them.
This is change. Yes, change is uncomfortable and necessary for growth but you are not considering the respect of these county residents who pay taxes. And again, I tell you: This is a voting time. You better look at who you are putting in office, who your councilman is for our area. I’ve lived here for 20 years. I’m a firm voter but I’m telling you, the way that this has gone down for all of us in our community, is not right and if you continue to sit back and allow this, then you’re going to get what you’re going to get.
[applause]
LYTTONSVILLE RESIDENT (white male): Hi, I live in Lyttonsville and I just want to not as loudly but echo Joel’s comments a little bit. From my notes and what I saw, it looks like you’re putting a walkway on Maine Avenue between Kansas and Michigan, is that correct?
MODERATOR: Yes.
LYTTONSVILLE RESIDENT (white male): There’s already a sidewalk there, but anyway, that’s not a big deal. So there’s also — my question is, that you’re putting a crosswalk across Maine that goes down essentially the side of Michigan, correct?
MODERATOR: Yes.
LYTTONSVILLE RESIDENT (white male): Okay, so that’s going to be a crosswalk that’s going to literally connect a sidewalk to nothing. So my big concern is that as I walk my kid to school, even though three of the six months he’s going to be out, I’m already struggling to walk him to school every morning just because there is tons of traffic as it is. And you’re talking about reducing the traffic down from roughly 12,000 cars to about 9,000 because of the reduction efforts. But people are still going to be coming down from the other side of Michigan. Everything you’ve talked about has been basically, I don’t know if the directions are right, but to the west of or I guess that’s the north of — I don’t know what direction it is — but towards East West Highway more than it is towards Talbot.
There’s been no talk at all about what type of traffic calming measures are going to be done down Pennsylvania Avenue, the other side of Kansas, or down Michigan in general. And sidewalks for me is a big issue just because there’s really no way to get around this area from Lyttonsville without having to walk in the street.
PL STAFF: And you’re right. There are very few sidewalks in the community and that’s maybe from a long-term perspective, it’s something that needs to be discussed with the county to see what sort of long-term improvements might be appropriate —
LYTTONSVILLE RESIDENT (white male): We have tried. They don’t listen —
PL STAFF: [Not transcribed]
ELMORIA STEWART: On Stewart Avenue, the back of my property is on Stewart Avenue and over the years, with refrigerated trucks and so forth, will you do anything with the signage keeping trucks from idling all night long? And the other thing, being on the hill as I am, I feel the vibrations and my house shows the evidence of the vibrations. Will you be paying for all the cars passing onto Stewart and causing hidden damage to my yard or house? Will that be taken care of?
And the other thing, with the blue lines that you’re putting in on the other streets, on Kansas and Michigan, I hope that you will also have it on Maine and Pennsylvania. The problem you have there is you have parking on one side and adding the blue lines giving more of the area taken out of the road, you will only have enough space for one car to wait at one corner while the other cargoes down or vice-versa. Will you be working with that?
PL STAFF: [Not transcribed]
If government officials can’t even maintain a credible appearance of consulting with affected communities in projects like this, what purpose does it serve to spend substantial amounts on money on impact studies and dog-and-pony shows like the Purple Line’s community meetings? An even more pressing question is where are the journalists to hold our elected officials accountable?
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