To the Editor:

Regardless of how many lanes the "new improved" redesigned Centre Street is going to have, there are many very important design details to be worked out.

Meaningful public involvement in this process requires a small active working committee of West Roxbury citizens, meeting as often as necessary with the City and other relevant parties, such as the MBTA.

The current proposed design from the City raises questions like these:

All of the extended red brick pedestrian islands along Centre Street are to be essentially eliminated. Why? What are the pros and cons? Is this what we want? Is it appropriate in every case?

The neckdowns are minimized to the point that they are completely taken up by mobility access ramps. Is this going to work well for all pedestrians? Should they be at least a little larger, so there is somewhere to stand up on the curb, waiting for a break in the traffic?

Is the base curbline along the street going to be "reconstructed"? Is it going to be moved? Is the red brickwork lining much of the curb going to be retained? Is the whole sidewalk going to be "reconstructed"?

The bus stops currently have waiting plazas and benches. The proposal seems to remove these! Why? What is the new proposed plan for our bus stops? Where will people wait? Where will the buses stop? This should be worked out by a local working committee and the MBTA, in consultation with the City.

Most of our fancy new benches were placed in the bus stop and red brick plazas that the new proposal removes! Where will the benches go? Will there still be comfortable and convenient areas for pedestrians to sit down along Centre Street?

What is the plan for the "street furniture" -- the newspaper boxes etc?

How many existing trees will be removed?

How many existing crosswalks will be removed? Will the new crosswalks be raised or use pavers or some other permanent construction method?

How many legal parking spaces will be added? How many illegal parking spaces (parking near intersections and crosswalks is not legal, but seems to be encouraged by the proposed changes)? Will parking meters be installed along Centre St?

To facilitate meaningful involvement by West Roxbury residents, the design proposal drawings, description, and discussion should be posted on the Internet, and there should be a practical way for people to print out the details or check out copies from the Library so they can walk down the street and study the proposed details.

So far, the public meetings have not functioned to facilitate meaningful participation in the redesign of Centre St. The previous meeting, before summer, was based on the City presenting traffic counts that were not made available for study before the meeting, and were only made available at the Library very belatedly afterwards. Then many months passed with no communication with the public. When the current proposal was finally put up in the Library right before the recent meeting, no narrative discussion accompanied it, it was not provided on the Internet, and requests for more detailed information or explanations to prepare for the meeting were not encouraged.

If we are going to spend $3.5 million rebuilding two-thirds of a mile of roadway, the heart of our community, it is important to do it as well as we can -- getting it right is more important than being in a hurry!

- Keith Davison
West Roxbury