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Fairmount Indigo Planning Initiative Holds Promise

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By Move4ART
When the Fairmount Indigo Corridor Collaborative brought its community "visioning" process to Mattapan last December, the forum was packed.  The Collaborative's Community Action Group (CAG) gathered residents, urban planners, architects and developers around six work tables in the community room at the Mattapan Branch Library; replete with maps, markers, clips, and questions to prompt the work ahead.

 The table-sized maps were drawn from the City of Boston's Fairmount Indigo Planning Initiative launched in February 2012 to take advantage of the MBTA's expansion of commuter rail service.  The CAG's facilitators wanted to know what kind of "transit-oriented development" Mattapan residents envisioned along the Blue Hills/Cummings corridor.

 Biggest surprise was how many people there voiced a desire for a more robust nightlife in Mattapan.  Turns out, there was no need to convince anyone that Mattapan would benefit from having a cultural arts center; the only question was where....

 Our proposal to build a cultural arts center within two blocks of the Mattapan T Station--within three blocks of Mattapan Square--was embraced by all at table six, without reservation. A marker was placed over the two lots proposed; making Mattapan Cultural Arts Development's quest a shared community vision. 

 While there are many steps left to take along the way toward making this vision a reality, we ended 2013 encouraged in this endeavor.  Join us. 

The Backstory

Several years ago the the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) decided to make the commuter rail accessible to neighborhoods along the Fairmount Indigo Corridor. In Mattapan, the MBTA refurbished a station at Morton Street--a station easily accessible to only about a third of Mattapan's residents.  This instigated a series of discussions about where an additional station might be built along the commuter rail in Mattapan.

Correspondingly the City of Boston began to study ways to encourage capital investment and access to economic opportunities in neighborhoods along the Fairmount Indigo Corridor. When Boston's outgoing mayor, Thomas M. Menino launched The Fairmount Indigo Planning Initiative in February 2012. he said it was "about building neighborhoods and reducing the unemployment line by connecting communities to economic opportunities, jobs, transit, and housing."  

Time will tell whether Mayor Walsh will carry the work of this planning initiative forward.

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