The CPCAY has made the extraordinary claim that the MBTA is lying about the Arborway Yard and is plotting to sell it and build its bus yard elsewhere. Intriguing as this claim is, it’s mostly a complicated way of saying no one really knows what the T is doing. Someone in a position of power should go find out immediately.
After years of borderline insane plot twists in the Arborway Yard saga, nothing short of a Godzilla attack would surprise us. But the CPCAY has no direct proof for its claim. Indeed, the reason it is guessing and inferring is because it is not talking with the T—a big difference from just a few years ago, when CPCAY leaders met with T officials fairly regularly.
Thus, months of public process has amounted to fantasy plans and conspiracy theories, resulting in zero leverage on getting the MBTA to explain anything.
There’s surely something to talk about. The T’s sudden burst of multi-million-dollar site prep was a surprise that the agency has repeatedly refused to explain. We, too, could speculate on what that means, but what we really need to do is get an answer via officials the T cannot legally blow off.
The CPCAY may be right or wrong in its guesswork; either way, the public in JP, and quite possibly across the entire city, need to get the facts. The continuing failure of local elected officials to step in and conduct a meeting or hearing is frustrating verging on embarrassing. There may also be a role for other neighborhood organizations with growing political clout, such as the Stonybrook Neighborhood Association and the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council’s new ad hoc Forest Hills committee, if they prioritize fact-finding over position-taking.