The Citizen Protests that Prevented I95 Expansion and Set Precedent for the Participatory Design of the Southwest Corridor
Written by Cassandra Nicholson after an interview with Ann Hershfang.
Edited by Lindsay Mawhiney and William Benjamin.
"The Southwest Corridor was created by community action. It can remain a beautiful facility only if citizens continue to support its upkeep and development."
The lines above are written on a plaque in Roxbury Crossing that includes the names of about 100 people instrumental in the citizen protests against William Callahan's Master Highway Plan, a 1948 proposal to expand I-95. On the plaque is also a photograph of a train abutment at Jackson Square painted with white letters: "No Highway. Choose People." Next to this picture is a concise yet complete history of the proposed highway's chronology from 1948-1989. The most important date is, of course, the orange-colored " November 30, 1972" date that marks the victory of the citizen protests and organized efforts of the Anti-Highway Movement in Boston and its surrounding areas.
Meetings against the Master Highway Plan began in Jamaica Plain (JP) in 1967. Because of citizen organization and protest, Boston's Governor Sargent put a moratorium on the construction in 1970. In 1971, the South End component of the larger Anti-Highway movement convinced Mayor Ken White to halt plans for the South End Bypass which led to the subsequent abandonment of the highway project altogether.
Ann Hershfang was an instrumental part of the South End component of the Anti-Highway Movement which acted specifically against the South End Bypass. In the course of my interview with her, we speculated about the positive effects of stopping the highway in Boston. This speculation included how much the Master Highway Plan's completion would have negatively affected property values and taxes in Boston and also the negative environmental impacts of private vs. public transportation state- and nation-wide. For certain, the blocks on both sides of the highway would not have been desirable for purchase so state-wide property values would drop. And imagine the car emissions that would have resulted from the highway, as the Master Highway Plan estimated approximately 40,000 cars per day would have passed through one exit in Roxbury alone. These factors contribute to the value of the citizen protests to the city of Boston.
" It was exhausting and fantastic,and the win was just unbelievable."
-Ann Hershfang, activist in the South End Citizen Protests to I-95 Expansion
Organized groups in the South End, Roxbury and JP were led by section-specific activists that worked together to mobilize citizens, actively protest, gather information, and get people into the statehouse from 1969-1972. In her own words, Ann "organized neighbors, argued and argued and made demonstrations" in the South End and mobilized the League of Women Voters.
Ann was involved in the Anti-Highway movement because of a presentation about the highway proposal at the Harriet Tubman Center by Urban Planning Aid; a federally funded group of urban planners. Depictions of the completed Master Highway Plan's appearance were shown on what she called the Urban Renewal Map. This map showed the location of Hershfang's newly bought house near a white space with a few black lines which would turn into the proposed South End Bypass highway.
With the help of 4 other people, including longtime citizens David Scott and Barry Adams, Ann organized people, literature, and petitions against the highway proposal. Some other young professionals, including Ken Cookmire, who could not be contacted for comment, became deeply involved. "It was so complicated" says Ann.
From Mass Ave to Roxbury Crossing, (including Ruggles), the Roxbury properties that needed to be repossessed for highway development were mostly industrial and commercial although homes still existed and there was a nice bar-type restaurant there where residents could watch TV. This Roxbury land was bought quite early because the industrial and commercial complexes provided much lower resistance than both JP and the South End where resistance to the Highway Plan was much greater because the areas were filled with people's homes.
The South End blocks where the highway would have been were black neighborhoods. The area next to the railroad was undesirable so it was largely settled by underpaid Pullman Porters (the train workers), certainly not the affluent, commerce-driven area seen today. These people, according to Hershfang, were "un-entitled". They weren't organized either, but they put their heads down and resisted. There were large housing projects there so many people would be displaced. JP was heavily populated by the Irish, so due to their involvement in other affairs, they were more politically powerful than the other two sections of the Anti-Highway Movement.
"It was really an issue of movement in city to resist it [the Highway Plan]. But whether the politicians were smart enough to stall or someone wasn't smart enough to get it going, we got it stopped. Our movement was slow-moving also, but it worked! It really worked. And it really shaped my whole life, my whole career, everything." Hershfang says.
Hershfang now has extensive experience in all facets of the transportation business, including serving on the Board of the Massachusetts Port Authority and 10 Years on the Massachusetts Turnpike Highway Board, as well as founding Walk Boston, a non-profit membership organization dedicated to improving walking conditions in cities and towns across Massachusetts. In essence, her entire professional experience stemmed from her involvement in the Anti-Highway Movement. That white line with black dots she once saw at the Harriet Tubman Center changed the course of her life's path, just as her involvement and organization of South End citizen protests as part of the Anti-Highway Movement made it possible for the changed and bettered path of public transportation in Boston.
In the case of Ann, her words were and are a very real and compelling testament to the necessity of a citizen's community participation. Though not carved in stone, her words changed the course of Boston's transportation history and made possible the existence of the Southwest Corridor.
I hope her spirit of activism and community involvement carries throughout the streets of Boston and catches on contagiously-I'll do my best to make that happen.
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