Update: The MBTA is constructing a temporary ramp to be completed this week.

Simple problems don't have simple solutions...in fact, the more obvious the solution, the less likely it is to be solved. I'm not talking about technical problems, but community problems--problems that are systemic in nature. Efforts to address one part of the issue upsets an underlying system and things quickly become complicated.

A specific case of this is the situation near where I live, at the Dedham Corporate Center commuter rail stop. This blog post at myDedham is a great illustration of a problem stated, information provided by the town, and the quick exposition of underlying complexities:

For several years now, train riders have been cutting through a chain link fence to reach Rustcraft Road across the tracks from the intended parking area. Promotional materials for the luxury apartments on Rustcraft Rd describe their location as only a "crosswalk away from the Dedham T Station."

There is no crosswalk. What happens every day is that pedestrians pass through a 2-foot wide break in a chain link fence and climb over a dirt embankment down to Rustcraft Road where they dart across to the apartments. It is a ridiculous situation.

For the problem-solver, this is easy. We need to open up the fence, add a sidewalk path from the train platform to the road, put in a crosswalk--ideally with a stop light, and put in sidewalks all along the apartment side of the road. Instead, the MBTA has recently begun to block off that 2-foot wide gap in the fence because they are now concerned about liability. So people just walk down the tracks to where the fence ends and cut through the woods there.

The problem here is not so simple. In technical fields--and in most business situations--we are taught to analyze the problem and find a solution. When emotional issues arise, we are told to "separate the people from the problem." Therein lies the root of why nothing has been done for so many years...

The people are the problem. Apparently, when Dedham Corporate Center was originally developed, the neighborhoods on the Rustcraft Road side were so concerned about traffic from people rushing to the train, that they demanded assurances that there would never be access to the train station from their neighborhoods. Now they are watching the construction of Legacy Place which landlocks them between Route 128/I95, the train tracks, and this new luxury living mall. Their backs are against the wall--quite literally, as the highway department just erected a sound barrier behind their homes.

When I say the people are the problem, I'm not saying that they should shut up and go away. What I am saying is that a series of decisions have been made where clearly the residents were considered an inconvenience and now they have been backed into a corner. There is not much left of a neighborhood--we are talking about 15-20 houses. But it illustrates an unfortunate outcome with "loose ends" manifested in this idiotic train situation.

If we were in China, those homes would have been bulldozed long ago. But this is America and we are supposed to do better by our neighbors than that. But the problem is that I think too often we focus on solving a problem, engineering a solution, creating something new--and disrespecting the community because we have separated the people from the problem. Planners, developers, architects--often yearn to paint a new canvas with their enlightened brushstrokes, then placate the abuttors, the objectors, the irrational folks who don't share their vision of progress.

We see a similar tempest in Westwood. Billions of dollars may (better check the markets today!) be spent to create a mini-city of Westwood Station that will grow the town of Westwood by multiples and secure our economic future...if all goes according to plan. But the project is self-contained. Residents and neighboring towns are concerned about traffic, so millions of dollars are spent to mollify the abutting residents with "traffic calming" measures while neighboring towns are negotiated with and dismissed--resulting in legislative maneuvering and political tricks designed to sabotage the project. When I suggested in a blog post that it would be nice to connect Westwood Station to the neighborhoods...it sounded crazy to the residents who want walls built and assurances that they will not get any spillover traffic...the same pattern repeats. Fundamentally conservative residents don't want their lives to change and don't want new development in their backyards because it will be bad.

So our elected officials play a tactical game of problem-solving. What do we need to do to make these people shut up or get around them? If traffic is the problem, OK, let's fix that and move on. But I believe the problem is always the people...it is about engaging the people in a respectful dialog and working with them--not just to mitigate damages, but to adapt the community to new opportunities. Maybe I am naive and optimistic, but I think many of these problems grow out of a failure of vision and the mistaken belief that if we just fix a few specific problems, then we can get on with things and the objectors will go away.

I think the opportunity to develop on a massive scale is almost a gift for the community...most of the time, there is no money to do anything...adding sidewalks, just fixing the potholes is a challenge. So when a developer shows up ready to spend millions of dollars we should figure out how to make that investment benefit our community--not just cover mitigation of the presumed damages that come from growth. Can we trust the developer? Probably not. But just like politics, you've got to be in the game from the beginning...we need to be constructively engaged from planning, through build-out, management, and even the end of life of these projects.

It may be too much to ask of our government. I don't know what the structure would be but it seems to me we need to find a way to connect our communities with development not just negotiate a set of costs and benefits for a project. Circumstances change constantly...so what seemed a good idea 10 years ago might not be so good now. But when we break the bonds of community, good luck getting any cooperation down the road when the residents have watched their neighborhood being turned into a ghetto by the policies of the town and commercial motivations of the developer.