Boston Gathers Community Feedback on Blue Hill Avenue Protected Busway as Mayor Wu and Council Advance Housing Measures

City and MBTA Convene Neighborhood Hearings on Blue Hill Avenue Busway

BOSTON, Massachusetts — Engaging residents across Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury in generational street safety deliberations, the City of Boston and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) held high-profile community forums in late September 2026 regarding the Blue Hill Avenue Transportation Action Plan. Led by Boston Chief of Streets and MBTA General Manager Phil Eng, the neighborhood meetings gathered vital public input on the revised, block-by-block engineering design for the three-mile arterial corridor stretching from Mattapan Square to Grove Hall.

The signature feature of the corridor redesign is a dedicated, center-running protected busway designed to dramatically increase service frequency and reliability for the Route 28 bus, which carries over 14,000 daily riders. Civil plans also incorporate pedestrian refuge islands, high-visibility crosswalks, modernized synchronized traffic signals, street lighting, and expanded green canopy buffers to curb extreme heat island effects.

City Council Evaluates 80% CPA Housing Share and Tax Incentive Frameworks

At Boston City Hall, the Boston City Council took decisive action on municipal housing affordability, advancing a resolution introduced by Councilor Brian Worrell to allocate up to 80 percent of Boston's Community Preservation Act (CPA) revenues directly into affordable housing production and preservation. The measure reflects overwhelming community demand to stabilize working families against escalating rents across the urban core.

Concurrently, Mayor Michelle Wu held policy discussions regarding targeted municipal tax abatements and development fee deferrals for shovel-ready residential projects. The incentive bridge aims to jumpstart construction on more than 1,400 stalled housing units across Boston that were impacted by high commercial interest rates and construction material costs.

Strengthening Neighborhood Connectivity and Digital Equity

The City Council also authorized vital federal and philanthropic grants to deploy high-speed municipal broadband across Boston Housing Authority (BHA) campuses, expanding digital educational equity for thousands of low-income youth. City leadership reaffirmed that pairing rapid bus transit on Blue Hill Avenue with aggressive affordable housing investments ensures Boston's diverse neighborhoods grow equitably for future generations.