Students voice concerns over Hub housing, transportation in forum

Housing and transportation rank among the biggest problems for
students in Boston, students said in a forum on Tuesday.
The Boston University Student Union and the Roosevelt Institute
collaborated to the open forum, titled “Our Future Boston,” where 16
students attended to discuss issues that affect students’ lives in
Boston with a panel of policy experts.
Union’s Director of City Affairs James Boggie said he hoped the
evening would encourage students to discuss issues that affect their
lifestyle in Boston including housing, employment and transportation.
“Neither the Roosevelt Institute nor the Student Union was happy with
the perennial neglect that college students face in Boston,” Boggie,
who is a College of Arts and Sciences senior, said.
“Every year students face crowded and expensive housing, insufficient
transportation and trouble finding good jobs in the Boston area,” he
said. “Students change every four years, but the issues remain the
same.”
In February, Boggie coordinated with the Roosevelt Institute’s
outreach director Amy Baral to provide BU students with the
opportunity to express the difficulties of city life as a college
student and connect with experts in the community.
For the past two months the two BU groups have been working to create
an open forum to promote their mission of injecting student voices
into Boston government and politics, Boggie said.
“Students here in Boston traditionally don’t vote in local elections
and most of us are out of state so we don’t feel like we can actually
have a say in politics,” Baral said. “It’s a great opportunity for all
students to become more engaged in the policy and politics process of
the city that we’ll all live in for at least four years.”
Erin Trabucco, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce policy advisor,
spoke about the economic benefits of living in Boston.
“We are able to ride on this recession better than other states,”
Trabucco said. “Massachusetts has a lower unemployment rate than the
national rate and focuses heavily on public education and the
healthcare sector which are leading industries that help business
growth.”
CAS senior and Union spokesman Vincent Squillace said he was
interested in the job sector since he will be graduating at the end of
this semester.
“This was really important because it helped me gain more insight into
the start-up of companies and help to gain experience,” Squillace
said.
Terrance Regan, a Metropolitan College professor of city planning and
urban affairs, and Jeremy Mendelson, a Massachusetts Bay
Transportation Authority transit planner, discussed issues related to
public transportation.
Mendelson said the MBTA is working to invest in newer technology for
better real-time data on both trains and buses.
In response to student complaints regarding the Green Line’s hours,
Mendelson said that in 2003, the MBTA experimented with extending the
train’s hours later into the night. The extended hours proved not cost
effective, landing the MBTA in deeper debt.
Barry Bluestone, a Northeastern University professor of economics,
said he has been teaching for 40 years and has watched the constant
changes in costs for both home ownership and rent.
Because rent is a large concern for graduate students living
off-campus, Bluestone proposed the idea of building a multi-university
student village. This complex would consist of two commercial floors,
penthouses and affordable smaller spaces that would take the pressure
off the market.
“Students are our bread and butter in Boston,” Bluestone said. “If we
continue the problem of affordability with housing, then if will be
harder to keep students here.”
CAS sophomore Alissa Williams said she attended the forum primarily to
learn about housing since she had just had her on-campus housing
appointment.
“This is my first event and I found it really interesting especially
regarding the housing part,” Williams said. “When hearing about this
huge complex, I wished it actually really existed.’