Public Pathway Not A Benefit To All Lynnfield Residents

A Letter to the Editor from Robert Breslow:

Dear Fellow Community Members,

Recently a pro trail supporter Axel Wirth wrote a letter to the editor encouraging Lynnfield residents to support the rail trail public pathway as their civic duty owed to the community. I ask that you consider another perspective of the Lynnfield community and support a no vote on this public pathway.

I was just thinking:
Is there any chance the protected environment in Reedy Meadow will be unscathed by a public path running through it?

** Is it an omen that dog mess is a major challenge for these public paths?

** Kids start marsh fires. Will there be more or less meadow fires with a public path running through it? Riddle: if a fire starts at the public path in the middle of the meadow and burns in the direction of the wind where will the flame line be when the fire department arrives? How far can a brush fire truck shoot its water? How windy do you think an open marsh areamight be?

** If I accidently drop my granola bar wrapper on the path and the wind blows it into the marsh how will I get in out of the marsh? How will anyone get it? Is wading into the marsh also an acceptable use? How much trash will there be in the marsh after 5 years? 10 years?

**Does anyone really care about the blue-spotted salamanders that live near/on the trail?

** Who are these people who each spring walk by my yard to count the number of rusty winged blackbirds in the meadow? Why do they care? When asked if a public path running through the meadow might disrupt the migration patterns of these endangered Rusty’s one bird counter told me the town should closed down the Reedy Meadow golf course. So what about the public path?

** Will people really begin to exercise because they have one more public path available to them? People start exercising when it becomes important enough to them. Wasn’tit this way for you? There’s an inexhaustible supply of heartwarming stories of the health challenges people have overcome when exercise became important to them.

** Shouldn’t we be exercising already? If the public path is constructed, I promise to start exercising then.

** Speaking of exercise here’s a math exercise: If I live 2 miles from the trail (like the Friends of Lynnfield Rail Trail spokesperson does) and the trail provides a ¼ mile off road path to school (middle and high) how much more time will a child be riding their bike on the “dangerous streets” than on the public path? What is the math formula from your property?

** How far does one need to live from the public path to want to drive to the path? How many people live east of route 1? If I put my bike in my carcouldn’t I simply drive to nearby existing public paths without impacting others in my community?

** Why do people run in the street and into traffic? I have heard why but just can’t seem to appreciate these reasons. You are not safer. Please use the many existing public paths (sidewalks) in town, you are the reason we have them.

** Ever wonder about the trilogy of a crime – it places a victim, a willing offender and an opportunity in the same place at the same time.

** How many community members will ride their bike to Wakefield and hop on the commuter train to go to work? This is the hope the state has when it offers “golden tickets” from chapter 90 i.e. taxpayer’s money for public paths.

**I wonder what will the new speed limit be on Summer Street and where will it begin?

Axel wrote “We, as the citizens of Lynnfield, form a community that shares its values and supports each other…. We form a community where we should accept that at times, what is to the benefit of the larger public requires compromise by others.”

Even if you have checked all the boxes of safety, taxes, traffic, parking and environmental impact I ask that you consider the influence a public path will have on a few hundred of your fellow community members’ homes. Proponents have convinced themselves that having a public path in the abutters backyards is not that big of a deal and that we, as abutters, should, as Axel says, “compromise” and be more community minded. I doubt they would feel this way if the public path affected the quality of life in their own homes.

For those of you who support this proposal I hope that you have taken the time to see, firsthand, how this under-surveilled public path will infringe on the properties owned by other community members as it cuts its way through Lynnfield. If you have walked the tracks and determined that the imposition on our properties is one that you feel we should accept, or maybe even an imposition that you would accept for yourself if you lived where we do, then so be it.

In a past Letter to the Editor resident Alan Dresios wrote one of the basic attitudes in our Lynnfield community has often encompassed the majority respecting the impacts that projects would have upon their fellow citizens. Alan provided a list of projects used as examples of this community attribute. Please help add to this list and as Axel says “support each other” by voting against the path. The affected group is not an insignificant sized group as compared to a typical park or school’s impact on a neighborhood due to the “linear” design of this path. I would also ask you to consider that having a public path in ones backyard is a bit unique compared to most other impacts on neighborhoods involving other town projects. Communities and community leaders boast when they can, from a political standpoint, support the minority. Supporting the minority is often a measurement of the quality of a community.

Speaking for my family, having an under-surveilled public pathway through our backyard will dramatically lower the quality of life in our home. The impact will not only devalue our property but we will need to be perpetually vigilant. How would you feel if this were your property? I find it conflicting that the Friends of the Lynnfield Rail Trail are completely apathetic to abutters yet spout ostensibly unbalanced community values. I, too, am conflicted but I can honestly say and unequivocally commit that if you lived where I do, I would support your right to maintain the quality of life in your home and not support this proposal.

I therefore ask you to please carefully consider the impact your vote will have on many of your fellow community members for simply adding one more place to run, roll, walk or stroll. I respectfully ask you to vote NO and to support the community attributes that Axel and Alan have identified as sharing values and supporting each other.

Respectfully, Bob Breslow