While Many Spoke Out About Train Horns, Some Raged

WAKEFIELD, MA — The Broadway Crossing crisis had people talking. On Facebook groups, to local TV stations, to elected officials.

Much of it was above board: People complaining about bellowing train horns robbing them of their ability to sleep through the night. Griping about the lack of public process for such an impactful decision. But, still, above board.

It being 2021, of course, the same could not be said for all of the discourse. While inflammatory social media posts from keyboard warriors is one thing, some people were going straight to the source.

"I want to make it clear that I am not changing my vote based on some of the borderline threatening emails we've got, some of the snarky emails we gotten with regard to 'I'll stand outside your house. I'll call you at five in the morning. Why don't you use the audio as an alarm on your phone?'" Councilor Ann Santos said at Monday night's meeting.

"I just want to make it clear that that doesn't work with me," Santos continued. "It doesn't work to infer that we didn't come to this decision thoughtfully so for those people, I am not changing my vote for you, I'm changing my vote because the horns are much louder than I thought they were, they are more consistent than I believed."

Other councilors too heard from constituents unhappy with the Sept. 13 vote to reopen Broadway Crossing after a year of it being closed — a boost for local traffic, but a nightmare for people in honking distance of the thunderous horns. Just like those horns, phone calls were coming at all hours of the day.

"People were rightfully angry," Councilor Mehreen Butt said told Patch. "I live across from the Greenwood Train Station and I was surprised at the loudness and lateness of the horns. I got many emails and messages about the horns. I had constituents repeatedly calling me throughout the day, including at 5:40 a.m. and 11:42 p.m. That's never happened before.

There were still productive discussions had with residents, even those critical of Town Council's decisions.

"There were some people who emailed ... and reached out who were angry and frustrated," Santos said. "I wrote back to them and they were very gracious — they were still frustrated but they were very gracious and understanding what kind of decision we had."

Officials understood what they were dealing with. This wasn't an idealogical or political disagreement — it was more tangible than that.

"Thank you to everyone who reached out," Councilor Julie Smith-Galvin posted in a statement. "Most did so in a thoughtful and respec[t]ful manner offering heartfelt stories of the impact the horns were having to their quality of life and offering ideas for reasonable compromises."

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Wakefield Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.

See the full meeting on WCAT here.