Issue Position: Infrastructure

Issue Position

There exist in Framingham 3 overlapping infrastructure corridors: The railroad right of ways, the MWRA aqueduct system and the road system which also carries the municipal water/sewer and power/telecom systems. Two of these systems are dedicated to a single uses for no good reason; the old rail beds are often not used at all but have the huge potential for being a secondary system for moving people, by bicycle, walking and perhaps by low speed electric trolleys. The MWRA aqueduct lands, currently marked as no trespassing areas could easily be used for walking or jogging paths or even as pathways for children to safely walk to school without affecting their original purpose. The road system needs serious redesign to carry our modern communications and power grid systems while protecting our streams and rivers from toxic runoff. We are using it as we did 100 years ago and it is not working. We need model legislation to repurpose our road system into a safer, ecologically sane, less expensive and more attractive system for personal conveyance and municipal systems. I will advocate for thinking of these infrastructures as public trusts which should be used intelligently for the benefit of the community and not just for some quasi-public authority or private company.

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