In late July, throughout a summer time heatwave, an overhead electrical wire in Charlestown caught fireplace resulting from overload. The wire indifferent and ignited a parked automotive. If the wind had blown just a bit in another way — towards considered one of our wood rowhouses — this is able to be a really completely different dialog.
It’s straightforward to see why. Simply search for. Dozens of wires grasp from each pole — electrical, telecom, even deserted landlines —bundled collectively, snaking and sagging from road to house. Many are coated in plastic or rubber. When ignited, they’ll act like a wick towards a home. They’re not simply ugly. They’re flammable. And in a neighborhood filled with century-old wood houses, they pose a critical threat. That is Public Security 101.
Since then, one thing uncommon has occurred in Charlestown: coordinated consideration. Simply two days after the fireplace, Josh Kraft walked the streets with residents to grasp the issue firsthand. This week, I walked a senior advisor to Mayor Michelle Wu down Russell Avenue, declaring each house the place a Boston Public College pupil lives — together with my very own. That’s only a portion of the youngsters on these blocks. Charlestown has the very best focus of younger youngsters in your complete Metropolis of Boston. These are households who’ve chosen to remain and put money into town. The danger isn’t theoretical.
Within the week because the fireplace, we’ve walked the affected streets with Eversource to demand solutions and subsequent steps. We didn’t come alone. Metropolis Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata and State Consultant Dan Ryan introduced their groups. The town despatched representatives. Collectively, they stood with Charlestown neighbors.
For his or her half, Eversource introduced engineers, neighborhood reps — and media relations. That’s not routine. That’s legal responsibility mitigation.
Everyone seems to be listening.
However consideration doesn’t clear up infrastructure. And far of Charlestown’s utility system — strung overhead by slim streets and hooked up to getting old wood poles — isn’t constructed to deal with what’s coming. Each season brings failures: blown transformers, snapped traces, prolonged outages. The poles lean. The wires sag. We dwell with the implications.
In the meantime, progress is accelerating. New housing models are below building. Single-family houses are transformed into multi-unit buildings. Main redevelopment is reshaping the neighborhood’s footprint. And simply throughout the river in Everett, a 25,000-seat stadium seems inevitable. When it opens, Charlestown will take in the brunt of game-day visitors — on roads, rails, and footpaths. Our infrastructure will really feel it whether or not it’s prepared or not.
The ability grid is already strained. Eversource plans to construct a brand new substation in Charlestown by 2034 — not as a routine improve, however as a result of the present system gained’t be capable of sustain. Substations don’t seem on planning paperwork until they’re obligatory.
For the primary time in a very long time, Charlestown has each urgency and alternative. The mayor is engaged. Eversource is within the room. A public listening to is being scheduled. Stadium negotiations are underway. Now’s a second to make actual choices.
And undergrounding utilities needs to be considered one of them.
If town expects this neighborhood to soak up extra demand —extra growth, extra individuals, extra stress — then the infrastructure must mirror that. Fashionable neighborhoods shouldn’t depend on an internet of dwell wires inches above porches and sidewalks. And when a neighborhood has already seen the chance play out — actually in flames — it shouldn’t be requested to attend and hope it doesn’t occur once more.
We’re not naïve. Undergrounding gained’t be straightforward. It gained’t be fast. And it gained’t be low-cost. However it’s been executed right here in Boston. A few of the metropolis’s different neighborhoods have lengthy had buried utilities, typically resulting from historic preservation efforts or piecemeal capital tasks. There’s no excellent precedent or timeline — but it surely’s not unprecedented. It’s time to review what labored, what didn’t, and the right way to apply that perception equitably throughout Boston.
What we’re asking for isn’t a clean test. It’s a critical plan. One which treats this as a phased, once-in-a-generation funding in public security and reliability. One that appears at cost-sharing throughout companions. One which aligns with capital tasks already in movement, just like the Rutherford Avenue redesign and the Bunker Hill housing rebuild. One which takes benefit of the second we’re in — not an ideal second, however higher than any we’ve had earlier than.
Charlestown may function a pilot for modernizing Boston’s overhead grid. Begin with essentially the most at-risk blocks. Plan for the remainder. Have interaction the utilities, town, and sure, the stadium builders. And start to take the wires down.
That is Boston — town that buried a freeway. We will determine the right way to bury a couple of miles of utility cable.
Shannon Felton Spence lives in Charlestown together with her husband and two younger sons. She is a public affairs skilled and a frequent commentator on politics and coverage.
