The Brookline Stairway Liberation Front

(edit: Hey, thanks Universal Hub! Welcome, all you new readers.)

“Remember, Remember, the 26th of April.” Or something.

Let me start this story with a little background. I live in Brookline, a peaceful town right on the border of Boston. We have a bit of a feisty history. While neighboring towns like Brighton and Allston were being snatched up by Boston in its attempt to hold a larger footprint in the 1800s, we refused to merge, and thus we remain like a jagged needle cutting between Jamaica Plain and Allston/Brighton boroughs in Boston, stretching all the way to Kenmore Square. Our allegiance with Norfolk County is also somewhat peculiar, as we are totally surrounded by towns from Middlesex and Suffolk counties, and the nearest Norfolk town is several miles south. We’re a proud bunch, consisting largely of Russian and Orthodox Jewish families. It’s a very nice town to move into.

There are two things we won’t cater to, however: guff from our neighbors in Boston, or any inconvenience from the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. The Brookline/MBTA relationship is especially dry – I once heard a man scoff at a T conductor “Transit Authority my foot!” and heard him reply “Jeeezus, another Brookline customer.” Two lines of the T stretch into our space: the D and C branches of the Green Line. I happen to live right at the Brandon Hall stop on the C Branch, where for years an old rusted staircase was the only access from the outbound side of Beacon Street to the T, as a hill divides the street in a rather awkward median. It looked like this:

(Image courtesy this amazing MBTA database of photos.)

Now, late last fall they tore up the ol’ rusty staircase and started making a new, concrete one. They decided to leave it under construction for the entire winter and only finished it a few weeks ago. For those living on the outbound side of Beacon Street (where this photo was taken), this meant that you couldn’t cross Beacon Street from Marion all the way to Washington Square For those of you not in the area, that means this:

Those red X’s are the three stairways that are closed by the construction. Now, as you can see from the scale on the left, people need to walk no more than 1/5th of a mile, but for those of us who are used to walking 1/100th of a mile, it’s a bit of a pain. Naturally, we were all happy to see some brand new stairs be put in the other week, and we waited patiently as they were roped off to dry. Some days later, however, the tape was taken down, but traffic cones were placed in front of the stairwell, with a handmade sign taped to the front declaring “The Stairway is Closed:”

Now, one can assume there is a reason for this (my guess is the issue of safety what with no handrails and all). Still, if there’s one thing us Brooklinians won’t take, it’s some annoying MBTA traffic cone telling us when we can and cannot use a stairway. So, one bold Saturday, the people took action. A anonymous group in the grand tradition of radical patriots claimed the stairwell in the name of the people. May their famous proclamation live with the likes of Luther, Fawkes, and Jefferson. Here is the sign they left for all to see:

I write this post in memorandum of the brave efforts of the Brookline Stairway Liberation Front. As of early this morning the sign was removed by our omnipresent anonymous enemy.

I for one will continue to use the stairway as an act of defiance.