On Oct. 12, 2024, an MBTA bus struck and killed Glen Inghram, of Forest Hills, as he was walking through Washington and Tower Streets.

Jascha Franklin-Hodge, then Chief of Streets, came to the virtual Forest Hills Neighborhood Association (FHNA) meeting on October 20, 2024.

Franklin-Hodge, who lives on Eliot Street, said he wanted to “be here in person” to offer his condolences.

“I appreciate your advocacy,” he said.

He came with a long list of promises: Making pedestrian changes at Tower Street exclusively for pedestrians. Curb extensions on Tower Street. Reconfiguration of the intersection. “Not just paint.”

Crosswalks at the stop line where the buses exit. Ongoing safety signals at the two intersections of the Arborway and South Street. Reduce left-turning vehicle conflicts. “Give pedestrians a head start at every intersection.”

“Like to begin with signal delays.”

“Talking with the T about where the bus exited.”

“Working in the next couple weeks.“

“Safety is a core goal. No compromises.”

… But nothing happened.

Ten months later, Benjamin Siegal of the FHNA, told StreetsBlog Mass on Aug. 14, 2025, “I talked to the mayor about [these promises] at one of her coffee hours. She told us to keep on engaging, keep on making your voices heard. We did that. They ignored us anyway.”

At a city council hearing in transportation on April 22, 2026, City Councilor Ben Weber grew impatient with acting chief of streets Nick Gove who testified he would improve “community engagement and making sure we get the plans right.”

Weber seemed frustrated.

“Glen Inghram was killed crossing a green light,” he said. “What we’re getting is still vague: ‘we need more community process’. This doesn’t fill me with a lot of faith in the process.”

“My constituents want to be able to walk across [Forest Hills] safely. I don’t know what to tell my constituents,” Weber said. “More process. Never going to do anything.”

Apparently sensing the need for some damage control, Mayor Wu notified the FHNA on Friday April 24 that she would join them on their long-planned April 25 Hyde Park Avenue Safety Walk.

“Late breaking news!” Siegal announced on the FHNA list serv. “Mayor Wu is going to join us. All of us have been really disappointed by the lack of any action here.”

More than 60 residents assembled in the lobby of Forest Hills station and for 20 minutes the mayor spoke, but offered nothing as specific as her erstwhile chief of streets offered 18 months earlier.

Instead she apologized for staffing changes and spent more time on her criticism of the Ukraine Way traffic pattern and proposing bike lanes for Hyde Park Avenue than addressing the safety concerns of the bus turn-out opposite Tower Street and the “corduroy” road bed conditions at that intersection.

Almost as a non sequitur, Wu questioned if the [MBTA] parking lot was needed, suggesting housing for the site.

Wu apparently overlooked the fact that across at the Tower Street corner, a six-story, 35-unit apartment building is being reviewed by her Boston Planning Department.

“I want to share a couple of things,” Wu said. “Delays and confusion are very much on me, I take full responsibility.”

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Wu cited staffing changes.

“A full change over all of us. You name it, a wonderful crew who stayed on the full term.”

“Engagement and communication, we’re doing it better and in a different way,” Wu said as deputy director of neighborhood services Cisely Graham held an iPhone recording the remarks.

Graham has also been filling the JP liaison position, vacant for three months, and had previously worked as the Hyde Park liaison.

“Very specific thoughts on this. There’s the station itself, which is the T’s property, and then the other side of the street with crosswalks, which is the city,” Wu said.

Turning radius at the lower busway, the parking lot and Ukraine Way were on Wu’s mind.

“We have to make changes and work with the T around the station. Get together with the T, what we can do together. Intersections and crosswalks.”

Wu was unhappy with Ukraine Way, “its function and purpose,” suggesting changes are needed in the redesign of Ukraine Way.

Wu took questions from the audience and Seigal spoke out.

“You were elected with a mandate. Do something; you’re the only person who can,” he said.

“I hear you,” Wu replied.

Andrea Spence of Tower Street criticized the lack of traffic enforcement in Forest Hills Square.

Wu acknowledged that problem.

“We’re thinking about traffic enforcement,” she said, adding she was interested in what Toronto has done using civilian traffic monitors to help people at intersections. “We’re looking at that,” Wu said.

Wu offered no timetable or specific next steps as the gathering dissolved into individual conversations and the group assembled for a walk through the business district.

The mayor’s office did not respond to The Bulletin’s question about next steps for Forest Hills.

Ben Seigal couldn’t seem to find the beef. “After more than five years[the mayor] still cannot give us a timeline,” he told The Bulletin the next day. “And the suggestions she offered are either things the city cannot implement or distractions.”

“Gesturing at the MBTA, at Ukraine Way, at the [T] parking lot are not substitutes for delivery on a corridor the city has been studying since 2019… slower traffic, real enforcement, bus priority, and safe walking,” Siegal said.