Liz Haney
Development Committee Chair
Rides: Red Line | Greenbush & Fitchburg Lines
I'm a transit enthusiast who in my professional life has worked in affordable housing, nonprofits and technology, as well as the intersection of the three for my career. At Transit Matters I'm a co-chair of the development committee.
I've been enthusiastic about transit ever since I can remember. Even though I grew up in Central MA, my mom and I used to journey into Downtown Boston after being dropped off at the forsaken end of the B Line when we'd catch a ride into Boston with my dad. In high school, the Fitchburg Line was our ticket to another world, to adventure, to freedom. When I did the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in the Cascade Mountains I used the regional transit bus to commute for an hour and a half--traveling from my Central WA city through industrial scale apple orchards into snow capped peaks of a tourist focused, Christmas themed town. My understanding of the importance of transit evolved in each of these experiences, from transit as unlocking adventure to transit as a key to survival, for access, to get to work or to get to help--something I learned myself but also saw through the experiences of the clients we worked with at my nonprofit. Through years of work with community land trusts across the country, I also understand how the uneven availability of adequate transit affects our housing markets. As new areas gain transit service, communities see their housing market evolve to be marketable to higher income, supposedly more desirable renters, tenants and buyers. I keep both these understandings at the center of my work at Transit Matters and in my other work with Somerville Community Land Trust. I have written about transit oriented development zoning and equity strategies for MassINC, as well as equitable commuter rail fare policies. I have also worked as a project manager on several affordable TOD developments along the Fairmount Line and dabble in graphic design as a tool to show the life altering potential of having a functioning transit system.
