To the editor,

With Lexington in compliance with state housing law, we now turn to the task of absorbing MBTA multi-family development into the fabric of our community. Our Planning Board will be playing a role that’s more critical than ever. I’ve looked hard at this year’s Planning Board candidates, and I’m particularly impressed with Kunal Botla. I will be voting for him in the Monday, March 2, town election. 

Public transportation will be a key part of the Planning Board’s interests. Despite his relative youth, Kunal has already made an impact on Lexington’s public transportation sector. When he was in high school, he commuted regularly by bus from Lexington to Cambridge. Most of us might have spent that commuting time reading a book or scrolling our phones — but not Kunal. Curious about who that bus line was serving, he observed how many people were getting on and off the bus and where. He delved into bus schedules and realized that service had never resumed its pre-Covid levels. He saw a race to the bottom: fewer, less-convenient service hours were leading to lower ridership, negatively impacting people who depended on public transportation for their livelihoods and education. At the age of 17, he decided to do something about it.

Dissatisfied with bus proposals under consideration at the time, he spearheaded a petition asking the MBTA to pay attention to both bus routing and to increasing bus frequency to every 30 minutes. More than two hundred Lexington residents signed the petition, which Kunal submitted to the MBTA in July of 2022. The MBTA brought expanded bus service to Lexington last summer — and that expansion included bus service every 30 minutes at peak travel times.

As Lexington welcomes its new neighbors moving into MBTA multi-family housing, we need a Planning Board that will bring fresh vision, creativity, and common sense not only to transportation, but also to economic development and housing design. Kunal has the intelligence, compassion, and know-how to help our community navigate a future for a Lexington that invites and supports those already living here as well as the new neighbors who will be joining us. Let’s elect Kunal Botla to the Planning Board on Monday, March 2.

Jeanne Krieger, Select Board Member 1998-2010

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