The Purple Line Has Some Local Environmentalists Rethinking Opposition

As the Purple Line nears completion, some local environmentalists are looking back at the opposition to it with a different perspective.

The 16-mile light line, which will run through Riverdale Park and College Park when it opens next year, was delayed by multiple lawsuits over environmental concerns.

One lawsuit alone pushed the opening back a year and added $215 million to its cost.

Josh Tulkin, head of the Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club, said in a recent interview with WAMU that he supports the Purple Line because it will help take cars off the road, despite some of the downsides.

“To stop harmful sprawl you can’t just oppose highway expansion,” he said.

The debate is not just local. Over the last few years, environmentalists across the country have begun debating the limits of what is sometimes called NIMBYism (for Not In My Backyard), with some in the “abundance” movement even embracing the label YIMBY as a contrast.

When it opens next year, the Purple Line will be one of the biggest public transit projects of the 2020s, only coming behind expansions in Los Angeles and New York.

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