'Orange Line Report' Recommends Priorities for MBTA Line

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council Tuesday released a study called the "Orange Line Opportunity Corridor Report."

The report looks at the demographics, economy and infrastructure of the MBTA line, which stretches from Malden, through Somerville, into downtown Boston, Roxbury and Jamaica Plain.

The MBTA is currently building a new Orange Line Station in Somerville's Assembly Square that is expected to open in 2014. It's the fist new MBTA station built since 1987.

The report makes a number of observations and recommendations about the Orange Line. For instance:

• 42 percent of those who live within half a mile of the Orange Line are people of color
• 20 percent of households in the corridor live in poverty
• Development is coming to the corridor, with 7,300 new units of housing and 21,000 new jobs expected by 2020
• The Orange Line has 120 cars that were built between 1979 and 1981

The report calls for investing in the Orange Line's infrastructure, encouraging large-scale land acquisition for development, and mitigating displacement of at-risk residents along the corridor, among other things.

You can see the whole report here.