In late July, during a summer heatwave, an overhead electrical wire in Charlestown caught fire due to overload. The wire detached and ignited a parked car. If the wind had blown just a little differently — toward one of our wooden rowhouses — this would be a very different conversation.
It’s easy to see why. Just look up. Dozens of wires hang from every pole — electrical, telecom, even abandoned landlines —bundled together, snaking and sagging from street to home. Many are coated in plastic or rubber. When ignited, they can act like a wick toward a house. They’re not just unsightly. They’re flammable. And in a neighborhood full of century-old wooden homes, they pose a serious risk. This is Public Safety 101.
Since then, something rare has happened in Charlestown: coordinated attention. Just two days after the fire, Josh Kraft walked the streets with residents to understand the problem firsthand. This week, I walked a senior advisor to Mayor Michelle Wu down Russell Street, pointing out every home where a Boston Public School student lives — including my own. That’s just a portion of the children on these blocks. Charlestown has the highest concentration of young kids in the entire City of Boston. These are families who’ve chosen to stay and invest in the city. The risk isn’t theoretical.
In the week since the fire, we’ve walked the affected streets with Eversource to demand answers and next steps. We didn’t come alone. City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata and State Representative Dan Ryan brought their teams. The city sent representatives. Together, they stood with Charlestown neighbors.
For their part, Eversource brought engineers, community reps — and media relations. That’s not routine. That’s liability mitigation.
Everyone is listening.
But attention doesn’t solve infrastructure. And much of Charlestown’s utility system — strung overhead through narrow streets and attached to aging wooden poles — isn’t built to handle what’s coming. Every season brings failures: blown transformers, snapped lines, extended outages. The poles lean. The wires sag. We live with the consequences.
Meanwhile, growth is accelerating. New housing units are under construction. Single-family homes are converted into multi-unit buildings. Major redevelopment is reshaping the neighborhood’s footprint. And just across the river in Everett, a 25,000-seat stadium appears inevitable. When it opens, Charlestown will absorb the brunt of game-day traffic — on roads, rails, and footpaths. Our infrastructure will feel it whether it’s ready or not.
The power grid is already strained. Eversource plans to build a new substation in Charlestown by 2034 — not as a routine upgrade, but because the current system won’t be able to keep up. Substations don’t appear on planning documents unless they’re necessary.
For the first time in a long time, Charlestown has both urgency and opportunity. The mayor is engaged. Eversource is in the room. A public hearing is being scheduled. Stadium negotiations are underway. immediately is a moment to make real decisions.
And undergrounding utilities should be one of them.
If the city expects this neighborhood to absorb more demand —more development, more people, more pressure — then the infrastructure needs to reflect that. Modern neighborhoods shouldn’t rely on a web of live wires inches above porches and sidewalks. And when a neighborhood has already seen the risk play out — literally in flames — it shouldn’t be asked to wait and hope it doesn’t happen again.
We’re not naïve. Undergrounding won’t be easy. It won’t be quick. And it won’t be budget-friendly. But it’s been done here in Boston. Some of the city’s other neighborhoods have long had buried utilities, often due to historical preservation efforts or piecemeal capital projects. There’s no perfect precedent or timeline — but it’s not unheard of. It’s time to study what worked, what didn’t, and how to apply that insight equitably across Boston.
What we’re asking for isn’t a blank check. It’s a serious plan. One that treats this as a phased, once-in-a-generation investment in public safety and reliability. One that looks at cost-sharing across partners. One that aligns with capital projects already in motion, like the Rutherford Avenue redesign and the Bunker Hill housing rebuild. One that takes advantage of the moment we’re in — not a perfect moment, but better than any we’ve had before.
Charlestown could serve as a pilot for modernizing Boston’s overhead grid. Start with the most at-risk blocks. Plan for the rest. Engage the utilities, the city, and yes, the stadium developers. And begin to take the wires down.
This is Boston — the city that buried a freeway. We can figure out how to bury a few miles of utility cable.
Shannon Felton Spence lives in Charlestown with her husband and two young sons. She is a public affairs professional and a frequent commentator on politics and policy.
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