A tree protest sprouts success

Boston residents have seen many changes to their neighborhoods — some not always welcome. A plethora of high-end apartments and condos squeezing out affordable properties and other aspects of rapid gentrification have reshaped the urban landscape, often despite protests from community members who are struggling to find the city livable.

But a recent development has shown that you can fight City Hall. Sometimes, you can even win.

That’s the case with plans to revamp Melnea Cass Boulevard in the South End/Roxbury corridor. As the Herald reported, the city planned to add separated bike lanes and raise up some intersections.

And whack 100 trees. Resident groups were riled — the urban canopy provides shade and improves the air quality for the area, and they wanted to keep the trees.

Those of a cynical bent would assume community pleas would fall on deaf ears. But this week the city announced it’s ditching its plans to do away with the Melnea Cass trees, and will figure out a new way to overhaul the boulevard.

“Based on the concerns about the impact of those plans on our shared environmental, social and transportation goals, the City of Boston is announcing the cancellation of the current design for the Boulevard’s reconstruction,” three of Mayor Martin Walsh’s Cabinet members wrote in a letter to community leaders on Thursday.

Good move, and a welcome sign that community members, working together, can make a difference and be heard by those in power.

Here’s hoping this is a sign of more responsiveness to come.