Lynner putting neighborhood on right side of the tracks

LYNN – On the small, dead-end streets off of South Street, Lisa Wallace is busy getting her neighbors to help her spruce up their neighborhood and focus attention on the abandoned railroad tracks that slash through West Lynn.Wallace said the tracks bisecting Summer Street and running down to the Bennett Street bridge attract drug users and homeless people who sleep under nearby loading docks. She wants the tracks ripped up and the weed-covered right-of-way turned into a well-lit walking path neighbors can enjoy.?It could be something where we walk our dogs or where kids can ride their bikes. Let?s do something that would clean it up,” she said.Wallace lives with her husband, Joe, and sons Drew, 22, and Jaiden, 7, on Neptune Street Court an easy baseball throw from the embankment leading up to the tracks. Since moving two years ago from Saugus, where she grew up and her mother, MaryAnn Bradbury, teaches, Wallace has made the tracks a pet concern along with basement flooding and cracked sidewalks.When Ward 6 City Councilor Peter Capano?s phone rings, it?s frequently Wallace on the other end of the line.?I?m pretty lucky because there?s people like her who step up in every single neighborhood. She really cares about the neighborhood,” Capano said.Capano shares Wallace?s interest in seeing the right-of-way paved and landscaped, adding that the land is owned by the MBTA. Although the agency cleaned the right-of-way, Capano credits neighbors for filling five trash containers following a cleanup of the tracks.?She was absolutely instrumental in making that happen,” Capano said.MBTA spokeswoman Kelly Smith said the agency “is working on” leasing the right-of-way to the city in order to add Lynn to a list of communities, including Revere and Saugus, interested in hosting a Bike to the Sea trail.Joe Wallace said his wife?s interest in helping the neighborhood has made her one of West Lynn?s get-things-done people.?The neighbors are always knocking on the door with questions all the way from getting help with trying to pay a bill to reporting they heard gunshots,” Joe Wallace said.Lisa Wallace said the abandoned tracks have been the scene of at least one violent crime last summer in addition to drug use. “I saved a girl twice after she OD?d,” she said.Lisa Wallace walks up and down South Street and its side streets, coffee cup in hand, talking to neighbors such as Eddie De Gloria, who got help from Wallace in working with National Grid to insulate his home.?When we bought the house, we thought it was in better shape than it is. We were kind of new in the neighborhood,” he said.De Gloria said Lisa Wallace sets an example for neighbors. She, in turn, credits residents living along the tracks with cutting down weeds and clearing out debris.Working with Capano, she brought the Bennett Street bridge to the MBTA?s attention as a source of frequent truck accidents and a potential hazard with a natural gas line running across the bridge. Being a stay-at-home mom has helped her focus on neighborhood needs even as she helps her husband overcome serious health problems that have repeatedly sent him to hospitals.?If she wants it done, she goes and gets it done,” Joe Wallace said.Lisa Wallace said her husband occasionally asks her to pass on a project to another active neighbor. “I say, ?Joe, if we don?t do it, who else will??” she said.She has reached out to West Lynn residents newly arrived from Central America and other parts of the world to see if they need advice on where to turn for home renovation help and to encourage them to participate in city-sponsored safety improvements, including the Lynn Fire Department?s smoke-alarm-upgrade campaign.?Sometimes they come from countries where people are scared of the authorities,” Wallace said.She said she is too outspoken to run for elected office, but she wants to work with local state legislators and North Shore Community College to send 10 neighborhood kids to camp next summer.Wallace said neighborh