Walk Audit this Saturday 10:30am – Washington St from Basile to Archdale

Ben Bruno

📅 Saturday, August 23rd
🕥 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Our first in a series of three walk audits is this Saturday – please join us! We’ll be meeting at the corner of South St and Taft Hill Terrace and departing shortly after 10:30am. We’ll walk north to Washington Street and begin in earnest at Basile St, cross to the other side of Washington St at Healy Field and continue to Archdale Rd. We’ll observe and document how safe, accessible, and welcoming our streets and sidewalks are for people of all ages and abilities. Together, we’ll identify opportunities for improvement.

Walk Audit #1 Map - Washington St - route from mtg point to Basile to Archdale

Please note that it will be farmer’s market day, so the area is sure to be busy. Consider walking/biking/taking the bus if possible and look for our sign at the meeting spot! If you are running late, we’ll be moving slow so you can catch up with us along the route (click the route map above to view an enlarged image).

👉 RSVP here to let us know if you’ll be joining us – while not required, this will help us prepare enough materials for everyone and know to expect you. Hope you can join us!

Join the Walk Audit Series!

Ben Bruno

We’re excited to host three walk audits in the coming weeks and months, supported by an AARP Community Challenge microgrant. These events are open to all, and we’d love your input.

A walk audit is a community-led stroll through a neighborhood to observe and document how safe, accessible, and welcoming our streets and sidewalks are for people of all ages and abilities. Together, we’ll identify opportunities for improvement—from crosswalk visibility to sidewalk conditions to traffic calming—and gather insights that can inform future advocacy and planning like the Roslindale Transportation Action Plan.

 

Upcoming Walk Audits

#1: Washington St Corridor (Adams Park to Archdale Rd)
📅 Saturday, August 23rd
🕥 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

 

#2: Adams Park + Roslindale Square Area
📅 Wednesday, September 17th
🕞 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM

 

#3: Cummins Highway (Adams Park to Sarah Roberts Elementary School)
📅 Wednesday, October 15th
🕞 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM

 

👉 RSVP here to let us know which walk audits you plan to join. While RSVPs aren’t required, they’ll help us prepare enough materials for everyone.

Hope you can join us!

 

This initiative is made possible by the AARP Community Challenge, a grant program that funds quick-action projects to help communities become more livable for people of all ages. It’s part of AARP’s nationwide Livable Communities initiative. Learn more at AARP.org/Livable.

Comment Letter on 1200 Centre Street

Ben Bruno

We sent in our letter (PDF, DOC) to express our strong support for the Hebrew SeniorLife (HSL) project at 1200 Centre Street that will create a 78-unit affordable senior housing community.

Arboretum Block Party this Saturday 7/19 11am-2pm!

Ben Bruno

Flyer with details about the Arboretum Rd Block Party on July 19, 2025Join the Arnold Arboretum for a Block Party on Arboretum Road this Saturday, July 19 from 11am-2pm to celebrate the new entrance to the Arboretum (Phase 1 of the Roslindale Gateway Path)! Free pizza, face painting, and more!

View the flyer in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole.

Please stop by our community table to chat with us about the Roslindale Gateway Path, pedestrian improvements we’re advocating for in and around the Arboretum, and more.

Hope to see you there!

 

New City Initiative Alert – “Spaces for You”

Matt Lawlor
Visual images of use of public spaces in Boston.
Source: Boston Planning Department.

In line with the way the Wu Administration has been seeking to emphasize systemic planning instead of project-based development review, they’re now out with a new initiative on public spaces they’re calling “Spaces for You” and which they describe at a very high level as follows:

Spaces For You is a collaborative and proactive initiative by the City of Boston to co-create, enhance, and celebrate public outdoor spaces that foster joy, belonging, and well-being for all residents. It seeks to bridge the gap between community needs and city resources, knitting together public and privately generated open spaces to create vibrant social places for all.

The project page can be found here and note that there’s a brief survey in which they’re seeking some initial feedback. Go ahead and let them know what you think!

Hebrew Senior Life – Centre/Walter Proposed Project – Article 80 Public Meeting – 6 pm on 23 July 2025

Matt Lawlor

With the Project Notification Form (PNF) for Article 80/Large Project Review of Hebrew Senior Life’s proposed all-affordable senior residential development at Centre/Walter with the Boston Planning Department having been filed on 25 June, we are now within a public comment period for the project that will end on 28 July. As noted in the headline, a community meeting for the project has been scheduled for 6 pm on 23 July via Zoom. Information on signing up for the meeting, as well as as on the project (including the PNF itself), can be found below, which has been cribbed from the Planning Department’s recent notification email.

Very briefly described, Hebrew Senior Life are proposing to fill in what is now a surface parking lot at the corner of Centre and Walter streets on their Roslindale campus with a 78-unit all deeply affordable senior residential building, addressing a critical need for this kind of housing within our overall regional housing emergency. In addition, neighborhood gateway corners are always critical and, as can be seen below, the proposed 6-story building will do an impressive job of holding down this particular gateway corner and complimenting the imminent safety improvements to this intersection that the neighborhood have long sought. Among the proposal’s many benefits, the fact that it is going to fill in what is now a surface parking lot is truly music to our ears. The WalkUP Roslindale Board are strongly supportive of the proposal and we intend to submit a support letter before the close of the comment period that will go into more detail about our specific thinking. We encourage those who support this kind of neighborhood improvement addressing the ongoing housing emergency to attend the meeting, learn more about the project, and, if you come away convinced of its value, to submit a comment in support of the project. We hope to see you there!

THE BELOW IS CUT AND PASTED FROM A PLANNING DEPARTMENT NOTIFICATION EMAIL.

1200 Centre Street

1200 Centre Street

Public Meeting | Virtual Meeting

Wednesday, July 23, 2025 | 06:00 PM – 08:00 PM

This is a public meeting for the proposed 1200 Centre Street Project, located in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the overall project and the potential impacts. The meeting will include a presentation followed by questions and comments from the public.

How to Participate

Please register for the meeting using the following Zoom link: bosplans.org/1200CentreStreet

Meeting ID: 161 991 5474
Toll-Free Call-in Number: 833.568.8864

District 5 City Council Candidate Forum – 8 July 2025 – 7 pm – Via Zoom

Matt Lawlor

We’re happy to be among the co-sponsors for the upcoming District 5 City Council Candidates Forum to be held a week from tomorrow via zoom. The registration link can be found HERE. We’d be delighted if you could attend. Thanks!

Speed vs. fatalities

Comment letter on Expanding Safety Surge Program

walkup

This week, the Boston City Council held a hearing on Docket No. 0266 – Pedestrian Safety, Traffic Calming, and Expanding the Safety Surge Program. We emphatically support greater investment in pedestrian safety, which also benefits cyclists and motor vehicle drivers. Our comments for the hearing are below and also available as a PDF as submitted.

Read More

Roslindale Squares & Streets – Boston Zoning Commission Hearing on Deck – Wednesday, 21 May 2025, at 9:00 am – ADOPTED! UPDATE BELOW

Matt Lawlor

Roslindale Square - Squares + Streets | Bostonplans.org

The Boston Zoning Commission is set to hold their public hearing starting at about 9 am on this coming Wednesday, 21 May 2025, on the zoning text and map amendments developed through the small area planning process here in Roslindale Square over the course of the last year-plus.

LINK HERE: BZC agenda and information on how to register.

We encourage supporters of the proposed zoning changes to attend and offer testimony at the hearing, which will be over zoom, if at all possible. Whether you can make it or not, we also encourage you to submit supportive written comments to the Boston Zoning Commission’s Secretary, Jeffrey Hampton, at their official email address of zoningcommission@boston.gov. We’re going to submit our WalkUP Roslindale comment letter around the time of the BPDA Board vote last month. Hope to see many supporters on hand on Wednesday morning and here’s a LINK to a helpful tool that was put together for the BPDA Board meeting, but is also very helpful for preparing for the hearing and submitting your written support in advance!

UPDATE:

As first reported by Universal Hub (“Denser zoning approved for Roslindale Square”), the Roslindale Squares & Streets zoning amendments – both text and map – were adopted by the Boston Zoning Commission at their hearing this past Wednesday morning by a unanimous vote of 11 in favor, 0 against. As we have said many times, deep thanks go to the mayor and her administration, especially the folks at the Boston Planning Department, who worked tirelessly over the last 15 months to solicit feedback, develop the small area plan, and then craft zoning amendments to meet this moment in our neighborhood and city. Now we will all get to see what kinds of improvements and projects the new zoning will engender. Onward!

Welcome Home, Boston Phase 3 in Roslindale/Hyde Park

Ben Bruno

The Welcome Home, Boston initiative seeks to create new homes for first-time homebuyers on city-owned land. Phase 3 will involve the vacant city-owned land at 917 American Legion Hwy and Wilmot St. The neighborhood-specific workshop for Roslindale/Hyde Park is this Tuesday May 20, 6-7:30pm (virtual).