Author: Matt Lawlor

WalkUP Roslindale Snow Clearance Collaborative – Version 8.4 – Once more, with feeling!

Matt Lawlor
The Boston Yeti is back at it again! Photo Credit: abc15 (27 Jan 2015).

Yesterday’s snowfall was a mere echo of the storm we had at the end of last month, but it still yielded about 5.3 inches (13.5 cm), well over our 4 inch (10 cm) benchmark. Once again, each of us knows our part of the neighborhood and where the worst pinch points are likely to be found after a snowfall, so let’s take care of our neighbors by digging them out and providing safe paths of travel wherever and whenever we can. As always, anyone sending in a before-and-after set of pictures of a curb ramp, bus stop, or stretch of sidewalk or bike lane they’ve cleared will receive a $10 reward as a small expression of our deepest thanks (note: spending of these funds at a neighborhood business of your choice strongly encouraged) (those pix can be sent to matthew.j.lawlor@gmail.com). Be well everyone!

WalkUP Roslindale Snow Clearance Collaborative – Version 8.3 – This is NOT a drill…

Matt Lawlor
The Boston Yeti is back at it again! Photo Credit: abc15 (27 Jan 2015).

Looking ahead to when this storm moves on sometime tomorrow, we can see that it’s already a legitimately major winter weather event with snowfall already more than double our benchmark of 4″ (10 cm), with a solid week of forecasted cold temperatures to follow that will ensure that whatever we ultimately get does not melt quickly. The last several winters have been relatively warm and snow-free, so snow clearance efforts have understandably been at a much lower level of intensity and participation. In contrast, we here at WURSCC HQ are afraid this storm will require all of us to dig deep (pun intended!) and do everything we can to target extra snow clearance efforts at key locations all across Roslindale. Each of us knows our part of the neighborhood and where the worst pinch points are likely to be found after a major snowfall, so once the snow lets up, let’s take care of our neighbors by digging them out and providing safe paths of travel wherever and whenever we can. Once we’re through the initial effort, it is likely that we will post again regarding major projects that might require more of a group effort. As always, anyone sending in a before-and-after set of pictures of a curb ramp, bus stop, or stretch of sidewalk or bike lane they’ve cleared will receive a $10 reward as a small expression of our deepest thanks (note: spending of these funds at a neighborhood business of your choice strongly encouraged). Be well everyone!

 

WalkUP Roslindale Snow Clearance Collaborative – Version 8.2 – Get on out there and clear!

Matt Lawlor

Here at WURSCC Headquarters in Roslindale, the measurement on the back deck rail is showing over 5″ of the fluffy stuff, so we’re calling out the forces once again to join our old friend the Boston Yeti in shoveling out curb cuts, bus stops, and critical sidewalk segments so our neighbors of all ages and abilities can get around safely and comfortably. Looks like it will be colder the next couple of days before a brief warm up on Thursday and then some very cold weather this weekend. As usual, those participating by snapping a before and after sequence of the cleared area and sending it along to matthew.j.lawlor@gmail.com will earn a $10 reward from WUR and our eternal thanks. Be careful out there!

10 years in and still at it!

Matt Lawlor

Yes, you read that right. WalkUP Roslindale are now in our eleventh year of pro-housing and pro-walk, -bike, and -transit advocacy. We announced this venture, which started out as the brainchild of Adam Kessel and your correspondent, in the spring of 2015 with the following post:

Welcome to WalkUP Rosindale!

We were simply a group of neighbors who came together to try to make, as Adam indicated, Roslindale “the most walkable neighborhood in all of Boston.” We’ve come quite a way over the last decade, including formally incorporating as a non-profit in the fall of 2021 and availing ourselves of the generous fiscal sponsorship of Roslindale Village Main Street in the process. According to wordpress, we’ve also posted a total of 517 times in those years (this post will be #518). The principal through-lines have, at least from my perspective, been (1) comment letters on new projects in the neighborhood, whether focused on new development or supportive infrastructure for walking, cycling, and transit; (2) support for planning, seeking funding, and implementing the Roslindale Gateway Path with collaborative support from, among many others, the Arnold Arboretum, the Arboretum Park Conservancy, the Solomon Foundation, LivableStreets Alliance, and the City of Boston’s Parks and Transportation Departments; and (3) supporting the fundamental restructuring of the city’s regulatory system to get way from our decades-old, painfully slow development by variance approach to reform-based, pro-housing approaches such as Squares + Streets. Herewith the first or most emblematic post from this website in each of those areas:

Housing Needed!

Rozzie Bike Corral Meeting June 10

First Official WalkUP Roslindale Comment Letter – 100 Weld Street

Boston’s Vision Zero Action Plan and sharing the Arboretum Gateway Path with our friends at LivableStreets’ 10-in-1 Street Talk

WalkUP Comment Letter on Washington Street Bus Lane

Open Letter in Support of Squares + Streets

We’re grateful for all of the support we’ve seen along the way so far and look forward to the next decade of advocating for a better, safer, and more welcoming neighborhood!

 

WalkUP Roslindale’s Year in Review – 2025

Matt Lawlor

As adverse as the national level conditions have been generally for anyone concerned about the direction of this country and its respect for fundamental human rights as well as the causes we hold dear in particular, we here at WalkUP Roslindale can still look back at this year at the local level as one of significant accomplishment and enduring improvement for our pro-housing and pro-walk, -bike, -transit advocacy. It is always difficult to choose what seems most significant in a given period of time, but it seems to us that three things stand out most prominently for 2025:

First, the Boston Zoning Commission’s adoption in February of the Squares + Streets zoning text and map amendments for Roslindale Square and its key radiating corridors. This was a very big deal on several levels, but perhaps none more so than the elimination of off-street parking minimums coupled with increases in as-of-right housing density within the rezoned area. The following selected posts from this website give a sense of the process as we experienced it starting in 2024 and running into 2025 as well as the first proposed project within the heart of the square that makes full use of the flexibility allowed by the new zoning – a decidedly admirable and eminently supportable all-affordable, mixed-use, senior-focused development that requires no zoning relief whatsoever:

Squares + Streets – Small Area Planning Process – Roslindale Square Kickoff Open House

Three thoughts on Squares + Streets as we get underway in Roslindale Square

Guest Post – Nate Stell from AHMA: Rezone the residential streets too!

First in an occasional series – Elvira Mora of WUR and AHMA

Open Letter in Support of Squares + Streets

Squares + Streets – ADOPTED!

First Fruits for Squares + Streets…4259-4267 Washington Street come on down!

Second, the 3-part walk audit series sponsored by a micro-grant from the American Association of Retired Persons that looked at the Washington Street corridor between the square and Archdale Road, Roslindale Square’s key intersections, and Cummins Highway’s mid-section around the new Sarah Roberts School. We very much appreciated AARP’s support and were truly stunned at the speed with which the Washington Street audit’s focus on a half-dozen badly heaved sidewalks near street trees resulted in virtually immediate fixes, resulting in vastly improved walkability and rollability in this key neighborhood corridor. Post links:

Join the Walk Audit Series!

From Audit to Action: Washington St. Sidewalks Repaired!

Walk Audit Community Meeting

Third, and finally, we were tremendously gratified to see Phase 1 of the Roslindale Gateway Path open between the end of the Blackwell Path at South Street and Arboretum Road. Roslindale Gateway Path is and has been a foundational, long-term advocacy project for us, so this first phase is welcome and we are eager both to solidify the major improvement in Arnold Arboretum access it represents and to push even harder to get the rest of the path implemented so we can truly open this amazing public resource to much more of Roslindale. Post link: Soft Open Alert – Roslindale Gateway Path Phase 1!

And so, that’s what we think of when we think of this past year’s efforts. And now it’s on to 2026…

WalkUP Roslindale Snow Clearance Collaborative – Version 8.1 – Assemble & Clear!

Matt Lawlor

It’s a close call on whether we have hit the standard 4″ (10 cm) threshold, but we will err on the side of safety and assistance, so we are joining our old friend the Boston Yeti and calling our forces out onto the snowy streets this morning to clear bus stops and curb ramps for our neighbors. As has been the case, if you send us pix of the clearing you’ve done, we will send you back $10 as a reward (which we hope you will spend at one of our neighborhood’s many and varied merchants) and heartfelt thank you. Send pix to matthew.j.lawlor@gmail.com. Thanks!!!

4259-4267 Washington Street (Phase 1 of the former BofA site redevelopment) – Public Meeting on Monday, 20 October 2025

Matt Lawlor

Just a quick note for interested and supportive folks in our neighborhood that the Small Project Review public meeting on the BBH proposal has been announced by the Boston Planning Department for Monday, 20 October 2025, at 6 pm. It will be over zoom and you can get information on the meeting and register HERE. Hope to see you there to support this ground-floor commercial and certificated, fast-track all-affordable residential proposal that represents the first phase of B’nai B’rith Housing’s redevelopment of the former Bank of America site and requires no zoning relief.

Boston Climate Action Plan – Draft 2 – Feedback period ends 30 September 2025 (this Tuesday)!

Matt Lawlor

The second draft of the city’s Climate Action Plan 2025 – which will guide the City through the next 5 years of efforts to reduce our collective carbon emissions and keep on track to hit a 50% drop from 2005 levels for community-wide emissions by 2030 (60% for municipal government emissions) and full carbon neutrality at a 100% drop from those levels by 2050 – has been available since the summer and the feedback period closes on this coming Tuesday, 30 September 2025. You can offer feedback by going HERE. The final draft is expected to be released in early 2026 with adoption/effectiveness in the spring. So, check out the plan and offer your feedback on what our city will be doing in the next 5 years to combat what is and remains the environmental challenge on this and at least the next several generations.

Given our twin focuses of being pro-housing and pro-walk, -bike, and -transit, we would direct your attention to the building and transportation sections of the plan.

For example, in the building section, steps such as streamlining permitting for de-carbonization of buildings, supporting housing stability through building upgrades, and support for affordable housing decarbonization are among what the city is considering.

For transportation, the actions include steps such a broad range of transit improvements (including Zone 1A regional rail citywide), encouraging safer walking and biking through infrastructure improvements that improve connections and reducing motor vehicle driving speeding (continuing the city’s mission toward Vision Zero by 2030), and planning for density and zoning for walkability (we have some recent experience on that here in Roslindale). Have at it by Tuesday!

First fruits for Squares & Streets in Roslindale look really promising – 4259-4267 Washington Street come on down!

Matt Lawlor

The first project to file for approval under the new zoning is the mixed-use ground-floor commercial/all-affordable residential phase 1 of B’nai B’rith Housing’s 2-phase redevelopment of the former Bank of America property (which now houses only the thrift shop) and parking area wrapping around from Corinth along Cohasset to Washington. [SEE the image above, pulled from the Small Project Review filing.] If you take a look at the small project review filing at the link, you’ll note that WalkUP Roslindale have already indicated our support, but we will definitely also comment now that the filing has been made, we can see the design and program in more detail, and there’s a comment period extending to October 17, 2025. We’ll post that comment letter when we submit it. We also encourage everyone reading this to weigh in with your thoughts on the project and its merits. For those of us at WUR who have advocated for many years for a better set of zoning requirements that would enable, in a streamlined fashion, development that we want to see, the fact that this project appears to require no variances is a massive bit of validation. More to come!

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!