There will be much ground to over between now and the close of the comment period for Neighborhood Housing Zoning on October 31 – getting the mapping right will be a particularly involved exercise – but the expertise and sensitivity with which the Planning Department are going about this long, long, long overdue overhaul is commendable. This is an opportunity we will want to seize upon. The STORY MAP is excellent, you can very easily check the proposed zoning for your place, and individual feedback can be provided HERE. Go let the city know what you think (we hope you’ll say you like it)!
Author: Matt Lawlor
Neighborhood Housing Zoning has landed – upcoming engagement meetings for Roslindale scheduled – Monday (virtual) and Thursday (in-person)!
The Boston Planning Department released the initial round of neighborhood housing zoning changes for portions of the residential areas of Hyde Park, Roslindale, and West Roxbury. The initial public meeting for Roslindale will be virtual and is to be held tomorrow night, 27 July 2026, at 6 pm. You can register in advance for this session. There will also be an in-person engagement session starting at 5:30 pm at the Roslindale BPL branch starting at 5:30 pm on Thursday, 30 July 2026.
Briefly stated, we expect to broadly support these revisions to our neighborhood because of their potential to provide greater flexibility and potential to meet the ongoing housing affordability emergency in our city, region, and commonwealth. As the planning department’s landing page for the initiative summarizes:
Overview
The Neighborhood Housing Zoning Initiative proposes updates to Boston’s residential zoning rules to allow homeowners to more easily make changes to their properties. Most of the existing housing in our city was constructed before current zoning existed, so most of the homes we all live in would not be legal to build today. This means that homeowners trying to make small, sensible updates to properties like adding a porch or a wheelchair ramp, require special permission from the Zoning Board of Appeal.
New residential zoning will set clear, straightforward rules that better align with how our neighborhoods look today, making it easier for homeowners to renovate, put on additions, and adapt their properties over time.
This initiative is beginning in Hyde Park, Roslindale, and West Roxbury. Later phases will reach other neighborhoods.
What will the updated zoning do?
The updated zoning will make it easier to:
Add a porch or portico
Finish and expand an attic with dormers to add more liveable space
Build a detached Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) in a rear yard
Add more units within an existing building
Reconfigure and expand rooms – like kitchens, home offices, or bedrooms – to suit homeowners’ needs
Add a ramp to make a property more accessible
The draft zoning also creates clear, predictable rules. It establishes limits on building height and lot coverage, and introduces requirements for yard space so that the standards for any project are clear and the same for everyone on the block, rather than settled case-by-case with the Zoning Board of Appeal.
Residents will still need standard building permits, but far fewer projects will require zoning relief, saving time and money.
For those keeping score at home, one particularly exciting aspect of the new zoning is that it will very largely treat the existing built fabric of our neighborhood as conforming. Finally. I never thought I’d live to see the day when my own home, built in 1908 on a classic 4400 SF lot size common throughout the neighborhood, would be fully legal, but here we are!
Regional remembrance for Louisa and urgent call to action set – Thursday, 16 July 2026, at 5:30 pm – Boston City Hall Plaza
Reposted from the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition website:
JULY 16, 2026: A Vigil Honoring the Life and Impact of Louisa Gag – and a Call to Action
Join the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition for a vigil honoring the life of Louisa Gag and calling for immediate, urgent action to create safer streets for all.
Hear from those who worked and partnered with Louisa about her profound impact as a transportation leader and cherished colleague. Then join us in demanding changes to help prevent further deaths from traffic violence.
DATE: Thursday, July 16, 2026
TIME: Gather at 5:30 p.m.; speaking program starts at 6:00 p.m.
WHERE: City Hall Plaza, 1 City Hall Square, Boston, MA 02203
If possible, please wear yellow in support of Vision Zero.
BIKE CONVOYS: Groups across the region are planning bike convoys to the vigil. Join us and Rozzie Bikes to ride to this event. We will leave from Adams Park at 5:00.
Contact maha@livablestreets.info with any questions about the event.
| Visit a page about Louisa on the LivableStreets website for more information as well as photos.
Donations in her honor are being collected here. (When making the donation, you will be given the option to check a box to ensure it is earmarked for Louisa). |
Roslindale Vigil for Louisa – 12 July 2026 – 4 pm – Adams Park, Roslindale Square
We hear that there is planning underway for a city hall plaza memorial event later this coming week, but in the immediate term, tomorrow will be an opportunity for everyone who wants to gather to show their support and love for the Gag family and mourn and celebrate Louisa’s life. As noted above, the event will be held at 4 pm tomorrow in Adams Park in Roslindale Square.
Here’s the event announcement from Roslindale Village Main Street:
Please join us this Sunday at 4pm at Adams Park as we come together to remember and honor Louisa Gag — a beloved Roslindale native and a cherished member of this community. Louisa was thoughtful, warm, and had a wonderful sense of humor. She touched so many lives — as a friend, a neighbor, and someone people simply loved being around. This gathering is a chance for all of us to be together, share memories, and support one another. We’re asking everyone to wear yellow as a symbol of pedestrian and bike safety. This event is held with the blessing of Louisa’s family. All who knew and loved her are welcome.
Louisa Gag
It has now been just over 24 hours since the indicated time of the incident report for the crash that took the life of Louisa Gag. As much as we want to disbelieve it, the painful reality of losing her far too soon and in this manner refuses to go away. Louisa was the daughter of Steve Gag, one of WalkUP Roslindale’s founding steering committee and board members, and Laura Gang. Steve and Laura have been beloved, long-standing pillars of our neighborhood in every sense and our hearts go out to them and their family. To say that this loss hits close to home for the people who have made up our organization for the last decade is an understatement.
Just about everyone on our board knew and appreciated Louisa in one way or another. For those of us who got to know her over an extended period of years and had the very good fortune of spending a bit of time with her, let it be said here that Louisa was the absolute best of us: smart, kind, capable, funny, and immensely patient. She had an abiding, relentless passion for making our city a better and safer place and she was incredibly effective at doing what needed to be done to make that happen. On a highly personal note, I will say that whenever I encountered someone who had met Louisa and spoke glowingly of her and her work, as everyone, without exception, did, I was fond of pausing and noting specifically how immensely proud all of us in Roslindale were of her and how she had turned out. She was simply amazing and we will miss her deeply.
As an organization, we will have more to say and do going forward in the wake of this immense tragedy to honor the friend we mourn and to carry forward the work she was about. But today we will just close by saying that we know her memory will be a blessing to us all. Rest in peace, Louisa.
NOTE: The most complete reporting thus far appeared yesterday in The Boston Globe: Boston transportation planner fatally struck by car near Roxbury Crossing, family says.
Posted at 8:25 am on Friday, 10 July 2026. – Matt Lawlor
And one more thing today on transportation projects in our neighborhood – District 5 City Councilor Pepen Letter
The letter pretty much speaks for itself and puts several points out there demonstrating that we really can’t wait any longer for progress on major projects in our neighborhood:
Concerns mounting at the Boston Globe (!) on where the city is (or isn’t) heading on street safety – with feedback solicited…
Monday really was quite the day in the regional paper of record when it comes to safety on this city’s streets:
To begin with, the Boston Globe’s editorial board took formal notice of what has definitely been apparent for some time – the entire street safety agenda in the city of Boston was put on hold over a year ago and, despite some highly isolated movement (on Rutherford Avenue, for example and for very specific reasons), there is no indication on the ground that that hold is being lifted: Wu backed off bike lanes last year. Now what?
And then, the Globe’s deputy editor Alan Wirzbicki drove the point home and actually openly solicited direct email feedback to alan.wirzbicki@globe.com on whether the mayor “overcorrected” on the deep freeze of the last year: Wu isn’t the bike lane mayor anymore, but what about the rest of the safe streets agenda?
Far be it from us to nod our heads with the Globe too often, but they have put their finger on a real concern about what is, or more plainly, isn’t happening in this city to make our streets safer for everyone who needs or wants to use them. We accordingly encourage our supporters to reach out to Alan and give him your feedback. It should of course surprise no one, but your correspondent is firmly in the “overcorrected” camp and hopes fervently that the freeze thaws quickly this spring. The best time to make our streets safer and more welcoming to everyone was yesterday; the next best time is today, and to answer Alan briefly here, I would absolutely expect speed humps to be first on the list of what starts up again. I too want one speed hump (two really) on my short block in Roslindale and know that many, many of my neighbors feel the same. I mean, in all candor, what’s the substantive issue on speed humps? They’re inexpensive, easily installed, don’t remove any parking spaces, and are simply very, very effective at getting drivers to avoid dangerous speeding, which is the absolute key to safety for everyone outside a motor vehicle, as you can see from the above chart – slow the vehicles down, and everybody has a much higher chance of survival no matter what happens. Speaking only for myself, I’d really like my city to take demonstrably effective steps to improve everyone’s chances of getting around and getting home every day safely. If we can’t find a way to implement speed humps again, one has to wonder how we can expect to get anything done.
Arboretum Road Cleanup – 14 March 2026 – 10 am to 12 pm
We here at WalkUP Roslindale remain delighted at last fall’s completion and opening of the initial phase of the Roslindale Gateway Path from the end of the Blackwell Path to the new Arboretum Road entrance. We would like to start a tradition of spring and fall cleanups and so are kicking off with a community cleanup next Saturday, 14 March 2026, from 10 am to 12 pm. We will meet at the entrance. Please bring yourself, comfortable clothes that can get messy, gloves, and whatever cleanup implement works best for you. We will have water, light snacks, and some extra implements (likely a couple of brooms/rakes and a shovel) on hand. Hope to see you then and there!
City Council hearing on snow clearance tomorrow – 2 pm Boston City Hall – Tuesday, 3 March 2026
Tomorrow afternoon, 3rd March 2026, at 2:00 pm, the City Council’s Committee on Public Services will hold a hearing in the Iannella Chamber, 5th Floor, Boston City Hall, Boston, Massachusetts 02201, on snow removal relief, the creation of a snow corps, and the purchasing of snow melters. Information on attending the hearing and testifying in person as well as submitting written testimony can be found HERE. It’s been the snowiest winter in a decade and we’ve all seen how difficult the snowfall and the largely auto-focused clearance thereafter has made getting around on foot, by bike, and on transit that much harder than it normally is. Our snow clearance collaborative has tried to shine an active, lead-by-example light on the issues, but tomorrow’s offers a chance to tell the city what you really think. Don’t pass up the chance to talk about your experience over the last month-plus of blocked intersection/crosswalk ramps and plowed in bus stop and bike lanes.
WalkUP Roslindale Snow Clearance Collaborative, Version 8.6 – Another big one!
We’re looking at a snowfall total on the order of at least 18″ (45.7 cm) from this significant northeaster, which is several multiples over our 4″ (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, once it is safe to do 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!