Author: walkup

Roslindale Village (Walkable) Film Series Profiled by RVMS

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Check out this Roslindale Village Main Street interview with Kevin Tobin, film curator for the Roslindale Village (Walkable) Film Series:

How did the Roslindale Village (Walkable) Film Series come to be and what is your particular role in it?

Steve Gag — what a guy. I had hiked with him and my father last summer and had expressed interest in trying to create a Roslindale film society, or something similar. Meanwhile, Adam Kessel and Matt Lawlor of WalkUP-Roslindale, had spoken with Steve about doing some sort of “walkable” or walking-inspired series of films. Steve and Laura Gang had hosted films at their home in the past, and, being such amazing organizers and community members, put the two ideas together and started talking to groups and business owners to try and make it happen. And a fine job they have both done! My particular role has been curation (coming up with movies and networking with the filmmakers/producers for access), poster design, and I will be moderating the series. Andy Cross, an old friend, has done a great work inventing surreal sketches and art for each individual film.

We still have four Boston-themed films remaining in our pilot run; RSVP if you’re interested, and stay tuned for more news this summer.

Design Charrette for Sumner School Walkway Improvements – March 13, 2016 at 2pm, Roslindale House

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Sumner Walkway
Sumner Walkway

Our good friends and allies at Roslindale Wants to Play have partnered with the Charles Sumner School’s Parent Council to redesign the school’s rear walkway, which provides access to the school from Cummins Highway. This area has the potential to be a vibrant, fun, and educational space that better connects the Sumner School (between Basile Street and Cummins Highway) to the Roslindale community. To this end, they are hosting a design charrette[1]
on March 13, 2016 from 2:00 – 3:30 PM at Roslindale House, 120 Poplar Street. At the meeting, designers will look for ideas for the best play elements for this space and lead the group through fun design exercises aimed at all ages. Children are encouraged to attend! Facebook users can RSVP here.

WalkUP Roslindale encourages everyone to attend this event to provide ideas and feedback and also demonstrate support for community efforts to improve walkable spaces.

Footnotes    (↵ returns to text)

  1. A “charrette” is a meeting for community stakeholders to come together to imagine new solutions and resolve any conflicts. This can be one of the most powerful and effective techniques for launching walkability improvements.↵

Taft Hill Project Approved by Zoning Board of Appeal

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20 Taft Hill Rendering
20 Taft Hill Rendering
We’ve discussed the proposed Taft Hill development several times here and we support the project. This afternoon, the proposal, which requires numerous zoning variances (among others, the project provides 1.0 rather than the required 2.0 parking spaces per unit), was heard by the Boston Zoning Board of Appeal and unanimously approved. Several WalkUP Roslindale members spoke in favor of the project, as did representatives from the offices of the Mayor, City Councillor Michelle Wu, and City Councillor Tim McCarthy. No one at the hearing opposed the project. We expect the developer to break ground this spring.

Please Fill Out a Gateway Path Survey

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Update 4/16/16: the survey is now over; keep an eye on http://walkuproslindale.org/gateway for news.

In advance of the upcoming visioning session for the Arboretum Gateway Path, we and our partners in the Tufts Urban Environmental Policy Planning program are conducting a survey to better understand the needs of the community. Please complete the survey and spread the word to your neighbors!

Also hot off the presses, check out these posters for the upcoming event:

Roslindale Village Walkable Film Series – The Friends of Eddie Coyle – Thursday, March 17, 2016 @ 6:30pm

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Eddie Coyle Film Logo
Friends of Eddie Coyle (Original Art by Andy Cross)

We’re now ready for the next installment in The Roslindale Village (Walkable) Film Series. Next up is The Friends of Eddie Coyle,  a classic Boston gangster film starring Robert Mitchum and based on a novel by George V. Higgins. The movie was shot throughout the Boston area, including in Dedham, Cambridge, Milton, Quincy, Sharon, Somerville, Malden, and Weymouth.

Check out the poster, original art again courtesy of Andy Cross.

The free screening will be at a private residence (details provided upon RSVP) on Thursday, March 17, at 6:30pm. Runtime is about an hour forty minutes.

This is a very small screening facility; if all spaces fill up, check back for any cancellations. Questions or comments to film@nullwalkuproslindale.org.

Arboretum Gateway Path Visioning Session March 30, 2016 at 6:30pm

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Momentum is growing for the Arboretum Gateway Path, which would create a new entrance to the Arboretum near the Roslindale Square Commuter Rail station, creating access to the park right from the business district (and avoiding the steep incline for the existing entrances), and also providing a shorter “straight shot” multi-use path from Roslindale Square to Forest Hills. To learn more and contribute your own ideas, please join us for a community visioning workshop organized by our community partners at Tufts University, 6:30pm, Wednesday, March 30th at the Roslindale Community Center (6 Cummins Highway). RSVP and more details here.

Arboretum Gateway Path Alternatives
Arboretum Gateway Path Alternatives

Update 3/7/16 – hot off the presses, check out these posters for this event:

Traffic Calming on American Legion Highway in the News

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2016-02-24 Roslindale Bulletin Neighbors say comments needed to calm trafficKudos to the Mount Hope Mount Canterbury Neighborhood Association, Rick Yoder, Lisa Beatman, and the Roslindale Bulletin (especially Jeff Sullivan) for keeping the need for traffic calming in Eastern Roslindale, particularly along American Legion Highway, on the front burner. Check out the latest piece in the Bulletin, emphasizing the neighborhood group’s efforts to catalog pedestrian-safety issues and get “on the map” for Vision Zero.

Roslindale Village Walkable Film Series – Holding Ground – Thursday, March 3, 2016 @ 6:30pm

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Holding Ground - The Rebirth of Dudley Street (Original Art by Andy Cross)
Holding Ground – The Rebirth of Dudley Street (Original Art by Andy Cross)

The Roslindale Village (Walkable) Film Series has received an immediate enthusiastic response from the community and we are especially excited to kick it off with Holding Ground, the Rebirth of Dudley Street, a film by Leah Mahan and Mark Lipman. Check out this fantastic poster for the event, original art courtesy of Andy Cross.

Note (updated 2/25/16):  we are unfortunately out of space for this event! You can still RSVP and if we get any cancellations, we will contact you by email to let you know about the additional availability. Looks like there is plenty of demand for a community film screening space in Roslindale village!

The free screening will be at a private residence (details provided on RSVP) on Thursday, March 3, at 6:30pm. Runtime is about an hour. Holding Ground is a cautionary tale of urban policies gone wrong in Roxbury, 1985 and a message of hope for all American cities.

There are only a handful of spaces left at this screening facility. Once we have completely run out of space, we’ll close down the RSVP page, but in the meantime get in your last RSVPs now!

Mother and Baby Struck by Car in Roxbury

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WalkBoston recently sounded the alarm that serious (and fatal) pedestrian incidents are fast becoming a near-weekly occurrence in Boston. The latest such event occurred last night in Roxbury, where a mother and her baby were struck by a car at the intersection of Humboldt Ave and Humboldt Court. Our local CBS affiliate reports on two sisters coming to a quick rescue and performing CPR on the 5-month-old victim. We have scant information on details of the crash and the fate of the pedestrians remains unknown. We can only hope they both survive and make a full recovery. Update 6pm: we were devastated to learn via the Boston Globe that the baby has died.

That said, we would urge the media not just to cover the “human-interest” aspect of these tragic incidents, but also highlight potential root causes so that we don’t have to keep re-living the same sad story. Poor infrastructure and bad design decisions in particular are recurring themes–for far too long, Boston’s professional traffic engineers have prioritized fast and unimpeded traffic flow over other needs, including the very real risks to human lives of car-centric streets. Again, we don’t know the details of this incident, but a quick look at the intersection where the crash occurred shows (1) a long stretch of street with no crosswalks [despite a bus stop across the street]; (2) extremely wide travel lanes; (3) in a densely-settled area, a certain recipe for predictable harm to pedestrians. Once ago, it’s time to move into action on Vision Zero.

Humboldt Ave and Humboldt Court
Intersection of Humboldt Ave and Humboldt Court in Roxbury
See also this update on Universal Hub.

Further update: The Boston Globe article also suggests speed was a factor, again this is not surprising given the wide lanes:

Residents on Friday said the car that allegedly hit the woman and her child was speeding: one woman who declined to give her name said she heard it whipping down the street before she heard the crash.

Additional details from WHDH.

Announcing the Roslindale Village Walkable Film Series

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We are excited to announce a new WalkUP Rozzie initiative: the Roslindale Village (Walkable) Film Series! Because we fervently believe everyone should be able to experience great movies in a community setting accessible by foot or bicycle. Sadly, the historic Rialto Theatre disappeared decades ago, leaving only the adjacent Rialto Barbership behind, but we are committed to revival. We’ve got six films lined up to start, to be projected for free screenings in a variety of private and public locations. Ultimately, we aim to identify a permanent comfortable space for high quality community film watching and discussion, but there’s no time like the present to get the ball (or film) rolling. We’ll always have the latest updates at http://walkuproslindale.org/film.

Our private-residence film screening locations have limited seating, so we ask that you RSVP in advance to get the street address. We’ll update the posting for each event if it fills up. RSVPs for the public locations are also appreciated.

Without further ado, here is the initial lineup — click on the entry for more details and to RSVP (links will be updated over time):