This coming Saturday, June 22, 2024, at 1pm, the Longfellow Area Neighborhood Association and the Roslindale Wetlands Task Force are hosting Celebrating New Beginnings for 104-108 Walter Street with the grand opening of the new Walter Street Path to the Roslindale Wetlands Urban Wild area and its ecological restoration along with the start of the renovation/construction phase creating four units of affordable home ownership with Habitat for Humanity. We supported this project, which advances equity as well as climate resiliency, and encourage other supporters to attend this opening event. There will be fun, snacks, wetlands walks, info tables, and of course, a ribbon-cutting.
We sometimes have the opportunity to write about actual newsy items happening around our neighborhood and today is such a day as we have 3 good ones for everyone:
Sweeties has landed!
We were all sad to see Stephanie Ortiz move out of the area and Jimmie’s exit the square’s retail scene, but our sadness is now somewhat lessened by the arrival of their successors at 46 Corinth Street – Sweeties and their new “delightfully social” ice cream/fruit mix-ins concept. They’ve soft opened in the last few days. Go on down and give them a try. You won’t be disappointed!
Rozzidents for More Rozzidents warms our hearts
As part of the pro-housing movement ourselves, we are greatly encouraged by the emergence of “Rozzidents for More Rozzidents” as part of the advocacy ecosystem here in Roslindale. On their facebook page, they describe themselves as “A group advocating for secure, abundant, and affordable housing in Roslindale, Boston, and beyond.” We couldn’t agree more with these sentiments and their buttons and stickers are supercool.
We’re tabling! This Saturday – 8 June 2024! At the Farmers Market!
That’s right. Come find us anytime between 9:00 am and 1:30 pm this Saturday in Adams Park (we think; either there or Birch Plaza). We’ll be there with our table, banner, street chalk, and goodies, ready to talk about our mission, activities, and what’s next. Hope to see you there!
We’ve just had an informative zoning session, anchored by a really useful zoning primer presentation, and now we’re on to a visioning workshop. Information pulled from the BPDA’s recent newsletter email directly below. Attendance is encouraged if you can make it!
The BPDA is hosting an in-person visioning session to collaborate with the community on generating ideas for potential planning and zoning recommendations for the Roslindale Square Squares + Streets Plan. This session will include a summary of existing conditions analysis, feedback received to-date and community visions for different topic areas, as well as hands-on activities to contribute your ideas for potential recommendations.
This one snuck up on us, but very much worth attending to connect with the Mayor and City staff and our neighbors. Here’s the official write-up from the city’s website:
NEIGHBORHOOD COFFEE HOUR – ROSLINDALE
Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Parks and Recreation Department host the 2024 Neighborhood Coffee Hour Series in local parks citywide from April 22 to June 26.
Mayor Wu’s Neighborhood Coffee Hours are a unique opportunity to speak directly with the Mayor and staff from City departments about open space and their neighborhoods. Dunkin’ will be on-site to fuel the local community with freshly brewed Iced Coffee and Donuts. Dunkin’ will brew up even more fun with gift card giveaways. Residents at each event will also be eligible to win a raffle prize from Dunkin’. In addition, each family in attendance will receive a free flowering plant provided by the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, while supplies last. Fresh fruit will be provided by Star Market. Additional support by City Express.
For more information and updates on possible weather cancellations, please contact the Boston Parks and Recreation Department at 617-635-4505, on our social channels @bostonparksdept on X, Facebook, and Instagram, or by visiting the Parks Department website.
Roslindale Square Cultural Assets, Transportation, and Public Realm ‘Walkshop‘
01:00 PM – 04:00 PM, LOCATION: Adams Park, Roslindale Square
More information on these events as well as sign-up links can be found at the BPDA’s location-specific webpage for Roslindale Squares + Streets HERE. We hope you’ll attend some or all of them so that you can be part of the conversation. Thanks!
From the most recent email communication circulated by BPDA on the meeting schedule for Squares + Streets in Roslindale:
La agencia de planificación y desarrollo de Boston organizará una reunión híbrida de Plazas + Calles en español para revisar los objetivos del proyecto, el cronograma del proceso de planificación y participación, y resaltar las oportunidades para participar. Se proporcionarán servicios de traducción para inglés y criollo haitiano. Se ofrecerán refrigerios ligeros y cuidado de niños por orden de llegada.
The BPDA will be hosting a hybrid Spanish language Squares + Streets meeting to review the project goals, the timeline of the planning and engagement process, and highlight opportunities to be involved.
Translation services for English and Haitian Creole will be provided. Light refreshments and childcare will be offered on a first-come, first-serve basis.
NOTE: This meeting will replace the previously scheduled zoning workshop on this date. The BPDA will be leading the first zoning workshop after the proposed Squares + Streets zoning districts are approved by the Zoning Commission on April 17th. This vote will allow the proposed 6 zoning districts to be put into the zoning code as options to be mapped at a later date during the Roslindale Square Squares + Streets engagement process.
Abundant Housing Massachusetts (AHMA) and WalkUP Roslindale (WUR) are officially inviting their members and supporters to meet up at the Substation (Upstairs) (corner of Cummins and Washington in the Square) on the evening of Thursday, 28 March 2024, at 6 pm. Come on down and get to know your fellow pro-housing, pro-walk, -bike, and -transit advocates!
We’d like to take this opportunity to promote the annual “Empty Bowls” event, this Sunday, March 24, from 3pm-7pm at the Roslindale Substation. All proceeds go to local food banks. Come for live music, friends, delicious soup, and take home a handmade bowl. You can also purchase a craft beer from 67 Degrees Brewing. The Boston Latin School Jazz Combo will begin at 3 pm, Bookmatch Ramblers starting at 4pm, and a classical music jam session hosted by Boston Public Quartet starting at 5 pm. Advance tickets and more details are available at this event page. Please spread the word!
In contrast to the full shutdown back in 2022 that, in hindsight, was sadly much less than met the eye, the MBTA are doing a partial shutdown of the line from Jackson Square to North Station for the next four days – Monday through Thursday, the 18th through the 21st of March 2024. Our friends over at Streetsblog MASS have the details, emphasizing that this is part of the ongoing, largely successful thus far, year-long effort to eliminate all slow zones on the core rail transit system. The major highlights are as follows:
There will be free shuttle bus service that will make stops at all of the stations between Jackson Square and Back Bay, so that riders can take the Commuter Rail toward South Station.
Shuttles will also stop at Copley station so that riders can take the Green Line toward North Station.
The fare gates will be open at both Jackson Square and Back Bay stations, signifying free fare. There will also be free fares at Copley station heading inbound/eastbound.
The Commuter Rail will be free between Forest Hills, Ruggles, Back Bay, and South Station.
Plan extra time in commutes to anticipate longer than normal wait times for trains.
We’ve bolded the free Commuter Rail option because Ruggles is ideally situated right in the middle of the shuttle portion of the closure and it’ll be a free ride from Forest Hills all the way into South Station for the period of the shutdown. That really looks like the best overall alternative transit-based travel option. We also want to note that Boston Bikes have been leading bike commuting convoys on the Mondays of this month, starting at 8:00 am at Adams Park in Roslindale Square with stops at Green Street (8:20 am) and Jackson Square (8:30 am) before ending at City Hall Plaza. The return trip in the afternoon starts at 5:15 pm from City Hall Plaza and retraces the morning’s inbound route in reverse. So, see you all there at 8:00 am tomorrow at Adams Park and we’ll see if we can get Boston Bikes to sponsor convoys for the following 3 days of the shutdown. Stay tuned! UPDATE: Boston Bikes have agreed to lead the convoy again tomorrow, Tuesday the 19th, but that will be it for this week.
The BPDA is hosting an open house to officially kick off the 6-9 month planning and engagement process for the Roslindale Square Squares + Streets plan! At this event, community members can learn more about the Squares + Streets planning & zoning processes while helping us understand their priorities, history, and hopes for Roslindale Square.
Childcare, translation services in Haitian Creole and Spanish, and light refreshments will be provided for meeting attendees. Please note that on-site childcare will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis with limited capacity.
Pre-registration is encouraged (especially important if weather causes this in-person event to be shifted to zoom since the link will be provided to registered attendees).
We encourage attendance by anyone interested in making Roslindale Square a more welcoming, connected, and active place while helping to combat the housing crisis in our neighborhood, city, and region. We hope to see you there!
This coming Saturday, June 22, 2024, at 1pm, the Longfellow Area Neighborhood Association and the Roslindale Wetlands Task Force are hosting Celebrating New Beginnings for 104-108 Walter Street with the grand opening of the new Walter Street Path to the Roslindale Wetlands Urban Wild area and its ecological restoration along with the start of the renovation/construction phase creating four units of affordable home ownership with Habitat for Humanity. We supported this project, which advances equity as well as climate resiliency, and encourage other supporters to attend this opening event. There will be fun, snacks, wetlands walks, info tables, and of course, a ribbon-cutting.
