Category: Government

A brief recap of the abutters’ meeting on 874-878 South Street (South/Walter)

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We brought everyone’s attention to this meeting about a week ago and gave our thoughts about ways the revised 9-unit, 18-space proposal could be improved, based largely on the reaction from the group at the LANA meeting earlier in the month. Seems like the development team was listening.

And now to our report, very briefly: This was, all in all, a downright cordial meeting, well run by Dan Murphy from the Mayor’s ONS. I would say that the overall sense in the room was:

  • that 9 residential units was more or less going to work for this location,
  • that at 13 the number of parking spaces seemed tight to some and more than ample to others (your correspondent felt it was more than necessary, didn’t take full advantage of the location’s close proximity to the Commuter Rail/Roslindale Square/Washington Street Bus Corridor, and would both drive up the cost of the units and encourage more vehicular traffic), and
  • that the reduction in vehicle spaces was allowing for bicycle parking for 13 bicycles and some buffering green space between the surface parking and the property to the rear.

Certainly some attention still needs to be paid to the overall design, which feels too by-the-book (and from not that great a book), and the vehicular access could use some thinking about how to better manage the exiting and entering of vehicles. The discussion at the end focused on further process – it sounds like the developer will file revised plans with ISD soon and start the Board of Appeal’s zoning relief process, which will likely take on the order of 3 to 6 months to get through, to be followed by BPDA Design Review. WalkUP Roslindale will look to submit a comment letter in connection with the Board of Appeal hearing. We will share it when we have it ready. In the meantime, thoughts are more than welcome in the comments.

NSS – A pretty popular idea, it turns out…

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…there were 47 applications for 2 to 3 selected winners. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s about the same ratio as the Hunger Games or the acceptance rate for getting into Stanford. The city’s announcement indicates that they will be announcing their decisions in May. We understand that all 4 of the Roslindale applications we were tracking were submitted. We’ll update as we have more information. Well done, neighbors!!!

It’s a wrap – 4th and final standout is in the books! Thanks all!!!

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A cloudy but not too cold day. We had six stalwarts (see photo below, one of our number had to leave a couple minutes earlier) and note that the Dynamic Duo of Guptill and Tedrow kept their perfect record intact. Being out at this location, which was the subject of a Vision Zero Rapid Response installation after Silvia Acosta’s death last year, reminded us that we need to follow up, repair the broken/missing flexposts, and move toward making the installation permanent. And so on we go!

874-878 South Street Installment 2 – Finally back with revised proposal for public consideration – 6:30 pm, 28 March 2017, at the RCC

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874 South Street Meeting Flyer
874 South Street Meeting Flyer

It’s been almost 2 years, but the 874-878 South Street proposal that was the subject of a WUR long-form blog post in July 2015 is finally returning with a revised proposal.

The meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 28, at 6:30 pm at the Roslindale Community Center. Flyer for meeting here.

Based on what was said by the property owner and his attorney at the LANA meeting a week or so ago, it sounds like the proposal will be for 9 residential units with 18 off-street parking spaces. For those keeping score at home, that’s a reduction from the original proposal of 6 residential units and an increase of 3 off-street parking spaces. Revised plans were not available at the LANA meeting, though they will reportedly be available this coming Tuesday.

For the record, I continue to live 2 blocks from this location. From my own perspective and given this location within walking distance of the commuter rail station and Roslindale Square, the revised unit count is lower than it should be and the number of off-street parking spaces is at least 4 spaces too many. I would really prefer a 1-to-1 space to unit ratio at this location. While I recognize some neighbors see this issue differently, on-street parking issues at this location and along the stretch of South Street and the intersecting streets toward the commuter rail are relatively minimal, except on Sunday mornings. Increasing the parking space count here may prevent there ever being an issue from this development related to on-street parking, but it will tend to increase vehicle traffic by encouraging car ownership by development residents and, to the extent automatically included with each unit, will increase the cost of each unit in the development. Accordingly, in addition to wanting to see the revised design, I will be interested in a discussion of the parking space count, how the revised plans locate those spaces on the site, what kind of space is left over, and how much consideration is or isn’t being given to bicycle parking and encouraging bicycling and walking as well as zipcar and transit use.

25 mph Speed Limit Standout #4 – Washington @ Blue Ledge — 11 am on 25 March 2017

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No peppy name this time. This will be the fourth and final installment of our standout series. The location this time is at the main southern entrance to our neighborhood and the place where our neighbor, Silvia Acosta, was killed by a hit and run driver while crossing Washington Street in a crosswalk. It would be great to top last week’s 14 participants, so feel free to bring a sign along with yourself and your great attitude. Thanks in advance!!!

UPDATED: WUR 25mph Standout #2 – Saturday, March 11, 2017 – 11 am – Cummins/American Legion/Canterbury

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WalkUP Roslindale’s Standout #2 is ON. Location is noted above. We’ll convene near the fire station on the Cummins side and fan out around the intersection for an hour of promoting the new citywide default speed limit. Though the forecast looks chilly, we will forge ahead. We would love to see you there, so bundle up and come on down!!!

PS Last week’s standout received positive coverage in this week’s Roslindale Bulletin: WalkUP reminds everyone 25 is the limit!

REPORT FROM THE FIELD OF THE SECOND STANDOUT: Very cold again!! Standout participants numbered six — Mses. Beatman, Phillips, and (Lynn), and Messrs. Guptill, Tedrow, and Lawlor. On to #3 – Walter/South!!

Standout #1 in the books — Cold but spirited!

Matt Lawlor 1 Comment

Pictured: Liz, Matt, and Steve (L to R).

Your standout standouts this morning were a magnificent 7 – Mses. Phillips, Graham-Meredith, and Moshtaghi, and Messrs. Guptill, Tedrow, Gag, and your faithful correspondent. Reaction from those we saw exercising all modes of travel — including cars — was positive. Many thumbs-up and horn-honks and even a brief conversation a handful of times about the new 25 mph default speed limit, why it’s so important, and how it works. Hoping to see a bigger turnout for our next installment on what will hopefully be a slightly warmer day:

NEXT WALKUP ROSLINDALE 25 MPH STANDOUT: Saturday, March 11, 2017, 11 am @ American Legion/Cummins/Canterbury (meet next to the fire station)

Here are the stakes for the FY2018 Boston Vision Zero Budget

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Take 5 minutes to:

  1. Read this article in the Herald: Battle for safer streets: Nine pedestrians hit in Boston in 1 day.
  2. View this local TV news piece from WCVB: Steps being taken in Boston to curb pedestrian crashes.

Here’s the upshot: Policy and aspirations in this city around walking and cycling and safer streets for all are not being met with resources. When the Herald takes note and publishes a front page article on the 9 pedestrian crashes that occurred on a single day last week and then local tv devotes as much time as they just have to the same issue, it begins to feel like the time may finally have come to really do what needs to be done to make our streets safer and better for all users. The municipal fiscal year starts every July 1. The FY2018 budget will be developed and approved in the next handful of months. The Vision Zero line item in the current FY2017 budget is $3.1 Million for a city of about 670,000 people. As the TV piece indicates, that’s woefully inadequate. On a per capita basis, it’s on the order of a third of NYC’s vision zero budget and 1/25th of San Francisco’s. Let that sink in. More to come on this.

Child hit by car on Metropolitan Avenue in Roslindale

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On this World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (according to the World Health Organization, 1.2 million people killed every year by traffic violence and 50 million injured), we are dismayed to report another serious pedestrian crash in our neighborhood. On Friday, a nine-year old boy was hit by a car shortly after stepping off his school bus at the intersection of Metropolitan Ave and Kittredge Street. The most informative media report comes from WCVB: Boy recovering after being hit by car in Roslindale. We extend our sympathy to the boy and his family, and wish him the speediest possible recovery.

Although it looks like the child will recover, we must remember it is predictable and indeed certain that crashes like this will happen again and again until and unless we do more than pay lip service to Vision Zero Boston. A quick look at the intersection, which is in the middle of a slope just past a peak limiting line-of-sight visibility, reveals a stark absence of critical infrastructure to protect people on foot: no crosswalk, no traffic calming, no curb bump-outs, not even a stop sign on the main street in a densely settled area with chronic speeding problems. There are dozens (perhaps hundreds) of intersections like this in Roslindale alone, and the fact that people keep getting hit and occasionally killed by cars in them is a reminder that these incidents are crashes, not accidents.

Intersection of Metropolitan Ave and Kittredge Street
Intersection of Metropolitan Ave and Kittredge Street

It’s time to demand more. We can’t just wait for someone to be seriously or fatally injured on a one-off basis to take a look at specific street crossings, and then spend a year patching up that one spot. Sign the Vision Zero Petition, speak to your neighbors, and tell your elected leaders and appointed bureaucrats at every possible opportunity that it’s time to proactively address road safety across the entire city. There are plenty of successful examples to follow, but at the rate we’re going now it will be a century or more before we realize the core Vision Zero principle: No loss of life is acceptable.

Boston City Council Transportation Policy Briefings

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Let's talk transportation policyWe are delighted that the Boston City Council’s Committee on Parks, Recreation & Transportation has announced a series of public discussions, in partnership with Northeastern University Professor Peter G. Furth, on several critical topics. These discussions will be held in the Iannella Chamber on the 5th Floor of City Hall, and also livestreamed at http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/live.asp. Come in person to be part of the conversation, and please spread the word! Kudos to City Council President Michelle Wu for taking the major leadership role to make this happen.

  • Tues, Nov. 15th, 12-1:30pm — Low-Stress Bicycle Network
  • Tues, Dec. 6th, 4-5:30pm — Pedestrian Service and Safety
  • Thurs, Jan. 5th, 4-5:30pm — Systematic Safety — European Vision Zero Principles Applied to Boston
  • Thursday, Feb. 2nd, 4-5:30pm — Transit Signal Priority
  • Thurs, Mar. 2nd, 4-5:30pm — Parking Management

See also this flyer for these events. Questions or comments to Henry Cohen at 617-635-3115.