Please stop by on LILAC SUNDAY (this coming Sunday, May 12) to learn about the project and enjoy some ice cream and music on your way to viewing the lilacs! The entrance is not yet paved, so please wear sturdy shoes or boots
Date and Time: Sunday, May 12, 2019, 10 AM to 3 PM
WalkUP Roslindale is a proud member of the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition. The Coalition has been doing great work following the City budget process with respect to safe streets. We’ve reproduced below an announcement about an important transportation budget hearing this Tuesday, May 7, 2019. Please show up if you can!
Faster implementation and more focus on
improving safety along arterial corridors, which are
disproportionately dangerous for all modes.
A permanent, full-time, Boston Police Department
data analyst to clean up crash report data, investigate
trends, and work closely with the Transportation Department, Boston
EMS, and MassDOT to ensure Boston’s crash data is properly
reported.
Clear organizational structures that will help establish
how projects are managed and executed, and better integration
of operations and policies between the Public Works and Transportation
Departments.
In past years, hundreds of you have shown up for the
Boston Transportation Department Budget Hearings, and it has had a
direct impact on securing more funding benefiting Vision
Zero. Can we count on you to keep the momentum going in
2019? Speak up to support safe streets!
For more details about the proposed Transportation
Department budget and what we’re advocating for, read on below.
The Mayor’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20)
includes a $4 million investment in Boston’s Walkable Streets and $2
million in bike infrastructure, which will be funded through strategic
changes to the City’s current parking meter rates. Join us at
Boston City Hall to comment in support
of the City Council approving this budget proposal and to call for
more support and faster action.
Within this budget, Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition
members are working on several specific issues. For more information
and talking points about the following aspects of the budget, see
below:
Please join us to create a street mural on Arboretum Road with Artists from the Mayor’s Mural Team!
Date: Monday, May 6, 2019 Time: 5pm to 8pm Location: Arboretum Road near Washington Street, Roslindale
Please join artists from the City of Boston’s mural team and volunteers from WalkUp Roslindale, and the Arnold Arboretum as we paint a street mural on Arboretum Road! The mural will draw attention to the future entrance to the Arnold Arboretum at the end of the road. The lilacs in the street mural will help celebrate Lilac Sunday.
The road will be closed except for essential traffic while the mural is being painted.
We here at WalkUP Roslindale are just simply awed at the progress that RVMS and the Birch Street merchants have been making on seeing what can be made of the one-block section of Birch between Corinth and Belgrade. Following up on last year’s series of Open Birch Saturdays during June, they’re plunging even further ahead and, as part of the city’s new pilot program for tactical public realm interventions and in cooperation with A Better City and architects Merritt Chase, we will see the first fruits of their labor this week. Check out the facebook page and let the world (or at least the world on facebook) know that you’ll be stopping by to enjoy a little bit more of our city that is being repurposed for people instead of vehicles. It’ll be worth your while — and remember, we’re not closing this part of Birch to anyone, we’re opening it fully to everyone — so, feel free to walk around, sit, read, enjoy, converse in this bit of our neighborhood, and, if you like it, support making it permanent.
We encourage everyone to attend the Robert Street Bridge replacement project’s public meeting scheduled for tomorrow, Monday, 29 April 2019, at 6:30 pm at the Roslindale Community Center (6 Cummins Highway). There should be an opportunity to influence the final design of the project as well as learn more about what the MBTA has planned for the construction period and how it will affect both access to Robert Street and Roslindale Square as well as service on the Needham Line. [NOTE: Photo courtesy Universal Hub.]
In the wake of the driver-on-pedestrian crash on Centre Street in West Roxbury that took the life of neighborhood resident Marilyn Wentworth, there has been a renewed focus on how to make West Roxbury safer for the most vulnerable users of its streets. While much of this focus will be on addressing Centre Street and its manifest problems in the near-term, this is really a neighborhood-wide (indeed, a city-wide) problem. To that end, working with our friends at WalkBoston and walking safety advocates in West Roxbury convened by West Roxbury Main Streets, we’re happy to spread word of a “Ped 101” training and organizing meeting to be held at the Area E-5 Police Station’s community room on Tuesday, April 30, at 6:30 pm. Details can be found at the event’s facebook page. We hope to see you and many of our friends from West Roxbury there and then!!
We sent a comment letter today to the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) in support of the proposed move of the Roxbury Preparatory Charter School to 361 Belgrade Avenue. We believe the proposed development is consistent with our core principles and primary goal of making a more walkable neighborhood. As discussed in more detail below, this development should be a catalyst for long overdue walkability and transit improvements to Belgrade Avenue, and we urge all the stakeholders to work together to make sure these happen. As a side note, we recognize there has been outspoken support for and opposition against this project from a variety of perspectives; as a community group focused on walkability, we take no position on education policy or various debates relating to charter schools generally or this school specifically. Our interest is in insuring that students, staff, and the community at large can enjoy safe and vibrant streets with easy and convenient access by sustainable modes of transportation.
This one seems to have been more along the lines of 10-12″ (25-30cm). This morning’s locations are done (thanks!). Here are the ones for this afternoon:
HP Avenue/Cummins Highway (NE corner) – Monday, 4 March 2019, 2:00 pm (Organizer: Nick Ward).
Washington Street/Cornell Street – Monday, 4 March 2019, 5:00 pm (Organizer: Sarah Kurpiel Lee)
Washington Street/Blue Ledge – Monday, 4 March 2019, 5:00 pm (Organizer: Rob Orthman)
Participation Guidelines – Bring your own equipment (shovels, spades) and materials (ice melt) if you feel healthy and up to it. Find the organizers at the above locations at the stipulated dates/times and make sure to give them your name and email address so we can log you in for RVMS Rozzie Bucks for taking part. Thanks!!!
With 4″ (10cm) + of fluffy snow having fallen with this storm, we are hereby activating the Collaborative. Note the principal locations/organizers/dates/times below. Thanks!
Washington & Cornell Streets – Friday, 1 March 2019, 12:00 pm (Organizer: Sarah Kurpiel Lee)
Roslindale Community Center (Washington & Cummins) – Friday, 1 March 2019, 7:00 am (Organizer: Steve Gag)
Hyde Park Avenue/Cummins Highway – Thursday, 28 February 2019, 12:30 pm (Organizer: Nick Ward)
Walter & South Streets (front of Green T) – Friday, 1 March 2019, 7:00 am (Organizer: Matt Lawlor)
Participation Guidelines – Bring your own equipment (shovels, spades) and materials (ice melt) if you feel healthy and up to it. Find the organizers at the above locations at the stipulated dates/times and make sure to give them your name and email address so we can log you in for RVMS Rozzie Bucks for taking part. Thanks!!!
