This past Sunday’s public presentation on the Boston Planning & Development Agency’s “Squares + Streets” planning and zoning was carried off expertly by Taylor Mayes, Abdul-Rafik Zachariah, and Lydia Hausle. We had about 40 folks on hand and there was plenty of discussing and hanging around afterward. You are welcome to review the full slide show from the presentation (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), along with a Squares + Streets Glossary for reference.
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As part of the planned improvements for managing parking in Roslindale Village, the City is holding a hearing this Thursday, December 7, 2023, at 11am on Zoom, to discuss the possibility of a parking benefit district (“PBD”). We urged the City to consider implementing a PBD in our original comments on the parking changes and are pleased to see progress on this front. A PBD would direct funds from local parking meters to physical improvements and beautification projects in the square. We encourage supporters to attend and support this pilot initiative.
More information at https://www.boston.gov/public-notices/16058741.
Folks may have noticed an exodus from Twitter/X in recent months. We’re still posting there but have been experimenting with other services as well. We are now on Mastodon at https://urbanists.social/@walkuprozzie (@walkuprozzie@nullurbanists.social) and invited users to follow us there.
We’re pleased to announce that, on Sunday, 10 December 2023, at 5 pm at the Substation (Upstairs) in Roslindale Square, we will be hosting a presentation from representatives of the Boston Planning & Development Agency on their recently-launched Squares + Streets planning and zoning initiative. The top-line description of the initiative from the BPDA webpage reads as follows:
Squares + Streets, a new planning and zoning initiative that will focus on housing, public space, arts and culture, and transit in neighborhood centers and along main streets.
We are looking to enhance small areas that are near transit and already provide essential goods and services for local residents, businesses, and visitors.
Squares + Streets will:
- Focus on housing, public space, cultural amenities, transit assets etc. that reflect the unique needs of each area
- Develop a number of Small Area Plans in 6–9 month timeframes that are shorter, more intentional, more transparent, and more predictable
This project is meant to complement and support Design Vision and Zoning Reform work.
What are Squares + Streets?
Squares + Streets are centers for activity within a neighborhood. They are often important places of gathering that connect residents to essential goods, transit options, services, and job opportunities.
Planning for Squares + Streets is one of the first steps towards what citywide zoning reform might look like. By focusing on key squares and streets across the city, our goal is to develop high-impact, short-term recommendations for areas that can be implemented through zoning.
What are small area plans?
Small Area Plans will zoom in on specific squares and streets throughout Boston’s neighborhoods to make detailed, action-oriented plans. They will focus on the local level and are not neighborhood wide.
Small Area Plans will support housing growth, and provide investment opportunities supported by city services in our neighborhoods.
Once completed, each Small Area Plan will outline near-term implementation actions such as:
The City of Boston recently launched the Squares + Streets initiative to focus on activity-rich neighborhood centers along main streets across Boston. We encourage all WalkUP followers to complete the initiative’s survey by December 1. The survey is brief and you’ll be entered into a raffle for $100 Boston Public Market gift cards for filling it out. Please spread the word!
Checking things out through a walk is such a fabulous idea. As the sign says, you can find out more information on their webpage HERE.
Speed humps first appeared in our neighborhood with the Mount Hope-Canterbury Neighborhood Slow Streets installations a couple of years ago, and they have just been installed on the first couple of blocks of Poplar Street leading away from Roslindale Square/Washington Street toward Canterbury (we anticipate signs and more paint alerting drivers to the presence of the humps soon, as is typical). It seems this installation is both part of the Poplar Street safety improvements project for which we recently reaffirmed our support and also the Boston Transportation Department’s overall program of deploying 500 of these humble yet highly effective traffic calming devices citywide on an annual basis. It is worth noting that these are speed humps, not speed bumps – humps like these are much gentler on vehicle suspensions while still being highly effective and sized/placed to achieve the 25 mph citywide default speed limit on streets such as Poplar Street.
The folks at the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) have a useful explainer of the general concept behind speed humps here. We expect more speed humps soon in a nearby part of Roslindale with the imminent installation of the Lower South Street Neighborhood Slow Streets interventions, but we’d love to see them in many more places as quickly as they can be deployed. More of this please!
We’re co-sponsoring with the above ward committees, plus Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants and West Rox Bikes. Go to this link to register. We hope to see you there!
At our annual meeting a week ago Sunday, 17 September 2023, we were pleased to elect 2 new board members, return several other existing board members for full 3-year terms and re-appoint our executive committee team for another year, such that the full board and EC team for the next year is as follows:
As always, our corporate formation documentation and our 2023 annual report to the MA Secretary of the Commonwealth’s corporations division can be found on their website HERE. Note that we are officially incorporated as “Walkable Urban Place Roslindale, Inc.,” with a d/b/a of WalkUP Roslindale. Thanks all!