Mt. Hope Canterbury Neighborhood Association Comments on FY2023 Boston Transportation Budget

The City of Boston is finalizing the Fiscal Year 2023 budget, which begins on July 1, 2022. We intend to submit comments soon (ideas welcome!) but in the meantime we wanted to share this letter sent by Rick Yoder and WalkUP Board Member Lisa Beatman on behalf of the Mt. Hope Canterbury Neighborhood Association and the American Legion Corridor Coalition.

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Letter to Transportation Committee re American Legion Parkway

Today we sent a letter to the Massachusetts State Legislature Joint Committee on Transportation supporting an act that would change the name of American Legion Highway to American Legion Parkway which we believe would send a better message about traffic safety, particularly when coupled with physical design changes and speed-limit enforcement. Our full letter is available as a PDF and reproduced below.

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Comment Letter on Scrub-a-Dub Project at 565-569 American Legion Highway

Back in October, we submitted a short comment letter expressing conditional support for the expansion and reconfiguration of the Scrub-a-Dub Car Wash at 565-569 American Legion Highway. As noted below, there are several design changes that would make this project more friendly to pedestrians — this is especially important given the proximilty of the K-8 Haley Pilot School.

Our full comments are below, also available as a PDF.
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WalkUP Roslindale Comment Letter on 780 American Legion / Home for Little Wanderers Project

Today, we sent a comment letter to the BPDA to comment on a proposed project at 780 American Legion Highway (a road that we hope someday will be renamed to and remade as American Legion Greenway). This is the current site of the Home for Little Wanderers, a nonprofit that provides services to at-risk children and young adults. The proposal would be a major development, including 22 units of youth housing as well as 93 units of market rate and workforce rental units and owner-occupied town house condominium units, and new offices for the Home.

We are generally supportive of the project but note it is critical for the City to work with the MBTA to improve transit options in this currently under-served area. Just this week, the Mayor called for a 50% reduction of car use by 2030; higher density projects like this can help achieve that goal as long as they are accompanied by a substantial investment in improved pedestrian, bicycle, and transit options.

Our full letter is reproduced below. (PDF version available here.)

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Haley School – Safe Routes to School Walk

WUR/American Legion Corridor stalwarts Lisa Beatman and Rick Yoder were joined by your correspondent and Steve Gag (in the photo, far left) in participating in the Haley School’s 4th walk this morning to raise awareness about safe routes to school for students to walk and the present lack of those routes for the Haley. You will note that BPS Superintendent Tommy Chang, whom we understand is now a Roslindale resident, is pictured in the first row, blue polo shirt. It was great to see him, City Councilor Andrea Campbell (I think she might have taken this picture), and everyone else who both organized and participated from BPS and the school (both students, staff, and parents). Those with more information on this (looking at you, Lisa and Rick), please let us know more in the comments and tell us how we can be more supportive of this effort!