Gratifying coverage for our friends over at Rozzie Bikes

The Sunday Boston Globe has a lovely article about our friends over at Rozzie Bikes and some of their bicycle advocacy compatriots who have been supplying bikes, free of charge, to new arrivals in our region. Whatever one’s priors, the work they’ve been doing is both note and praiseworthy. We especially appreciate that our long-time steering committee and now board member Alan Wright is prominently featured, along with absolute Rozzie Bikes stalwart and all-around great guy Ron Beland.

Alan Wright of Roslindale fixes used bikes to donate to new refugees in the Boston area who use them to get to jobs, go shopping, and to explore the area. Wright has been repairing and donating bikes to refugees for several years, often delivering them on a trailer attached to his bike.

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It’s also worth noting here that we here at WalkUP and at Rozzie Bikes are advocates for, respectively, walking/transit and biking, don’t do so as “special interests” but as people who simply try to do these things on a regular basis and want our neighbors and visitors to our neighborhood to have the opportunity to do so safely and comfortably because we think these are good things and ways for everyone to move away from access that’s solely based on consuming space and natural resources in a way that beggars us, our neighborhoods, and our planet’s ability to sustain us. It isn’t about us but about the thing we’re promoting.

Ruts and Ridges on Washington Street – WalkUP Coalition Letter

WalkUP Roslindale is always on the lookout for opportunities to join forces with our friends at Rozzie Bikes and Roslindale Village Main Street to improve the walkability, vitality, and livability of our neighborhood. This week, we put together a letter to the Public Works Commission to raise the urgent need to improve paving conditions on Washington Street in Roslindale. The full letter appears below, and is also available in PDF form. Let’s hope we see improvements in this critical and highly-trafficked corridor this year. Demand more! Read More

RVMS Bike Corral Ribbon Cutting June 6, 2016 6pm by Fornax

After many months of effort and advocacy, Roslindale is finally getting its first bicycle corral, to be installed near Fornax Bakery at 27 Corinth Street. The corral is fashioned out of recycled shipping pallets and steel pipe and will be stationed alongside the Fornax parklet. It will be dedicated to Roslindale resident and prolific bicycle advocate George Ulrich, who passed away earlier this year. George was a stalwart of Rozzie Bikes and frequently staffed the free bike repair and bike information tent at the RVMS Farmers Market.

Aside from bringing much-needed bike parking to the village, the corral will also send a message to everyone that bikes are welcome, and that we are willing to put our money where our mouth is and start investing in real infrastructure for active transportation. This is one step of many that are needed to achieve our vision of making Roslindale the most walkable neighborhood in Boston.

Please join RVMS, Street Ops, Rozzie Bikes, and others for a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 6, 2016, at 6pm. After celebrating the installation with music and refreshments, there will be an informal gathering and drinks afterwards at Sophia’s Grotto.

Late-addition to the Roundup List: Arboretum Gateway Path

Rozzie Gateway Path Entrance (image courtesy Halvorson Design Partnership, Inc.)
Rozzie Gateway Path Entrance (image courtesy Halvorson Design Partnership, Inc.)

I have fielded more than one note that I left the Arboretum Gateway Path off the top-of-mind list for WUR’s 2015 roundup. This is an accurate critique and so: mea culpa. The AGP was a major initiative in 2015 and, I strongly suspect, will be a major initiative this year and going forward until it’s done. In brief: We love this idea of a new Arboretum gateway and path at the Roslindale commuter rail station that would provide an alternate ped/bike path to the South/Archdale bridge area, where it would link to an extension of the existing Blackwell/Bussey Brook path (and on to Forest Hills and the Southwest Corridor path) and allow for a new, more welcoming entrance to the Arboretum at Archdale as well. We are furthermore delighted at the receptive potential partners we’ve found in our own City and State government, the Arnold Arboretum, the Arboretum Park Conservancy, RVMS, Livable Streets, and our friends at Tufts University’s environmental program who are currently conducting an initial feasibility analysis for the path. It’s also been a great way to connect early with our friends at Rozzie Bikes.

So — as we head into 2016, expect the Arboretum Gateway Path to be something we continue to talk about and organize around, a lot.