Well, another year has come and gone and we here at WalkUP Roslindale thought we should pause as the new year gets underway to look back at what seem to us to be major stories/events/improvements to our neighborhood and/or city that would be worth remembering, so:
WINTER
In January, we marked the reconstruction efforts (which continue) for the Square Root/Belgrade Building after a West Roxbury resident lost control of his motor vehicle and plowed it into the unsuspecting building on a Sunday morning the previous December, while also noting that the Square had its first bookstore – Rozzie Bound – since the demise of Village Books lo these many years ago.
SPRING
In April, we marked the very significant rebranding of our long-time walking advocacy partners, WalkBoston, to WalkMassachusetts, reflecting the fact that their work had been all across the state for well more than a decade.
In May, along with everyone else in Boston, we welcomed the Boston Transportation Department’s “safety surge” as they declared the end of eye-droppering street improvements and, among other things, marked the end of the Hunger Games-like Neighborhood Slow Streets program and pointed to a massive, city-wide program to install 500 speed humps per year for the foreseeable future. This was and is a big deal.
In June, we were thrilled to host a community screening of The Street Project at the Rozzie Square Theater (complete with a brief welcome and introduction from Mayor Michelle Wu and attendance by locally-based but internationally-respected urban designer and author Jeff Speck that we described in a post the next month).
SUMMER
In July, we co-hosted a District 5 City Council Candidate Forum with Progressive West Roxbury/Roslindale, the Forum for Racial Equity via Educational Experiences in Hyde Park, Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, Keep Hyde Park Beautiful, Longfellow Area Neighborhood Association, RozzieBikes, and the Ward 18 Democratic Committee.
In September, we hosted a post-Annual/Board meeting public presentation double-header featuring Jarred Johnson from TransitMatters on their Orange Line Extension report and our own Greg Tobin giving an update on the start of construction on the Roslindale Gateway Path. At that meeting, we welcomed new board members Nikki Kong and James Guerrier.
FALL
In October, we happily marked the installation of several speed humps (part of the BTD safety surge and the result, in part, of our post Poplar Street Walk Audit advocacy) on the section of Poplar Street between Washington and Sycamore streets. Motor vehicle operating speeds dropped immediately and permanently.
Finally, in December, we paired our fall board meeting with a presentation from Boston Planning & Development Agency staff on the Squares + Streets program.