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Issue #50 / September 2010
StreetLife

#50 / September 2010
The monthly e-newsletter of the LivableStreets Alliance

Greetings!
In this issue
 

Events

 

· Park(ing) Day tomorrow / Friday, Sept 17

· City of Boston annual Hub on Wheels bicycle ride and festival, Sun. Sept 26

· Urban Activism in Boston: a discussion at Northeastern University Sept 20
 
Better Bridges
· Longfellow due for a panoramic promenade?
· On Biking: Fixing the Charles River bridges for bikers 
 
Announcements

· Opportunities to get involved  

· Transportation is a Public Health Issue


· First-ever New England Bike-Walk Summit, Oct 7
· Musings on transportation, health and livable communities blog
· Learn about Mass. transportation practices at Moving Together Conference, Oct 13

· Francis Parkman Drive is for People, at Jamaica Pond, Sept 19  

· Walking tour of proposed Community Path extension, Sept 25

 


Events 
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Park(ing) Day tomorrow/Friday, Sept. 17
 

Join community members to reclaim a piece of the street for social life and rethink how we use our public spaces.
 
Drop by any, or all, of these parks to celebrate another view of urban space. Have lunch, wiggle your toes in the grass, play games and enjoy your neighborhood! See map here >>>  
 
Boston
· Allston Village: Harvard Ave at Brighton Ave  

· Boston University: 685 Comm Ave 

 

· Mission Hill: Francis St at Huntington Ave
 
Brookline
· Coolidge Corner at 290 Harvard St
 
Cambridge, on Mass Ave between

· Day & Chester St by Cambridge Climate Emergency Action  
· Milton and Russell St by Urban Homestead
· Russell and Hadley St by CitySmart
· Beech and Allen St by Boston Hoop Troop
· Davenport and Roseland St at University Hall
· Forest and Newport Rd by Green Streets Initiative
 

 

Watch our film about the first ever Park(ing) Day spot here >>>

 
Originally created by Rebar, San Francisco art and design collective, PARK(ing) Day is an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into "PARK(ing)" spaces: temporary public parks intended to promote creativity, civic engagement, critical thinking, unscripted social interactions, generosity and play.

 

Come down to annual Hub on Wheels Ride & Festival
 
 
Sunday, September 26, 8 am - 5 pm
@ Boston City Hall Plaza, Gov't Center
 

Hub On Wheels, Boston Mayor Menino's annual Bike Ride & Festival, has played a critical role in raising public awareness for the Boston Bikes program. LivableStreets Alliance has been involved in Hub On Wheels since its inception. This year, you can join the city-wide ride, enjoy the festival, and watch a professional bike race all in one day!
 

For more information, click here >>>  

 

Volunteer at Hub on Wheels! e-mail volunteer@livablestreets.info for more information.

 

Urban Activism in Boston: A discussion 
 
 
Mon, Sept 20, 6 pm

@ 20 West Village F, Northeastern University
 
Urban activism may be North America's most distinct contribution to urban planning discourse and practice, particularly in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The city of Boston, one of America's oldest cities, has been shaped by urban activism since the "crisis of Modernism" in the late 1960s.
 

Jackie Douglas of LivableStreets Alliance and Rosie Weinberg of SHIFTboston will each present their respective organization's approach, to urban activism in the city of Boston, followed by a response from Ivan Rupnik, Assistant Professor of Architectural Design.

 

For more information, click here >>>  


Better Bridges
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Longfellow due for a panoramic promenade?

 
For many years it has been uncomfortable to impossible to get across the Longfellow Bridge by foot, wheelchair, or bike. LivableStreets Alliance, along with other groups, has been demanding that the minimal sidewalk be expanded and the unsignalized and unmarked street crossings be improved. As part of Phase I of the quarter-of-a-billion-dollar bridge repair, the state has begun making the sidewalks wider. Thank you MassDOT!

In addition, in response to the coordinated effort by advocacy groups to get MassDOT to include better pedestrian and bicycle accommodations on the redesigned bridge, the state Highway Division has created a Longfellow Task Force including an extremely broad range of stakeholders. Within the Task Force, LivableStreets Alliance has worked with other transportation, parkland, environmental, and activity-focused groups to push for a wide pedestrian promenade, bike lanes separated from car traffic, and better access to parklands. The number of cars using the bridge has decreased in the last decade, while walkers and cyclists have increased. However, controversy remains about future usage patterns and the extent to which the current car-centric design can be modified to balance demands of all users within its limited width. 

 
LivableStreets Alliance and other advocates will continue to demand better multi-modal designs both in the mid-span and at the approaches throughout the Task Force's remaining month -- and beyond. The Task Force's suggestions are not binding and will simply be included as options in MassDOT's application to federal review and approval agencies.
 
IN THE NEWS: "Imagine taking people there and sitting and enjoying the view," said Jackie Douglas of LivableStreets Alliance, "It could be a destination." Boston Metro, Aug 2010 >>>

 

On Biking: Fixing the Charles River Bridges for bikers

 

excerpt from Boston Globe article by Jonathan Simmons, August 27, 2010 
 
"I never thought of the bridges over the Charles River as more than a fixed, but dangerous way to get to the other side. They're survivable, but barely ride-able. Nobody I know goes out of their way to cross one. And the bike paths? They're crowded and the pavement's cracked and bumpy... 

"The dollars are available to support a better design and yet there's a disconnect. The state is saying we'll plan for cars and if there's space left over we'll include bikers and pedestrians. We at LivableStreets want the first step to be designing for people, not to fit them in if there's room left over afterwards...

 

"Perhaps one day crossing the bridge over the Charles River and using the bike paths alongside won't have to be so harrowing. Still, in these uncertain and conflict-laden times, it's going to take a lot to convince the people that this kind of change just might make things better. But as Jackie [of LivableStreets] sees it, "it's now or never. We're fighting for something that's important: our health, our environment, our future."

Click here to read full article >>>

For more information on LivableStreets Better Bridge campaign and how to get involved, click here >>> 

 

Announcements
_____________________________________________________________

LivableStreets Opportunities  
 
Get involved today!
 
Membership Coordinator
Gain firsthand knowledge working with members of our organization. Work will include assisting with membership outreach, prospect acquisition, website updates, member resource development, develop member database, event coordination and appeals.
Event Coordinator
Gain firsthand knowledge planning and coordinating monthly StreetTalk events and annual Boston Bikes report. Work will include assisting with marketing/outreach, securing venue space, recruiting and training volunteers to run event, website updates, event coordination day of (requires flex hours and available week nights).
Outreach Coordinator
Gain firsthand knowledge about building grassroots support for advocacy campaigns. Work will include attending events around town (requires flex hours and some weekends), preparing materials, recruiting and training other volunteers, representing LivableStreets, recruiting new members, and follow up reports.
We are seeking individuals who are self-starters and can work independently. Detail-oriented, computer savvy, and flexible hours are a plus.
 
For more information on volunteer opportunities and internships, contact Jackie Douglas at jackie@livablestreets.info

 
Transportation is a Public Health Issue
 
LivableStreets joins statewide "Act FRESH" Coalition by Mass Public Health Association.
LivableStreets Alliance believes that transportation is not only about moving people and things around, it is also a significant influence on our personal and collective health. 
Act FRESH (FResh Environments Support Health) is a three-year effort to shape public policy in order to increase access to public space for physical activity and to healthy affordable food for everyone.

To identify the most pressing issues and the most promising solutions, and to ensure that the campaign policy platform reflects the realities on the ground, MPHA has created an Act FRESH survey.  

 
ACTION E-LERT: We urge StreetLife readers to go to the MPHA website and click on the Act FRESH survey. Let's make transportation part of the solution, instead of part of the problem!

 
First-ever New England Bike-Walk Summit
 
Thursday, October 7
@ Marriott Courtyard, 32 Exchange Terrace, Providence, RI

Support better biking and walking in New England, and learn about what's happening across the country at the first-ever New England Bike-Walk Summit. LivableStreets board member Steve Miller will be part of a panel discussion on recent laws and policies that impact the environment for biking and walking in Massachusetts. Also on the panel will be Jeff Peel from the League of American Bicyclists who will give an overview of what's happening in non-New England states and Jeff Miller of Alliance for Biking & Walking who will speak about federal legislation.

For more information, click here >>>

 
Musings on transportation, health and livable communities 

The latest blog posts by LivableStreets board member Steve Miller
 
Transportation is a powerful component of the full range of methods needed to create livable, prosperous, and sustainable communities. As the first of this month's postings describe, transportation impacts can be significantly increased if transportation planners share strategies and insights with public health, which is another field that struggles with the need to create large scale contexts for individual behavior. Even then, as the second posting discusses, success requires integrating action from either field with a broad set of approaches that deal with everything from regional infrastructure
to investment geography to the construction and shape of particular buildings. And, as the third posting points out, the whole process needs to be energized by a funding decision-making process that evaluates alternative projects in terms of their impact on attainment of the full spectrum of societal goals -- from clean air and water to less energy usage, from encouraging physical activity to less traffic congestion.

> 

What Transportation And Public Health Can Learn From Each Other About Changing Public Behaviors >>> 

 

Learn about Massachusetts transportation practices

 
Moving Together Conference hosted by Mass Dept of Transportation
Wed, Oct 13, 8 am - 4 pm
@ Marriott Courtyard Downtown Hotel, 275 Tremont Street, Boston
Moving Together is the Commonwealth's annual statewide walking and bicycling conference, which will focus on GreenDOT and GreenDOT's core emphasis on healthy transportation.
 
Jeffrey Mullan, Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation, will deliver the conference keynote highlighting what GreenDOT means to transportation in the Commonwealth.
 
LivableStreets Alliance Director Jackie Douglas will be giving a presentation on Complete Streets. Where did the complete streets movement originate? What do complete streets look like? And how can Massachusetts integrate complete streets in to the Accelerated Bridge Program? Come listen, learn and participate!
 
Registration fee: $50
For more information, click here >>> 

 

Francis Parkman Drive is for People! 
 
Sunday, September 19, 11 am - 3 pm
@ Jamaica Pond, Boston
 

Francis Parkman Drive will be closed to all motor vehicle traffic, and OPEN to people and outdoor fun this Sunday!

 

Bring your bikes, trikes, roller-blades and community spirit for hours of traffic-free fun and entertainment.

 
For more details, click here >>> 

 

Walking tour of proposed Community Path extension
 
Saturday, September 25 (rain-date Sun. Sept 26)
@ 9:30 am and 10:15 am -- Free and open to the public.
 
9:30 am:
Meet at Cedar Street end of the present Community Path in Somerville, if you'd like to tour around the Cedar St. to Lowell Street section.
 
10:15 am:
Meet at the Lowell Street bridge (over the RR tracks, near the Visiting Nurses Association Assisted Living Community) in Somerville to begin the rest of the
tour.
 
Walk ~2 miles, following along the future Green Line Extension (GLX)
route, along the proposed stations at Lowell Street, Gilman Square, Washington Street/Brickbottom, and Lechmere/North Point. End at
12:30 pm
at Lechmere/North Point. Return by T or bus. (There are buses along the way if you'd like return sooner.)

Please bring your own water and lunch/snacks.
 
 

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Thank you to our supporters and sponsors: 

 

LivableStreets
 
Urban AdvenTours, Harpoon, Taza Chocolate, Regina Villa Associates