Learning through walking in Cambridgeport

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.” –Søren Kierkegaard

As part of the Summer Walk Series, last week WalkMassachusetts had the pleasure of hosting a walk through Cambridgeport. This event aimed to bring together pedestrians (and some cyclists!) to explore the city on foot and to learn about local projects, area history, and built environment changes.

The two-mile walk started on the south side of the B.U. Bridge, brought participants through Magazine Beach Park and continued northeast along Magazine Street to Massachusetts Ave. Our group of 30 pedestrians met with a variety of guest speakers who shared valuable information about the B.U. Bridge Safety Alliance, Magazine Beach Park, the Allston Intermodal Project, St. Augustine African Orthodox Christian Church, and the history of the Inner Belt and anti-highway activism in Cambridge. Exploration of this landscape along with its varied histories, projects, and organizations helped to illuminate the struggles, changes, and cultural dynamics of the built environment–aspects which may often go unnoticed but that nonetheless inform our everyday experiences.

At the beginning of the evening, co-executive director Althea Wong-Achorn asked everyone to think about how heat affects the pedestrian experience and what types of interventions (i.e. increasing tree and vegetable cover, cool pavements) could be made to improve the experience. The air temperature hovered in the high 80s while surface temperatures in the parking lot where we met adjacent to the B.U. Bridge reached 113 degrees. In comparison, the surface temperature in Magazine Beach Park, thanks to the cooling effects of its vegetation, was 76 degrees.

As we crossed over the Charles River, our group remarked on the challenging pedestrian and bike infrastructure on and around the B.U. Bridge, including unprotected bike lanes, complicated pedestrian crossings, narrow footpaths, and a dangerous roundabout for all road users. Once in Magazine Beach Park, the calmness of the urban, riverfront park was met with the constant hum of traffic emanating from the elevated section of I-90 across the water in Allston. A final observation was the pleasant, tree-shaded streets of Cambridgeport.

All in all, this walk was a delightful opportunity to come together, share knowledge and experience, and take pleasure in the simplicity of walking. It provided participants with a chance to broaden their perspective, connect with each other, learn about Cambridgeport, discover something new and at the very least to get outside. Thank you to everyone who braved the heat to join us. We look forward to seeing you on our next walk!

We also want to thank all of our wonderful speakers: Ken Carlson, BU Bridge Safety Alliance; Stacey Beuttell, Senior Director, Nature in the City Program, Mass Audubon; Fred Yalouris, Allston I-90 Task Force; Reverend Kit Eccles, Pastor of St. Augustine’s Church; Steve Kaiser, traffic engineer and author; Kit Rawlins, Assistant Director, Cambridge Historical Society. In particular we appreciate the hard work and organizing efforts of Cathie Zusy and Anita Johnson for making this walk possible! For more information on the histories, projects, and organizations highlighted on his walk, please visit the links below: