Ava Dimond, Author at WalkMassachusetts

Seaport Walk: “A Stroll Through the Seaport: Past Present and Future”

Every season WalkMassachusetts invites our supporters and friends to join us for free, point-to-point walks along 1-1.5 mile routes where we hear from guest speakers who discuss local projects, area history, built environment changes, and more. It gives us a wonderful opportunity to learn new things about our neighborhoods, connect with our supporters beyond a screen, and of course, walk!

Image: Yanni Tsipis, Senior VP of Fenway | Seaport Development at WS Development explains how this plaza was made to feel welcoming to visitors and residents alike.

For July, we held a walk called “A Stroll Through the Seaport: Past Present and Future.” Yanni Tsipis, the Senior Vice President of Fenway | Seaport Development at WS Development guided us along a fully accessible walking route in the Seaport District. The route began at Our Lady of Good Voyage Chapel and ended at Cisco Brewers Seaport.

Image: Using wood instead of asphalt or concrete can help mitigate the urban heat island effect.

The Seaport District has famously undergone many changes since the early 2000s, going from a largely uninhabited industrial port to a bustling mixed-use neighborhood today. WS Development has devoted their 33 acres of land to “residential, hotel, office, retail, entertainment, civic and cultural uses, as well as signature public open spaces.” For over a decade now, WalkMassachusetts has assisted with walk audits and advised on projects and development to ensure that the area is walkable and welcoming.

Image: Yanni discusses the expansion of the green spaces next to the Institute of Contemporary Art.

Throughout the walk, Yanni took care to explain the intentionality behind WS’ design choices: planter boxes with native wildflowers that buffer pedestrians from traffic; playful sculptures that create a welcoming energy; the use of wood, grass, and trees to mitigate heat; the gently sloping foundations that will be resilient to sea-level rise.

Image: Yanni explains that the building under construction out of frame will be net-zero carbon and source its electricity from renewable resources.

Thank you so much to all who joined us! To read more about Seaport’s history and future, check out this oral history in Boston Magazine.

Keep an eye out for our next event! We’re heading to Franklin Park on September 19th!

AARP 2023 Community Challenge Grant Announcement!

“AARP is thrilled to include Walk Massachusetts as part of our Community Challenge Grants this year. Their project in Springfield will empower residents to make their community more accessible and livable for people of all ages.” – Mike Festa, State Director AARP Massachusetts

We are excited to announce that WalkMassachusetts is one of 310 recipients (out of over 3,600 applicants!) of an AARP Community Challenge grant! AARP Community Challenge is a grant program to make tangible improvements in communities that jump-start long-term change. It is part of AARP’s nationwide Livable Communities initiative, which supports the efforts of cities, towns, neighborhoods and rural areas to become great places to live for people of all ages. To learn more, visit aarp.org/Livable.

This grant will fund the Walk Audit Academy (WAA), a walk audit training program that we will lead with WalkBike Springfield. WAA was piloted in Worcester with the REACH program, UMass Worcester Prevention Research Center, Health Resources in Action, and funds from the CDC. WAA is an experiential learning theory-based curriculum that guides learners in: 1- discovering and documenting their local transportation and land use decision making context; 2- learning walk auditing basics; 3- developing an action plan; and 4- implementing the action plan.

WAA includes a video series, produced by WalkMassachusetts, that guides learners in the process of planning, conducting, and summarizing walk audits. It employs a “flipped classroom” model to extend the capacity of WalkMassachusetts and WalkBike Springfield, and enable community groups to engage in co-learning that benefits the entire Springfield community, with emphasis on environmental justice block groups (minority, income, English isolation). WAA walk audits are intended to build community, and collect information about infrastructure conditions that can be shared with elected/appointed officials to improve walking safety, convenience, and comfort. WAA will allow Springfield residents to better participate in their planning and transportation processes, ensuring that local voices are heard. WAA will also help to improve the safety and walkability of Springfield, which in 2021 had 9 fatal pedestrian crashes, the same number as Boston which has a population over 4x that of Springfield.

Safer streets benefit everyone— however, older adults will benefit from safety improvements the most, as people ages 50+ make up the vast majority (69%) of crash victims in MA (2021, WalkMassachusetts Fatal Pedestrian Crash Report). Improved neighborhood walkability also results in better physical, social and cognitive health for the whole community, and more accessible streetscapes mean more independence for people with disabilities, whose mobility options are most limited.

Thank you again to AARP for their generous support! To learn about the other Community Challenge grantees, visit: www.aarp.org/CommunityChallenge

Thanks for coming on the 2023 Bob Sloane Walk

Thank you so much to everyone who joined us yesterday for our 2023 Bob Sloane Walk! It was a pleasure to gather with friends, learn from our speakers, and enjoy a walk (despite the rain!) through downtown, Boston Common, and the South End. WalkMassachusetts has a yearly tradition of leading a free walk each spring along a short route that includes stops where we hear from guest speakers. This was our second year hosting a springtime walk in honor of Bob Sloane, a co-founder of WalkBoston who passed away in May 2021. He was a true pioneer in walking advocacy and a pillar of our organization. We thank those who shared loving memories of him throughout the event.

We’d also like to say a big thank you also to our wonderful speakers! Shawn Quigley, a Park Ranger with the National Park Service, gave a moving account on the history of the 54th Regiment, one of the first Black regiments of the American Civil War, at their memorial just across the street from the State House.

Nathan Frazee, a Project Manager from Boston Parks and Recreation Department shared about the process and implementation of the Boston Common Master Plan.

The last talk was given under the arms of ‘The Embrace’ Memorial by Brian Sandford, a designer with MASS Design Group, the nonprofit architecture firm behind the memorial’s design and realization for their client, Embrace Boston. We ended the evening with drinks at MASS Design Group’s office space in the South End while perusing their “Making the Embrace” exhibit. Thank you to MASS for welcoming us into your fantastic space.

(We even glimpsed a rainbow before the sun set.)

Thank you for helping us honor Bob Sloane’s legacy and continue his advocacy work. Keep an eye out for more events this summer!

Catching up on all things East Boston!

Yesterday, May 21st, Senior Program Manager Iolando Spinola and Program Coordinator Ava Dimond tabled for WalkMassachusetts at the Boston Athletic Association Neighborhood Fitness Series, presented by Boston Children’s Hospital. The walk/run took place at East Boston Memorial Park and featured a free 1 mile and 2 mile run/walk course for participants of all ages and abilities. The event was lively with music and lawn games, and especially well-attended by families with young children.

Senior Program Manager Iolando Spinola tabling for WalkMassachusetts

B.A.A.’s Neighborhood Fitness Series’ walk/run participants headed out at noon for their 1 or 2 mile course

We also had the opportunity to connect with participants and say hello to some walkers from Caminatas Seguras, a walking group in East Boston that convenes each Tuesday to enjoy local parks and green spaces and discuss ways to improve their neighborhood. WalkMassachusetts is partnering with Caminatas Seguras and GreenRoots on a three year grant program to improve accessibility to East Boston Parks called Connecting Kids and Families to Parks and Open Spaces. This grant is funded by Boston Children’s Hospital.

Last Tuesday, Iolando joined Caminatas Seguras for their first post-winter meeting at the American Legion playground to share food and new initiatives. GreenRoots and WalkMassachusetts then attended Mayor Wu’s Neighborhood Coffee Hours at Noyes Park in East Boston to discuss community concerns, open space and their neighborhoods (and enjoy some Dunkin’ Munchkins and ice coffee!)

Caminatas Seguras and Iolando Spinola following their walk last Tuesday

WalkMassachusetts presents at BARI Conference 2023

Last Friday, WalkMassachusetts’ Deputy Director of Advocacy Brendan Kearney presented at the Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI) Conference 2023: Greater Boston’s Annual Insight-to-Impact Summit. The BARI Conference aims to be a unique forum for community leaders, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to share how they advance data-driven research and policy in Greater Boston—and how we could do even more through collective action. The conference took place at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, an inspiring space to listen to impactful talks, network with others, and imagine innovative ways to collect and utilize data.

Pictured right to left: Ava Dimond, Iolando Spinola, Althea Wong-Achorn, Brendan Kearney.

Brendan was one of four speakers on the topic of “Redesigning Transportation.” Brendan and Bonnie Polin of MassDOT co-authored the talk, entitled “MassDOT’s Impact Crash Portal (And How WalkMassachusetts And Other Advocates Use It).” MassDOT created the IMPACT (Interactive Mapping Portal for Analysis & Crash Tracking) portal to make crash data that is reported by police departments more readily available to the public. IMPACT allows you to look at data through pre-built reports or conduct your own self-driven analysis; dashboards allow for interactive analysis & data exploration. The talks were moderated by Liz Williams, Ph.D., Director of Data and Policy at MassDOT‘s Office of Transportation Planning, while Jarred Johnson, Executive Director at TransitMatters, acted as provocateur asking follow up questions of the speakers before opening it up to the audience.

WalkMassachusetts has used IMPACT to help communities identify high risk locations & encourage residents to push for safety changes. Using IMPACT, we published a report last March examining spatial and demographic patterns in fatal pedestrian crashes statewide.

We would like to thank Bonnie and her team at MassDOT for making this data accessible to the public and for seeking feedback to continually improve the portal. Thank you to Liz and Jarred for a thought-provoking discussion following the talks, and to BARI for inviting WalkMassachusetts to discuss our experience with IMPACT.