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One Minute, One Slide: WalkMA & Framingham Youth Walking Advocates

By WalkMassachusetts | September 24, 2020

Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as prepared for this year’s annual event on September 23, 2020 on Zoom.

LeighAnne Taylor

I’m LeighAnne Taylor, Program Manager at WalkBoston.

The WalkMassachusetts Network is a statewide network of multi-sectoral groups working on walking across the Commonwealth. In February, WalkBoston staff and members of the WalkMassachusetts Network convened for our second Network-wide forum in Framingham to provide opportunity for members to connect and share best practices. During the half-day forum, members shared their local wins for walkability and participated in “advocacy clinics,” aimed to strengthen their walking efforts. We are excited to build on the momentum of this forum and are planning for WalkMassachusetts Network virtual events. Join the network and stay tuned.

The second project I’ll highlight is WalkBoston’s Youth Working Towards Walkable Streets initiative with the MetroWest Boys and Girls Club in Framingham. With funding from the MetroWest Health Foundation, we are working with an enthusiastic group of 6-8th graders to teach them about the elements of walkable communities and to help them build skills to advocate for community change. In January, we kicked this work off with a series of practice-based learning sessions. We look forward to picking this work back up in 2021 and are excited to support these youth leaders in making changes to the built environment and local policies to support safer, more enjoyable walking in Framingham.

One Minute, One Slide: Age-Friendly Walking in Boston and Beyond

By WalkMassachusetts | September 24, 2020

Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as prepared for this year’s annual event on September 23, 2020 on Zoom.

Wendy Landman

Aging in your own community is what almost everybody says they want to do. Massachusetts is working to live up to it’s declaration as an age friendly state and WalkBoston is in the thick of things with our age-friendly walking efforts across the state. Almost exactly a year ago today with the mayor and many local residents we were celebrating new benches in Grove Hall as part of Boston’s new WalkBoston-inspired bench program. Research has shown us that plenty of benches are a key ingredient of keeping older adults walking.

We could not have imagined that today our work would have transitioned to zoom and helping communities figure out the best ways to keep seniors active during COVID-19. That could mean creating pop-up connections between senior housing and nearby parks and shopping. Or carrying out walk audits remotely or with video conversations about individual walks.

We are also thinking about the future and have developed a list of our top 8 municipal infrastructure and policy recommendations for age-friendly walking. People from Egremont to Quincy, from Salem to Worcester and Barnstable want to keep on walking as they age in their communities – and WalkBoston is there as a partner for the long term.

One Minute, One Slide: Walking & Communicating in the time of COVID

By WalkMassachusetts | September 24, 2020

Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as prepared for this year’s annual event on September 23, 2020 on Zoom.

*Can’t read the text on these screenshots? Click here or on the image to access the archived Mailchimp message.*

Brendan Kearney

I’m Brendan Kearney, WalkBoston’s deputy director.

March 18th, we launched a weekly storytelling email effort that we called “Keep Walking”

It started as a way to share positive news as we collectively grappled with the unfamiliarity of life in quarantine. It quickly became more than that though, and we now know that a limited run email series is a way that we can delve deeper into a topic area related to walking.

It gave us a chance to pause and formulate what has been important to us each week: from exploring new rail trails (Issue 3), to rediscovering neighborhood walking maps (Issue 4); from learning about the animals that coexist on the streets around us (Issue 6), to the blooms of flowers along streets and a resurgence of gardens and CSAs (Issues 8 and 9); from sharing streets for physical distancing (Issue 11), to walking to support main street businesses (Issue 14).

As Stacey spoke about earlier, Keep Walking also became the space where we committed to being better advocates and working to end the structural racism that perpetuates violence against Black people (in Issue 12). We have always believed that safe walking is a fundamental right, but it is not one that we all share equally: a “safe street” does not mean the same thing for every person (Issue 13).

We are grateful to everyone that reached out and shared your stories, too: including the way walking has become a critical release valve.

To read any of these issues, head to walkboston.org/keepwalking

WalkBoston testimony to a joint meeting of the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board and the MassDOT Board

By WalkMassachusetts | September 22, 2020

Testimony as prepared for joint meeting of the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board and the MassDOT Board, September 21, 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, public comment to the Boards is via short phone messages that are played to the Board members at the beginning of each meeting. The I-90 Allston Project was on the agenda for the meeting and the following comment was provided by WalkBoston as a phone message.

Good morning Board members.

This is Wendy Landman, WalkBoston’s member of the I-90 Task Force and a veteran of the many-year I-90 environmental process.

I would like to begin my comments by thanking Secretary Pollack for specifically calling out walking and biking access to the Charles, and planning for dual paths along the Charles in her recent Boston Globe op ed.

As the Board and MassDOT turn to selecting a preferred alternative for the project I would like to remind you of the following sentence from the purpose and need section of MassDOT’s I–90 Scoping report:

…“including service that provides a north to south connection through the Project Area as well as for options that do not preclude future intercity rail service and transit service on the Grand Junction Rail line.”

Of the three alternatives now under study by MassDOT, only the at-grade and hybrid options rebuild the little Grand Junction bridge over Soldiers Field Road which would permit two–track rail service along the Grand Junction line to be added in the future. Because the highway viaduct option does not rebuild the little Grand Junction bridge, future Grand Junction service would require very significant, expensive and disruptive construction in the throat area again – essentially precluding such service. Hence, the highway viaduct option does not meet the project’s purpose and need as defined by MassDOT.

Among the alternatives under study, we believe that the at-grade alternative will best meet the project’s full purpose and need. We are pleased that conversations are now underway between some advocates, pro bono design teams and MassDOT to identify an at–grade alternative that serves all modes and all users of this critical transportation project AND helps restore the health and vitality of the Charles River and the Charles River Reservation.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the project.