Announcement – Page 38 – WalkMassachusetts

Rally with Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu to build support for investing in transit service

By WalkMassachusetts | June 28, 2019

As WalkBoston testified at a MBTA Fare Proposal public hearing in February, the debate over increasing MBTA fares is a symptom of a much larger problem: how we fund transportation in Massachusetts is broken, and we fail to consider our transportation system as a whole.

MBTA riders are asked to pay more time and time again, yet the gas tax has only been increased once since 1991 (in 2013, by just 3 cents). Meanwhile our Regional Transit Authorities continue to struggle and our roads and bridges face significant funding gaps. We need to raise revenue across all travel modes to support the infrastructure needed for all travel modes.

Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu, Golden Shoe winner & annual meeting keynote speaker in 2017, is mobilizing riders, colleagues on the Boston City Council, councilors across the region, and lawmakers on Beacon Hill to build support for investing in transit service by leading two days of transit activism this Sunday, 6/30, and Monday, 7/1, in protest of the MBTA fare hikes taking place on Monday, July 1st. Her goal is to show strength in numbers of MBTA ridership–we can force political will to change if everyone just gets on the same page!

To get involved

If you’re interested, you can sign up at bit.ly/unfairhikes, or through the Facebook Event on Michelle’s Facebook here. You can also connect with her on Twitter or Instagram @wutrain.

Learn more

Boston Globe: Michelle Wu to protest MBTA fare hikes with volunteers at T stations

WBUR: Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu To Rally For A #BostonTParty

Age-Friendly Walking in the Berkshires

By WalkMassachusetts | June 13, 2019

This week, we headed west to the Berkshires! We shared Age-Friendly walking presentations in Cheshire and Great Barrington as part a grant from the Tufts Health Plan Foundation to expand our Age-Friendly efforts across the commonwealth. Thank you to representatives from Councils on Aging in Adams, Dalton, Egremont, Pittsfield, and Williamstown for participating, and thank you to Age Friendly Berkshires and Be Well Berkshires for helping spread the word. We look forward to working together more in the coming months.

WalkBoston is hiring a program manager

By WalkMassachusetts | April 12, 2019

WalkBoston is looking for a Program Manager to become a core member of our team. Please submit your resume and a cover letter to jobs@walkboston.org by June 21, 2019.

WalkBoston, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) advocacy organization, makes walking safer and easier in Massachusetts to encourage better health, a cleaner environment and more vibrant communities. We know that walking improves personal, economic, environmental and civic health. Working on walking takes us across Massachusetts to empower people with knowledge and proven strategies to make their own communities more walkable. Our small, committed staff work as a team to make change: whether it’s getting a crosswalk painted in a neighborhood, or influencing Massachusetts state policy to make streets safer for all.

We are seeking a Program Manager to oversee our statewide technical assistance programs that work to improve the safety and quality of the pedestrian environment. Our training programs describe the health, economic and community benefits of walking, and include walk audits that identify infrastructure deficiencies, recommend solutions, and build community support for walking.

Responsibilities:

Coordinate program implementation with state agencies, municipal staff, community-based organizations, and local advocates. Current programs include: MA Dept of Public Health Mass in Motion Program, Age Friendly Walking, and Safe Walking for Healthy and Connected Lives
Conduct walk audits, which require built environment analysis skills and technical knowledge of traffic calming strategies and pedestrian infrastructure
Participate in coordination of the WalkMassachusetts Network program, including writing blog posts, planning events, and providing walkability technical support
Ability to work independently and collaboratively with WalkBoston staff, board of directors, program participants and volunteers
Support proposal and grant writing efforts
Attend public meetings
Act as WalkBoston representative on various task forces or working groups

Qualifications:

Bachelors degree or graduate degree in urban planning/design, transportation planning/engineering, public health, or related field, with at least 5 years of experience
Project management skills, including budget development and project scope preparation
Superior communication skills. Ability to write and speak clearly and persuasively in diverse settings to articulate the impacts of WalkBoston’s work and the benefits of walkable communities.
Self-started, entrepreneurial, flexible and well organized
Commitment to WalkBoston’s mission to create more walkable communities across the state.

Benefits:

Full-time position (37.5 hours/week).
Annual salary range: $50,000 – $55,000 based upon prior work experience
Standard benefits include: holiday compensation, paid time off, and flexible scheduling

Interested applicants possessing the above experience and skills are encouraged to apply by sending a resume and cover letter with salary expectations to jobs@walkboston.org (no phone calls please). WalkBoston is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Wendy Landman, Executive Director

Announcing this year’s Golden Shoe Winners

By WalkMassachusetts | March 12, 2019

PRESS ADVISORY – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Brendan Kearney, bkearney@walkboston.org or 617-367-9255

FALL RIVER AND SPRINGFIELD GROUPS HONORED WITH GOLDEN SHOE AWARDS FOR MAKING STRIDES TO IMPROVE WALKING IN THEIR COMMUNITIES

BOSTON: Tuesday, March 12, 2019 – WalkBoston will present Golden Shoe Awards to groups from Fall River and Springfield at WalkBoston’s 29th Annual Celebration on March 18, 2019 to celebrate and reward those who have bettered the walking environment and exemplify the ideals that guide WalkBoston’s work. Golden Shoes are awarded each year to individuals, agencies, municipalities and companies. This year’s Golden Shoe Award winners:

Fall River

Fall River Walking Champions | Friends of the Quequechan River Rail Trail: Janice Velozo and many others | Bike Fall River: Al Lima and many others | Partners for a Healthier Community: David Weed, Marcia Picard | Fall River School Dept: Letourneau School Vice Principal, David Assad, Fonseca School Principal, Alicia Lisi | Fall River Dept of Community Maintenance: John Perry, Laura Ferreira and others | Fall River Dept of Health and SSTAR, Mass in Motion and 1422: Julianne Kelly, Eric Andrade, and Paula Beaulieu | Fall River City Planners and Engineers: Bill Roth | Fall River Police Dept: Officer Rick Saraiva | Fall River Fire Dept: Chief John Lynch | Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD): Jackie Jones

This diverse group of people and organizations from across Fall River have joined forces to create wonderful new walking opportunities and establish a base of activists who will ensure that Fall River is even more walkable in the years to come. A long-anticipated dream of residents to reconnect a City split by the building of Interstate 195 was realized with the planning and construction of the beautiful and well-loved Quequechan River Rail Trail (QRRT). It was then determined that a collaboration of City departments and volunteers was essential to promote, protect, and preserve the Trail.

Since 2016, the Friends of the Quequechan Trail have conducted clean-ups, maintained gardens, placed wayfinding signs, and organized events to keep the Trail a welcoming and safe resource for all residents and visitors to the City. In other locations around the City, all ages got involved: senior champions led walks around Senior Centers and worked to secure improvements for sidewalks and crosswalks, and a Safe Routes to School grant was awarded to protect the youngest pedestrians. Resident activists led the passage of the Community Preservation Act, and partnered with city staff for the adoption of a Complete Streets Policy.

Springfield

Springfield Walking Champions | City of Springfield Dept of Health and Human Services: Helen Caulton-Harris, Commissioner, Benjamin Bland, Mass in Motion Coordinator, Kiah McAndrew-Davis, 1422 Grant Manager | City of Springfield Dept of Public Works: Matt Sokop, Chief Engineer | Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, Catherine Ratté | LiveWell Springfield, Jessica Collins | Wayfinders, Beatrice Dewberry | WalkBike Springfield, Betsy Johnson

This persistent, resourceful, and courageous group of walking champions shows the power of layering the efforts of local advocates, public health professionals, and city staff with resources from regional and state agencies. Their dedication to improving Springfield’s walking environment has resulted in real changes to the built environment stretching across the City. These changes took time and could not have happened without true, undying commitment.

Policies now exist to sustain these efforts – a crosswalk standard, pedestrian safety curriculum for elementary students, and a complete streets policy that looks to expand the biking and walking network in Springfield. The work of these champions has led to more students walking to school along safer routes, and neighborhood residents crossing streets in brightly painted, prominent crosswalks.

Keynote speaker

Eric Fleegler, MD, MPH, is a pediatric emergency physician and heath resources researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Fleegler has researched safety for pedestrians as a public health priority and will address ways of thinking about the many aspects and determinants of health from education to economics to the built environment. He will discuss ways to engage the health care community in the effort to make local streets safer, similar to his efforts to deal with gun violence as a major issue of street safety in our communities.

Event Details

WalkBoston’s 29th Annual Celebration & Golden Shoe Awards
March 18th, 2019 from 5-8pm
Fort Point Room – Atlantic Wharf, 290 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210

Schedule

5 – 6:15pm food & drinks
6:15pm speaking program & awards

Welcome | Emma Yashar, Board President
Year in Review | Wendy Landman, Executive Director
1 Minute Project Highlights | WalkBoston Staff
Golden Shoe Presentations | Fall River & Springfield
Keynote Speaker | Eric Fleegler, MD, MPH

Organizer: WalkBoston
Contact: Brendan Kearney bkearney@walkboston.org 617-367-9255

Registration is open on Eventbrite at wbmarch18th.eventbrite.com

WalkBoston makes walking safer and easier in Massachusetts to encourage better health, a cleaner environment and more vibrant communities. Find out more at walkboston.org

Comments delivered at MBTA Fare Proposal Public Hearing on Feb 27, 2019

By WalkMassachusetts | February 28, 2019

WalkBoston is greatly concerned that the MBTA’s proposal to increase fares will reduce public transit ridership and increase driving, congestion, and greenhouse gas emissions. This is the wrong direction for the Greater Boston area and for Massachusetts as a whole. We need more people riding transit, not fewer, if we are to meet our climate change goals as a Commonwealth.

We are further concerned that the proposed fare increase will disproportionately impact low-income riders, who often lack other means of transportation. Paired with walkable streets and neighborhoods, a reliable, consistent public transportation system is a lifeline for many people. It is an important element of good quality of life, as well as economic and social mobility, for many Greater Boston and Massachusetts residents.

The debate over increasing MBTA fares is a symptom of a much larger problem: how we fund transportation in Massachusetts is broken, and we fail to consider our transportation system as a whole. MBTA riders are asked to pay more time and time again, yet the gas tax has only been increased once since 1991 (in 2013, by just 3 cents). Meanwhile our Regional Transit Authorities continue to struggle and our roads and bridges face significant funding gaps. We need to raise revenue across all travel modes to support the infrastructure needed for all travel modes.

Massachusetts is not short on ideas for increasing transportation funding. This problem has been studied extensively and solutions are within reach. What is lacking is political will. We encourage the MBTA to work with MassDOT and other stakeholders to find new sources of revenue to equitably invest in the 21st-century transportation system we all deserve.

Thank you.