Category: Event

Event – 2022 WalkBoston Bob Sloane Walk: Muddy River

Event – 2022 WalkBoston Bob Sloane Walk: Muddy River

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Please join us on Tuesday, June 7th at 5:30pm for our first organized walk in almost three years. Sign up today!

The walk is part of Olmsted Now: Greater Boston’s Olmsted Bicentennial  and is the first annual walk in honor of Bob Sloane. Bob was a co-founder of WalkBoston and passed away in May 2021. He was a true pioneer in walking advocacy and a pillar of our organization, and we look forward to honoring his legacy by hosting a walk each year in his name. 

Since this is a point-to-point walk, we encourage you to use public transportation, walk, or bike to the start so that it is easy for you to head out afterwards.

HOW TO GET TO THE START

The walk will start on the Muddy River walk at the rear of the Hilton Garden Inn at Boylston Street and Brookline Avenue in Brookline (700 Brookline Ave, Brookline, MA 02446), very close to the Brookline Village stop (D Line). If you are coming from downtown on the D line, once you get off the train, cross the tracks and follow Pearl Street out to Washington St (Rt 9). You should see the hotel to your left on the corner of Brookline Ave and Washington St; we are meeting out back. Transportation close to the start location:

  • Brookline Village MBTA Station (D Line)
  • Riverway MBTA Station (E Line)
  • 66 Bus – Huntington Ave / Riverway stop
  • 60/65 Buses – Brookline Ave / Pearl St stop 
  • BlueBikes – Brookline Village Station

ROUTE

The route will wind its way from Brookline along the Emerald Necklace’s Muddy River toward Boston’s Fenway neighborhood. (View the route on Google Maps here).

The walk route is fully accessible. We are diverting off the pathway along the Muddy River onto sidewalks on Aspinwall Ave to Netherlands Road for the section of the path between Brookline Ave & Netherlands Road to avoid a bridge with stairs. Not only does this make our walking route accessible, it will also allow us to add an additional speaker stop on Netherlands Road at the Dutch House.

We’ll be ending the walk at the Trillium Fenway Beer Garden & Time Out Market so attendees have the option to have a drink or eat outside and continue the conversation. Transportation close to the finish location:

  • Brookline Ave / Park Dr stop
  • 8, 19, 60, 65 Buses – Fenway MBTA Station (D Line)
  • 47, 57, CT2 Buses – Park Drive / Fenway Station stop
  • BlueBikes – Landmark Center / Brookline Ave at Park Dr Station

SPEAKERS

Representatives from Fairsted (the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site) will share about Olmsted’s vision & describe the history and design of the Emerald Necklace. Additional speakers from Town of Brookline, City of Boston, and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy will join us along the way to share more about the Emerald Necklace and update us on the restoration & transportation projects located on this section.

Since we’ve had a strong RSVP response, we’ll likely be splitting attendees into two groups. We will get the first group started right after 5:30pm, and then send the next group a few minutes behind them.

We hope to see you on June 7th. Sign up today!

This walk is the first in a series of walks that WalkBoston is organizing for Olmsted Now:

Parks and public places are for everyone. Frederick Law Olmsted — reformer, writer, Boston transplant and America’s first landscape architect — is about to turn 200. Olmsted Now, Greater Boston’s Olmsted Bicentennial, is an invitation to actively shape a more equitable, verdant and vibrant city. Show up. Be seen. Share your story.

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk The Walk Session: “Jane Jacobs,” 5/5 12pm On Zoom

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk The Walk Session: “Jane Jacobs,” 5/5 12pm On Zoom

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WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session
“Jane Jacobs”
May 5, 12-1pm
Register for this event

Lunch hour discussion session on Zoom. Open to all. Eating is encouraged. Video is optional. 

This is our second topic-driven discussion session (not just books!). These discussion sessions may include articles, podcasts, videos, and yes, maybe even a book or two. This session will cover Jane Jacobs (brief bio on Wikipedia). The event coincides with the Jane’s Walk Festival Weekend (May 6-7-8), which features citizen-led free walks around the globe.

This Talk the Walk Session will feature a presentation by author Anthony Flint, who wrote “Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City.”

Sixty years after the publication of “The Death and Life of American Cities,” the legacy of Jane Jacobs endures. She would be cheered by the pandemic-driven transformation of urban environments to accommodate outdoor dining, biking, scooting, and walking; the support of local businesses and grassroots local climate action; and the resilience of transit systems enabling the “15-minute city,” a 21st-century version of how she lived her life in Greenwich Village. But what wouldn’t she be happy with? Quite probably the scourge of “Not in My Backyard” responses to multifamily housing, amid dizzying increases in housing costs.

We’ve included a few relevant links about Jane Jacobs below. If you have read something related that others might find interesting or a question you’d like to include, send it our way—we can include it in our event reminder email and add to this post.

Discussion questions to consider:

  • For whom does Jane Jacobs’ concepts work? For whom don’t they work?
  • What makes Jane Jacobs’ arguments exciting to planners?
  • How do Jane Jacobs’ theories/ideas hold up today, particularly with the latest challenges cities are facing in 2022 (ongoing pandemic, remote/hybrid work, online shopping, rising housing costs, gentrification, etc?)
  • What are some of the critiques of Jane Jacobs’ concepts?

Register for this meeting:

https://www.givesignup.org/TicketEvent/TalkTheWalk
You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Articles to get you started:

WalkBoston Presents 32nd Annual Celebration and Golden Shoe Awards, 3/30 at 5pm

WalkBoston Presents 32nd Annual Celebration and Golden Shoe Awards, 3/30 at 5pm

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This Wednesday, March 30th at 5PM, WalkBoston will present this year’s Golden Shoes to people or organizations who have accomplished terrific wins for walking: We will be honoring Josh Ostroff, Meg Robertson, and “Just Walk Boston.” 

Josh Ostroff is being honored for his unwavering commitment to walking advocacy in Natick and the greater Metrowest region. For more on Josh, head to his website.

Meg Robertson is a multi-decade champion throughout the Commonwealth for people with intellectual disabilities and vision impairment, blindness or deafblindness.

“Just Walk Boston” was founded by Brandy Cruthird as a way of fighting pandemic-induced loneliness and segregated public space through the simple act of walking. Read about the group in the Boston Globe.

Our 2022 Annual Celebration Keynote Speaker this year is Kyle Robidoux,

Kyle has spent his entire professional career working with community based organizations and local government. Most recently, Kyle worked as the Chief of Staff for Mayor Kim Janey’s Council President Office and currently works with the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Office of Housing Stability as the Assistant Director. Kyle is a sponsored athlete with and ultra-distance runner and the current Board President with FriendshipWorks. He lives in the Lower Roxbury neighborhood with his wife and daughter. Read more about Kyle on our website.

Congrats to all the winners! Want to celebrate this year’s winners and hear what Kyle has to say about accessibility and walkability? RSVP to join us this Wednesday March 30 at 5:00pm on Zoom!

Meet Kyle Robidoux: WalkBoston’s 2022 Annual Celebration Keynote Speaker

Meet Kyle Robidoux: WalkBoston’s 2022 Annual Celebration Keynote Speaker

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We are pleased to announce that our 2022 Annual Celebration Keynote Speaker this year is Kyle Robidoux!

Kyle is a tireless advocate who has focused his professional and personal career on building community. He has spent 20 years working in the nonprofit sector, including as a housing advocate helping individuals staying in shelters find permanent homes and as a community organizer. Most recently he has directed three programs for a local blindness organization.

Accessibility is a matter of great importance to him, not just as an advocate, but as an individual who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative eye disease that first affects your night vision and often leads to complete blindness, at age 11 and was declared legally blind at 19.

Kyle can also personally attest to the power of walking and why access to safe walking environments is crucial. In 2010 Kyle was close to 250 pounds, heading down the path to type II diabetes, and having a hard time playing with his young daughter. He began to walk. Then he began to run. Today he has completed over 25 marathons and ultramarathons, including five Boston Marathons and three 100-mile races.

Kyle now works for the City of Boston as the Assistant Director of Housing Stability for the Mayor’s Office, after a short stint as Chief of Staff for Boston Mayor Kim Janey’s District Council/President’s Office. Prior to working for the city, over the last 15 years Kyle has worked for three mission-driven nonprofits: the Director of Volunteer Services and Community Planning for MAB (Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired), the Director of Community Planning and Leadership Development for Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation, and the Director of Civic Engagement for United South End Settlements. In addition Kyle is an active volunteer, serving as Board Chair for FriendshipWorks and a member of the Commission for People with Disabilities.

Want to hear what Kyle has to say about accessibility and walkability? Join us on Wednesday, March 30 at 5:00pm on Zoom.

Sign up for the Annual Celebration now!

Stay tuned for the announcement of our 2022 Golden Shoe Awards winners!

Save the Date: Annual Celebration 3/30, 5pm

Save the Date: Annual Celebration 3/30, 5pm

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Join us on March 30th (on Zoom) to celebrate & honor this year’s Golden Shoe winners!

Each March, we hold our Annual Celebration to celebrate achievements in walkability and to highlight the contributions of our wonderful volunteers, board members, and the many individuals and corporations who support us every year.

The presentation of our Golden Shoe Awards is an integral part of the Annual Celebration. The Golden Shoes recognize individuals, agencies, municipalities and companies exemplifying the ideals of WalkBoston’s mission. 

More info on this year’s honorees and speakers coming soon, but registration is now open!