Tag: Annual Celebration

Golden Shoe Award Winners For March 2021 Annual Meeting

Golden Shoe Award Winners For March 2021 Annual Meeting

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As presented at this year’s annual event on Zoom, March 24, 2021. 

Karen Cord Taylor for her long term service as a committed Board member and fierce advocate for better walkability in her Beacon Hill neighborhood and the greater Boston community. Karen has devoted thirteen years to WalkBoston and has been part of so many wins as a WalkBoston Board member. Her dedication to clearing sidewalks and curb ramps of snow is particularly top of mind this winter. In addition to her advocacy work, Karen, a former newspaper owner and publisher, often used her editing skills to ensure our written communications were top notch. Karen was also instrumental in attracting and nominating wonderful new Board members, including our former Board President Emma Yashar. Your impact continues far beyond your 13-year Board tenure!

The MassDOT Shared Streets and Spaces Program provided funds to municipalities that allowed them to quickly respond to the many mobility challenges highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the need for more sidewalk space to walk safely 6’ apart, to dine outdoors in unused parking lanes, and to reimagine streets as low speed, safe spaces for people walking and biking. The popularity of this program demonstrated the desire, need and capabilities of municipalities to implement quick build projects to make streets safer and more enjoyable for all. WalkBoston is a huge fan of this program and we would love to see the program continue beyond the pandemic! In fact, we have a call to action for all of you to help make this happen later in our program. Kate Fichter, MassDOT’s Assistant Secretary for Policy Coordination and Project Lead for the Shared Streets and Spaces Program will be accepting the Golden Shoe Award on behalf of the group. We also want to thank the Barr Foundation and the Solomon Foundation for not only funding technical assistance to municipalities, but also for truly leading program outreach to ensure that all municipalities had capacity to apply regardless of local resources or expertise. Help us say THANKS for Shared Streets and Spaces so these types of projects happen more often.

Finally, our last Golden Shoe Award goes to Frank Caro. Frank died unexpectedly in October of 2020. He was an extremely dedicated Brookline resident determined to make streets and spaces more hospitable to older adults. As the founder and co-chair of the BrookLINE Community Aging Network (CAN), Frank ensured that the needs of older adults were more integrated into the life of the town. His work earned BrookLINEan Age-Friendly town designation by the World Health Organization, the first town to do so in New England. In addition to Frank’s Age-Friendly work, he founded the BrookLINE Pedestrian Advisory Board, which continues to conduct research on pedestrian activities and needs. Some of the Board’s projects included sidewalks on Longwood Avenue, audible signals along Beacon Street, and an inventory of hedges interfering with pedestrian space on sidewalks. Carol Caro, Frank’s widow, will be accepting the Golden Shoe Award on Frank’s behalf. Read a post about Frank Caro by WalkBoston board member Anita Johnson.

Recording of WalkBoston’s 31st Annual Celebration & Golden Shoe Awards (March 24, 2021)

Recording of WalkBoston’s 31st Annual Celebration & Golden Shoe Awards (March 24, 2021)

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Recording of WalkBoston’s 31st Annual Celebration & Golden Shoe Awards, held on Zoom on March 24, 2021. (Inspired? You can still give and be a part of the event’s fundraising effort!)

Agenda/Timeline:

  • Year in Review – Stacey Beuttell, Executive Director
  • A look back – Emma Yashar, Outgoing Board President
  • Looking ahead – Betsy Johnson, Incoming Board President
  • Presentation of Golden Shoe Awards
    • Karen Cord Taylor – longtime WalkBoston board member
    • MassDOT Shared Streets and Spaces Program (with special recognition to the Barr Foundation and Solomon Foundation); accepted by Kate Fichter
    • Frank Caro (in memoriam) – accepted by Carol Caro
  • Panel Discussion (starts at 0:28:06​)
    • Tracy A. Corley, PhD – Director of Research and Partnerships at the Conservation Law Foundation
    • Mike McGinn – Executive Director at America Walks
    • Jodie Medeiros – Executive Director at Walk San Francisco
    • Alexander Train, AICP – Director, Department of Housing and Community Development for the City of Chelsea
  • Call to Action: Say THANKS for Shared Streets and Spaces – Brendan Kearney, Deputy Director

Thank you for all your support over the years!

How to tune in to the annual meeting

How to tune in to the annual meeting

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Missed the event? You can watch the recording here.

Today’s the day! The WalkBoston 31st Annual Celebration is tonight, 3/24 at 5pm ET.

Our board had pledged to match $5,000 worth of donations from tonight’s event (both donations made through Eventbrite RSVPs & this GoFundMe page this evening). If you’re tweeting about the event, tag us @walkboston and use the hashtag #WalkBoston31st

Our 2020 Annual Report was released in conjunction with our 31st Annual Meeting on March 24, 2021. Click the cover to read the report.

How to tune in:

  • Sign up on Eventbrite! If you RSVP’d on Eventbrite prior to this week, an email went out Monday night with the Zoom link.
  • Registered more recently? The Zoom link was included in your confirmation email. If you can’t find that email, two more automated Eventbrite reminders with the Zoom link will go out this afternoon: 2 hours before & 10 minutes before the event starts.
  • Not sure if you registered? If you are logged in to Eventbrite, this online event page will include the Zoom link.
  • Not able to make it? A recording of the event will be available after the event.

Golden Shoes will be awarded to:

Our panelists: 

  • Tracy A. Corley, PhD – Director of Research and Partnerships at the Conservation Law Foundation
  • Mike McGinn – Executive Director at America Walks
  • Jodie Medeiros – Executive Director at Walk San Francisco
  • Alexander Train, AICP – Director, Department of Housing and Community Development for the City of Chelsea

We’re rolling out a “Thank You” effort, and want you to take part!

  • Contact your local elected officials & public works/planning staff. Let them know you like the creative use of public space shown possible through the MassDOT “Shared Streets & Spaces” and “Shared Winter Streets & Places” programs (that you’ll hear more about during the event), and that you want to see more! You can see a full list of projects funded on this page, along with project descriptions.
  • Copy us on your message: comments@walkboston.org
  • Not sure what to say? You can keep it simple:

Thank you, _____, for [insert the part of the project description in your city/town that you like]. 

I really like these programs and want to see continued creative use of street space and a focus on walking safety with MassDOT funding support.

Thanks, Your name & address

Golden Shoe in memoriam: Frank Caro

Golden Shoe in memoriam: Frank Caro

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Frank Caro will be honored with a Golden Shoe in memoriam on Wednesday night at the WalkBoston Annual Meeting. See the Eventbrite page for more info.

Frank Caro, who died suddenly in October, was a strong, dogged advocate for safe and pleasant city walking. After his retirement as a Professor of Gerontology at the University of Massachusetts, he turned his attention to making Brookline a better place for senior living; he was instrumental in making Brookline the first Age-Friendly City in New England and in co-founding the Brookline Community Aging Network (BrooklineCAN).

He believed that benches along Brookline’s major streets would assist seniors enormously in their desire to be walkers, and he convinced the Commissioner of Public Works to install a significant number of benches along Beacon St., Brookline’s major thoroughfare, as well as several other Town locations (though these attractive benches are used by people of all ages).

He was the lead advocate for and first chair of the Brookline Pedestrian Advisory Committee, an official Town Committee that studies pedestrian issues and makes recommendations to the Town Transportation Board.

He advocated for proper snow removal from sidewalks, including at corners where snow plows traditionally left piles of snow and ice for pedestrians to treacherously climb over, a campaign that has been highly successful. He led a small volunteer group to check sidewalk snow removal in commercial areas after every snowfall.

He bemoaned and reported obstructions on the sidewalks such as overgrown foliage and heaved pavement slabs, believing that pedestrians have the right to easy, safe pathways throughout the sidewalks.

His observations of several walk signal problems provided the impetus for a major Pedestrian Advisory Committee study of essentially all walk signals in Brookline. The recommendations from that study have resulted in the Town applying for a grant to cover the costs of retrofitting the walk signals to comply with the ADA.  He also began documenting problematic crosswalks, some difficult to see by the vision-impaired and others mis-located.

He identified and documented the issue of poor pedestrian street lighting. Most of the street lighting in the Town was designed to illuminate automobile traffic lanes, not the sidewalks, with the high light placement casting street tree shadows on the sidewalks.  He convinced the Town to create a committee to study the problem and make recommendations.

Finally, he was the President of Friends of Hall’s Pond, an organization that cares for and enhances this small, wilderness sanctuary in the heart of Brookline, a magical natural place for pedestrians to linger and savor.

All of these issues require dogged attention to detail upon detail upon detail, which Frank undertook wholeheartedly, in his love of real city life, the life of the walker.

Anita Johnson, WalkBoston Board Member

Save the Date: Annual Celebration – 3/24, 5pm

Save the Date: Annual Celebration – 3/24, 5pm

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Join us on March 24th (on Zoom) to celebrate & honor this year’s Golden Shoe winners!

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

Our Golden Shoes Awards recognize individuals, agencies, municipalities and companies exemplifying the ideals of WalkBoston’s mission.

Congratulations to our 2021 Golden Shoes!

  • Frank Caro (in memoriam)
  • Kate Fichter and the MassDOT Shared Streets Grant Program Team (with special recognition to the Barr Foundation and Solomon Foundation)
  • Karen Cord Taylor

This year, we’re featuring a panel of speakers instead of a standard keynote address. The panel will be moderated by WalkBoston’s executive director Stacey Beuttell. Speakers include:

  • Tracy Corley, PhD – Director of Research and Partnerships at the Conservation Law Foundation
  • Mike McGinn – Executive Director at America Walks
  • Jodie Medeiros – Executive Director at Walk San Francisco
  • Alex Train, AICP – Director, Department of Housing and Community Development for the City of Chelsea

Registration is on a pay-as-you-can basis. Suggested donation $30.

Registration is open!