Tag: Boston

WalkBoston Comments on Harbor Garage Redevelopment

WalkBoston Comments on Harbor Garage Redevelopment

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October 9, 2020

Director Brian Golden
Boston Planning and Development Agency
Attn via email: Ebony DaRosa

Secretary Kathleen A. Theoharides
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
Attn via email: Alexander Strysky

Re: The Pinnacle at Central Wharf (Harbor Garage Redevelopment)

Dear Secretary Theoharides and Director Golden:

WalkBoston is Massachusetts’ leading pedestrian advocate. We frequently provide comments on major public and private development and infrastructure projects, with a focus on how those projects serve and affect people walking, biking and taking transit.

The redevelopment of the Harbor Garage has been under discussion for many, many years with major public disagreement about the appropriate scale and mix of uses that the project should comprise. We will not specifically weigh in on those issues because the Municipal Harbor Plan has now set the stage to allow a very large mixed-use development. And while a number of commenters will raise public process issues, broad public benefit issues and questions about the timing of required design and use standards as they apply to the timing and design of this project we look to others to provide detailed and focused attention on these issues.

Our comments focus on a more detailed and fine-grained set of concerns about the ways in which people walking, biking and taking transit to, through and next to the project will be affected.

From a site planning perspective, we believe that the current proposal has a better footprint and urban design than earlier development concepts. Improvements to the sidewalks, landscaping and scale of the pedestrian areas around the site will  contribute to a more comfortable and attractive streetscape than the existing conditions surrounding the garage. However we do have significant concerns.

Garage and loading access

Our significant and consequential comment is that garage access and egress should be removed from Atlantic Avenue in order to provide an acceptable site plan that will be safe for people walking and biking along Atlantic Avenue. 

The building site presents a complicated puzzle for the circulation of people and vehicles because all four sides of the site are public facing, each with its own personality and constituency.

Atlantic Avenue

  • Over many years, the advocacy community has invested an enormous amount of time and energy to establish and preserve the integrity of a wide and pedestrian-friendly sidewalk along Atlantic Avenue, both as a core walking route for thousands of people every day and as a component of the Rose Kennedy Greenway. We remain committed to maintaining the preeminence of this walking route. Atlantic Avenue’s significant pedestrian volumes can only be expected to grow in the coming years.

Milk Street

  • Milk Street is the primary connection from Downtown and the Greenway to the Aquarium,  serves millions of visitors every year, and will be part of the Aquarium’s planned Blueway. Special attention to this walking link to the harbor is an essential component of the site’s redevelopment.

Harbor Walk

  • The Harbor Walk is the City’s waterfront front door and pedestrian corridor with critical public realm and resiliency functions and serving thousands of walkers every day. As one of Boston’s most loved and important pedestrian assets and spaces, the Harbor Walk deserves great attention to design, programming and management.

East India Row

  • East India Row provides access to both the project site and the Harbor Towers residential development. It is used by both pedestrians and vehicles as a key link between Atlantic Avenue and these sites.

Vehicle Access

As currently configured and programmed, vehicle access into the garage for most of the garage users and all of the building deliveries will require vehicles to cross the Atlantic Avenue sidewalk. Access via this garage entrance will be for all passenger vehicles for office, retail, Aquarium and public parking, and for all loading (residential, office, retail). Egress across the sidewalk will serve all loading (residential, office, retail). As shown on the plans in the PNF, the driveway serving the garage entryway looks almost as wide as Milk Street.

According to the PNF (Table 2-7), during the morning peak hour there will be 292 vehicle trips turning across the Atlantic Avenue sidewalk – or about 5 vehicles/minute. The pedestrian data provided in Figure 2-7B indicates that under existing conditions approximately 700 pedestrians walk along Atlantic Avenue during the morning peak hour – or about 12 people/minute. The volume of vehicles turning across this busy sidewalk, without traffic signals to provide a safe time for pedestrians to walk along the sidewalk, is comparable to the right turn volumes of 238 vehicles from Seaport Boulevard onto Atlantic Avenue during the weekday PM peak hour (see Figure 2-6B), and the pedestrian volume walking along Atlantic Avenue of 738 people is also comparable. (PM pedestrian trips along Atlantic Avenue at the project site are even higher than AM trips, so a shift from garage access to garage egress would create even greater conflict.)

Bike volumes in the Atlantic Avenue bike lane are approximately 60-80 bikes/peak hour under existing conditions.

The PNF does not include projected walking and biking volumes (it does include those projections for vehicle trips). Given the rising numbers of walking and biking trips that we are seeing across downtown Boston, we request that these projections be included in the Draft EIR and PIR.

No specific information is provided about the number of loading trips that will enter and leave the building across the sidewalk. This information should also be provided in the Draft EIR and PIR.

In addition to the safety hazards of vehicles turning across people walking and biking, we also believe that vehicles exiting (and possibly entering) the garage will queue up across the sidewalk as they wait to enter the travel lanes along Atlantic Avenue (or potentially as they wait to enter the garage itself).

We do not believe that a garage and/or loading entrance into the project site should be allowed on Atlantic Avenue because it would require vehicles to turn across the sidewalk and bicycles traveling along Atlantic Avenue. We ask the City to require a shift of garage access to East India Row where it will impact far fewer people walking and biking, and where it will not negatively impact one of Boston’s premier walking routes. 

Aquarium and Harbor Towers Parking Long-Term and During the Construction Period

Because the site will continue to provide parking for the Aquarium (as required under the Municipal Harbor Plan) and also for the Harbor Towers, as well as serving the Project’s commercial, retail and residential occupants, it is not realistic to ask that the garage use on the site be eliminated. However, we urge the Proponent, the City, the Aquarium and Harbor Towers to re-examine the amount of parking included and reduce it to the greatest extent possible.  Additionally, we urge the developer to explore the feasibility of repurposing any reduction  of parking into maximizing the number of onsite affordable housing  units.. As the City is in the midst of revising its maximum allowable parking regulations, this Project should at a minimum adhere to these new lower limits. Any reduction in total vehicle trips into the site will reduce the Project impacts on people walking and biking as well as its contributions to traffic and greenhouse gas emissions.

We understand that publicly available parking spaces are needed for the Aquarium to maintain its operations – and especially in light of the financial hardship caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical to insure the Aquarium’s healthy operations when the Harbor Garage is out of service. Given that the City and the Proponent will be working closely with the Aquarium to develop a parking plan for the approximately 3-year construction period when there will be no parking at the site,  we believe it would be valuable to explore if any of the short-term parking mitigation sites may serve as a better long-term parking solution than building 500 new parking spaces.

Site Design, Operations and Management Comments

  • Pedestrian circulation around and through the development site
  • Site grade in relation to the surrounding waterfront
  • Public programming to support a lively public realm and welcome a diverse set of visitors
  • Shadow, wind and microclimate
  • Coordination with existing and future waterfront resiliency efforts that will affect people walking

Pedestrian circulation around and through the development site

Pedestrian circulation around the building, on the site and through the building seems to provide attractive pedestrian routes and easy access to all the public spaces within the development. The Proponent has noted that a variety of sidewalk, accessibility and landscape improvements will be made to enhance the walking environment.

We could not find a description of whether the diagonal interior pedestrian passage through the building would be open to the public 24/7.  We ask that the Proponent describe the operating plans for this pedestrian circulation in the next filing.

Relationship between the raised grade of the proposed site plan and the surrounding waterfront

The document provides a description of the proposed grade changes to raise the site level above projected water levels in future years, but it is not clear to the lay reader how the transition between this site and adjacent sites will affect the experience of people walking on this site or adjacent sites. Please include a detailed description and diagrams in the next project filing.

Public programming to support a lively public realm and welcome a diverse set of visitors

While the document provides several sentences describing the Proponent’s intent to provide site programming worthy of this important site and significant development, very little detail is included. We ask that the following questions be addressed in the next filing.

  • How will the Proponent ensure that people of all races, ethnicities and income groups feel welcome and included in both the interior and exterior spaces of the project?
  • What low and no-cost activities will be provided?
  • What will be the annual budget for programming of public activities on the site and how many years of programming will the Proponent provide?
  • Will there be children’s programming to align with Aquarium? Will the Aquarium have the opportunity to provide (and be compensated) for such programming?
  • How will the Proponent enliven the site during winter months?

Wind, shadow, and microclimate

We are pleased that the developer has explicitly worked to design a building façade/skin that is intended to reduce the wind impacts of the building and we look forward to seeing the wind studies that will be provided in future filings.

A project of this scale will have unavoidable shadow impacts on the streets, sidewalks and open spaces around it and this project is no exception.

Given the hope that this project will invite many people to enjoy the waterfront, we urge the developer to look in detail at ways to create comfortable outdoor spaces that are sheltered from the existing windiness of the waterfront; are shaded in the summer; and take full advantage of the sun in colder months. We suggest that the design team look at best practices for creating human-friendly microclimates on the site. This could mean spray stations for the summer, seating with solid legs and backs and wind protection for the winter, and different orientations to take advantage of the sun at every season. We look forward to learning more about the designs in the next filings.

Coordination with existing and future waterfront resiliency efforts that will affect people walking

The development plan meets the City’s resiliency guidance for the development site itself. We ask that the developer formally commit to working with the City and with other waterfront property owners and managers to ensure that public access to the HarborWalk will be safe and attractive over the long term as sea levels rise.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this significant new project. WalkBoston would be pleased to answer any questions about our comments and to meet with City or development team staff.

Sincerely,

Stacey Beuttell
Executive Director

Boston Herald: Woman struck by stolen vehicle suffers life-threatening injuries at Boston Public Garden, police say

Boston Herald: Woman struck by stolen vehicle suffers life-threatening injuries at Boston Public Garden, police say

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Boston Herald: “Woman struck by stolen vehicle suffers life-threatening injuries at Boston Public Garden, police say”

Brendan Kearney of the WalkBoston advocacy group said he counts five fatal crashes in Boston this year, including the one earlier this week in Andrew Square. He said the city should use its current Boston Common master planning project to take a hard look at the wide streets surrounding the pedestrian-heavy parks downtown that “really just invite speeding.”

“These streets – they are built for high speed,” Kearney said, noting other fatal crashes around that area over the past few years. “It doesn’t matter who’s driving, if the truck was stolen or not – we need fewer roads that are overbuilt like this.”

He added that the big-picture question people should be asking is, “How do we reduce speed and make it safer?”

Make the case for safer streets in Boston today

Make the case for safer streets in Boston today

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On Thursday, August 20th at 1pm, the Boston City Council will hold a hearing about plans for improving streets in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Will you take five minutes today to ask Boston to act with the urgency this crisis demands?

If you live in Boston, contact your city councilor: Ask that they attend this hearing and tell them you support these recommendations for improving Boston’s “Healthy Streets” plan. (Not sure what to say? We’ve included some sample text below.) It’s critical that councilors understand why action is needed to support essential workers and essential trips. If you have a personal story about either topic — maybe you’re currently riding the bus to work, or delivering food or medicine by bike — please share it with the council!

The City Council will meet at 1 p.m Thursday, so get your feedback in before then! You can watch the hearing live here. 

The steps Boston has taken to date are insufficient to meet this historic moment. With your support, we can get the city to not only commit to more short-term changes, but to making these long-overdue fixes permanent, too.

SAMPLE SCRIPT

Dear [councilor],

I’m writing to express my hopes for the next phase of Boston’s “Healthy Streets” plan for adapting streets in response to COVID-19. While I appreciate the steps Boston has taken to date, I am concerned about their focus and scope.

[Share your personal story about transportation and COVID]

I support recommendations made by the Boston Cyclists Union, MassBike, LivableStreets Alliance and WalkBoston for expanding and improving upon this initial effort. In particular, I would like this next phase of “Healthy Streets” to include:

  • Clear criteria for how projects are being prioritized
  • A greater emphasis on equity, addressing both systemic underinvestment and the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color
  • A plan for keeping and maintaining improvements through the winter
  • A commitment to making short-term improvements permanent and/or collecting data from pilots to advance priority projects

Thank you,

[Your name]
[Address]

WalkBoston Comments on the South Boston Seaport Strategic Transit Plan

WalkBoston Comments on the South Boston Seaport Strategic Transit Plan

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July 24, 2020 | WalkBoston Comments on the South Boston Seaport Strategic Transit Plan

To:
Brian P. Golden, Director Boston Planning & Development Agency
Chris Osgood, Chief of Streets
Councilor Wu, Chair Planning, Development and Transportation
Councilor Flynn, District 2

WalkBoston appreciates the opportunity to comment on the plan and are glad to see that a broad set of options are under consideration. We also are glad that a diversity of perspectives is represented by the four criteria used: Expand, Rely, Respect and Equalize.

We offer the following comments and look forward to hearing from you with responses to our comments and the opportunity to comment again as the plan is advanced.

  1. We are pleased that Improving Pedestrian Connections has emerged as one of the top candidates for short term implementation and agree that this strategy will serve many people and improve transit access and use for a broad range of users and locations.
  2. After reviewing the options for short term strategies that are now under consideration, we believe that an evaluation that gives greater weight to Equalize as a value would better serve the needs of the District and of Boston as a whole.

The strategies with the highest Equalize ratings are:

  • Expand Off-Peak Transit Service 100 points
  • Dedicated Transit Corridors 70 points
  • North Station – South Station – South Boston Seaport Direct Bus or Shuttle Service 61 points
  • Bus or Shuttle connection from Nubian Square to South Boston Seaport Link via Broadway 60 points
  • Bus or Shuttle connection from Central Square to South Boston Seaport via LMA and Nubian Square 58 points

While we are pleased that Expanding Off-Peak Transit Service has been flagged as one of the top strategies, we are concerned that Extend Private and Consolidated Shuttles on A St to Broadway has also been given a top rating as this is the ONLY strategy among all of those evaluated that received a negative rating for Equalize, and that it actually increases travel time for many transit users.

We believe that the Bus or Shuttle connection from Nubian Square to South Boston Seaport Link via Broadway or the Bus or Shuttle connection from Central Square to South Boston Seaport via LMA and Nubian Square (# 2 and 3 in overall ratings) should be included as one of the strategies to be advanced. These two options also directly serve some of Boston’s neighborhoods with the greatest number and density of people of color.

  1. There seems to be a disconnect between this BPDA Plan and the work of the Public Works Department on the Northern Avenue Bridge. As WalkBoston and a number of our fellow advocates have commented, we strongly disagree with the plan to allow shuttle buses to use a new Northern Avenue Bridge because it will negatively impact people walking and biking on the bridge, will require that the bridge be very large and expensive, and because it provides very little benefit to shuttle users.

None of the numerous bus service improvements suggested and reviewed in the South Boston Seaport Strategic Transit Plan (short or long term) are shown to be using a future Northern Avenue Bridge. The bridge itself is called out as a strategy, but it is not incorporated into any of the other strategies – all of the routes that cross the Fort Point Channel are shown using the Summer Street or Congress Street Bridges. We urge the Public Works Department to look again at its proposal and eliminate the use of the bridge for shuttle buses.

WalkBoston looks forward to working with you as this plan progresses.

Comment Letter on Recommendations around the Role of Police Enforcement in Vision Zero and Removal of Captain Danilecki from the Vision Zero Task Force

Comment Letter on Recommendations around the Role of Police Enforcement in Vision Zero and Removal of Captain Danilecki from the Vision Zero Task Force

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June 9, 2020

Mayor Martin J. Walsh

1 City Hall Square, Suite 500

Boston, MA

Dear Mayor Walsh,

As members of the Boston Vision Zero Task Force, we urge you to reform the way the Boston Police Department engages with the City’s Vision Zero program and to remove Captain Danilecki from the Vision Zero Task Force. 

In your comments to the press on Thursday, June 4, you committed to making Boston a leader when it comes to battling racism, saying: “We are listening — I am listening — to the voices and the messages of our black neighbors who are harmed by systemic racism every single day. As elected officials, it’s time to listen and learn and keep those voices at the center of the conversation.” As many have noted already, listening isn’t enough. Our Black and brown communities need concrete actions from our elected officials. Central to these conversations is the role of our transportation system in perpetuating racism. 

Boston has a legacy of destroying vibrant Black communities to make space for highways, creating barriers between certain neighborhoods and critical resources. Many streets in Black and brown communities act as conduits for cars to pass through quickly, without regard for the effect this has on people who live there. BIPOC communities often don’t have sufficient walking or biking infrastructure and lack access to high quality public transit, which in turn leads to well-documented public health disparities. Layered on top of these injustices is the violent reality of policing on our streets. 

We have long been concerned by the attitude and role that the various Boston Police Department representatives demonstrate at monthly Vision Zero Task Force meetings. When reporting on the details of fatal car crashes, officers have consistently engaged in victim-blaming, either suggesting or outright attributing a person’s death to their own fault. This attitude runs counter to the very concept of street safety and Vision Zero that the Boston Police Department is supposed to uphold. On top of this, it is clear that not all officers at Task Force meetings are trained or even aware of the Vision Zero program. 

Any conversation about moving away from enforcement as a community must include moving away from enforcement in transportation as well — and we should start with fundamentally rethinking the role of police and enforcement in Vision Zero. 

  • Remove police enforcement as a tenet of Vision Zero effective immediately. Law enforcement nationwide often make race-based stops and searches which further inflict harm, violence, and trauma in communities of color.

  • Instead of relying on police, use automated enforcement to address speeding, which is the cause of most fatal crashes. We are calling on you to champion state legislation that would allow automated enforcement explicitly built on equity principles (see attached FAQ for more details). 

  • Work with the City Council to pass an ordinance banning facial recognition technology in Boston communities. This would also establish necessary civil liberty protections for the use of automated enforcement in the future.

  • Ensure adequate long term funds for crash data collection and analysis. It is shameful that it took two years of advocacy from our organizations and several City Councilors to secure funding for a single civilian research and crash data analyst position within BPD after grant funding for the position ran out. 

  • Reduce the BPD budget and reallocate resources for social programs designed to strengthen communities. Follow the calls from organizations such as the Muslim Justice League, Families for Justice as Healing, Youth Justice and Power Union, and others.

  • Create a diversion program for any nonviolent traffic- and transportation-related infractions. For example, the City can provide front and rear lights to cyclists who may be traveling without them after dark or offer educational opportunities in lieu of fines for other similar minor and non-violent offenses. 


And lastly, in addition to changing the relationship between streets, enforcement, and Vision Zero, we are calling on you to condemn the actions of Captain Danilecki, who currently serves as the BPD designee on the City’s Vision Zero Task Force. 

Captain Danilecki’s violent actions against protestors exercising their right to gather peacefully at a white supremacist rally in Boston on August 31, 2019 are well-documented. More recently, Captain Danilecki was filmed acting in an aggressive, escalatory, and unacceptable manner towards peaceful protestors on May 31, 2020. 

We understand there has been at least one formal complaint filed with the BPD internal affairs division based on a video of Captain Danilecki’s behavior from that recent demonstration, and we hope that he is held accountable through that process. In the meantime, we are calling for the immediate removal of Captain Danilecki from the Vision Zero Task Force. It is unacceptable for an officer who engages in brutal tactics against civilians to be the liaison between BPD and those of us who are fighting to make our streets safer. 

We believe Boston is capable of achieving zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries on our streets. However, we will not have achieved our goal of safe streets if officer-initiated enforcement remains a tenet of Boston’s Vision Zero Action Plan, and furthermore, if Boston police officers are not held accountable for engaging in racist and aggressive tactics. We hope you agree and will take immediate action. 

Sincerely,

Becca Wolfson, Boston Cyclists Union

Stacy Thompson, LivableStreets Alliance 

Stacey Beuttell, WalkBoston

Cc:
Chief of Streets Chris Osgood,
Transportation Commissioner Greg Rooney,
Chief of Police William Gross,
Boston City Council