Tag: #ClearCurbCuts

January/February 2020 Newsletter

January/February 2020 Newsletter

articles

Snow clearance: my view (and queries) from my wheelchair
By Amy Hunt/South End resident
Newton’s snow evolution
By Andreae Downs/Newton city councilor
Digging in on snow
By Wendy Landman/WalkBoston senior policy advisor

snow quotes

Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person.
—Sylvia Plath (born in Jamaica Plain)

Snowflakes are one of nature’smost fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together.
—Vista M. Kelly

A lot of people like snow.
I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.
—Carl Reiner

When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels.
—Unknown

calendar

Registration or info for other events and public meetings can be found at walkboston.org/events

February 12, 2020 1-5PM
WalkMassachusetts Network 2020
South Middlesex Opportunity Council, Inc., 7 Bishop St, Framingham, MA 01702, USA (within a short walk of Framingham/ Worcester line.)

Our second in-person gathering of the WalkMassachusetts Network, at South Middlesex Opportunity Council in Framingham, MA (we will meet in their Cafe). This event is open to any local organizations working on walking! Free with RSVP. Please register by Wednesday, February 5th so we can plan for food.

March 25, 2020, 5-8PM
WalkBoston’s 30th Annual Party & Golden Shoe Awards
Boston Society of Architects
Fort Point Room / Atlantic Wharf 290 Congress Street, Boston
5:00 Eat, drink, schmooze
6:00 Program and Golden Shoes
Keynote Speaker: Mark Fenton
Tickets: $30 includes beer, wine and food.

Download the January/February 2020 Newsletter PDF

Snow clearance: my view (and queries) from my wheelchair

Snow clearance: my view (and queries) from my wheelchair

By Amy Hunt/South End resident

I’m a wheelchair-using paraplegic. Over the next few months, you may spot me on the streets, in traffic, traveling alongside cars, cabs, buses, trucks and Ubers. It’s risky, but it’s where the City of Boston puts me after it snows.

After a storm, the plows push mounds of snow onto street corners, covering curb ramps—the slopes at the end of sidewalks that make it possible for wheelchair users to cross the street. Without curb ramps, I’m going nowhere. So I make my way into traffic.

And I have questions.

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates curb ramps. But does the ADA have an opinion about ramps getting covered by four feet of snow?

The City expects residents who live closest to street corners to clear the snow piles it creates when contractors plow the street. According to Boston.gov, corner residents have three hours after a storm ends to get it done. That doesn’t consider the possibility of a 72-year-old Aunt Mae living in the corner property.

Snow piles can grow to four, five, even six feet tall and wide. Even if Aunt Mae can afford to pay someone to clear snow all winter, can the piles really be moved by a human with a shovel? Moved to where exactly?

These types of questions knock around my head while I travel in traffic. And another: If I get flattened out here, whom do my survivors take it up with? The Aunt Mae rule would appear to indemnify the City. But it’s never been tested.

Of course, some wheelchair users simply stay home, under house arrest, until the snow and sludge melts. They shouldn’t have to, and I can’t. I have a job and a 7-year-old.

I remember some years ago when Boston started installing curb ramps. There were intense neighborhood discussions around the ugly yellow plastic pads, a negotiated brownish-orange agreement, and a lawsuit by the Beacon Hill Neighborhood Association, until they settled on brick-red cast iron pads that didn’t alter the historic district’s sidewalks.

I think it’s time to talk again. Maybe Boston needs a few pieces of specialized snow removal equipment. Maybe it needs to keep the first and last parking spots on every street available for snow mounds. Maybe it needs to better communicate with residents better about their responsibilities.

ADA-mandated curb ramps covered under piles of snow and wheelchairs traveling in traffic are not inevitable natural events. They’re about policy.

WalkBoston followed Amy around 5 days after a storm. In just 3 blocks, she encountered 6 impassable curb cuts. Watch the video: walkboston.org/clearcurbcuts

This article was featured in WalkBoston’s January/February 2020 newsletter.
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Upcoming grant opportunities

Upcoming grant opportunities

We’ve highlighted upcoming funding opportunities that your community or organization may be able to use to improve walking in your area. Let us know if there are other grants that we should highlight!


Opportunity:

Winter City Vanguards / Wintermission: Bringing public life to winter cities

Funding organization(s):

8 80 Cities

Description:

Wintermission will coach three U.S. cities to plan, pilot, and implement creative solutions to increase social interaction and physical activity in public spaces during winter.

8 80 Cities is accepting proposals for Wintermission project partners in three U.S. cities. We will support these partners to become national leaders in winter city planning, design, and programming. These cities will become Winter City Vanguards, and work with 8 80 Cities and other partners to:

1. Lead a city-wide conversation about public life and social isolation in winter
2. Implement winter city pilot projects
3. Develop a unique winter city strategy

We encourage applications from teams of community leaders that are committed to making their city a vibrant, connected, and accessible place to live in winter.

Winter City Vanguard teams will receive:

  • Technical assistance to implement winter-based pilot projects and develop a Winter City Strategy
  • Up to $15,000 to cover material expenses to implement pilot projects
  • An all-expenses-paid trip for three team members to attend the Winter Cities Shake Up conference in Saskatoon, SK on January 23-26, 2019
  • Ongoing capacity-building and mentorship opportunities from global leaders in winter city building

Due date:

23:59PM Eastern, November 29, 2018.


Opportunity:

2019 Transportation Justice/Transportation and Climate Initiative Funding

Funding organization(s):

Transportation for Massachusetts

Description:

As a key element of our work on Transportation and Climate, Transportation for Massachusetts is seeking proposals to advance work at the intersection of transportation access and social justice. We expect to offer between 10 and 20 one-time grants ranging from $7,500 to $10,000 for projects starting in January 2019.

This funding is made possible through a grant from the Barr Foundation to support efforts to promote transportation justice and climate resiliency.

Due date:

11:59PM Eastern, November 30, 2018.


Funding opportunity:

The Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities program

Funding organization(s):

Safe Routes to School National Partnership

Description:

Grantee communities will receive training, individualized consultation and technical assistance, connection with peer communities to learn from one another, an in-person workshop in their community, as well as grants of $12,500 each to begin the implementation of the Safe Routes to Parks action plan. At the end of the grant period, awarded communities will have a customized action plan to improve safe, equitable local park access that includes ideas for how to fund and sustain their efforts and will have implemented at least one action from the plan.

Due date:

11:59PM Pacific, December 10, 2018.


Opportunity:

Commonwealth Places Grant

Funding organization(s):

The program seeks to engage and mobilize community members to make individual contributions through a crowdfunding platform with the incentive of a dollar-for-dollar funding match of up to $50,000 from MassDevelopment if the crowdfunding goal is reached within 60 days.

Description:

The Commonwealth Places program aims to engage and mobilize community members to make individual contributions through a crowdfunding platform, with the incentive of a dollar-for-dollar funding match (up to $50,000) from MassDevelopment if the crowdfunding goal is reached within 60 days. Through its first two rounds, Commonwealth Places has launched fifty projects in Massachusetts, with MassDevelopment providing more than $1.4 million in matching funds. Projects have included main street improvement projects in North Adams, Wakefield, and Hyannis; large scale mural projects and public art installations in Lynn, Salem, and Worcester; and pop-up retail activations in Ashland, Boston, Brockton, and Lowell, among others.

Due date:

Applications for the third round will be reviewed on a rolling basis with a deadline of midnight on December 21, 2018.


Funding opportunity:

MassTrails Grant program

Funding organization(s):

MassTrails Grants are funded through two different sources:

  • Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grants are federally funded through the United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), administered at the State level, providing funding for the development and maintenance of recreational trail projects. Both motorized and non-motorized trail projects qualify for assistance.
  • Commonwealth Trails grants are supported by the state’s annual Capital Investment Plan and aim to help communities design, create and maintain off-road shared-use pathway connections between where Massachusetts residents live, learn, work, shop, and recreate, especially by building out the longer distance regional networks of multi-use pathways across the state and filling in critical gaps in existing networks, or overcoming current barriers to connectivity.

Description:

MassTrails provides grants to support recreational trail and shared-use pathway projects across the Commonwealth. Grant amounts are dependent on the project and its needs, but generally range from $10,000 to $100,000 with grants of up to $300,000 awarded to high priority projects.

Eligible grant activities include project development, design, engineering, permitting, construction, and maintenance of recreational trails, shared use pathways, and the amenities that support trails.

MassTrails grants are REIMBURSABLE, meaning grantees must first pay for expenditures themselves and then submit for reimbursement using the required documentation.

MassTrails grants are MATCHING grants and require that proponents provide a minimum of 20% of the total project cost. Projects with higher match commitments will be given greater consideration.

Eligible projects require documented land owner permission and community support.

MassTrails grants are reviewed and recommended by the Massachusetts Recreational Trails Advisory Board (MARTAB) and the Commonwealth’s Inter-Agency Trails Team.

Due date:

February 1, 2019.

One minute, one slide: #ClearCurbCuts snow clearance video

One minute, one slide: #ClearCurbCuts snow clearance video

Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as presented at this year’s annual event on March 29, 2018.

Brendan Kearney 

Board member Nina Garfinkle & I contacted Amy Corcoran Hunt, who posted a message to a South End Facebook Group encouraging neighbors to shovel curb cuts to help those that have strollers or wheelchairs. Here’s what ensued:

That’s been viewed over 60,000 times since it was posted in mid-January! (across YouTube, Twitter, Facebook)

We’ve re-shared it after the next few storms & it has received a big response each time.

If anyone is interested in working w/ Amy and others on our newly formed snow clearance committee, please reach out!

#ClearCurbCuts links

#ClearCurbCuts links

We’re happy that people have found the need to clear curb cuts an important story. We list media clips on our website, but we’ve listed below some of the social media links and media coverage this particular project received. Please let us know if we missed any others that you’ve seen and we can try and keep this current.

This video was also shared to Twitter & Facebook

Boston Globe: “Letters – Snow removal shouldn’t leave treacherous terrain behind for wheelchair users“
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/letters/2018/01/12/snow-removal-shouldn-leave-treacherous-terrain-behind-for-wheelchair-users/yJPfm14Dy8RGCQTcfppWsN/story.html

South End News: “#ClearCurbCuts”
http://www.mysouthend.com/news//news//254529

WCVB: “Snowbanks, ice leave city an obstacle course“
http://www.wcvb.com/article/snowbanks-ice-leave-city-an-obstacle-course/15065097

WBUR: “Mobility Challenges In The Boston Snow“
http://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2018/01/11/mobility-boston-snow