coalition for a better acre Archives

Golden Shoe Award Winners For September 2020 Annual Meeting

As presented at this year’s annual event on Zoom, September 23, 2020.

Boston Public Library
Boston Public Library: David Leonard; Eamon Shelton; Michael Colford; Laura Irmscher; Ellen Donaghey; Beth Prindle; Boston Public Facilities Dept.: Patrick Brophy (Mayor’s Office); Tricia Lyons; Jim McQueen; Maureen Anderson; William Rawn Associates: Bill Rawn; Cliff Gayley; Sindu Meier; Elizabeth Bondaryk; Andy Jonic; Reed Hilderbrand: Doug Reed; Adrian Nial; Consigli Construction: Jim Hervol; Phil Brault; PMA: Chris Carroll.

This year the award goes to the Boston Public Library Central Library Renovation Team – for imagining and redesigning the landmark public space as a sidewalk-level, open, accessible place that welcomes people of all backgrounds and abilities.

Coalition for a Better Acre Walking Champions
Aurora Erickson (CBA program leader), Maria Claudio, Laura Diaz, Destiny Gath, Billy Heath, Michael Heath, Nandi Munson, Marianne Staid, Luz Vasudevan, and Ediana and Angel Williams.

This group met with us regularly for over a year to make changes to the walking conditions in their neighborhood. The Coalition for a Better Acre was a true partner in this effort. So the award goes to the Lowell Walking Champions for your persistence in voicing the need for safer walking in your neighborhood, and effecting lasting changes that advance walkability for all Lowell residents.

Tufts Health Plan Foundation & Boston Age Strong Commission
Tufts Health Plan Foundation: Nora Moreno-Cargie; Phillip Gonzalez; Kimberly Blakemore; Boston Age Strong Commission: Emily Shea; Andrea Burns; Nicole Chandler.

The Tufts Health Plan Foundation gave WalkBoston its start in age-friendly work by supporting our Boston Age-Friendly Walking program. This program yielded many successes including new benches and senior-focused, open streets events.With your continued support, we have expanded our age-friendly walking efforts across the state to make walking safer for people of all ages in rural towns and gateway cities. Tonight we honor you for embracing and advancing the age-friendly walking movement supporting healthy aging in communities across the Commonwealth.

The Age Strong Commission was an early and enthusiastic adopter of the idea that an age-friendly community must include age-friendly walking, and that the City must focus its energy on the streets and sidewalks that serve seniors with the highest need. Tonight we honor you with a Golden Shoe award for ensuring that Boston’s streets and sidewalks safely serve seniors so that all can continue to walk and age strong.

Keynote Speaker Mark Fenton

Mark Fenton is an adjunct associate professor at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, a nationally recognized public health, planning, and transportation consultant, an advocate for active transportation, and former host of the “America’s Walking” series on PBS television. Mark is a longtime friend of WalkBoston, and in fact, the one and only honorary lifetime WalkBoston member. I’m going to stop here and let those who really know Mark well introduce him.

University Avenue: Where UMass Lowell and the Acre meet

WalkBoston participated in a MassDOT road safety audit on University Avenue in Lowell where city staff, MassDOT engineers, UMassLowell representative, Lowell police officers and others looked for ways to improve road safety along this main campus thoroughfare. The Pawtucket Street/University Avenue intersection is at the edge of Lowell’s Acre neighborhood. WalkBoston has been working in The Acre with a group of residents and the Coalition for a Better Acre as part of the Streets for People program funded by the Cummings Foundation.

The RSA was well attended, and solutions were proposed to decrease wait times for pedestrians at traffic signals, clarify travel lanes, and reduce the occurrence of “double threat” conditions — where one car waits for a pedestrian, while a second car in an adjacent travel lane continues without seeing the person crossing. We look forward to seeing these changes implemented to improve the safety of UMass Lowell students and Acre residents alike.

One Minute, One Slide: Safe Walking for Healthy and Connected Lives

Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as prepared at this year’s annual event on March 18, 2019.

Dorothea Hass

WalkBoston has partnered with the Coalition for a Better Acre in Lowell through a Cummings Foundation grant to train residents of the Acre to become walking advocates. Shown here are residents who are pressing the City to make temporary changes to a complicated five-way intersection with fast-moving traffic and very long crosswalks. At a recent meeting with City Councilor Nuon, residents presented their concerns and proposed solutions to which the Councilor shown here, second from right, was very receptive. A next step will be to persuade the city’s traffic engineer to take the temporary measures which if proved successful could be more permanently installed. The training is also promoting civic engagement. One of the trainees has taken the initiative to gain signatures to support the re-design of the five-way intersection and is also planning to run for city council.

Lowell residents met with Councilor Nuon to talk pedestrian safety

Lowell residents participating in our Streets for People advocacy sessions met with Lowell City Councilor Vesna Nuon on Monday night at Coalition for a Better Acre to voice their concerns and propose intersection improvements in the Acre Neighborhood. The residents focused on the intersection of Salem/Cabot/Market streets where children cross to reach their school bus stop and fast-moving traffic disregards stop signs. Councilor Nuon, impressed with the residents’ presentations, said he would walk the site with the City’s traffic engineer and schedule another meeting with the residents to discuss next steps to making needed changes at this intersection. WalkBoston’s Streets for People advocacy sessions are funded by the Cummings Foundation.

Streets for People resident group meets with City Staff in Lowell

WalkBoston conducted its third Streets for People training session in Lowell with the Coalition for a Better Acre and Acre neighborhood residents on Thursday, July 31. City Transportation staff joined us and presented three street-redesign projects near our study area in the Acre neighborhood that will make walking safer. The designs include enhanced crosswalks, dedicated green buffers for sidewalks, and pedestrian signals. It was great to hear about the City’s commitment to walkability and interest in resident concerns regarding safer streets. The group then visited the two most dangerous intersections based on WalkBoston’s pedestrian crash data analysis, and measured vehicle speed and pedestrian signal timing. We already came up with recommendations that the City will consider. We look forward to continuing our conversations with the City as our training program continues. Streets for People is funded by the Cummings Foundation.