Issue #28 / September 2008

IN THIS ISSUE:

  • StreetTALK: "Using Transportation to Transform Communities: Learning from the Anti Highway Movement of the 1960's," Thu. Sep. 25, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
    with Ken Kruckemeyer & Ann Hershfang >>>
  • LivableStreets welcomes new staff member, Jackie Douglas! >>>
  • Volunteer as a marshall and ride ‘HUB ON WHEELS’ for free! Sunday, September 21 >>>
  • PARK(ING) DAY 2008! Friday, September 19, 9 – 3pm @ Boston City Hall, near Government T stop >>>
  • LivableStreets Alliance's Charlie Denison attends ProWalk/ProBike in Seattle >>>
  • NEWS: BU Bridge set for reconstruction, design has no bicycle or pedestrian improvements >>>
  • CALENDAR:
    • YouMoveMassachusetts Workshops - WED Sep. 17, 3:00pm
      @ Boston Public Library Main Branch); see website for other locations >>>
    • Fenway/ Longwood/ Kenmore Transportation Action Plan meeting - WED Sep. 17, 6:30pm
      @ the Arts Academy, 174 Ipswich Street, Boston >>>
    • Opening ceremony for MBTA’s new Alewife Station Bike Cages - THU Sep. 18, 10:00am
      @ MTBTA Alewife Station, red line >>>
    • Forest Hills Improvement Initiative meeting - TUE Sep. 23, 6:00pm
      @ Boston English High School, 144 McBride Street, enter on Williams Street >>>
    • Harvard’s Institutional Master Plan: Community-Wide Plan/IMP meeting - WED Sep. 24, 6:30pm
      @ Honan-Allston Library >>>
    • MoveMass: Urban Ring Phase 2 - FRI Sep. 26, 8:10am (yes, morning!)
      @ Brown Rudnick, One Financial Center, 18th Floor, Boston, across from South Station >>>
    • WalkBoston Walking Tour: Presidential Campaigns in Boston - SAT Sep. 27, 10am
      @ Meet 60 State Street, Boston >>>
    • MBTA bus routes and service planning public meetings - Sep. 15-25
      @ various locations >>>
    • Click here for our full calendar of regional activities
  • Weekly StreetNEWS: Have you ever wanted to skim the news headlines every week for articles on the subject of livable streets? Now you can! LivableStreets Alliance board member and Director of Advocacy Charlie Denison compiles them weekly. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Either scroll to the very bottom of this email and click "Update Profile/Email Address", or Click Here to sign up and follow instructions to update your profile.

STREET TALK!
"StreetTALK: "Using Transportation to Transform Communities: Learning from the Anti Highway Movement of the 1960's"
Thu. Aug. 21, 7 - 8:30 pm
by by Ken Kruckemeyer and Ann Hershfang
@ LivableStreets office space, 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge [ map... ]

free and open to the public, donation suggested, beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery!

Learning from the anti-highway movement: a grass roots movement swept Boston in the 60's and led to, among other things, the orange line subway and park known as the Southwest Corridor. Meet some of the individuals who made this happen and hear their stories.

It is because of the efforts of steadfast neighborhood champions like Ken Kruckemeyer and Ann Hershfang that the City of Boston and the State decided against extensive highway development projects and instead shifted funding to the expansion of public transportation; which we now take for granted.

Of the many outcomes of this moment, two visible successes are the:

(1) The "inner belt" was stopped, a highway that would have gone through Cambridgeport and Central Square neighborhoods.

(2) Tossing out what was to be the multi-lane "The Southwest Expressway" that would connect boston to point south via the Roxbury and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods; instead developing the mult-use transportation corridor and greenspace, we now know as the Southwest Corridor Park and MBTA orange line subway.

In the years following World War II, America was becoming increasingly highway development oriented. In the 60's and 70's a grassroots movement prevented several major highway projects from destroying its neighborhoods, and instead shifted funding to transit expansion, which we now take for granted. This activism prevented the development of several major highway projects which had the power to destroy Boston-area neighborhoods.

Click here for a short WBUR piece highlighting Ken...
Click here for more history...
Click here for an interview with Ann...

Ken is a private consultant specializing in the design of civil infrastructure, focusing on integrated public transport systems, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and roadway and bridge design. He is also an adjunct Research Associate at the Center for Transportation and Logistics and Lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the MIT. Ken served as Associate Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works from 1983 to 1991. Mr. Kruckemeyer is an Architect with degrees from Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Studies at Harvard University.

Ann has extensive experience in all facets of the transportation business, including serving on the Board of the Massachusetts Port Authority and 10 Years on the Massachusetts Turnpike Highway Board, as well as founding Walk Boston, a non-profit membership organization dedicated to improving walking conditions in cities and towns across Massachusetts. In essence, her entire professional experience stemmed from her involvement in the Anti-Highway Movement.

This event is sponsored by LivableStreets Alliance

Click here for more information

LivableStreets welcomes new staff member, Jacqueline Douglas!

The Board of Directors of LivableStreets Alliance is thrilled to announce that Jacqueline Douglas has been hired as Staff Advocate, our first full-time staff person! Jackie is responsible for our outreach program, the content for our new website, day-to-day organizational management, and advocating for the changes we all want to see.

Last spring, during her final semester at Boston University, Jackie was an intern for LivableStreets. She proved to be such a tremendous asset to the organization, that we knew we needed to find a way to bring her on board once she graduated. Her position is currently funded through January 2009 by the LivableStreets Founders Circle, and we will be kicking off an intensive fundraising effort next month to enable us to continue funding her position through the next year and beyond.

Jackie's interest in transportation began after having lived for three years in the Netherlands, where she and her family cycled everywhere. She believes that improving our streets and public transportation system does more than change how people get to and from places, it is a broader change in their way of life. "I want to promote better street design to strengthen community, improve public health, and address climate change," she says.

Last May, Jackie graduated from BU, with a self- designed major to study the forces that shape why people are the way they are, looking in depth at factors such as their development, the policies that shape them, and the particular issues they face. She completed graduate Urban Design and Public Health courses to study the ways in which the built environment shapes people. She also spent a year studying abroad in the UK, Tanzania, India, New Zealand and Mexico through the International Honors Program "Rethinking Globalization." Jackie believes that her time abroad has opened her eyes to alternative practices, and hopes to incorporate some of these experiences into her work at LivableStreets Alliance.

Jackie has experience in the fields of public policy, community development and marketing from her time working at Earth Pledge, Westchester Children's Association, the Cause Marketing Forum, and Ten Second World. She has also been a member of the Better School Food Coalition Advisory Board and the International Rescue Committee Student Advisory Board, and she is currently a member of the Interdisciplinary Consortium on Urban Planning and Public Health through the Harvard School of Public Health.

If you have the opportunity, please introduce yourself and welcome her to her new position. Jackie can be reached by e-mail at jackie@livablestreets.info or by phone at (617) 621- 1746.

>> Also, if you missed the last e-bulletin, there were several recent Boston Globe articles where LivableStreets Alliance board members were quoted, including "The Future of Crossing the Street," "Rethinking Boston's Mass. Ave.," and "Staying stylish on two wheels." Click here to check them out.

Volunteer as a marshall and ride ‘HUB ON WHEELS’ for free! Sunday, September 21

VOLUNTEER AS A MARSHALL AND RIDE ‘HUB ON WHEELS’ FOR FREE! Sunday, September 21

Join the LivableStreets Marshall Team to help direct riders along the route with flags and signs. Volunteer sign-in is at 6am at City Hall Plaza. Our Marshall Team will be stationed early in the ride, so your shift will be over quickly. When the “sweep” rider gives you the signal, you will be free to continue the ride if you wish. We need 50 of you to help out! Please contact me ASAP at jackie@livablestreets.info to sign up.

Want to ride without being a Marshall? Join the LivableStreets Alliance riding team when you register online. Click here to register now! http:// www.hubonwheels.kintera.org.

Visit us at our booth at the expo and get one of our new t-shirts!

About the ride: Hub on Wheels is Boston's only citywide bike ride and Boston’s largest city-sponsored sporting event. Tour Boston like you've never done before. The ride is fully supported and safe, with three routes: 10, 30, or 50 miles of harbor views and hidden pathways, river greenways and Boston's wonderful and eclectic neighborhoods. Marshals along all routes make sure there's plenty of space to ride. Tech support and ride snacks are free of charge. Proceeds support the Technology Goes Home program for students. Click here for more information. http://www.hubonwheels.org

STORROW DRIVE IS COMPLETELY CAR-FREE , as is the entire 10 mile route!

[ Click here for more information ]

PARK(ing) Day 2008 (Fri. Sep. 19)
Friday, September 19, 9 – 3pm
@ Boston City Hall, near Government T stop

What is this? PARK(ing) Day is a one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks. This will be Boston’s first ever Park(ing) Day spot!

Visit us! Visit the event between 11 am and 2 pm and chat with the new LivableStreets Staff Advocate Jackie Douglass. Look for our new orange T-shirt.

Click here to watch a film from Park(ing) Day 2007 in NYC

[ Click here for more information ]

LivableStreets Alliance's Charlie Denison attends ProWalk/ProBike in Seattle

LivableStreets' Advocacy Director Charlie Denison recently attended the ProWalk/ProBike conference in Seattle from September 2nd through 5th. He has good news to report as walking and biking are surging in popularity across the nation. Watch for upcoming reports about key ssues regarding walking and bicycling from both national and local levels, including debunking the myths of lane widths, how Seattle is implementing their bike plan, the recent popularity of ciclovias in U.S.cities, and more.

BU Bridge set for reconstruction, design has no bicycle or pedestrian improvements

The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) recently announced that a three-year reconstruction of the Boston University (BU) Bridge is planned to commence in October. Much to LivableStreets' surprise, the current plan does not call for making any improvements to the bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists, despite the fact that many issues have already been well identified. In addition, DCR has had no opportunities for public input, and it is not clear that they will. If this is an issue that you are also concerned about, please e-mail us (charlie@livablestreets.info) with your thoughts and comments and we will be sure to pass them along to Commissioner Rick Sullivan.

Local newspapers have also recently covered this upcoming reconstruction:
Click here for Boston Globe article, 8/31
Click here for BU Student Free Press arcicle, 9/9
Click here for BOston Globe article, 9/14