GreenDorchester (Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition)

Dotwell, DEHC, and Dorchester residents met at Viet-AID this morning with representatives from the EPA and Harvard School of Public Health to address indoor and outdoor air quality concerns in our neighborhood. The pollutant most targeted is the prevalent Particulate Matter (PM), which can get into the lungs and bloodstream and leads to many instances of cancerous disease. Asthmatic individuals are particularly at risk to suffer negative health effects from air pollution.

The particulate matter in our community is mostly emitted from motor vehicles and especially from cars, trucks, and buses that idle on the street or in parking lots. An awareness campaign will be circulating around Dorchester as a means to reduce car use, idling, and promote healthier options for the community through safe walking, biking, and public transit. Our goal is to educate the community about the concerns of particulate matter, because the resulting health complications of inhaling these pollutants may take decades to manifest and it will be imperative to prevent exposure in our community. We would like to identify the areas of Dorchester with highest concentrations of particulate matter so that people can know how to take action to stay healthy and we want to take action to enforce anti-idling areas especially around schools and health centers as well as significantly reduce the number of local car trips driven in Dorchester.

Indoor Air Quality is another important health concern, as tobacco smoke and radon gas exposure are leading causes of lung cancer. Second-hand smoke and carbon monoxide poisoning from leaving oven doors open are other ways people are exposed to noxious compounds within their homes or place of work. Asbestos and Lead are other toxins found inside buildings that lead to various health problems that are most dangerous for children.

More Air Quality Focus Group Meetings are taking place in the coming months and the Cambridge Science Center is offering free lung-healthiness tests so you can know how healthy your airways are.

@FranklinParkBos Advocacy Alert! Many park users have expressed concern to the Franklin Park Coalition about the use of the Franklin Park Playstead lawn area for dumping dirty snow from city streets. If you Continue Reading »

Join DEHC, BostonCAN, Carl Spector, Executive Director of Boston’s Air Pollution Control Commission, and representatives from East Boston, South Boston, Roxbury, and West Roxbury neighborhood sustainability groups for a roundtable dialogue about community climate action in Boston.  This is a rare opportunity to hear about what’s happening in different neighborhoods and join the dialogue about how the city, community groups, and residents can form a more cohesive movement to take Boston to a new frontier in energy and cost savings and citizen participation to fight the effects of climate change. 6-7:30PM at Suffolk University, 73 Tremont Street, 12th floor Trustees’ Conference Room. Snacks provided.

The MBTA is readying plans to install a “Pedal & Park” (a secure, covered bike parking facility also known as a bike cage) at Ashmont Station next spring.  DEHC has been working with DotBike to advocate for one at Ashmont Station as part of the station reconstruction project – and it is really good news to hear they are moving forward! 

The pedal & park at Ashmont will have a different design than the existing 100-bike facility that opened just a year ago at Forest Hills, with metal not canopy roof, and it will be slightly smaller, with a capacity of 82 bicycles inside and about 20 outside.  Federal stimulus funding is supporting installation of six new “Pedal & Park” facilities around the MBTA system this year, including a new one just opening at South Station.

At Martin Playground – this is Mayor Menino’s 12th annual Neighborhood Coffee Hour program, a great way to advocate face-to-face for your park or other issues…

The Fairmount Line opened in 1855 and was one of Boston’s first commuter railroads, running approximately 9 miles between South Station and Hyde Park.   After long years of declining ridership, the line was closed down in 1944 – it was reopened by the Mass. Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in 1979, but without any Dorchester or Mattapan stations.  In 1987, two new stations opened in Mattapan (Morton Street) and Uphams Corner due to community pressure.  Carrying about 2,000 riders daily, it is the smallest commuter line in the MBTA system and the only one entirely contained in Boston, MA.  Currently there are four stations – Uphams Corner, Morton Street, Fairmount and Readville – and the line runs through communities (Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park) that constitute more than 30% of Boston’s population.

Over the years, the Fairmount Corridor Collaborative (FCC), a group of local housing and economic development agencies, realized the commuter line was travelling through rather than serving the transit needs of the neighborhoods. Dorchester and Mattapan communities are served mostly by bus Continue Reading »

DEHC’s meeting on the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) budget with MA State Representative Martin Walsh has been rescheduled for Tuesday, May 4, at 12:30pm in State House Room 540.

The April 26 meeting with Senator Jack Hart went well, with the Senator promising to fight for level funding for the Department of Conservation and Recreation and his support for an updated bottle bill.

If you would like to attend on Tuesday, please RSVP to Rosanne Foley 617-474-1478 or rosanne.foley[AT]dotwell.org, so we know to expect you.  Please bring stories about what the DCR parks and beaches mean to you and how you think an 8% cut on top of the 23% during 2009 might affect these spaces.  Also bring your supporting comments about what it would mean to pass the bottle bill, extending the deposit/refund system for cans to plastic and glass bottles.
Click here for the Boston Parks Advocates fact sheets on the state budget and Dorchester parks including info on the Ways and Means budget,  and a fact sheet on the bottle bill. Also see a sample letter from the Environmental League of Massachusetts in support of amendments that directly affect the environmental budget, including one to raise funding for state and urban parks by $5.39 million.

DEHC’s Green Space Campaign Team is organizing visits with elected officials (including a meeting set for Senator Jack Hart’s office on Monday April 26, 11 AM, Room 109C at the State House – join us if you can!) to let them know that proposed massive cuts to the MA Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) budget will have a huge impact on our local parks’ already too-low level of maintenance. Continue Reading »

From MassBike at the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. –
Last week, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced a groundbreaking new bill to support bicycling and walking: the Active Community Transportation Act (H.R.4722) creates a competitive grant program with $2 Billion to help communities build bicycling and walking networks.

For the first time, communities would be able to compete for multi-year funding to build active transportation systems, just as they do for transit and road infrastructure. And one of the seven original sponsors of the bill is Massachusetts’ own Representative Michael Capuano (D-MA)!

This new bill gives you the opportunity Continue Reading »

View Biking Franklin Park in a larger map

Proposal to Allow Bicycling in Franklin Park – Starting in January 2010,
the Franklin Park Coalition, Dot Bike, DEHC and other local groups and individuals joined together to try and change the city of Boston’s rule that does not permit bicycling in Franklin Park. This new bike advocacy alliance hopes that the Boston Park Commission will officially allow bicycling on those paths that are wide enough to be classified as “shared use” between bicyclists and pedestrians. Shared paths with frequent use should be 10’, less used paths may be 8’. All paved paths in the park were carefully measured, recorded, and photographed.
While this rule is not enforced, and there are frequently bicyclists on the paths in Franklin Park, removing the rule will:
- Encourage bicycling as a healthy activity for children and adults;
- Offer bike commuters a safe cross-town route off of city streets for part of their ride.
- Enable park entrance and access improvements that will make it easier for bicyclists, wheelchairs, and parents pushing strollers to enter and move throughout the park.

Please contact the folks below with questions about biking in Franklin Park:
Christine Poff at the Franklin Park Coalition or Debbie Munson at DotBike