GreenDorchester (Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition)

The MA Dept of Transportation is working with the Roxbury Dorchester and Mattapan communities to develop short- and long-term strategies to improve user’s experience with the public transportation system. The next RDM Public Meeting will take place on  Thursday, September 29 at 6 p.m. at the William J. Devine Golf Course Club House in Franklin Park. The Sep. 29 public meeting is an opportunity to hear updates on the study and the ideas it has generated for enhanced MBTA service.

Please visit the MA DoT website http://www.mass.gov/massdot/rdm for more information. You can view a PDF map of the study area here.

There is a LivableStreets Alliance StreetTalk “How is Boston Completing its Streets?” with Vineet Gupta, Transportation Planning Director, City of Boston on Thursday, February 17, 7-9 PM.  (This was originally scheduled for Jan. 12 but rescheduled due to snow.)

@ LivableStreets office, 100 Sidney St, Cambridge MA
Open to the public. $5-$10 suggested donation

From the LivableStreets website:   Mayor Menino has told us, “The car is no longer king in Boston.” Is a new wave of urban planning upon us? Boston is ready to put pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users on equal footing with drivers and promote a vision of streets which are safe, attractive and conducive to healthy, active transportation. What would you do to make Boston’s streets more livable, safe and accessible?

In 2003, a coalition of national advocates coined the phrase “Complete Streets” as a way to better communicate the inclusion of bicycles in everyday transportation planning to government officials and the general public. Today, the movement has grown more powerful than just the accommodation of bicycles and has been adopted in more than 200 Complete Streets policies across the U.S, including Boston! See the LivableStreets website for more on this talk.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and the MBTA are studying public transportation needs and potential improvements in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and portions of the South End. The Roxbury/Dorchester/Mattapan Transit Needs Study will identify strategies—from improving bus service to building new transit lines—that can guide future investment in the corridor, all with extensive community input.
Transit service users in Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan: the success of the study will depend on our participation. Over the next 15 months MassDOT will be reaching out on the T, at community events, at public meetings and workshops. They want our input so lets give it to them!

Attend one of the 3 kickoff meetings in January to let MassDOT know you want our local MBTA service to:
* Get you to your destination more quickly, Continue Reading »

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.

Come see a presentation of new detailed design options for the FAIRMOUNT GREENWAY planned for Wednesday, October 6th, at 6 PM.
At previous community meetings with the Fairmont CDC Collaborative, local residents determined their preferred routes for the greenway and identified potential locations for development into parks and other open space.
A team from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning is helping to facilitate more detailed design studies of the Fairmont Greenway as it goes through the Dorchester neighborhood.
What will be presented - visions for what certain streets, bike routes, green spaces and intersections might look like.  The team would like to hear Dorchester residents’ feedback, ideas and opinions.  Please come to this meeting to help further design and plan this Greenway.

Meeting location: 193 Talbot Ave.  Click here for meeting flyer.

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For more information contact: Cullen Deas
Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation
Phone: 617-825-4224 x130
Email: CULLEN@CSNDC.COM
In partnership with: Greater Four Corners Action Coalition * University of Massachusetts, Amherst-Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning * Urban Ecology Institute *

Over 100 residents of Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park, and Milton attended a public meeting in May to hear about alternatives for linking the Neponset Greenway where it now ends at Central Avenue in Milton to Mattapan Square and upriver trails in Hyde Park and beyond.  The planned extension to Blue Hill Avenue will open about 7 miles of trail along the Neponset River, connecting Pope John Paul II Park in Dorchester to the Neponset Valley Parkway in Hyde Park, providing a regionally linked recreational amenity and bike commuting option. Joe Orfant, Chief of the Bureau of Planning and Resource Protection at the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), presented an update on the Neponset River Trail Extension Project, including several different route options. 

Two site walks have been scheduled by DCR on July 22 and 26, 6:30-8:30 PM, and the public comment period has been extended to August 14, 2010.  In early fall, DCR will hold a second public meeting to present the recommended alternative.

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 »

Starts 6:30 at the Bowdoin Street Health Center

All are invited to a community meeting on Wednesday, February 3, 6:30 p.m., at All Saints’ Church Hall, 209 Ashmont Street.
Hear updates about Ashmont Station construction and the planned redesign of Peabody Square as part of the Dorchester Avenue Project. Representatives from the MBTA and Boston Transportation Department will be on hand to make presentations and answer questions.
For info: please call 617-825-3846 or email office@smams.org.

It is now certain, the $140 million proposal to install a faster bus line on Blue Hill Avenue is dead, and that TIGER grant will not be obtained from the federal government. The good news though is that there is now much wider support for bike lanes on the street.

State legislators along the corridor have proposed a longer, more community-based process, to take advantage of the hundreds of thousands the state has already invested in the project. There is a roll plan of the street now, complete with bus boardings, turning movements, and tons of other data. And after the lengthy 28x controversy, we feel it’s time to really determine what the neighborhood would like to see on Blue Hill. But this longer process is not ensured. It would require funding for the process itself.

It is also unclear which government agency would carry on this process. If there is no large transit element, it would not be a state, but rather a city project. And of course money is tight everywhere.

If you’re interested in seeing the process continue, contact Mayor Thomas Menino’s office, contact your City Councillors about it, and also let your state legislators, Governor Patrick and Secretary of Transportation Jeffrey Mullan know that you support a continued public process on Blue Hill Avenue.

And, while you’re at it, suggest expanding the Public Advisory Group to include representation for cyclists!