Great interview with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood on NPR’s All Things Considered.
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On Tuesday, April 13, the Town held a public meeting to present a draft report by Larry Koff and Associates on proposed strategies to attract business and commercial area development. The draft reports are available on the town’s website for public viewing. http://www.arlingtonma.gov/Public_Documents/ArlingtonMA_PLanning/commercialdev/index
Attending this presentation were about 25-30 Arlington residents and a few business members, including Steve Kurland from Za who has been a positive member of the East Arlington business community.
The bulk of the presentation and discussion afterward focused around the Arlington Center area as it is the business district most in need of improvment. East Arlington faired better, in their opinion, because the neighborhood has been more successful in re-tenanting, regulatory reform, and organization. They touted the Capitol Square website as a great organizational tool: http://thecapitolsquare.com/. The report identifies East Arlington as the “center for arts and crafts, cinema, boutiques and eateries, and local convenience shopping.” The noted deficiencies have to do mostly with the physical condition of the area, such as signs, facades, roadway, and the parking shortage, which the Mass. Ave. Corridor project would do a great deal to improve the physical condition. Also mentioned was that a phased program of parking reforms is being considered by the Board of Selectmen, the Traffic Adviisory Committee, and East Arlington residents and businesses.
In the Arlington Center area, the report proposes the idea of moving the fire station onto Mystic St. in the Russell Common parking lot and creating an adjacent parking garage. The rationale for this was not explained well and therefore received a lot of criticism in the discussion portion of the meeting. Other major ideas in the Center included renovating Broadway Plaza, rerouting people off the bike path to be in front of the businesses, and hiring an Economic Development Coordinator in order to implement some of the ideas and ongoing strategies. There was mostly praise for the idea of renovating Broadway Plaza. Many were concerned that routing bike traffic through the center would bring too much traffic and distractions through a congested area, although one resident asked if there was a plan to incorporate bike lanes in the center. Carol Kowalski, Director of Planning, indicated there is a separate study looking into bikes through the center and the bike path.
With the exception of the fire station issue, most ideas were well received, however, there was not much discussion on the Capitol Square business district.
This letter was sent to Hardy Principal Deb D’Amico,Superintendent Kathleen Bodie and the School Committee. The East Arlington Livable Streets (EALS) Coalition would like to thank you for your continuing support of the Hardy Safe Routes to School Program. EALS Coalition is an East Arlington neighborhood group of over 150 members and over 350 people on Facebook that believes our community is strengthened when sustainable transportation is promoted. Many of our members have, will have, or have had children at the Hardy school and we believe it is important to continue encouraging families to walk or bike safely to school. We are pleased that soon bike racks will be installed at the Hardy school in support of this year’s efforts and hopeful that the dismount zone around the school will keep everyone safe. Improving the ability and safety of Hardy families to walk and bike to school are the best ways to decrease traffic congestion around the school while promoting active kids. In late April, EALS will be reaching out to local East Arlington Businesses asking them to get involved in the success of the program. They can do this by providing raffle prizes and other incentives for participating students. We hope this will create a stronger bond between our neighborhood, local school, and businesses that will be mutually beneficial to all. The staff of the Hardy school will be crucial to this year’s success as well. It is critical that the staff not only get the kids excited about walking and biking to school, but be involved as well. It would be great to see them walking or biking with some of their students on the big event days. Building off the success of last year’s Hardy pilot program we are hopeful with our increased volunteer efforts matched by the efforts of the business community, the Hardy Staff, and PTO will make this year even more successful. Starting with the Walkathon on May 7th until the final playground celebration on June 7th, let’s make this year’s event the best ever. Thanks to your vision, the Hardy School can be a model of a sustainable, green neighborhood school for all of Arlington to emulate. Few people seem to know, except those who may have caught the Boston Globe Magazine’s November 29, 2009 feature, that among our residents is a world famous artist whose work is perfectly suited to celebrate the new Alewife Brook Greenway multi-use trail being built this year. Rufus Butler Seder is a scanimation artist who creates LIFETILES, optically animated murals, that appear to come to life and move as you walk, run, or ride past. Arlington parents may already be familiar with Seder’s work from his New York Times bestselling children’s books, “Gallop”, “Swing” and “Waddle”. We have the opportunity for Seder to reflect the pedestrian, bike-friendly, kid-friendly, and nature-friendly, character of Arlington, by creating a moving picture mural that includes bikers, parents with strollers, joggers, Alewife fish and other emblematic elements. What an eye-catching, wonderful way to build Arlington’s cultural identity while celebrating the work of one of our resident artists. The Arlington Heights Bus Depot mural funded in part by the Arlington Cultural Council and completed in October 2009 was extremely well-received by residents and also received a Gold Star Award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Having a significant work of public art in East Arlington would be fitting for the artsy character of East Arlington and serve as a crowning landmark for all of its developments: including the Mass Ave project, the Alewife Greenway, and the Battle Road Scenic Byways project. Rufus Butler Seder’s maintenance-free LIFETILES murals have been installed at numerous locations around the world including Washington D.C. ’s Union Station, Sea World in Orlando , Taiwan National Marine Biology Aquarium, The Scientific Center in Kuwait, and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon NH . Currently he is working on installations for the Polish Science Museum and the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Shouldn’t Arlington, MA be on this cultural map? Public art displays such as these have been featured in various art books and tourist guides and serve to elevate and broaden a community’s cultural appeal. With your help, Arlington will be in very good company with similar projects around the world. Please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J9nNpj6X3U and http://www.eyethinkinc.com/lifetiles/index.html to see examples of Seder’s work. The effort to coordinate and fundraise for this project is being headed by Arlington residents, Stephanie Marlin-Curiel, who volunteers with East Arlington Liveable Streets and serves on the Arlington Cultural Council, and Kurt Fusaris, former Arlington speech therapist and science teacher, and former candidate for Arlington School Committee. Contact Stephanie or Kurt at smc2149@nyu.edu or speechman74@yahoo.com to get involved in this great community project.
April 18, 2010 The East Arlington Livable Streets (EALS) Coalition has reviewed the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (DOT) District 4 Interoffice Memo regarding comments on the 25% design of the Mass Ave Corridor plan. MassDOT’s criticisms of the Corridor plan are not uncommon for federal/state-funded roadway projects and many towns and cities are required to resubmit their 25% plans before final approval. We are pleased that most of the primary elements of the plan will likely remain, including:
Besides these components, MassDOT has cited other deficiencies in the Town of Arlington’s 25% plan that will need to be addressed as part of the resubmittal. MassDOT expressed concern about “degraded intersection service levels,” with most of the detailed commentary focused on congestion that could result during morning rush hour where the existing light at Linwood Street and a proposed signal at Bates Road are located in close proximity. We remain completely committed to maintaining the existing signal at Linwood because it provides a safe pedestrian and bike connection to Spy Pond Park and the Minuteman Trail. While the proposed new signal at Bates appears to be logical from a traffic engineering perspective, we remain neutral on its inclusion in the plan and are open to either keeping it or removing it from the revised 25% submission. The memo also states that the consultant’s traffic data was flawed because of a discrepancy between “observed peak hour turning movements and machine counts” performed in fall 2008 and spring 2009, and the 10-year traffic forecast rather than the more typical period of 20 years. These are absolutely valid criticisms of the engineer’s methodologies but growth projections for Arlington and Lexington—even over a 20-year period—are minimal and unlikely to change the traffic dynamic significantly. The discrepancy of peak-hour turning movement is tied mostly to the design of the Lake Street intersection and can be ameliorated with a longer left-turn lane onto Lake Street. The other area of significant concern for MassDOT is the six foot-wide flush median proposed for the stretch of Mass Ave between Cleveland Street and Boulevard Road, near Alewife Brook. The design intent of the flush median is to provide some space for west-bound cars to move out of the flow of traffic when waiting to make a left turn onto side streets and driveways. MassDOT has raised concerns about the legality of providing this flush median but has not ruled it out. We believe this flush median is a good way to provide for left turns along this portion of the corridor and will continue to advocate for its inclusion in the design. Much of the remaining comments can be easily remedied in the Town’s subsequent 25% submittal, or, are focused on detailed elements of the design such as catch basin locations and sidewalk construction details. We are confident that the design engineers will resolve these issues and discrepancies to move the project forward. The EALS Coalition remains committed to advocating for a plan that offers the highest-level increase in safety for ALL users: motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, and bus riders. We look forward to an improved plan from the consulting engineers, the Town and the Mass Ave Review Committee that resolves the elements pinpointed by MassDOT, gains additional community support, and is backed up by solid traffic engineering. Dear EALS supporters
The EALS Advisory Board has endorsed incumbent Selectman Kevin Greeley and we strongly encourage you to vote for him on Saturday, April 10. He is clearly the stronger of the two primary candidates and will work harder to achieve the goals of our growing organization of 140+ active email subscribers and 300+ Facebook fans. We believe that a livable neighborhood includes walkable and safe streets, good schools, well maintained parks/playgrounds, a vibrant business district, a branch library, diverse housing stock and well-scaled development projects. Mr. Greeley’s career in civic life has helped East Arlington come close to achieving this vision. He has been a strong supporter of the Town’s five-year strategic plan that has minimized teacher layoffs and prevented the closure of the Fox Library. His long-standing ties with our Democratic State Reps, State Senators and Congressmen have helped to bring state and federal money to our community, such as the rebuild of the Hardy and soon the Thompson School and the future reconstruction of Mass Ave. His support for the Mass Ave Corridor plan, the plowing of the Minuteman Path and other issues clearly show his interest in promoting sustainable transportation and conservation. Mr. Greeley’s primary opponent in the election, Maria Romano, is an impassioned woman who has run a good campaign. From day one however, we have been suspicious of her reasons for running for Selectman and believe that her primary motivation is to use the seat to delay or potentially kill the Mass Ave Corridor plan. While her campaign has spoken of “giving back to her community”, we wonder why she has had no political ambitions until soon after the Board of Selectmen voted to approve the Mass Ave plan? As far as we know, she has never run for Town Meeting despite many years of open seats in her precinct, she has not been involved in any Town Committees and she has not even voted in a local election for the past five years (according to the Town Clerk’s voting records). Ms. Romano’s politics are not consistent with many of our goals for the “livable” neighborhood described above. Her interest in promoting “public-private partnerships in land protection” (according to her web site) sounds like giving too much control of our parks and other publicly-owned properties like the Crosby School over to developers. Most of all, her impassioned and sometime bitter opposition to the state/federally-funded motorist, pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements to Mass Ave runs completely counter to our vision for a more walkable neighborhood with safer streets. The exaggerated claims about traffic congestion and loss of curb side parking were bad enough, the outright fabrication of delayed emergency vehicle response times, despite counter claims by both police and fire chiefs at the 25% design review hearing, seemed designed to divide the community. She and her group even objected to the use of sidewalk bump-outs and other safety enhancements because of the potential inconvenience to snow plow drivers. For the EALS Board, the choice is clear: stick with a solid candidate with a successful career and a proven track record supporting our schools, libraries, parks and transportation options. Vote Kevin Greeley on Saturday and let’s keep Arlington moving forward! Thank you -Phil Goff and Chad Gibson, co-chairs PS – please note that those of you who intend to be away this weekend, you are permitted to vote via absentee ballot up until noon Friday at the Town Clerk’s office on the 2nd floor of Town Hall. Also, they are open until 7 pm on Thursday evening. PPS – For those in the following Precincts, there are some great candidates and supporters of livable streets who are running for Town Meeting. They include:
P-4: Nawaaf Kaba (write-in, so you must include his address of 7 Thorndike St) P-5: Jennifer Susse and Scott Smith P-7: Tom Robertson, Angela Alton and Todd Bearson (the latter running in a head-to-head race with Maria Romano’s campaign manager) See below how you can get involved in promoting safe walking and biking to our local elementary school. Hardy School Safe Routes Website Welcome to year two of the Safe Routes to School Program that integrates walking AND cycling at the Hardy! In order to inspire and ensure more families walk and bike to school at the Hardy and beyond, we need ONE thing more than anything: Parent volunteers to step up, help out in any small way and encourage other parents to do the same. Can you help out? Send me an email listing what you can do to help. Do you know others who do? Pease forward this and have them contact me. I want to applaud Deb D’Amico for her enthusiasm in taking the lead and supporting this shift happen; this is huge! Now we need parents to help out and spread the word. Deb and I met on Wednesday morning to discuss the schedule of events to launch the spring Safe Routes to School program. The key objectives we discussed were:
EALS members were in attendance with a strong Arlington contingent.This year’s National Bike Summit marked a milestone. Not only was this the 10th summit, with over 700 advocates from around the country, but we saw an unprecedented level of commitment to bicycling from both Congress and the Administration. Senators and Representatives in Congress are actively supporting pro-bicycling legislation (see details below). Rather than the cordial but noncommittal reception we usually get in our Congressional meetings, we were greeted with enthusiasm and outright support (as evidenced by the number of MA co-sponsors on the legislation below). And to top it off, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood chose the occasion to announce sweeping changes to federal policy to support biking and walking. (Oh, and Google unveiled their awesome new Google Maps Biking Directions!)  MA takes the Hill: (standing) David Watson, Dorothy Nichols, Don Podolski, John Siemiatkoski, Tom Henry, Mark Vautour, Jack Johnson, Andrew Conway, Lauren Hefferon; (kneeling) Richard Fries, Nancy Maier; (not pictured) Phil Goff, Andrew Prescott, Chris Zigmont MassBike once again took the lead for Massachusetts at the Summit. In the weeks leading up to the Summit, we worked hard to set up meetings with all 12 Congressional offices (10 Representatives and 2 Senators), getting the last two nailed down after we were already on the ground in DC! MassBike has a reputation for being super-organized for our Capitol Hill meetings, and this year was no exception – we prepared materials specific to each Congressional district (read them here under the 2010 heading) and fine tuned our “sales pitch.” Not all the news was good, though. The big debate over transportation funding for the next six years is stalled, and the word on Capitol Hill is that it will not happen this year. Why is this a problem? Every six years, Congress decides how to fund all transportation projects for the next six years by passing a huge surface transportation authorization bill, to build things like roads, bridges, bike paths, rail trails, Complete Streets, and more. The previous authorization expired last fall, and Congress has passed a series of short extensions so that projects don’t run out of money. MassBike feels that we still need to build support for the programs we think are important, so that when the debate resumes, we’ve got Representatives and Senators on-board ready to fight to roll those programs into the transportation bill. Here are the programs we focused our lobbying on at this year’s Summit:
And now we have official federal policy that bicycling and walking are equal to other forms of transportation. The key points of the new policy include:
We were in the room when Secretary LaHood made this historic announcement, and it capped off a really good day. Congress and the Obama Administration have opened the door wider than ever for bicycling, and MassBike is leading the charge to bring those federal dollars and policies home to Massachusetts. You can help us do even more by making some calls to Congress: 1. If your Representative is already co-sponsoring one of the House (“H.R.”) bills listed above, call their office and say “thanks”. Don’t forget to give the specific bill number and name. 2. If your Representative is not yet co-sponsoring all the House bills listed above, call their office and ask that they sponsor those bills. Again, be sure to give them the specific bill numbers and names. 3. Neither of our Senators are currently co-sponsoring any of the Senate (“S.”) bills listed above, so please call both their offices and ask them to do so. Not sure who your Congressional Representative is or need contact information? Click here and enter your address. Then click on their names for contact information. Report from Town Consultants on different options for future of the Crosby School in E Arlington. http://ealscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/RKG_SchoolBuildings_DRAFT_MAR_02_2010.pdf Pedal pushersParents in bicycle-friendly Arlington are divided over an effort to get children to ride their bikes to school Lauren Hefferon (right) of Arlington rides on a bike path with her daughter, Valentina Rugiero, 10, to her school in Cambridge. (Photos By Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff)By Kathleen Burge Globe Staff / March 21, 2010
If one were to name some particularly bike-friendly suburbs of Boston, Arlington might be first on the list.
No corner of the town is more than a few miles from the Minuteman Bikeway, the most popular bike path in the country. The town is home to two bicycle stores and a bike club whose members set off on long rides every Saturday and Sunday morning. A bicycling committee advises town leaders on bike issues. And yet, until recently, school officials informally banned children from biking to school. So far, none of the schools have bike racks. Last year, a pilot project to encourage children to ride their bikes to the Hardy School, the elementary school in East Arlington, was controversial. “My view was, if you can’t ride to school in Arlington, then there’s no place you can ride to school in Massachusetts,’’ said David Watson, an Arlington resident and executive director of MassBike, a Boston-based bike advocacy group. “It’s already a bike-friendly community.’’ To those who want to encourage children to ride their bikes to school, the advantages seem clear: It’s better for the environment. And in an age of increasing fears about childhood obesity, they argue, it’s better for kids. But not everyone agrees. Some parents and school officials are fearful about children sharing busy roads with minivans and SUVs ferrying children to school. (Most Arlington children live within a mile of an elementary school, so there are no school buses.) Recently, MassBike began a statewide effort to encourage children to ride their bikes to school. In 2008, the first year of the project, 10 schools signed on for bike safety training for grades 4 through 8. Last year, 23 schools joined the project, including Ayer, Watertown, Westfield — and Arlington. Watson, who believes children can bike to school safely in Arlington, argues that encouraging children to ride their bikes when they are young will make them more likely to continue to bike when they’re older and provide more choices for transportation. Now MassBike is beginning to train school teachers to teach bike safety to children, allowing the program to reach more students. “The interesting thing is that a very large percentage of the traffic around schools is generated by parents dropping their kids off at school,’’ Watson said. “So you get this very circular argument where parents say, ‘I can’t let my kid walk or bike to school because of all the traffic.’ But they’re the ones creating the traffic.’’ Deborah D’Amico, principal of the Hardy School, came to the school four years ago when the no-biking policy was already in place. “I know this has been a hot issue in Arlington in recent years,’’ she said. “In previous years, it was forbidden and enforced as such.’’ But last year, after a group of parents began looking for ways to change the policy at Hardy, D’Amico became convinced that it was time to change. The parents came up with a “dismount zone’’ around the school, requiring children to walk their bicycles. Since the program began, D’Amico has been pleased with the results, though she thinks principals need to decide whether bike programs would work at their schools. Now D’Amico and the parent group are talking about installing bicycle racks at the school. In the Arlington program, parents helped launch the program last spring, with bicycle safety education for students, run by MassBike, and a bike-to-school week, where children tracked their mileage. They also publicized the dismount zone around the school. Last year at the Hardy School, the elementary school children biked and walked a total of 1,000 miles over 70 cycling days, said Lauren Hefferon, an Arlington mother who helped bring the program to the school. Still, she said, the school system has declined to come out and endorse cycling to school. “They’re just fearful if they completely support it and a kid gets hurt, it’s on their back,’’ she said. “I don’t think it’s grounded in actual statistics, but that’s their fear.’’ Arlington crossing guards are among those who believe biking to school is unsafe. Roseann Casazza, president of the Arlington Traffic Supervisors, argues that Arlington has heavy traffic, especially around the schools at drop-off and pick-up times, making biking on the streets dangerous. Meanwhile, the town also prohibits biking on sidewalks — although the bylaw is not strongly enforced — because that can be dangerous for pedestrians, especially parents pushing strollers. “When they started with this pilot, kids were riding the bikes on the sidewalk, and knocking some of the parents over who had carriages,’’ she said. “Parents were complaining. We truly feel that it’s an ‘unsafe’ issue.’’ So far, no other schools in Arlington have adopted the biking program. Now Hefferon, founder of a bicycle touring company, thinks her next project will be encouraging children and parents to bike to athletic practices. Nearly every athletic field in town is near the Minuteman Bikeway, she said. “I feel like every Saturday morning, as a parent of three, you see kids being driven to all these sports,’’ she said. “It’s ironic to me that kids are active in all these sports, yet they don’t know how to get from one place to another without being driven.’’ |
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East Arlington Livable Streets Coalition Bad Behavior has blocked 191 access attempts in the last 7 days. |
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