Category: Announcement

Event – 2022 WalkBoston Bob Sloane Walk: Muddy River

Event – 2022 WalkBoston Bob Sloane Walk: Muddy River

Please join us on Tuesday, June 7th at 5:30pm for our first organized walk in almost three years. Sign up today!

The walk is part of Olmsted Now: Greater Boston’s Olmsted Bicentennial  and is the first annual walk in honor of Bob Sloane. Bob was a co-founder of WalkBoston and passed away in May 2021. He was a true pioneer in walking advocacy and a pillar of our organization, and we look forward to honoring his legacy by hosting a walk each year in his name. 

Since this is a point-to-point walk, we encourage you to use public transportation, walk, or bike to the start so that it is easy for you to head out afterwards.

HOW TO GET TO THE START

The walk will start on the Muddy River walk at the rear of the Hilton Garden Inn at Boylston Street and Brookline Avenue in Brookline (700 Brookline Ave, Brookline, MA 02446), very close to the Brookline Village stop (D Line). If you are coming from downtown on the D line, once you get off the train, cross the tracks and follow Pearl Street out to Washington St (Rt 9). You should see the hotel to your left on the corner of Brookline Ave and Washington St; we are meeting out back. Transportation close to the start location:

  • Brookline Village MBTA Station (D Line)
  • Riverway MBTA Station (E Line)
  • 66 Bus – Huntington Ave / Riverway stop
  • 60/65 Buses – Brookline Ave / Pearl St stop 
  • BlueBikes – Brookline Village Station

ROUTE

The route will wind its way from Brookline along the Emerald Necklace’s Muddy River toward Boston’s Fenway neighborhood. (View the route on Google Maps here).

The walk route is fully accessible. We are diverting off the pathway along the Muddy River onto sidewalks on Aspinwall Ave to Netherlands Road for the section of the path between Brookline Ave & Netherlands Road to avoid a bridge with stairs. Not only does this make our walking route accessible, it will also allow us to add an additional speaker stop on Netherlands Road at the Dutch House.

We’ll be ending the walk at the Trillium Fenway Beer Garden & Time Out Market so attendees have the option to have a drink or eat outside and continue the conversation. Transportation close to the finish location:

  • Brookline Ave / Park Dr stop
  • 8, 19, 60, 65 Buses – Fenway MBTA Station (D Line)
  • 47, 57, CT2 Buses – Park Drive / Fenway Station stop
  • BlueBikes – Landmark Center / Brookline Ave at Park Dr Station

SPEAKERS

Representatives from Fairsted (the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site) will share about Olmsted’s vision & describe the history and design of the Emerald Necklace. Additional speakers from Town of Brookline, City of Boston, and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy will join us along the way to share more about the Emerald Necklace and update us on the restoration & transportation projects located on this section.

Since we’ve had a strong RSVP response, we’ll likely be splitting attendees into two groups. We will get the first group started right after 5:30pm, and then send the next group a few minutes behind them.

We hope to see you on June 7th. Sign up today!

This walk is the first in a series of walks that WalkBoston is organizing for Olmsted Now:

Parks and public places are for everyone. Frederick Law Olmsted — reformer, writer, Boston transplant and America’s first landscape architect — is about to turn 200. Olmsted Now, Greater Boston’s Olmsted Bicentennial, is an invitation to actively shape a more equitable, verdant and vibrant city. Show up. Be seen. Share your story.

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk The Walk Session: “Jane Jacobs,” 5/5 12pm On Zoom

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk The Walk Session: “Jane Jacobs,” 5/5 12pm On Zoom

WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session
“Jane Jacobs”
May 5, 12-1pm
Register for this event

Lunch hour discussion session on Zoom. Open to all. Eating is encouraged. Video is optional. 

This is our second topic-driven discussion session (not just books!). These discussion sessions may include articles, podcasts, videos, and yes, maybe even a book or two. This session will cover Jane Jacobs (brief bio on Wikipedia). The event coincides with the Jane’s Walk Festival Weekend (May 6-7-8), which features citizen-led free walks around the globe.

This Talk the Walk Session will feature a presentation by author Anthony Flint, who wrote “Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City.”

Sixty years after the publication of “The Death and Life of American Cities,” the legacy of Jane Jacobs endures. She would be cheered by the pandemic-driven transformation of urban environments to accommodate outdoor dining, biking, scooting, and walking; the support of local businesses and grassroots local climate action; and the resilience of transit systems enabling the “15-minute city,” a 21st-century version of how she lived her life in Greenwich Village. But what wouldn’t she be happy with? Quite probably the scourge of “Not in My Backyard” responses to multifamily housing, amid dizzying increases in housing costs.

We’ve included a few relevant links about Jane Jacobs below. If you have read something related that others might find interesting or a question you’d like to include, send it our way—we can include it in our event reminder email and add to this post.

Discussion questions to consider:

  • For whom does Jane Jacobs’ concepts work? For whom don’t they work?
  • What makes Jane Jacobs’ arguments exciting to planners?
  • How do Jane Jacobs’ theories/ideas hold up today, particularly with the latest challenges cities are facing in 2022 (ongoing pandemic, remote/hybrid work, online shopping, rising housing costs, gentrification, etc?)
  • What are some of the critiques of Jane Jacobs’ concepts?

Register for this meeting:

https://www.givesignup.org/TicketEvent/TalkTheWalk
You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Articles to get you started:

Fitness challenges to get ready for November 

Fitness challenges to get ready for November 

Can’t wait for Beat the Bay State to return in November? Check out these partner events to keep you occupied this spring!

MassBike’s 30 Days of Biking Challenge (Month of April)

All you have to do is ride every day in April, even if it’s just once around your block, and you’ll have a chance to win a Rover Rain Cape from Cleverhood. The April 30 Days of Biking is a great way to kick off your riding season before Bay State Bike Month starts in May!

Mattapan Walks Spring 2022 Walking Challenge (starting April 6)

Track your steps per day and be entered to win prizes for new & returning walkers per week for each theme. Challenge starts April 6th and will last for 5 weeks (Wednesday, April 6th to Wednesday, May 11th). Each week is a different theme:

  • Week 1: Buddy Week

  • Week 2: Adventure Week

  • Week 3: Pets and Family Week

  • Week 4: Kindness Week

  • Week 5: Whacky Week

MA Councils on Aging’s Walk Massachusetts Challenge
(registration now open, challenge goes May 1 – October 31)

Lace up your sneakers! The Walk Massachusetts Challenge is back and better than ever! This year, we are opening up the challenge to everyone age five and up. Anyone under 60 can sponsor an older adult to walk with or for. You can sponsor your parent, grandparent, neighbor, teacher, Council on Aging employee, etc. What are you waiting for? Your participation helps your local Council on Aging/Senior Center win money for fitness programs and gives you the chance to win one of several prizes!

Choose one of four challenges based on a Commonwealth of Massachusetts fun fact:

  • The 1788 Challenge – Walk 88 Days (at least 30 minutes per day) 

    • Complete 88 days to celebrate the year Massachusetts became the sixth state! It is only a 30 minute walk every other day for the duration of the promotion.

  • The Turnpike Challenge – Run, Jog, Walk 126.6 Miles(or about 253,000 steps)

    • Complete 126.6 miles to celebratethe length of the Massachusetts Turnpike from Boston to Lee! It is only about 0.7 miles or about 1,380 steps a day for the duration of the promotion.

  • The Shoreline Challenge – Run, Jog, Walk 192 Miles(or about 384,000 steps)

    • Complete 192 miles to celebrate the length of the Massachusetts shoreline! It is only about 1.1 miles or about 2,090 stepsa day for the duration of the promotion.

  • The Commonwealth Challenge – Run, Jog, Walk 351 Miles(or about 702,000 steps)

    • Complete 351 miles to celebrate the number of cities and towns in the Commonwealth!

The challenge runs May 1 to October 31, 2022. During this time, you will have chances to be entered into a drawing to win a $50 Visa, $25 Amazon or $10 Dunkin’ gift card. The more you walk, the more chances you have to win. Reach each milestone and receive a total of five entries. By completing the challenge, your local Council on Aging gets a raffle entry to win up to $1000 for fitness programming.

Safe Roads Alliance Global Road Safety Week Relay (starting May 15)

In this primarily virtual event, we are asking participants to run the width of our Commonwealth to help raise awareness of road safety. The event will take place May 15-22, 2022 during Global Road Safety Week. It will start in Lenox on May 15th and end at the Marathon Finish Line in Boston on May 22nd.

Most of the relay legs are 5 miles long and participants can run, walk, bike, or roll their leg that they have selected. The number of people completing each leg is unlimited and we set a goal of raising $500 for each leg for a total of $16,500.

Where and when is the event?

The first leg will kick off on May 15th at 10am in Lenox, MA and the last leg will be on May 22nd with a ceremony at the finish line in Boston. The legs in between will be mapped and tracked but participants will be able to complete them at the leisure virtually during that week.

For a few sections of the route, we are recommending that people opt to do a virtual run/walk/bike due to the safety of the roads in some areas. We tried to create a route that would have sidewalks or wide shoulders and a low speed limit, but in some parts of the state, this was not possible. We highlighted over nearly two dozen virtual options around MA that are on bike paths or rail trails and these can easily substitute for a leg along the route where we recommend a virtual option. Massachusetts has many beautiful, connected off-road paths that we want more people to know about, so check these out too when you are selecting your leg. Just make sure to log your finish so we can see if we successfully relayed across our Commonwealth!

WalkBoston Presents 32nd Annual Celebration and Golden Shoe Awards, 3/30 at 5pm

WalkBoston Presents 32nd Annual Celebration and Golden Shoe Awards, 3/30 at 5pm

This Wednesday, March 30th at 5PM, WalkBoston will present this year’s Golden Shoes to people or organizations who have accomplished terrific wins for walking: We will be honoring Josh Ostroff, Meg Robertson, and “Just Walk Boston.” 

Josh Ostroff is being honored for his unwavering commitment to walking advocacy in Natick and the greater Metrowest region. For more on Josh, head to his website.

Meg Robertson is a multi-decade champion throughout the Commonwealth for people with intellectual disabilities and vision impairment, blindness or deafblindness.

“Just Walk Boston” was founded by Brandy Cruthird as a way of fighting pandemic-induced loneliness and segregated public space through the simple act of walking. Read about the group in the Boston Globe.

Our 2022 Annual Celebration Keynote Speaker this year is Kyle Robidoux,

Kyle has spent his entire professional career working with community based organizations and local government. Most recently, Kyle worked as the Chief of Staff for Mayor Kim Janey’s Council President Office and currently works with the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Office of Housing Stability as the Assistant Director. Kyle is a sponsored athlete with and ultra-distance runner and the current Board President with FriendshipWorks. He lives in the Lower Roxbury neighborhood with his wife and daughter. Read more about Kyle on our website.

Congrats to all the winners! Want to celebrate this year’s winners and hear what Kyle has to say about accessibility and walkability? RSVP to join us this Wednesday March 30 at 5:00pm on Zoom!