Category: Event

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session: “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer,” 9/29 12pm on Zoom

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session: “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer,” 9/29 12pm on Zoom

WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session
“Confessions of a Recovering Engineer”
September 29, 12-1pm
Register for this event

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

“Talk the Walk” is our 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 features the book “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer” by Chuck Marohn. The author will be joining us for a brief presentation to kick things off, followed by breakout groups for discussion questions, and if time allows, an author Q&A.

Charles Marohn, professional engineer and founder of the Strong Towns movement, lifts the curtain on America’s transportation system in his newest book, Confessions of a Recovering Engineer. In this book tour presentation, Marohn demonstrates how the values of engineers and other transportation professionals are applied in the design process, and how those priorities differ from the values of the general public. By showing how transportation investments are a means to an end and not an end unto themselves, Marohn reveals how the standard approach to issues like fighting congestion, addressing speeding, and designing intersections only makes transportation problems worse, at great cost in terms of both safety and resources. By contrast, the Strong Towns approach to transportation focuses on bottom-up techniques for spending less and getting higher returns, all while improving quality of life for residents of a community.

Discussion questions: 

  • Discuss Marohn’s distinguishing between a “Road” and a “Street.” Do you agree? Is it helpful? Where does this distinction not hold up?
  • Marohn indicates the hierarchy of engineer values are for road design for vehicles: speed, volume, safety, cost; where the public’s hierarchy is safety, cost, volume, speed. Agree? Disagree? How are these values reflected?
  • Has your experience with civil engineers & consultants reflected what Marohn is confessing? Do you see change happening? Examples?

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:

Not sure if you’ll have time to read the whole book before 9/29 but still want to participate? A website with supplemental material was created to accompany the book. We’d encourage you to check out info from the intro and first three chapters.  

Want to go deeper? Buy the book! 

We encourage you to buy it from your local bookstore, or find a store near you via Bookshop. 

Here are a few stores you might consider supporting: 

Event – WalkBoston Walk: Franklin Park (August 24, 2022)

Event – WalkBoston Walk: Franklin Park (August 24, 2022)

This event was originally scheduled on July 20th, but was rescheduled due to a heat emergency declared by the City of Boston. We hope you’ll be able to join us for our new date: August 24th!

Join us on the new date of August 24th 2022 at 5:30PM for our next walk which will focus on Franklin Park, and is part of Olmsted Now: Greater Boston’s Olmsted Bicentennial taking place in 2022 (this was originally scheduled for July, but it was rescheduled due to the heat emergency). It is also our second group walk of the year, following the Bob Sloane / Muddy River Walk in June. Updates will be available on this page & sent to all registered attendees before the event.

WalkBoston walks typically last 90 minutes, covering 1-1.5 miles and include stops along the way to hear from 3-4 people/organizations who are working on walking-related efforts in the community.

HOW TO GET TO THE START

We’ll start and end at near the Zoo at the William J. Devine Golf Course Clubhouse (1 Circuit Dr, Dorchester, MA 02121), where food and drink is available for purchase. If you’re coming from downtown, consider taking the Orange Line to Jackson Square and riding the 22 Bus via the new Columbus Avenue Bus Lane! Prefer to walk a little more through Franklin Park? You can also get off the Orange Line at Green Street and walk through the park via the Glen Road entrance. Parking is also available nearby.

ROUTE

The walk will focus on Franklin Park, and is part of Olmsted Now. The walk will start and end at the Franklin Park Clubhouse (1 Circuit Dr, Dorchester, MA 02121), which will be open for food/drink at the end.

Transportation close to the clubhouse:

  • 14, 16, 22, 28, 29, 45 buses all are a short walk from the Franklin Park Clubhouse, and can connect you to the Orange and Red lines
  • BlueBikes – Franklin Park Zoo / Franklin Park Rd at Blue Hill Ave
  • Parking is available in a lot by the Clubhouse as well as along Circuit Drive

SPEAKERS

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

This walk is the second 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.

First Annual Bob Sloane Walk: Muddy River

First Annual Bob Sloane Walk: Muddy River

Thank you to everyone who came out to join us for our first Annual Bob Sloane Walk (and first in-person event in almost 2 years) on June 7th!

It was wonderful to see so many friends and advocates.

Special thanks to our partners at Olmsted Now and our guest speakers: Isabel Schulman and Sophia Bass Warner, National Park Service; Bill Smith, Town of Brookline, Department of Public Works; Charlotte Fleetwood, Boston Transportation Department; and Veronika Trufanova, Emerald Necklace Conservancy.

Thank you for helping us honor Bob Sloane’s legacy and continue his advocacy work. We look forward to seeing more of all of you soon!

Below are a few more photos from the event, we hope you enjoy them and that you had a great time walking with us. For more about Olmsted Now, Greater Boston’s Olmsted Bicentennial, head to OlmstedNow.org

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: