Tag: Boston

North End Cross Street Boutique Hotel Comment Letter

Lance Campbell
Senior Project Manager
Boston Planning & Development Agency
April 19, 2021

Re: WalkBoston Comments on North End Cross Street Boutique Hotel

Dear Lance:
WalkBoston attended the public meeting on April 7th for the North End Cross Street Boutique Hotel and offered comments during the virtual meeting. We are pleased that many of the changes will improve the pedestrian experience in approaching and using the proposed buildings, as well as the newly created plaza and passageway.

The passageway between the two buildings will create a new connection between the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Cutillo Park for people walking. We are glad to see the plan will activate the plaza for people along the Greenway, as it includes new seating opportunities both bordering the building with the hotel and restaurant spaces, as well as new public seating closer to the corner of Hanover Street. We appreciate the visual cue of the concrete sidewalk through the site plan’s plaza as recommended by the City of Boston’s Disability Commission.

The Cross Street and Hanover Street intersection is currently used as a geofenced rideshare pickup and drop-off location, as users are directed within their apps to meet their drivers here. This geofencing makes it possible to limit rideshare pickup and drop-off on other streets in the North End, and is one way that the City of Boston can regulate curb use. With an improved pick up and drop-off area included in this project, we hope that this effort will continue.
Finally, we ask that the proponent commit to clearing the entire plaza and crosswalks curb cuts of snow and ice during the winter months in order to ensure safe walking throughout the year. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the plan. We would be pleased to discuss any of these items further with you.

Thank you,
Stacey Beuttell
Executive Director, WalkBoston

Brendan Kearney
Deputy Director, WalkBoston

76 Ashford Street Comment Letter

April 23, 2021

Michael Sinatra
Boston Planning and Development Agency

Re: 76 Ashford Street PNF

Dear Mr. Sinatra:

WalkBoston has reviewed the PNF for the 76 Ashford Street Project with respect to its impacts and benefits for people walking and using transit.

We are very pleased that the proponent is reserving the land and right-of-way necessary to provide walking, biking and bus access to West Station, and that the built condition will be at the elevation necessary for this connection. This is an absolutely critical element of a successful multi-modal West Station that will allow this part of Boston to become home to transit oriented development. We request that the City make this reservation for walking, biking and bus access to West Station a requirement for the project to receive its environmental and development approvals.

We support the interim use of this access reservation land as open space and urge the proponent to work with the City of Boston, MassDOT and the MBTA to ensure that once the I-90 Allston Multi-Modal Project is built that residents of the building will have access to high quality open space in the neighborhood and along the Charles River.

The building ground-level retail space which will face West Station is a welcoming element of the project to transit users and people walking, and is an appropriate and welcome project element.

We are also pleased that the project has been proposed with a low ratio of parking spaces (approximately .25 spaces/unit). We believe that this is appropriate for a development that will be in such close proximity to West Station and that is also well served by existing bus and Green Line service.

Overall, we are excited that the private development community is responsive to the promise of West Station and its potential for excellent transit service, and look forward to seeing a transit oriented development that includes on-site affordable units.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments.

Sincerely,

Wendy Landman, Senior Policy Advisor

Boston.com: “Should the city remove snow from sidewalks, just like it does for Boston’s streets?”

Brendan Kearney, deputy director of WalkBoston, an advocacy organization aimed at making walking easier and safer in Massachusetts, told officials Cambridge has taken up efforts, as have Newton and Framingham to varying degrees. “There are definitely examples here in Massachusetts as well,” Kearney said.
…
Representatives from WalkBoston and the LiveableStreets Alliance — which advocates for safe streets — advised Boston councilors to consider areas to prioritize snow clearing based on community input, and to include sidewalk plowing and direction on where to leave snow piles as part of its snow plow contracts, among other recommendations.
“I’m just super impressed by what Syracuse is doing,” Kearney said. “That is a great, great model for Boston.”

Posted March 18, 2021

View the presentation we shared with the city council:

125 Lincoln Street, Boston Comment Letter

March 2, 2021

Michael Sinatra, Project Manager
Boston Planning and Development Agency
Boston City Hall
100 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201

RE: 125 Lincoln Street proposal

Dear Mr. Sinatra,

WalkBoston periodically reviews projects proposed in the city and has done so for over 3 decades. This proposal, located at 125 Lincoln Street in the Leather District, has been underway for several years and has been modified to meet many objections that were raised about prior proposals for the site and the building. We are pleased that so many of the changes will improve the pedestrian experience in approaching and using the proposed building and the surrounding streets and sidewalks.

Reduction of building square footage and parking

The potential impact of the 125 Lincoln Street project has been somewhat reduced by the smaller floor space now included in the proposed structure of 14 stories. The number of parking spaces has been reduced as well, lowering the number of potential conflicts between cars and walkers on the adjacent sidewalks.

We have reviewed the new plan to ascertain the ways in which it enhances space and safety for pedestrians using the site and building.

Public realm expansion and projected uses

The proposal expands the open space around the proposed building by 60% and uses the open space to improve the attractiveness of the site and to augment the space used by pedestrians. The site will have two significant areas of passive open space. One (the Lincoln Street Plaza) is located at the apex of the triangular-shaped site – the corner of Essex and Lincoln Streets and the Rose Kennedy Greenway. This area will be landscaped and provided with seating for users of the building and the public.

The second new open space (the Beach Street Plaza) is a 70’ long “Lid” atop the on-ramp that hugs the Greenway side of the parcel. This new air rights area will add to the outdoor space on the site, and will be rimmed by landscape buffering along both the ramp and the Greenway. In addition, the new space adds room for seats for passive use of the park.

We hope that both of these plan elements will be carried through into construction and will receive long-term landscape maintenance.

Curb extensions and widened sidewalks

Curb extensions are used extensively at intersections adjacent to the site to provide visibility for pedestrians to improve their safety in crossing the street, and also slightly enlarging the space allotted for public use. In addition, sidewalks have been widened along both Beach and Lincoln Streets to make the setting more attractive and safe for pedestrians. The widened sidewalk space provides room for planting of trees that will give shade for pedestrians, a very good amenity for the neighborhood.

Delivery and parking access for the building

The proponent has made significant efforts to remove loading and parking access from Beach Street, the principal connection between this site and Boston’s Chinatown. Along Beach Street the plan no longer includes a parking ramp and a site for deliveries to tenants in the building. The additional safety measures are to be applauded.

The intersection of Essex and Lincoln Streets with the Greenway

A troubling aspect of the site planning is that a proposal for improving this intersection is deferred and not included in the plan. This intersection is very difficult for pedestrians to navigate because of street angles and the major entrance to the southbound Artery that brings significant traffic and many hazards for people who choose to cross vehicular traffic at this location. We hope that additional study will come quickly to rationalize and define what the precise plan for the intersection is likely to be.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the plan for 125 Lincoln Street. We would be pleased to discuss any of these items further with you.

Sincerely,

Stacey Beuttell Bob Sloane
Executive Director Senior Planner

Statewide Fatal Crashes in MA, January 2021

Each month in 2021, we plan to post about the fatal crashes in Massachusetts from the previous month, and share any trends that we see. Last month, we took a look at the year 2020 in review. In this post, we’ll look at crashes in MA in January 2021. The information in the chart below is compiled from news reports, and was checked against the MassDOT Crash Portal Dashboard “Fatal Information by Year.” The Google Street View images included below use the address listed in the crash portal.

Of the 20 fatal crashes in Massachusetts in January in the MassDOT Crash portal, 5 were people walking.
3 of those 5 crashes were hit & runs.
The crash portal does not include names. The names of 2 of the people walking who died have not been made public yet.
The name of the person driving was only identified in 1 of the 5 crashes in news articles.

Date	1/2/2021, 11:00 PM
Location	200 Locust St.
Town	Springfield
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age
Sex	M

An unidentified man was killed in a hit and run crash on Locust Street in Springfield. There have been no follow up articles that we’ve seen identifying the person who died, or anything about the person that fled the scene. WesternMassNews says the Police Department has located the car and vehicle owner, and expects more from the District Attorney’s office.

Date	1/5/2021, 11:30 AM
Location	Chelsea St. + 13th St.
Town	Boston
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	92
Sex	M

Francis McGrath, a 92 year old man, was killed in a hit and run crash on Chelsea Street in Charlestown. The driver dragged him for nearly a mile. The crash location is listed as Chelsea St & 13th (entrance to the Charlestown Navy Yard), while StreetsblogMass reports the Boston Police said it happened even further back at Chelsea St & Terminal St. While there had been speculation that the driver of a large truck was involved, there have been no follow up articles that we’ve seen about the person that left the scene. We spoke to the Boston Herald about the safety issues large vehicles present for people walking/biking, and the increase of drivers speeding during the coronavirus pandemic.

Date	1/13/2021, 7:19 PM
Location	235 Main St.
Town	Oxford
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	55
Sex	F

Wendy Hibbard was crossing Main Street in Oxford when a driver hit and killed her. Based on Google Maps Street View, a crosswalk across Main Street was made ADA-compliant sometime between October 2018 and October 2019. The street is one lane in each direction with a sidewalk on each side, but it looks to be approximately 50 feet from curb to curb using the measuring tool on Google Maps. According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Main Street/Rt12 is under MassDOT jurisdiction.

Date	1/19/2021, 9:30 PM
Location	38 Upland Rd.
Town	Belmont
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	35
Sex	M

District Attorney Marian T. Ryan’s office shared on January 25th that Dean Kapsalis, 54 of Hudson, will face additional charges of murder and leaving the scene causing death in connection with striking and killing Henry Tapia on Upland Road in Belmont. Kapsalis was previously arraigned on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a civil rights violation causing injury and leaving the scene causing injury. The Boston Globe reported that “since getting a driver’s license around 1987, Kapsalis has been cited for speeding at least 17 times, was involved in at least 7 surcharge crashes, and had his right to drive suspended at least 6 times, usually for a cluster of traffic violations in a short period of time, according to RMV records.”

Date	1/23/2021, 8:42 PM
Location	687 Ocean St.
Town	Marshfield
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	56
Sex	M

An unidentified 56 year old Marshfield man was hit and killed on Ocean Street in Marshfield. An article from 95.9 WATD quotes a police lieutenant that the “early investigation shows the victim was walking in the roadway along a dark stretch.” The street is one lane in each direction, but there is only a sidewalk on one side of the street.

Updates
If you have an update about a community member who was killed in one of these crashes, please contact Brendan so we can update our . WalkBoston has maintained a list each year since 2016, pulling the information from news reports, social media, and from people like you that share the information with us.
Yearly trackers: |||||

Reminder about the data from the MassDOT portal
DISCLAIMER: The compilation of data is based on preliminary data we receive from a variety of local sources. Some of the data may differ slightly from information provided by NHTSA as this dashboard does not use imputation methods. Information is subject to change when/if updated information becomes available. Data updated daily as reported by police departments.