frankenst

Mayor Walsh, thank you very much for doing this AMA.

I have a few questions which I hope you could answer (sorry for the length):

Franklin Park is a tremendous urban amenity, but the current design and surrounding street layout make it feel rather cut off from the rest of the city. I feel that a major reprogramming and redesign of the park and surrounding streets could help connect it back to the city and help revitalize the surrounding neighborhoods. Is this something that is on your radar?

Bike and pedestrian safety is a major concern of mine – especially in the southern neighborhoods of the city. People drive too fast down my street (which has many small children), and as a daily bike commuter, I often encounter some extremely disturbing purposeful motorist intimidation if I go south of the monument in JP or east of the southwest corridor (especially, but not limited to, places with shared lanes and/or no bike facilities). Aside from a real need for capital improvements and more aggressive physical calming measures, what other things is your administration working on to protect the safety of both pedestrians and cyclists? Reduced speed limits? What about areas around playgrounds and schools? Is there anything we can do to bring problem areas to your attention? This is a major quality of life issue in the southern half of the city and I’m not sure how much stepped up enforcement would help.

Is there anything you can do to get the MBTA to seriously look at adding an Orange line stop in Roslindale? There are 9 bus lines that run between the square and Forest Hills (combined ridership is in the 10s of thousands) – and the vast majority of these passengers never stop in the square. If several of these lines terminated there, this would be a boon to the local business district and to the neighborhood – and help make this area more accessible and potentially reduce traffic and commute times. The Arborway Yard is another issue that perhaps the city could force the MBTA to rethink – that area has tremendous potential to add much needed transit-orientated housing and office-space (now that the overpass is coming down).

That said – I am very excited about the Fairmount greenway initiative, and I hope the city finds money to make this happen sooner.

Thanks for your time.

bike car on the blue line:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Copenhagen_biketrain_collage.jpg

accommodates bikes, wheelchairs, and strollers. They'd be like the "big red" cars on the red line.

Why has the MBTA never studied adding a single stop in Roslindale? The orange line expansion south seems to be a very low priority - but they've only studied full build-out. It would appear that adding a single stop at roslindale village would help solve a lot of congestion issues further up along washington street and up at forest hills (9 bus lines run through the square - with a combined ridership of over 10,000 people - most of these lines could end at the square instead of continuing up to forest hills), and would be a huge economic boost to the business district. There's even an existing ROW along the arboretum and space for a station.

the one study I saw didn't even consider how it would reconfigure existing bus lines and that these users would use this station - just population served, total cost, and effect on local car traffic.

the majority of the people who travel to roslindale square do so by foot, bike, or commuter rail - I'm wondering if this has more to do with the weather than with ticketing. I'm usually purchasing things in the square 3 or 4 times a week, but since it's been so miserable out I've been picking stuff up near work lately. Also - with the opening of the new Harvest Co-op up near Forest Hills, I've been finding myself up there more often lately (and I see neighbors up there too). Also - Roslindale really lacks a good neighborhood coffee shop. Do you guys not understand that there are 20 and 30-somethings who live here too? it's like most of the businesses in the square are geared toward aging boomers - the only place I feel like there are people remotely within my demographic are at Redd's. I'm really looking forward to the bike shop opening up on belgrade, btw...

anyway - I think if you really want to see increased foot traffic, you should be advocating for an orange line stop. I'm not sure why parking is a problem since the lots are rarely full. Maybe people don't know the lot behind citizens exists?

Thank you for your response!

While the Franklin Park Coalition is an excellent organization, I do think there needs to be a little more leadership from your office in terms of framing improvements to the park and adjacent streets in terms of economic development and public safety for the surrounding neighborhoods. If you are truly interested in reducing crime in the area, Franklin Park is a huge piece of the puzzle, and I know the "friends of the park" will need your help to see the bigger picture.