"Green Streets Initiative touts alternative transportation on first anniversary
By Kristen Grieco/Chronicle Correspondent
Friday, April 06, 2007
“Wear green, go green, get free ice cream.”
That was the simple mantra set forth by Jane Katz-Christy, organizer of Cambridge Green Streets Initiative, at last Friday’s Walk/Ride Day. The monthly event, which encourages those who live and work in Cambridge to don green clothing and leave their cars at home for the day, was celebrating its first anniversary with free ice cream at Toscanini’s in Central Square for all participants.
It was only one day after Cambridge announced its intention to become the greenest city in America and reduce energy usage that Katz-Christy and about a dozen green transportation supporters — including Mayor Ken Reeves and state Rep. Will Brownsberger — strolled down Massachusetts Avenue from City Hall as a symbol of the organization’s success."
“Our vision is to have this party every month all over Cambridge where, of course, you go green,” said Katz-Christy, adding that walking or riding instead of driving offers environmental, health and community benefits.
While some may question the difference just one day on a bike will make, Katz-Christy said that the effort is in part a way of supporting and applauding those who use green transportation every day. Removing cars from the street, she said, means that the roads are safer for those who bike or walk. Getting out of the car also fosters a sense of community and allows neighbors to talk more on the streets, she added.
The Cambridge Green Streets Initiative started in public and private schools in Cambridge about a year ago, after Katz-Christy and Hope Kelley, the wife of City Councilor Craig Kelley, were lamenting about how each year, Earth Day passed by without much notice. They decided that instead of an annual observance, they would launch a monthly event. With the help of a parent network throughout the Cambridge schools, they launched Walk/Ride Day, the signature event of the Cambridge Green Streets Initiative.
The event has been mostly focused on schools, but last fall Katz-Christy and the 60 or so other organizers who help her throughout the city began to involve local businesses, who have both encouraged their participants to join the Walk/Ride Days and have offered incentives for Cambridge consumers who do the same. From free half-scoops of ice cream at Toscanini’s to free towels at Healthworks, Cambridge businesses have stepped up to the plate.
“We’ve been looking for different ways to support green solutions to problems,” said Gus Rancatore, owner of Toscanini’s, of why he was offering free scoops to green-clad foot traffic last Friday. “Most of the things that individuals and small businesses do are small but cumulatively, they do have some effect.”
Katz-Christy doesn’t have official numbers on participation because the effort is decentralized, but said that hundreds of schoolchildren wear green and use alternate transportation on the monthly Walk/Ride Day, and that she has counted cars out the window on a normal day and a Walk/Ride Day and has seen them reduced by half.
“What [Katz-Christy] is doing fits in with Safe Routes to School [a federal program], the effort to revamp public transportation, climate change and environmentalism,” said Steve Miller of the Cambridge Bike Committee while waiting to get ice cream at Toscanini’s. “It’s very exciting to see a grassroots effort this successful.”
Photo caption: Mayor Ken Reeves walks through Central Square with Patty Nolan, Steve Miller, Conrad Crawford and others on the first anniversary of Cambridge Walk/Ride. (photo: Kate Flock)
http://www.townonline.com/cambridge/homepage/x666734290
Comments