Green Streets Initiative

September 25, 2009 Newsletter and Update

Click here to read the full newsletter, with events, background and more!

SEPTEMBER 2009 UPDATE   Dear Green Streets friends,   This Friday is the first Walk/Ride Day of the fall season and the school year! There is huge excitement out there for green transport and Walk/Ride Day events and opportunities! New schools and businesses are kicking off Walk/Ride Days, and veteran participants are reconvening and spreading the word to new members of their communities! Cambridge Has New City-Wide Coordinator! Green Streets is pleased to welcome Sarah Fresco, a new City-Wide Coordinator for Cambridge's Walk/Ride Day celebrations. A mother of two children and resident of East Cambridge, Sarah is looking forward to being in touch with the Cambridge Walk/Ride Day community - sponsors, coordinators, and participants! You can read more about Sarah here! Feel free, too, to contact Sarah for help and support and with your ideas!   Volunteers and Donations Needed for Upcoming 9 in '09 Celebration Green Streets is seeking volunteers, sponsors, and donations for the January 11, 2010, celebration of Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons' 9 in '09 Challenge. This event will recognize those who participated in at least nine Walk/Ride Days in 2009. To be eligible, make sure you sign in online each month, fill out your Walk/Ride Day Passport, or keep another written record of participation! Let us know if you need more Passports. Green Streets and 350.org to Lead Group Bike Ride from Cambridge to Boston On October 24, 2009, in early or mid afternoon, Green Streets and the grassroots climate change group 350.org will lead a group bike ride from Cambridge Common to Boston, stopping for a photo shoot on the Mass Ave. Bridge. We are working on the possibility of offering FREE Safety Vests for the first 350 people to show up! (Pedestrians and bus and train riders also welcome to join in!) More information, including confirmation of times and destinations, will be posted soon on our website. For information about sponsorship or how to be involved, click here. Ideas, Solutions, and Discounts for Riding on City Streets Urban Adventours is offering a Walk/Ride Day special this Friday: 50% off a 10AM or 2PM group bike tour this Friday if you call 617-670-0637 and mention Green Streets.   Celebrate the day with your co-workers by arranging an office-wide ride or safety talk with MassBike Coalition.   Trail-gater has devised a wonderful solution to the problem of having to tow a child's bike, with or without a child on it! Get 20% off if you order by this Walk/Ride Day, and 10% off if you order by October 30's Walk/Ride Day. Check out this great way to transport young children by pedal power from Zigo. Green Streets friends can great discounts: a 15% discount through October 7, (use code GREEN15909) and a 10% discount beyond October 7 for Green Streets friends (use code green10909). You can also enter a raffle for a free Zigo Leader by clicking here. Tell us your tips, techniques and solutions! More in upcoming newsletters!   Many Thanks to Our Great Volunteers! Green Streets depends on the efforts of many volunteers, in addition to our great sponsors and the wonderful coordinators at the 200+ organizations who celebrate Walk/Ride Days. One individual, Betsy Bouche, does data entry for Green Streets whenever people sign up at conferences and want to be added to our email lists. Read more about Betsy here. Look for more volunteer profiles in the coming months! A Reminder: Please check in now, or on Walk/Ride Day! If you check in regularly, thanks for your input. If you've never checked in before, make this your first time!   And let us know how it goes! With best regards, Janie Katz-Christy, Director Green Streets Initiative, Inc. www.GoGreenStreets.org walk-ride-days@comcast.net

 

September 25, 2009 Newsletter and Update

Click here to read the full newsletter, with events, background and more!

SEPTEMBER 2009 UPDATE   Dear Green Streets friends,   This Friday is the first Walk/Ride Day of the fall season and the school year! There is huge excitement out there for green transport and Walk/Ride Day events and opportunities! New schools and businesses are kicking off Walk/Ride Days, and veteran participants are reconvening and spreading the word to new members of their communities! Cambridge Has New City-Wide Coordinator! Green Streets is pleased to welcome Sarah Fresco, a new City-Wide Coordinator for Cambridge's Walk/Ride Day celebrations. A mother of two children and resident of East Cambridge, Sarah is looking forward to being in touch with the Cambridge Walk/Ride Day community - sponsors, coordinators, and participants! You can read more about Sarah here! Feel free, too, to contact Sarah for help and support and with your ideas!   Volunteers and Donations Needed for Upcoming 9 in '09 Celebration Green Streets is seeking volunteers, sponsors, and donations for the January 11, 2010, celebration of Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons' 9 in '09 Challenge. This event will recognize those who participated in at least nine Walk/Ride Days in 2009. To be eligible, make sure you sign in online each month, fill out your Walk/Ride Day Passport, or keep another written record of participation! Let us know if you need more Passports. Green Streets and 350.org to Lead Group Bike Ride from Cambridge to Boston On October 24, 2009, in early or mid afternoon, Green Streets and the grassroots climate change group 350.org will lead a group bike ride from Cambridge Common to Boston, stopping for a photo shoot on the Mass Ave. Bridge. We are working on the possibility of offering FREE Safety Vests for the first 350 people to show up! (Pedestrians and bus and train riders also welcome to join in!) More information, including confirmation of times and destinations, will be posted soon on our website. For information about sponsorship or how to be involved, click here. Ideas, Solutions, and Discounts for Riding on City Streets Urban Adventours is offering a Walk/Ride Day special this Friday: 50% off a 10AM or 2PM group bike tour this Friday if you call 617-670-0637 and mention Green Streets.   Celebrate the day with your co-workers by arranging an office-wide ride or safety talk with MassBike Coalition.   Trail-gater has devised a wonderful solution to the problem of having to tow a child's bike, with or without a child on it! Get 20% off if you order by this Walk/Ride Day, and 10% off if you order by October 30's Walk/Ride Day. Check out this great way to transport young children by pedal power from Zigo. Green Streets friends can great discounts: a 15% discount through October 7, (use code GREEN15909) and a 10% discount beyond October 7 for Green Streets friends (use code green10909). You can also enter a raffle for a free Zigo Leader by clicking here. Tell us your tips, techniques and solutions! More in upcoming newsletters!   Many Thanks to Our Great Volunteers! Green Streets depends on the efforts of many volunteers, in addition to our great sponsors and the wonderful coordinators at the 200+ organizations who celebrate Walk/Ride Days. One individual, Betsy Bouche, does data entry for Green Streets whenever people sign up at conferences and want to be added to our email lists. Read more about Betsy here. Look for more volunteer profiles in the coming months! A Reminder: Please check in now, or on Walk/Ride Day! If you check in regularly, thanks for your input. If you've never checked in before, make this your first time!   And let us know how it goes! With best regards, Janie Katz-Christy, Director Green Streets Initiative, Inc. www.GoGreenStreets.org walk-ride-days@comcast.net

 

New Cambridge City-Wide Coordinator!

My name is Sarah Fresco and I am the new Cambridge Coordinator for the Green Street Initiative's Walk/Ride Day Program.  I am a Cambridge resident, a parent of two children and a long time bike commuter.  The story goes back further than that.  I walked as child.  A lot.  My mother did not get a driver's liscence until I was 12 and by then the habit was well establish and while there were plenty of times I had to get rides in the suburban community that I lived in I was not willing to give up the freedom of walking.

I became a bike commuter after college.  It wasn't easy to find a job in 1992.  Recessions were not new then and they are not now.  I had a job in Newton and I lived in Jamaica Plain.  It was cheap and fun to ride my bike to work so I did it.  Every day.

It was an unseasonably mild February when my daughter Rabiah was born 13 years ago.  Even an inveterate walker and intrepid bike commuter feels the necessity to qualify the fact that my husband and I brought her home from Beth Israel Hospital on the 47 bus.

After 3 months of maternity leave I was back on my bike visiting clients for the Somerville Cambridge Elder Services where I was working as a casemanager.  Cambridge has a long history of "alternative transportation"  In fact judging by what my clients told me about their lives walking, biking and riding the street cars was the norm not the exception only a few decades ago. 

Twelve years have passed.  We have a second daughter and I have worked as a nanny and for the last four years as the Operations Coordinator for The Uphams Corner Charter School in Boston.  In June The Uphams Corner Charter School closed and after a series on emails and conversations with Janie I came to realize that the organization skills and the passion I had for making alternative transportation a part of my daily life could benefit the Green Streets Initiative.  I feel fortunate to be coming into the organization at a time when we are truly ready to reap the rewards of the hard work that Janie and many others did over the past few years.  People in Cambridge know what Walk/Ride means and it is a happy fun meaning that we can all share in.

Back Stage: The woman who's been adding interested folks to to our email list!

This from Betsy Bouche, whom Green Streets thanks for doing a fantastic job adding names and contact info of people who come to conferences and other places and want to receive our newsletters!

"I've been doing transcription and data entry part time for years and those skills are the best way I know to give back to the community. I got rid of my car about a year and a half ago, and get around by walking, public transportation and occasionally Zipcar (which I joined on a recent Walk/Ride Day). I grew up locally & I've been in Somerville since the '70s.  In other aspects of my life, I grow vegetables in my backyard and do as much of my shopping as possible at farmers' markets.

And, I'm always looking for work, so if people are looking for someone with my office skills, feel free to give them my contact info!"

Early September, 2009

Click here to read entire newsletter with events and background

EARLY SEPTEMBER 2009 UPDATE   Dear Green Streets friends,   With so much news and so many upcoming events to report on, we are sending out an early update this month. Look for our usual reminder and newsletter before the next Walk/Ride Day on September 25, 2009. There's still time to kick off Walk/Ride Days this fall! Bring Walk/Ride Days to your workplace, school, club, church, or other organization this September! Please visit our website's special pages to find guidance on how to get involved: for schools, for communities, for businesses, for retail sponsors. Email or call us if you need any further support.   SPECIAL INVITATIONS FROM OUR PARTNERS RAIL-VOLUTION 2009 Conference Application Deadline: This Friday, September 11   Are you interested in the role of transit and land use in fostering social justice, protecting the environment, and developing stronger communities? If so, you may wish to attend the upcoming national Rail~Volution conference in Boston. This will be the first time the event has ever been held in New England. Interested New England activists, advocates, and students are invited to apply for scholarships. Also, Boston-area hosts for out-of-town attendees will be thanked with free conference registration. Applications are due September 11, 2009. Applications here. More info: Daniel Ferry.   MASSBIKE Survey:Take a fascinating survey (click here) for those who ride a bicycle or drive a motor vehicle in Massachusetts. The survey takes only about 5 minutes to complete. Events: See other MassBike events and initiatives, including refresher, urban, and commuter bicycling courses here. Consider bringing MassBike in to do a custom workshop for your workplace or religious institution. WALKBOSTON Help With User Counts: The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) wants your help in its most extensive comprehensive user count of the Charles River Basin. A total of 25 locations are planned, on two dates: Saturday, September 12, 12:00-2:00 PM (raindate: Saturday, September 26, 12:00-2:00 PM) and Tuesday, September 22, 4:30-6:30 PM (raindate: Wednesday, September 23, 4:30-6:30 PM). For more information or to help, please contact event organizers at: rsvp@walkboston.org. PARK(ing) Day, September 18! Various locations. This is a fun international event that transforms parking spaces in to park/picnic,/meeting spaces to show how much of our communal "real estate" is taken over by car parking. Click here for more info. Co-sponsored by LiveableStreets Alliance Pedestrian 101: Walk/Ride Day Sponsor, Harvest Co-op, Tuesday, September 29, 6:00 PM: Slide show and discussion of the elements that make a community walkable and how to advocate for pedestrian improvements that make a difference. URBAN ADVENTOURS Check out Urban Adventours' new and favorite bike tours this fall! You don't have to be a tourist to love them! Click here to browse. Check in for Walk/Ride Days for a chance to win a free tour!   LIVABLE STREETS: New Blog by Former Green Streets Board Member Check out Steve Miller's new blog, "Musings on Transportation, Health, and Livable communities." Steve is the Executive Director of the Healthy Weight Initiative at the Harvard University School of Public Health's Dept. of Nutrition, was the first Treasurer of Green Streets, and is on the board of Livable Streets Alliance, whose events and other blogs we highly recommend! See more here.   HONK!FEST: Housing Needed for Musicians Green Streets will once again be involved in the Honk!Fest Parade, "Taking Back the Street for Horns, Bicycles, and Feet" on October 11, 2009, as part of Columbus Day Weekend music festival in Davis Square. Visiting bands from Vancouver, Oakland, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis, Baltimore, New York, Atlanta, New Orleans, Montreal, Vermont, and Providence, as well as Bologna and Rome, Italy, will be seeking housing from October 8th and 9th to October 12th. Proximity to Davis Square and/or the Red Line is a plus. Contact Trudi Cohen 917-319-8104 if you can host a musician or two (or 10). With best regards, Janie Katz-Christy, Director Green Streets Initiative, Inc. www.GoGreenStreets.org walk-ride-days@comcast.net