Small and Big Steps for Walkability

I’m excited that our Pedestrian and Bike Safety Committee was able to work with our town to secure almost $3700 in reimbursement funding to buy bike racks. And our monthly meetings are defintitely raising awareness about Pedestrian and Bike Safety issues and beginning to build a coalition of people in town who share a desire to make improvements. But it is really inspiring to read this story of how a group in California, over the course of a year, obtained $800,000 in grant money to improve sidewalks in their neighborhood.

It can happen, even in difficult economic times. We confront a budget crisis here and the likelihood of multiple property tax override campaigns next year. Despite recent good news about the fact that state aid for school funding will not be cut, even “level-funding” of Town departments has become the best we can hope for. The question is not what will be cut, but how much will be cut. Many people are going to oppose those overrides because times are hard for everyone and it’s a reasonable case to say, why can’t the town just “tighten their belts” like the rest of us…and postpone new expensive projects?

In such an environment, talk of sidewalks and other improvements that cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, faces an impossibility argument–but only if we assume the money has to come from the existing budget. When people are truly behind an idea, they can make it happen.

Tomorrow, our town of Westwood is dedicating a Veterans Memorial park that has been in the works for many years. Originally, Town Meeting approved $25,000 for the park, but it took the efforts of many people over the years to make the project happen. Then, when it became clear that $25,000 was not going to cover the project, the town conducted a brick sale–selling memorial bricks to residents to honor Veterans. Within a few weeks, hundreds of bricks were sold and in total, the Town raised over $45,000 of additional private money.

Figure out what needs to be done first. Get true consensus and involve as many people as possible so the idea is not just a good idea, but something many people want to happen and believe in. Then, find the money and make it so.

It’s easy to get sidetracked by negativity. Did you see how $9 million of Federal stimulus funding is being used to construct a footbridge to connect parking lots to Gillete Stadium? That is NOT my idea of walkability–to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize private development of a project nobody asked for? Meanwhile, we need this bridge fixed so people can walk under it from one side of town to the other and not be killed:

Instead of griping about things though, let’s think of the question in a more optimistic manner…if Robert Kraft can get $9 million for a parking lot bridge, why CAN’T we get this bridge improved? What can I do to make it happen? Shall I go back to that bridge with a stroller and videotape what it is like to push a baby carriage along under that bridge? Shall we form a neighborhood group to advocate for fixing the bridge? How do we make this thing “shovel ready?” I don’t think it would be that hard to light a fire around this issue, but we need other people to step up and a relentless focus on positive solutions…then, we will find the will to make it happen, the consensus to do something that is supported by the entire neighborhood, and the funding to accomplish the impossible.