GreenDorchester

Here’s an update to our 5/3/2010 posting: the latest new station to start taking shape on the Fairmount Commuter Rail Line (also called the Indigo Line) is now under construction on Talbot Avenue – see this recent Dorchester Reporter article.  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts agreed to improve the Fairmount Line as part of a legally binding commitment in 2005 to mitigate increased air pollution from the Big Dig. Improvements also include Continue Reading »

The Nightingale Community Garden on Park Street is the largest (with 30 plots on 1.5 acres) in Dorchester. The garden is undergoing extensive renovations and when work is finished next year there will be an additional 120 garden plots for neighborhood residents to grow fresh vegetables.
On Saturday, November 20, 2010, from 10 to 11:30 AM at the Codman Square Library, the third and final community meeting Continue Reading »

DotPark4, the annual not-to-be-missed festive benefit for Dorchester Park, will be held Weds. Nov. 10, from 6PM on at the Ledge Kitchen and Drinks, 2261 Dorchester Ave. Complimentary wine and beer from 6 to 7PM, followed by a full buffet dinner and passed appetizers, auction, DJ and dancing, and great company.  Tickets are $65 for the first ticket, $60 for each additional.  Free valet parking.  Tickets and additional information are available at the group’s website.

Frederick Law Olmsted designed 26-acre Dorchester Park in 1891, and the National Register of Historic Places-listed park is one of Dorchester’s most beautiful public spaces, a well-used venue for public concerts, ball games and community events.  Proceeds from the Nov 10th benefit will go to help Dorchester Park Association’s work to maintain the park’s ecosystem, nurturing old plants and rooting out invasive species.

6 – 7pm Cocktails
7 – 9pm Buffet Dinner
9 – 11pm Conversation, Dancing & Cheer

For tickets: www.dotpark.org

Head on over to Elmhurst Street the evening of August 9 for the Talbot-Norfolk Triangle neighborhood’s Family Fun Night Celebration – its their Big Event to wrap up a successul summer of youth programming. There will be a community dinner and a presentation about what this year’s group of children and teens learned this summer. Dinner at 6:00 pm, Presentation at 7:15 pm.

Now entering its eighth year, Urban Ecology Institute’s CityRoots program has engaged 32 neighborhood and community groups and over 700 individuals of all ages in projects of ecological restoration and urban regreening, fostering community engagement.

Four Dorchester organizations will receive CityRoots support this year:

• Boston Project Ministries-TNT Green Space Alliance – Plant 20 trees through their Park Patrol (co-sponsored by DEHC), and advocate to key stakeholders for increased tree planting in the Norfolk corridor.

• John McCormack Civic Association –Develop the Russell School lot to install and maintain a new outdoor classroom space and add new elements to the “Paul’s Triangle” park, the creation of which last year led to decreased car break-ins.

• United Neighborhood Association – Improve greenspace, sustainably landscape private yards, and install a green roof on the Claybourne Street Community Garden tool shed.

• Upham’s Corner Westside Neighborhood Association – Strengthen and maintain social connections among neighbors through soil quality education, community-wide testing, and by planting trees, shrubs, and installing raised beds in the neighborhood.

Talbot-Norfolk Triangle Park Patrol is another great program at Elmhurst Park this summer, co-sponsored by DEHC.  The Park Patrol has two divisions: Junior Park Patrol for ages 12-14, and Park Patrol for ages 14-17.

Park Patrol employs 20+ youth to:

• Volunteer at the Nightingale community garden (to prepare for the 106 Norfolk garden)
• Learn how to champion green spaces
• Mentor youth and promote community greening

Junior Park Patrol employs 6+ youth to:

• Learn how to plant up to 20 spring-flowering trees to provide color along Norfolk Street from Codman Square to New England Ave.  Trees are flowering and pink themed, provided by Urban Ecology Institute’s CityRoots program.

The Park Patrol youth will hold a free workshop on tree planting, open to the community, this fall, date TBA.

At Martin Playground – this is Mayor Menino’s 12th annual Neighborhood Coffee Hour program, a great way to advocate face-to-face for your park or other issues…

The Fairmount Line opened in 1855 and was one of Boston’s first commuter railroads, running approximately 9 miles between South Station and Hyde Park.   After long years of declining ridership, the line was closed down in 1944 – it was reopened by the Mass. Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in 1979, but without any Dorchester or Mattapan stations.  In 1987, two new stations opened in Mattapan (Morton Street) and Uphams Corner due to community pressure.  Carrying about 2,000 riders daily, it is the smallest commuter line in the MBTA system and the only one entirely contained in Boston, MA.  Currently there are four stations – Uphams Corner, Morton Street, Fairmount and Readville – and the line runs through communities (Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park) that constitute more than 30% of Boston’s population.

Over the years, the Fairmount Corridor Collaborative (FCC), a group of local housing and economic development agencies, realized the commuter line was travelling through rather than serving the transit needs of the neighborhoods. Dorchester and Mattapan communities are served mostly by bus Continue Reading »

DEHC’s meeting on the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) budget with MA State Representative Martin Walsh has been rescheduled for Tuesday, May 4, at 12:30pm in State House Room 540.

The April 26 meeting with Senator Jack Hart went well, with the Senator promising to fight for level funding for the Department of Conservation and Recreation and his support for an updated bottle bill.

If you would like to attend on Tuesday, please RSVP to Rosanne Foley 617-474-1478 or rosanne.foley[AT]dotwell.org, so we know to expect you.  Please bring stories about what the DCR parks and beaches mean to you and how you think an 8% cut on top of the 23% during 2009 might affect these spaces.  Also bring your supporting comments about what it would mean to pass the bottle bill, extending the deposit/refund system for cans to plastic and glass bottles.
Click here for the Boston Parks Advocates fact sheets on the state budget and Dorchester parks including info on the Ways and Means budget,  and a fact sheet on the bottle bill. Also see a sample letter from the Environmental League of Massachusetts in support of amendments that directly affect the environmental budget, including one to raise funding for state and urban parks by $5.39 million.

DEHC’s Green Space Campaign Team is organizing visits with elected officials (including a meeting set for Senator Jack Hart’s office on Monday April 26, 11 AM, Room 109C at the State House – join us if you can!) to let them know that proposed massive cuts to the MA Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) budget will have a huge impact on our local parks’ already too-low level of maintenance. Continue Reading »