Deval Patrick’s Resounding Victory: A Vote for Community

Voters in Massachusetts have given our overwhelming support to a governor-elect who stresses sense of community and the need to care about each other's dreams and aspirations as well as our own. It's a message we've clearly been hungering for after the bitter, negative, partisan politics that Karl Rove and the Bush administration have brought to the national arena these past six years.

Deval Patrick has shown that it's possible to succeed without, as he so eloquently puts it, building himself up by tearing others down.

He resisted negative-sound-bite campaigning. He refused to try to pump up one slice of support by demonizing another. He was gracious, inclusive and inspiring in his victory speech - as he's been throughout the campaign. He talked about nurturing the "grass roots," about the importance of listening to people, and about putting our cynicism aside. And he talked about the need for citizens to actually make an effort and do work in order to have good government. Before he even takes office, Deval Patrick has changed our political landscape for the better by the tone he's set and the way he's conducted himself.

Leadership is more than a checklist of issues. It's also how you use your position to frame issues and conduct debate. It's whether and how you inspire people. I'm proud to have volunteered for Deval Patrick before the primary and again for the general election, and thrilled that Massachusetts voters gave him such a clear mandate. I'm looking forward to Governor Deval Patrick in January!

Another Little Slice of Framingham Open Space To Disappear

I saw a "public notice" sign up on a tree this morning on a piece of open land on Elm Street, across the street and a bit north of the Cameron Middle School. It said that a subdivision plan will be before the Planning Board. Another little slice of non-built-up open space seems likely to disappear.

It used to be that there was more sense of place, more history, and more open space in the suburbs west of Boston than in many of the Long Island towns around where I grew up. When I moved here 20+ years ago, every little sliver of land wasn't built out to its maximum zoning-permitted suburban sprawl possibility; but instead, there were still a lot of areas left as they'd been built many years ago, or as open space. Sadly, this seems to be changing in most of the affordable and median-priced-home areas of town.

It's only the wealthier northwest part of Framingham, and nearby high-priced communities, that seem to be preserving open space. It's a pity. You may not be able to draw a one-to-one correlation line between a few more open acres gobbled up by a subdivision and your quality of life. But as this happens more and more, the character of a community subtly changes, offering fewer delightful neighborhood surprises of beauty and peacefulness. Instead, each neighborhood starts looking like every other neighborhood, as indistinguishable in their suburban sprawl as one generic strip mall from another.

Study: Appealing Shopping Streetscape More Important Than Traffic, Crime in Whether People Walk

The availability of pleasant, shopping-friendly locales is more likely to influence whether or not people walk regularly than factors such as traffic or crime, a new study finds.

Researchers at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, analyzed questionnaires filled out by 351 people. They were asked about their attitudes toward walking; how much they walked; whether there were paths, trails, parks or recreational facilities near their homes; and their thoughts about local neighborhoods and walking areas.

The team found that neighborhood aesthetics and the mix of retail stores were more important that local crime levels or traffic in terms of motivating people to walk.

So reports HealthDay News via forbes.com. The study was published in the current issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.

Thanks to Timothy Lee for the link.

Who Let the Fidelity/BofA Building Not Have a Sidewalk?

It was an outrageously planning decision to allow that building, now housing Fidelity and Bank of America, among others, to build on Rte. 30 without requiring a sidewalk. There are offices within walking distance right across the street. Did it not occur to anyone that among hundreds of office workers within less than half a mile of a bank might want to do some banking there? Did the thought not cross anyone's minds that a few people might want to run an errand less than half a mile of their office without having to get into their car? Or that people parked at REI and FedEx/Kinko's next door might actually also want to go to the bank less than 100 feet away without either driving or having to trod across the grass?

What a Car-Free City Looks Like: Venice

Is it possible to have a modern First-World city completely free of automobiles? If you've ever been to the beautiful, historic city of Venice, you know it is. Granted, not every city has a network of canals so "taxis" can be boats. But it's still worth looking at what works well in Venice to create such appealing streetscapes.

Carfree.com posted some photos of Venice streets -- ones that work well and others that aren't quite as appealing. If you're interested in what makes an attractive walking environment, it's worth taking a look. Relative scale between street and buildings is critical; in fact, many streets that are too wide are less appealing for pedestrians than the narrow walkways filled with residents and tourists. In addition, there are some pictures of street life on a separate page.