(Councillor Connolly brings us up to 10 speeds. Thanks, Councillor! - promoted by Bob)
Thank you again to the BMG community for your comments on the Shared Bike Program legislation that I filed with the Boston City Council last summer. To bring you up to speed on this initiative, the City’s Request for Information (RFI) was released last summer and all submissions were due this past November. The City is making the Request for Proposals available during the first week of March. I continue to meet with community biking leaders to discuss how best to implement a shared bike program and I intend to hold a hearing this spring to bring the administration and community leaders together to discuss the City’s progress on shared bike. Today, though, I’m reaching out to you for your advice and comments on (and participation in) some other ambitious environmental initiatives.
As Chair of the Boston City Council’s Environment & Health Committee, I recently unveiled a “Green Agenda” for this year’s Boston City Council session. I hope the Green Agenda (as well as a number of other green initiatives the Council will deal with this year) will play a key part in pushing Boston to become the greenest city in the world. This Green Agenda includes the four proposals I’ve outlined below and I would value your advice and feedback on these initiatives, but I also hope that you’ll participate in these programs – especially in the Local Summits initiative described below.
Creating an Environmental Science Academy within Boston Public Schools. This proposal will not impact this year’s school budget and it will take more than a few years to develop, but I think we need a big vision for our children’s future and every citizen’s environmental education. I envision an innovative public school open to all students with a rigorous green curriculum that focuses on developing math, science and trades skills that will both prepare students to compete in the green economy and create more responsible citizens who are environmentally literate and practice sustainable lifestyles.
Convening Local Summits to focus on Local and Individual Strategies to Combat Global Climate Change. The goal of these summits will be to discuss and promote steps that individuals can take to reduce their impact on the environment. I would like to invite all members of the BMG community to participate in these two summits which I have scheduled to take place around Earth Day – the first summit will be on April 21st at 6 PM at Building 114 in the Charlestown Navy Yard, and the second summit will be on April 23rd at 5:30 PM at The Great Hall in Codman Square, Dorchester. Even if you can’t come to one of these summits, please post comments with any useful strategies that you have personally used to reduce your own impact on the environment and I will make some of them available on my website www.connollyforboston.com.
Starting a Carbon Neutral Neighborhood pilot program, where the City will provide resources and support for local businesses that are willing to group together and pledge to reduce their “net” carbon footprint to zero. My hope is that this will incentivize the greening of Boston’s local business districts in much the same way as the Main Streets Program has revitalized many of Boston’s neighborhood business districts.
Continuing to push for more Sustainable Public Transportation. In addition to continued work on the Shared-Bike program discussed above, I want to build on the commitment I got from the City in 2008 to triple the number of hybrid vehicles to be added to the City’s vehicle fleet.
I realize that many of these goals are ambitious and long-term, but I don’t think we can afford to think small on the environment. We all know that the more our government involves community leaders and activists, the better any policy initiative becomes, so I mean it – please give me your comments, advice, stories, proposals, etc. I welcome all of them. If you’d like to learn more about these proposals, you can view a video of my introduction of the Green Agenda to the City Council and visit my website www.connollyforboston.com for more details. Thanks, and I look forward to your comments.
