On Friday morning, Mayor Marty Walsh announced the creation of NEW Boston (Neighborhood Engagement Walks) in an attempt to revamp Boston from the pavement on up. NEW Boston will be conducting a sweeping audit of every single street in Boston to determine any infrastructural issues and neighborhood concerns, all the while building community relationships with the Boston public.
The Office of Neighborhood Services, headed by director Jerome Smith, will hit the streets beginning September 15 and traverse the approximately 850 miles of Boston streetscape to gather data that’ll be used to chart an interactive map of the city that “will show the routes that have been covered, highlight the issues that ONS has identified, and display the progress of resolving each issue,” according to the Mayor’s office.
“This is the first step in revitalizing our work with Neighborhood Services,” said Mayor Walsh in a statement.
Continued the mayor,
Our ONS reps are outstanding, but I want them to know every inch of the area that they represent and the best way to do that is to get on the ground and in the weeds. By combining technology and grassroots engagement, we can – for the first time in our history – truly assess every piece of this City, to better serve the people in our neighborhoods.
Here’s hoping they own a pair of comfortable shoes, am I right Forrest?.
ONS hopes to have their data compiled by the end of the year. Naturally, once the weather turns and the throes of winter descends upon Boston, the conversation about road quality evolves into one about potholes.
Pothole complaints are some of the most highly recorded by the response app Citizens Connect. With winter snow, ice and plows all hitting the pavement and subsequently eroding it, I’m sure ONS, Mayor Walsh’s office, the Inspectional Services Department, Public Works Department, Transportation Department and Parks Department will have their hands full once fall slips through our collective fingers.
“Mayor Walsh has challenged each department to take a fresh look at the work that we do, and the best way to begin is to conduct a comprehensive evaluation,” added ONS director Jerome Smith in a statement. “We always want to take a long view and find ways to better serve our constituents. By combing the City’s streets, and logging everything we find, we’re fulfilling the Mayor’s promise to increase efficiency while supporting greater transparency.”
By creating NEW Boston, Mayor Walsh is accomplishing a few items that’ll surely resound positively among Bostonians. Not only is he working to overhaul, in some cases, decrepit infrastructure – a public safety concern as much as a logistical one – but by deploying his personnel on the streets he’ll be showing some municipal face. By creating a map for all to use, he’s also proving his commitment to open data and user engagement.
Stay tuned for more details about when the map will be made publicly available. ONS and other departments will be on the streets starting September 15 so if you happen to see them, pry yourself away from your mobile device or premium cable television programming to introduce yourself and say hi.
