Check out Boston Globe article here!

Fenway Park is far from an ideal venue for soccer — all those choice baseball-watching seats behind home plate are a long way from most of the action — but 32,162 fans enjoyed watching two European club teams go at it Wednesday night. The near sellout certainly strengthens the Kraft family’s case for moving their Revolution soccer team from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough to a location closer to Boston. Whether a site in Somerville now under consideration is the best choice remains to be seen, but this week’s game demonstrated soccer’s magnetism at an urban field close to public transportation and the sport’s fan base of immigrants and families with children in youth soccer leagues.

Kids were out in force Wednesday. They and others in attendance witnessed a closely fought contest between Sporting Clube de Portugal and Celtic Football Club of Scotland. Judging by cheers at each goal during the 1-1 tie in regulation time, both clubs — each older than Fenway Park itself — have sizeable contingents of supporters in the Boston area. The play was not as silken as the best moments of the World Cup, but especially in the second half each team put the opposing goalie to the test.

The fans also got to see a bit of American football when a spectator started running across the pitch, only to be brought down by a security official in an open-field tackle that would have done the Patriots proud. A wave cheer and a halftime rendition of the Red Sox’ eighth-inning anthem, “Sweet Caroline,’’ stamped the evening as a Fenway event. But soccer’s undeniable appeal to a diverse audience could generate equal enthusiasm at another Boston-area home, if the Krafts and local officials can agree on one.

© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.

Student ideas for green roof make school a teaching lab

At Boston Latin, sustainability is goal

Take Boston Latin School, and pack on top of its building a weather station, a greenhouse, two outdoor classrooms, a cafeteria, and a garden. Then add solar panels, wind turbines, and the outdoor elevator.

It’s a 70,000-square-foot, $6.2 million green roof dreamed up by Boston Latin students, and it’s becoming a reality.

“It started out as a simple request for how the school can reduce its carbon footprint,’’ said Gail Sullivan, the architect who has been working with the students free of charge. “But then the students said yes, yes, and yes to all the different features.’’

Unfazed by the hefty price tag, students from the school’s Youth Climate Action Network have been raising money and applying for grants over the past year to make their green wonderland a reality, piece by piece.

A 28-solar panel array and 350 trays of sedum, a flowering succulent plant, have been installed on the school’s roof.

Up next are the outdoor classrooms and elevator, a $2.7 million project to be completed in fall 2011, according to Sullivan, who works for Studio G Architects.

Sullivan said she expects to finish the project in five years, but said the timeframe depends on when the students can raise the money.

But the vision does not stop there.

Last week, students in the Youth Climate Action Network were helping 30 Boston area teachers, 15 from Boston Latin, to develop a middle school and high school sustainability curriculum to be piloted this fall at their school. Eventually, classes will be held on the roof.

Students can measure the wind velocity from the rooftop turbines or test how much energy the solar panels generate. English and art classes can find inspiration from the rooftop orchard and garden.

Other schools can plan a field trip to the top of Boston Latin, which has grades 7 to 12. The possibilities are endless, students say.

“A lot of what we learned about climate change seemed very abstract; it didn’t seem like kids could really do anything,’’ said Nhu Le, a sophomore at Boston Latin and a member of the network.

But after a screening of “An Inconvenient Truth’’ three years ago, Le said, she and her peers started brainstorming ideas for transforming the nation’s oldest public school into an energy-efficient building with an avant-garde sustainability curriculum.

“I think schools can do a much better job integrating sustainability into the curriculum and not just have one unit about climate change but incorporate entire themes,’’ Le said.

Led by eighth-grade US history teacher Cate Arnold, the network launched a campaign in 2007 for sustainability education across the state. The students hope to see the project completed when they graduate.

While several schools in the state have installed green roofs — two in Boston public schools — Arnold said that from talking with other educators and school officials, Boston Latin’s green venture appears to be the most complex, student-driven project with a heavy emphasis on integrating sustainability education.

In a series of workshops this summer, Boston area teachers of all subjects are developing lesson plans integrating sustainability ideas, with the help of the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation, a nonprofit based in New York that develops sustainability curriculums in schools.

At Boston Latin, half the 400-member senior class takes environmental science as an elective course, according to Lynne Mooney Teta, the headmaster.

Under this fall’s pilot program, all students will be exposed to sustainability issues in a wide range of courses.

“It’s not an add-on to what teachers are already doing; it’s simply a shift in perspective,’’ Teta said. “Teachers from across the building of all disciplines will play a role.’’

With many features, the green roof that students envision is more of an educational center than a cost-saving measure for the school, Sullivan said.

Sullivan was unable to provide an estimate of how much energy the school would be saving from the various green features, adding that her firm is conducting an energy-use analysis.

“If the only goal were reducing energy costs, it might make the most sense to cover the roof with solar panels,’’ Sullivan said. “The process of creating something that can shape their school is an incredibly educational process, and the students are really excited about using the roof as a kind of learning lab.’’

The green roof, once constructed, will allow teachers to incorporate hands-on experiments into the sustainability curriculum, serving as an example for school districts across Massachusetts, Boston Latin faculty said.

“I teach a section on energy, for example,’’ said Christopher Doss, a high school physics teacher. “The students can use the green roof to look at how we use energy, how much energy is used.’’

Jesse Southwick, another physics teacher, agreed, adding that he envisions sustainability issues as the “backbone of the curriculum,’’ integrated in many subject areas.

“Our goal as educators is to help students understand how to get to a sustainable world,’’ Southwick said.

For Steven Gingras, a sophomore at Boston Latin and a member of the network, growing local foods in the rooftop greenhouse for the cafeteria is his favorite feature.

“I’m excited for it to teach students about agriculture and hard work,’’ Gingras said. “It’ll be nice to eat something that you’ve grown.’’

June Wu can be reached at jwu@globe.com.
Check out website HERE!

The environmental report under review details an extension with seven stations — a new Lechmere stop, a spur at Union Square, and five more stops on a main line through Somerville and into Medford — ending at College Avenue by Tufts University. It will not cut across Tufts to Route 16, a final stop that state officials are putting off for a later phase. That has disappointed advocates who see the potential for greater ridership there and fear it will not be completed.

The working price tag of $954 million, half of which the state hopes will be reimbursed by the feds, covers those seven stations and rail improvements, new cars, and the maintenance yard, as well as planning and design costs for a 2-mile bike and walking path to connect neighborhoods and stations. It does not include the $30 million or so needed to build that path.

That path would be the final link on a bike network connecting Lexington, Arlington, and other suburbs on the Minuteman Bikeway to the cusp of downtown Boston and the Charles River Basin. Not constructing the path with the Green Line project could create insurmountable obstacles for it later, like the need to widen bridges overhead or interrupt transit service.

Several advocates for the path spoke at the T board meeting, including the Friends of the Community Path, the Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership, and the MBTA’s Rider Oversight Committee.

The city of Somerville is applying for a highly competitive stimulus-funded federal grant to cover some or all of the path’s cost. Should that fall short, the financially strained DOT would be challenged to add it to a project that just a few years ago was expected to cost $600 million.

But members of the MBTA/DOT board say it could be worth it, especially because none of the new stations are planned with parking lots.

“If you’re building a project like this, having a way for people to get to it that’s safe and convenient is critical,’’ board member Elizabeth Levin said. “To me it’s integral and it’s part of our sustainability.’’

The environmental report under review details an extension with seven stations — a new Lechmere stop, a spur at Union Square, and five more stops on a main line through Somerville and into Medford — ending at College Avenue by Tufts University. It will not cut across Tufts to Route 16, a final stop that state officials are putting off for a later phase. That has disappointed advocates who see the potential for greater ridership there and fear it will not be completed.

The working price tag of $954 million, half of which the state hopes will be reimbursed by the feds, covers those seven stations and rail improvements, new cars, and the maintenance yard, as well as planning and design costs for a 2-mile bike and walking path to connect neighborhoods and stations. It does not include the $30 million or so needed to build that path.

That path would be the final link on a bike network connecting Lexington, Arlington, and other suburbs on the Minuteman Bikeway to the cusp of downtown Boston and the Charles River Basin. Not constructing the path with the Green Line project could create insurmountable obstacles for it later, like the need to widen bridges overhead or interrupt transit service.

Several advocates for the path spoke at the T board meeting, including the Friends of the Community Path, the Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership, and the MBTA’s Rider Oversight Committee.

The city of Somerville is applying for a highly competitive stimulus-funded federal grant to cover some or all of the path’s cost. Should that fall short, the financially strained DOT would be challenged to add it to a project that just a few years ago was expected to cost $600 million.

But members of the MBTA/DOT board say it could be worth it, especially because none of the new stations are planned with parking lots.

“If you’re building a project like this, having a way for people to get to it that’s safe and convenient is critical,’’ board member Elizabeth Levin said. “To me it’s integral and it’s part of our sustainability.’’

Check out the full article HERE.

We here at Groundwork Somerville would like to formally welcome theMOVE to our area! Thanks for all that you do.

theMOVE (the Massachusetts Outdoor Volunteer Experience) brings the transformational experience of farming + gardening to diverse groups throughout the Boston area, by organizing single-day reflective outdoor volunteer experiences.

theMOVE

Check us out highlighted in Green Collar Jobs and University Partnership!:

Full Website

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Green Collar Jobs

Groundwork Somerville

www.groundworksomerville.org
Modeled after successful Groundwork organizations in the United Kingdom and an affiliate of Groundwork USA, a network of organizations established by the National Park Service, Groundwork Somerville is a community-based organization who mission is to promote the reuse of former brownfield sites and community revitalization in Somerville. Receiving the 2008 CARE Grant from the EPA, Groundwork Somerville is partnering with Somerville Community Corporation, Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership and the Somerville Community Health Agenda of the Cambridge Health Alliance over the next two years to develop a process involving residents in making land-use decisions along the green line corridors through Somerville.

University Partnerships

Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service
www.activecitizen.tufts.edu
Based on Tufts Medford/Somerville campus, Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service supports faculty research in the area of civic engagement, partners to help the needs of local non-profits, and is active promoting stronger, healthier, and safer communities within the Medford, Somerville, Boston’s Chinatown and Graton neighborhoods. Providing a supplementary education to students at Tuft’s seven schools, Tisch College engages student through many different civic programs and projects. These projects include having students work with Groundwork Somerville, assessing Somerville’s green infrastructure, and working with the Community Language Bank, translating short documents for local businesses and helping turn language differences from a barrier into a community building opportunity.

If you like tomatoes, want to help out local farmers, or like hardwood trees and the Maple Syrup project, read on!

Find out how to prevent the spread of tomato blight from experts at UMASS: http://www.umassvegetable.org/LateBlightAlertforTomatoandPotato.html

Find out how to identify the Asian Longhorned Beatle and what to do if you see one:  http://wbztv.com/local/asian.longhorned.beetle.2.1789751.html

Garden Youth Crew and Green Team participants just finished their third week with Groundwork Somerville! This week Garden Youth Crew middle school students were excited to pick chamomile for their value-added product, which they are selling at the farmers market August 7th! Please come to Union Square, meet the crew, and stop by the Groundwork Somerville booth to see the four different packages of tea we will be selling. Please also join me, Tai, and Garden Youth Crew on Wednesday, August 5th from 5:30-7:00 at Argenziano School where we will be hosting a Drying Herbs & Making Tea Workshop! See you there!

Post by Arielle Maldonado

Winter Hill crew

West Somerville crew at work

Taste testing herbal teas

By Andy Metzger Wicked Local Somerville Posted Jul 09, 2010 @ 12:41 PM Somerville —

When Somerville and Cambridge officials gathered this May to announce an agreement on a new site for the Green Line Extension’s maintenance facility, they were greeted with skepticism from some.

Last Wednesday evening, as the project manager moderated a public hearing about the Final Environmental Impact Report at Somerville High School, the Option L site for the facility was one of three common complaints raised by local politicians and others. The other two complaints were the state’s decision not to continue the extension out to Medford’s Hillside neighborhood and not to pay for the construction of a bike path through Somerville.

Option L

Though it has been moved from Yard 8 next door to the Brickbottom Studios, the new location of the maintenance facility on Inner Belt Road near a Commuter Rail facility has drawn some criticism.

“We believe the Yard 8 option proved that such a noxious activity belongs nowhere near residents,” said Somerville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Stephen Mackey, according to his prepared remarks. “We believe that Option L will prove to everyone to be too costly and take too much time.”

Mackey said the state should use its own land rather than negotiating land sales from four nearby businesses at an estimated $51 million cost.

But in a phone interview, project manager Katherine Fichter said the MBTA-owned rail yard nearby could not be used for Green Line maintenance. The Boston Engine Terminal is “at capacity” and combining maintenance of Commuter Rail trains and Green Line trolleys is unsafe and against federal regulations, she said. The state needs 11 acres, almost all of which the state will need to acquire, through sales, not eminent domain takings, from Inner Belt businesses.

Another business consideration for the area is that Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and the New England Revolution, has looked at the Inner Belt as the potential site of a Revolution soccer stadium. Fichter said Kraft’s business concerns were not a factor in the state’s planning, and Kraft’s spokesman, Stacey James, said the site of the maintenance facility changes nothing for the sports mogul, who “continues to look at possibilities… there’s been nothing formal at this point.”

Option L is farther away from any residential areas than other MBTA maintenance facilities. Washington Street and the McGrath Highway separate the site from any residentially zoned neighborhoods, though some people live at the Brickbottom Studios.

The Green Line’s largest maintenance facility, Riverside in Newton, is next to a hospital and separated by Route 128 from a residential neighborhood. Cleveland Circle, a yard smaller than the one proposed in Somerville, is within a business district and next to some houses. A few trees are all that separate another, smaller yard at the end of the B Line from nearby houses.

The Cabot Yard on the Red Line, near Andrew Station, is substantially larger than the proposed Somerville yard, and lies right in between South Boston and the South End. Wellington on the Orange Line, in contrast, is in an industrial area of Everett, similar to the Inner Belt.

Community path

Politicians at Wednesday’s hearing had two major messages to the state — pay for a bike path, and extend the Green Line out to Route 16.

“Even though this area is close to transit, it’s so automobile-oriented,” said state Rep. Denise Provost, D-Somerville. “Put back all the connectivity that got ripped out.”

Long before the Expressway bisected the city, Somerville was crisscrossed with trolley tracks. Somerville’s Community Path now runs along an old, abandoned train line, but ends at Cedar Street.

The Department of Transportation, which is running the extension project, has agreed to cover the engineering costs of extending the path out to the North Point development, just across the river from Boston, but it will not pay for the construction.

Far from a simple paving job, the cost of building the path could add up to $20 million or $30 million, said Fichter.

“It’s not a simple bike path,” Fichter said.

“Building to Route 16 and putting in the Community Path will save money and will add value,” said state Sen. Patricia Jehlen. She said it made sense to do these projects all at once rather than putting them off.

However, he state’s plan contained in the Final Environmental Impact Report is to end the extension line at College Avenue, near Tufts University. The Draft Environmental Impact Report had the line ending farther out, near Medford’s border with Arlington.

“We feel that the project is quite complete,” said Fichter, though she also said “there’s always a mechanism for continuing to change a project that has a completed Environmental Impact Report.”

The method for doing that would be a notice of project change.

Copyright 2010 Somerville Journal. Some rights reserved

http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/features/x1849228029/Green-Line-gripes-Train-stops-short-of-Medford

Check out the video here!