Tanya Connolly

September 17th, 2012 Tanya Connolly was killed riding her bicycle at the intersection of West Broadway & A-Street in South Boston.  Her brother Karl would like to share his painful story of loss & absence.

Tanya Connolly

Dear Planet Southie Bikes,

Over seven months have passed, and it’s still so hard for me to talk about Tanya in an abstract way. Writing this letter only reinforces the fact that she is no longer with us.

Tanya and I were very close. We were 14 months apart in age. Together, we grew up in Ireland and moved to Boston in the early 1990s. As early adults we lived close to Dublin; a city full of life and energy, and later Tanya lived in London England for a period before moving to Boston. Tanya was a lively and energetic person; one who broke down barriers, treated everyone with respect, and would enter a place a stranger but leave with a whole new circle of friends. When people die, they are often described as a loving, caring, full of life, etc. etc. In the case of my sister this is not some desired fabrication - it is quite simply the truth.

On Monday September 17th 2012, I was in the car leaving work heading to school when I got a frantic call from my wife who moments before had learned about the crash. I pulled over and got in touch with the police officer who was standing by. He put it simply on the phone when I asked - "Is she dead?" - "Yes" he replied. Those are words you never want to hear. That moment rushed in a sense of complete and utter surrealism. How could someone you've always known, someone you've always loved, and someone you always expected to be there suddenly be gone?

Next meeting is Thursday, March 28 at 6:30 pm!

Transit, walking and biking are among
the issues we will discuss at the meeting

Hey there neighbors!

We hope you can join us at the next Planet Southie meeting. South Boston Grows will be on hand to give away free seedlings and talk about how you can get FREE TREES!

Thursday, March 28^th  6:30 - 7:30 pm

The Distillery Building
516 East Second Street, South Boston

As always, all are welcome and 
encouraged to attend!

Learn what we tree huggers are up to in this month's newsletter.





Please mark your calendars: Planet Southie meets the fourth Thursday of every month.

See you there!

Planet Southie Bikes Update

A brief update on what the Planet Southie Bikes Action team is up to. Thank you Jon Ramos for all of your amazing work!

•  City Hall Meeting: Planet Southie Bikes gains more recognition from Councilor At-Large Ayanna Pressley's office. We met at City Hall to discuss our goals, and how her bicycle crash data collection initiative could help us reach our goals.
  
• D-Street Development: Planet Southie Bikes attended the D-Street Development BRA community review meeting, and pressed hard for the BRA to go beyond a typical door-zone bike lane and opt for a cycle-track along the "super-block" instead. This just in! The bikes group got an official response from the City of Boston regarding our suggestions for the D Street plan. Pete Stidman from Boston Cyclist's Union will join our meeting once again to review the outcome and to help us plan our next steps.  If you want safer biking on D-Street in South Boston please be sure to attend this next meeting...  & bring your cyclist friends!

• 275 Albany Street Project: Planet Southie Bikes attended the BRA community review for the 275 Albany Street project in an effort to improve cycling over the bridges adjacent to their property (read more)

Next meeting (3/28) we'll discuss how to reach more of our fellow Southie cyclists to get more riders involved. Ideas welcome!

South Boston / South End

The 275 Albany Street Development project is one of many forthcoming developments stemming from the Harrison / Albany Strategic Master Plan that was created by the BRA in 2012. If you are unfamiliar with that master plan here is a brief summary:

The area along the 93 expressway, on the South End side, has been rezoned to allow greater heights and density. This was a tactic to make those underutilized plots of land more appealing to developers. Projects like the Ink Block, which will be a retail & supermarket destination, are among the projects coming out of this rezoning in addition to hundreds new residences, some restaurants, and hotel. Overall the re-zoning is a good thing for the city because it will reduce crime and enhance that grim section of our city along the elevated expressway. But there will be an impact on us. The Broadway Bridge will likely see significant increase in pedestrian traffic coming to the Broadway T Stop, as well as an increase bicycle and vehicle traffic.