Activating Columbia Road: Reframing a Missing Link

Over the last 25 years, city-wide planning in Boston
has had various levels of support. Thomas Menino,
Boston’s Mayor from 1993 to 2014, was the city’s
longest serving mayor. 1 Nicknamed an “urban
mechanic,” Menino separated himself from the
typical politician visioning, and even once said
“visionaries don’t get things done.” 2 His intense
focus on ground-level improvements led him away
from implementing long-range planning efforts,
although some great planning did happen during
his tenure. According to Alice Brown, Director of
Planning at Boston Harbor Now and former Boston
Bikes staff member, one of the things that did
happen was the creation of Boston Bikes, which
was a comprehensive bike program for the city.
She mentioned that a decision was made early
on in that process that there needed to be a path
forward for additional planning processes in the
city. 3 The Boston Bikes Bike Network Plan, released in
the final months of Menino’s tenure in 2013, spurred
support for many more planning efforts to come.
Columbia Road showed up as a small portion of
the bike network, with a simple painted bike lane
spanning most of the corridor.
and actions for the next 5, 10, and 15 years. 5 From
these recommendations came planning initiatives
related to climate change, art, mobility, housing,
economic development, and more. For this report,
we have analyzed five planning efforts as they
relate to the future of Columbia Road.
After the Bike Network Plan was released, a group
of people began meeting regularly to consider
how to expand on the success of the Bike Network
Plan. Brown recalled that as the bike planning was
happening, people began to think about what an
interconnected world of greenways could mean
for the city, which led to LSA’s Emerald Network
initiative.” 4 With this vision of the Emerald Network,
Columbia Road started to be thought of as a
future greenway. The corridor was viewed as
an important piece to complete this idea of an
Emerald Network around the city.
Marty Walsh assumed the office of the Mayor
of Boston in January 2014, as the first new
leadership in the city for over 20 years. Knowing
this would be a significant shift for the city, Walsh
put together transition teams to determine how
to move forward. Almost every one of those
transition teams recommended pursuing longterm
planning efforts to guide the city’s decisions
1 Marquard and O’Sullivan, “Thomas M. Menino, Boston’s Longest
Serving Mayor, Has Died at Age 71.”
2 Ibid.
3 Brown, interview.
4 Ibid.
5 Brown, interview.
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