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Description
On this episode of Commissioners Corner, Host, Najya Mawasi, and Chris Osgood, Boston's Chief of Streets, Transportation and Sanitation, discuss the City's recent investments in road safety and bridge renovations. They also talk about Public Works' role in Boston's waste management.
With the Boston Trash Day app, Boston residents can learn what day trash collection in their area is, what is recyclable or compostable in the City, and more. You can download it through your smartphone's app store.
A
Welcome
to
commissioner's
corner
I'm
nauseum
Wasi,
exciting
changes
are
happening
throughout
Boston's
neighborhoods.
The
proof
is
in
the
streets
and
in
backyards
will
these
changes
benefit
you
Chris,
Osgood,
chief
of
streets,
transportation
and
sanitation
is
back
with
us
to
discuss
these
issues
and
more
chief
Osgood
helps
lead
the
Public
Works
in
transportation
departments
to
deliver
exceptional
city
services,
build
great
streets
and
implement
a
transportation
plan
that
works
for
everyone.
Chief
Osgood.
Thank
you
so
much
for
coming.
You
kept.
B
B
So,
a
couple
years
ago,
the
mayor
released
go
Boston
2030.
As
a
reminder.
That's
the
city's
comprehensive
transportation
plan
for
the
city
of
Boston
really
focus
on
achieving
three
big
goals
that
we
know
are
transitions
care,
a
lot
about
unlocking
economic
growth,
increasing
equity
and
improving
resiliency
in
the
city,
and
we
know
that,
in
order
to
actually
achieve
those
big
goals,
we
need
to
have
our
streets
work
in
a
different
way.
B
We
need
our
streets
to
be
safer
for
folks,
we're
walking
and
biking
our
streets
to
be
much
more
reliable
for
folks
who
are
driving
or
on
buses
and
just
have
good
access
to
quality
transportation
choices
more
equitably,
spread
across
the
entire
city
of
Boston.
We've
been
doing
a
lot
over
the
course
this
last
year,
since
we
last
talked
focus
on
those
three
areas
of
safety,
reliability
and
accessibility,
just
a
touch
on
on
one
of
them
related
to
reliability.
This
past
spring,
the
mayor
created
Boston's,
first
ever
transit
team.
B
This
is
a
team
that
has
focus
specifically
on
working
with
the
MBTA
to
make
our
streets
work
better
for
all
the
folks
who
are
riding
on
buses
and
the
reason
that's
so
important
for
us.
We
know
that
we're
not
going
to
be
able
to
reduce
congestion
unless
we
get
more
people
to
be
able
to
take
transit
and
folks
are
not
gonna
be
able
take,
will
not
choose
transit
unless
transit
is
more
reliable.
They're
wait
when
people.
C
B
Stuck
on
buses
or
her
going
too
slowly
and
so
there's
some
work.
We
need
to
do
as
the
city
to
make
our
streets
work
better
for
buses,
create
our
transit
team
and
that
transit
team
has
been
hard
at
work.
Creating
some
dedicated
bus
lanes
across
this
Boston
and
key
quarters
to
help
thousands
of
people
have
better
commutes
every
single
day
and.
B
B
B
We've
seen
a
legal
parking
go
down,
so
fewer
people
parking
in
in
residential
parking
spaces
illegally,
we've
seen
less
illegal
parking
and
loading
zones,
which
means
that
commercial
trucks
can
get
to
the
curb,
rather
than
doing,
loading
and
travel
lanes
and
we've
seen
less
double
parking
and
some
of
the
core
areas
for
our
city.
All.
C
B
Is
means
we've
got
better
managed
streets,
better
flowing
traffic
and
transportation
and
as
part
of
that,
we've
actually
seen
an
increase
in
revenue
which
the
mayor
has
rededicated
back
into
the
things
that
are
residents
most
wanted,
so
we're
reconstructing
more
sidewalks
with
retiming,
more
lights
and
we've
been
able
to
do
things
like
create
that
transit
team
and
invest
in
some
road
safety.
Progress
across
the
city.
Excellent.
C
B
B
I
was
I,
have
a
great
pleasure
of
working
first
with
Austin
Blackmun
and
now
with
Chief
Chris
Cook,
and
a
really
terrific
cross-section
of
business
leaders
and
community
leaders
and
institutional
leaders
to
create
that
plan.
Some
new
things
that
residents
are
going
to
see
because
of
the
work
of
the
zero
waste
advisory
committee
and
the
mayor
subsequent
investment.
One
is,
we
are
going
to
put
in
place
a
new
textile
recycling
program
in
the
city,
roughly
six
percent
of
all
the
trash
that
we
throw
away,
are
sort
of
household
textiles,
old,
shirts
or
linens.
B
Set
about
research
we're
doing
right
now
through
the
recycle
right
campaign,
which
right
now
is
the
whole
series
of
billboards
and
outreach
and
education
I
will
be
taking
some
of
that
actually
into
the
communities
meetings
from
from
there.
One
of
the
things
we
encourage
all
residents
to
do.
There
is
an
app
that
is
available.
If
you
have
a
smartphone,
it's
called
the
trash
day
app
you
can
download
it
and
within
that
app
there's
a
directory.
So
if
you
don't
know
whether
something
is
necessarily
recyclable,
you
can
look
up
in
that
app.
B
A
So
then,
now
that
brings
us
to
composting.
Okay,
the
city
is
doing
having
some
big
efforts
on
composting.
Composting
is
a
great
way
for
all
of
us
to
do
our
part
to
help
save
this
planet.
It
reduces
waste,
makes
us
less
dependent
on
landfills
and
decreases
greenhouse
gas
emissions.
Here's
Susan
Casinos
head
of
Boston's
recycling
program
to
show
us
how
we
can
compost
in
our
own
neighborhoods
in.
C
Order
for
compost
to
happen,
it
needs
nitrogen,
carbon,
air
and
water
leaf
and
yard
waste,
and
the
food
wastes
are
all
the
sources
of
carbon
and
nitrogen.
The
carbon
is
easily
as
described
as
the
brown
material,
so
your
dried
leaves
or
woodchips
would
be
the
source
of
carbon,
and
then
your
source
of
nitrogen
is
also
described
as
your
green
stuff,
which
would
be
your
kitchen
scraps
or
your
plantings
after
they've
been
harvested
and
still
green,
you
throw
them
in
the
compost
bins.
C
You
can
get
a
harvest
in
twelve
months
for
people
who
don't
have
backyards
that
can't
fit
a
compost
bin
in
there
they
can
utilize.
The
community
compost
bins,
and
you
can
see
right
on
here.
We
have
what
can
go
in
the
bins,
so
food
scraps,
like
your
rice,
pasta,
breads,
fruit,
vegetables,
coffee
grounds,
eggshells.
C
Those
are
all
items
that
can
be
composted
and
what
happens
after
this
gets
filmed.
The
public
works,
crews
come
by
empty
it.
They
bring
it
over
to
a
larger
food
and
are
doing
organics
compactor,
which
once
that
gets
filled
up.
It
gets
taken
over
to
our
composting
facility
in
Saugus
and
that's
how
the
cycle
works
so.
B
C
A
B
B
So
there's
a
couple
of
different
options:
the
city
is
providing
there's
two
right
now.
One
is
to
encourage
folks
who
may
have
that
space
outdoors
to
be
able
to
purchase
or
access
a
compost
bin
and
that
you
can
find
out
more
on
the
city's
website.
The
other
option
which
we've
been
providing
for
the
last
several
years
is
a
program
called
project
Oscar,
which
is
indeed
name
for
the
Sesame
Street
character.
Oscar
the
Grouch,
and
these.
B
C
B
We
have
not
only
increased
the
number
of
curbside
collections
to
20
weeks
per
year,
but
for
at
least
an
additional
another
20
weeks
of
40
weeks
in
total
residents
will
have
the
opportunity
to
be
able
to
get
that
those
grass
clippings
to
the
right
place
within
the
city.
We
have
a
composting
facility
on
American
Legion
Highway
that
residents
can
be
able
to
take
their
grass
clippings
or
yard
waste
to
all
of
that
yard.
B
Waste
material
then
gets
composted,
and
it's
actually
provided
back
to
community
gardeners
in
the
city
of
Boston
at
no
cost
to
be
able
to
help
them.
Do
the
community
garden
that
they
love
to
do
every
single
day.
So
we've
been
able
to
over
the
course
of
this
year
expand
the
amount
of
opportunities
for
people
to
compost
yard
waste.
We
are
also
going
to
be
starting.
B
Hopefully
this
fall
a
new
subscription-based
food
waste
program,
so
residents
who
want
to
do
food
waste
compost,
get
food
scraps
out
of
their
house
and
to
a
compost
bin,
we'll
be
able
to
sign
up
for
a
program
for
a
small
cost
to
be
able
to
have
that
food
waste
and
collected
and
appropriately
composted
and
returned
to
the
earth
or
to
another
product
in
in
a
way
which
they
most
want.
Absolutely.
A
B
So
the
mayor
has
put
more
money
into
the
capital
budget
for
reconstructing
her
sidewalks
our
streets
and
our
bridges
than
we
have
ever
had
before.
All
through
the
broader
imagine,
Boston
plan
which
which
that's
put
forward
I,
would
say
our
biggest
area
of
investment
right
now
is
actually
in
our
bridges.
The
city
of
Boston
owns
roughly
40
bridges
across
the
city
of
those
40
over
the
last
two
years.
In
the
two
years
ahead,
we
will
be
significantly
investing
in
the
design
or
reconstruction
of
seven
of
those
two
of
those
projects.
B
The
mass
overcome
bridge
mats
over
Commonwealth
Ave
bridge
in
the
Back
Bay
and
the
Alpha
Street
bridge
connecting
Charlestown
essentially
and
Everett.
Those
are
significantly
done.
The
North
Washington
Street
bridge,
which
is
one
of
the
largest
bridge
construction
projects
in
the
city's
history,
connecting
Charlestown
in
the
North
End,
is
underway,
as
are
some
repairs.
B
We
are
replacing
the
superstructure
for
that
bridge
which
was
taken
down
in
2014,
well,
the
intent
of
being
able
to
open
up
a
recovery
campus
on
Long
Island,
so
that
we
can
strengthen
the
overall
region's
continuum
of
care,
which
is
a
high
priority
for
the
city
and
by
being
able
to
reconstruct
that
superstructure
for
the
bridge.
We
know
we'll
be
able
to
reopen
that
recovery
campus
on
Long,
Island,
excellent.
B
About
the
accomplished,
I
mean
lots
of
credit
to
the
team
and
lots
of
credit
to
the
community,
who
worked
incredibly
hard
on
a
whole
set
of
projects,
one
which
is
an
area
that
you
touched
on
Madison
Park.
So
we
recently
did
a
ribbon-cutting,
the
streets
and
sidewalks
in
Madison
Park.
It
is
one
of
actually
five
major
projects,
totaling
over
40
million
dollars
of
investment
around
Dudley
square,
so
the
project
which
is
already
complete
is
the
reconstruction
of
the
roads
and
sidewalks
in
Madison.
Park,
we've
also
done
some
sidewalk
work
around
Reed,
Street
and
Harrison
Avenue.
B
Next,
up
is
going
to
be
about
a
twelve
million
dollar
project,
reconstructing
the
streets
and
sidewalks
around
Dudley
square
itself,
followed
by
a
full
reconstruction
of
Malnik
ass,
probably
around
a
twenty
five
million
dollar
project,
going
all
the
way
from
massive
to
Tremont
Street.
And
then
the
final
project
is
one
that
you
also
mentioned,
which
is
a
redesign
and
reconstruction
of
ruggle
Street.
A
B
B
C
A
B
It
seems
like
a
huge
amount
of
coordination
that
happens
across
city
departments
and
across
neighborhood
groups
to
really
prepare
for
that
end
of
August,
beginning
of
September
move-in
process.
So
our
public
works
department
spends
a
lot
of
time
putting
together
what
is
a
comprehensive
plan
to
make
sure
that
we
are
present
and
supportive
and
to
help
all
residents
with
that
transition.
That
means
that
we
have
sort
of
crews
where
they
need
to
be
and
really
coordinating
with
landlords
to
make
the
recycling
and
trash
process
as
seamless
as
possible.
B
We
know
that
this
requires
a
degree
of
patience
for
all
residents
in
the
city
and
all
people
who
are
moving
in
or
moving
out.
So
we
do
encourage
folks
if
there
are
issues
that
arise
to,
let
us
know
through
the
what's
called
the
boss,
3-1-1
app,
it's
an
app
that
people
can
download
and
they
can
report
issues
associated
with
student
move-in,
as
well
as
any
other
issues
they
may
see
in
the
neighborhoods
pothole
street
lights
out,
etc,
and
so
we
do
encourage
folks
download
that
app.
B
Let
us
know
if
there's
anything
that
we
can
do,
but
this
is
certainly
something
which
is
a
major
focus
for
the
city
and
particularly
our
departments
and
I
would
say
for
new
students
that
are
moving
in.
One
of
the
things
that
we're
very
focused
on
is
to
encourage
people
as
they
come
into
the
city,
to
be
able
to
explore
the
city
and
explore
the
many
fantastic
ways
we
have
to
be
able
to
get
around
Boston.
One
of
those
ways
is
our
blue
bikes
program.
Blue
bikes
is
bike
share
program.
Exactly
so.
B
B
B
A
B
C
B
A
You
would
like
to
learn
more
about
what
we
discussed
or
how
you
can
get
involved.
Please
visit
Boston
duhkha
forward,
slash
Public
Works
or
send
an
email
to
Public
Works
at
Boston
gov.
You
can
also
always
follow
updates
on
Twitter
at
Boston
PWD
and,
as
always,
thank
you
for
watching
commissioner's
corner
I'm,
not
Gemma
Wasi.