Valerie Burns to Share the Story Behind East Boston’s Mary Ellen Welch Greenway
Special to the Times-Free Press
Friends of the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway will welcome Valerie Burns, formerly of the Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN), as a special guest speaker on Thursday, May 21, 2026. The event is open to the public and will highlight the community advocacy that helped bring the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway from vision to reality.
Beginning in the 1980s, East Boston activists—including Mary Ellen Welch—proposed a greenway to help mitigate neighborhood impacts from airport-related development and to expand access to open space. That grassroots idea ultimately grew into a signature community asset for East Boston.
In 1994, BNAN—an urban open-space nonprofit that had partnered with East Boston residents since 1982 to establish two permanent community gardens—worked with the neighborhood to develop a plan for a continuous walking and biking corridor and new parks stretching from Boston’s Inner Harbor to the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Belle Isle Reservation. The long-unused freight right-of-way from the former Inner Harbor docks to the former Bremen Street switching yard and beyond became the initial alignment for what is now the Greenway, closely reflecting the original community concept.
Community members are encouraged to attend to learn more about the Greenway’s history, the partnerships that made it possible, and how local advocacy shaped a lasting public space for walking, biking, and gathering.
• Date: Thursday, May 21, 2026
• Time: 6:30–7:30 p.m.
• Location: East Boston Public Library, 365 Bremen Street, East Boston