Harvard Square goes wild for green

PUBLISHED by The Cambridge Chronicle

Cambridge —Those wearing green next Friday are in for a special treat: free breakfast and raffles at the Holyoke Center in Harvard Square.

It all happens from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., compliments of the Green Streets Initiative and the Harvard Square Business Association.


The Go Green Walk/Ride Days Breakfast will be the first annual celebration of a grassroots movement for alternative transportation, such as walking, biking, riding the T or snowshoeing. However, the pastries, hot chocolate and coffee are free for everyone, not just those who choose to leave their cars behind, Janie Katz-Christie, director of Green Streets Initiative, said.

“We want people to feel like they’re part of the celebration, even if, for whatever reason, they couldn’t do it that day,” Katz-Christie said. “If they don’t do it this month, they’ll do it next month.”

The last Friday of every month is a Walk/Ride Day, or a day the Green Streets Initiative encourages everyone in the community to trade driving for walking. As a reward, a number of retailers around Cambridge offer participants special discounts, freebies or raffles if they wear green, bring in a bike helmet or simply say they have gone green that day, Katz-Christie said.

Some businesses in Harvard Square currently offer rewards on Walk/Ride Days, and more are expected to join the program with the Go Green Breakfast, Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, said. Restaurants donating food for the breakfast include the Charles Hotel, Crema Café and JP Licks.

“We’re trying to accomplish a lot, which is really not only to promote Walk/Ride Day but also for people to understand that breakfast is an important meal, and walking and riding is a very healthy way to be not only for individuals but also for the earth,” Jillson said.

Several hundred guests are expected, including Mayor Denise Simmons and students on school field trips, Jillson said. Anyone wearing green to the event will be entered into a free raffle for a basket of gift certificates to shops and restaurants in Harvard Square that is “to die for.”

Katz-Christie, who gave her car a year ago, said alternative transportation is not only healthier, safer and better for the environment, but walking or riding is better for the community.

“The trip is as much as the destination,” she said. “We meet all these people wherever we go … you can sit next to your child or have them on their lap, and you can’t do that if you’re driving.”