Work on the paved connection from Hurd Field to the Minuteman Bikeway is scheduled to begin the week of Oct. 24 and is expected to last about one week.

During this time, the public will have no access from the Hurd Field parking lot to the bikeway.

Accessis expected to open again as soon as this part the pathway is complete.

UPDATED Aug. 22: The renovation of Hurd Field began Monday, Aug. 22.

According to the town of Arlington, the project will require the restriction of access through the field and closing part of the parking lot.

Pedestrian and bicycle access will be through the Arlington Reservoir path/Drake Village connection. Signs will be in place to help direct proper use. Read more here >>

Mountain-bikng ramps like those proposed.

UPDATED Aug. 4: Arlington’s Park and Recreation Commission held an online Zoom meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 2, to discuss the pros and cons of building a mountain-bike park and trails on Hill’s Hill, the small patch of land next to the Summer Street skating rink. More than 80 people attended, offering their pros and cons of this potential recreational endeavor.

“We’re at the preliminary stages of the feasibility study. It’s not a funded project yet. It’s just conceptual plans now, and we don’t even have a preliminary design yet,” said Arlington Recreation Director Joe Connelly.

If approved, the park would cost an estimated $350,000.

 Hill's Hill, a woodsy area near Summer Street and Lower Washington, is known for dog-walking, youth gatherings and , more recently, as a possible place where coyotes lurk.

Also in the works for the area is mountain biking.

The Park and Recreation Commission has hired Powder Horn Trail Co. to perform a feasibility study of the Hill's Hill area for dedicated mountain-biking trails and held a public input session about that, the town and YourArlington partner Patch has reported. 

If you missed the Sept. 23 meeting, see the presentation here >>

It has been reported to the Arlington Park & Recreation Commission that there has been some unauthorized trail building in the Crusher Lot property, behind Ottoson Middle School.

The commission reminds residents that unauthorized trail building is prohibited on town property.

If anyone would like to build new trails or improve upon existing trails in our parks, please contact Director of Recreation Joseph Connelly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for approval.

The 23nd annual Ciclismo Classico Jingle Ride is ready to roll Sunday, Dec. 15, starting with registration at 10:15 a.m. The ride leaves promptly at 11.

Decorate your bike or yourself and join us for a favorite holiday tradition -- a festive bike parade from Arlington to Boston and back.

This 22-mile ride rolls through Harvard Square, the Charles River bike path along the Esplanade, Boston Common and Newbury Street. Participants stop and sing carols for passersby, or just parade along showing some creative holiday spirit.

Large dawn redwood shading Magnolia Park garden before it was cut. / Galina Bird photo

Magnolia Park reopened Saturday, June 17, with a brief ceremony, and an estimated 200 people attended. 

Town officials thanked residents for their patience through this park project in an email announcement Monday, June 12.

It said: "The Park and Recreation Commission has spent much time working on addressing as many community requests as possible with this park. We are confident this will be a great park for the residents of Arlington for many years to come.

"There are still some grass areas in the park that are being established, so we ask everyone to be mindful of this."

Two dawn redwoods at the park, including one that had been the focus of protests, came down last August and were turned into chips and logs by a Cambridge tree company. A smaller redwood remains.

An East Arlington man and a young boy looked through the fenced-off recreation area as a truck from Cambridge Landscape Co. pulled out another that had got stuck in sand in the play area after tree-cutting.

The only protest was a sign affixed to the fence appealing to save a redwood. Other signs, posted July 25 after the Conservation Commission voted to cut down two trees, were removed almost as soon as they were put up.

2002 Robbins Farm Park plan, Carol R. Johnson Associates

UPDATED, Dec. 1: After 14 years of hope, an ambitious plan to improve Robbins Farm Park is picking up the pace. It's walking, but not yet running.

Ask an estimated 25 people who were on hand Saturday, Nov. 5, for a meetup and listening tour that rambled from one of the steep park to the other. Leading and taking notes were key reps from Weston & Sampson of Peabody -- Cheri Ruane, vice president; and Cassidy Chroust, both landscape architects, from its Boston office.

All were there to offer advice and advance upgrades for Arlington's signature location with views of Boston -- the first Park and Recreation Commission project supported by funding from Community Preservation Act of $636,749.

The mission is to "improve the infrastructure you have," but not totally change the basic functions of the park, Ruane said during the hour-and-a-half "brainstorming" walk, over the parks highs and lows.

Officials expect to include the feedback gathered from residents and include them in a plan to be presented at a public meeting set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, in the Brackett School cafeteria.