An asphalt depaving event took place at a Somerville residence last as part of the city’s SustainaVille Week activities. — Photos by Emilia Wisniewski

By Emilia Wisniewski

A flatbed trailer was parked next to the home of the corner of Centre Street and Woodbine Street on the early morning of April 29. The homeowners, Sara Brunelle and her husband Antonio, requested Green & Open Somerville come depave their driveway, an effort the organization has been doing for years.

Residents flocked to the driveway, which was adorned with chalk drawings of flowers from the Brunelle’s two-year-old daughter. With a crowd of 20 people, co-founder Renee Scott and advisor Leigh Meunier welcomed participants to the depaving event and explained what they would be doing that morning.

With tools propped against the fence and bags full of hard hats and gloves, Scott took the helpers through the process of depaving asphalt. She enlisted the help of senior volunteer Cador Pricejones to show how to smash the ground with a sledgehammer, jam a crowbar into the ground and leverage the material up with a brick as support.

Brunelle met Meunier at a tabling event and contacted Green & Open Somerville immediately after hearing they can depave lots. She wanted to turn her two-car parking lot into green space.

“There’s so much asphalt in our world and it feels like it’s everywhere, and it felt really wrong to be all around our house,” Brunelle said. “We love gardening. We want space for birds and insects as well as our family.”

Meunier said depavements efforts started in 2010, initially doing two projects each year. As the organizing team and the interest in green spaces in Somerville grew, the number of depaving projects have increased alongside it, with around four events happening each year.

The event on Saturday was promoted by the City of Somerville as part of its SustainaVille Week, helping to reduce the city’s contribution to climate change.

“The understanding about climate change, understanding about flooding, people’s interest in wanting to transform the lands for more healthy green spaces, there’s just more interest in these kinds of projects,” Meunier said. “I’m interested in expanding depaving, so I’m more actively reaching out to groups to see who could help us expand these efforts in ways that also increase our capacity.”

Community members worked for two hours to break apart the driveway and surrounding concrete border. Julie Corwin, one of the volunteers that day, lifted a large piece of asphalt to carry to the flatbed, and commented that it “looks like Montana.” Her team gave a hearty laugh after that.

“For me, I don’t have any pavement to repave so it’s great to help other people,” Corwin said. “Throughout the day, you can just … feel the earth just breathing again. It’s really nice to see it all come up.”

Another participant, Sam Musher, said it felt satisfying to get rid of the stuff she “hates so much.” She also commented on how others can learn about these efforts by just walking by.

“Neighbors come past who don’t really understand what’s going on and can learn a little bit about, ‘oh, this stuff that somebody covered the world with doesn’t actually have to be here,’” Musher said. “There’s other things you can do with it.”

Scott co-founded Green & Open Somerville and implemented the depaving efforts into the organization in 2014. One of the first projects she did was depaving her own driveway.

“It was amazing,” Scott said. “We invited friends and neighbors, but most people there, working in the rain for four hours, were people I’ve never met before. They just came and it was just a labor of love.”

With issues of runoff water and flooding basements plaguing her neighborhood, Brunelle said she believed the added green space will help start to alleviate the problem.

“My heart is so full,” she said. “It’s kind of amazing that people chose to give their energy to this and I am really grateful.”