Last Thursday afternoon at the New ENgland Aquarium the Coalition for a Resilient and Inclusive Waterfront hosted a Mayoral Candidate Forum.
Of the candidates running for Boston Mayor in the upcoming fall election, John Barros, Annissa Essaibi-George, Andrea Campbell and Michelle Wu took part in the forum and fielded questions on how to make Boston’s waterfront more accessible, equitable and climate resilient.
While each candidate that participated in last week’s forum all had solid ideas on how to make the waterfront more sustainable and resilient against the threat of climate change and sea level rise, the question on how to make the waterfront more accessible and equitable was based on experiences of East Boston residents.
The question last week from Alberto Vasallo III, President and CEO of El Mundo Boston, was, “Maverick Station is right on the Blue Line in East Boston. There’s an overwhelming amount of residents who speak Spanish and are immigrants, many who faithfully served this city as essential workers and, obviously by default, suffered more during this pandemic than any other group. (Maverick) is adjacent to the East Boston Waterfront and just one stop on the MBTA away from the aquarium. Yet when I walked through the area. I don’t see Latino families enjoying this beautiful resource. What can the next mayor of Boston do to change this?”
Mayoral Candidate Campbell said when she jumped into the mayor’s race because Boston had the opportunity to not only talk about our painful history of racism and division and segregation, but to really begin to do the hard work of closing those gaps where folks in any part of the city would recognize the waterfront is theirs.
“I live in Mattapan with my two beautiful boys and my beautiful husband as well,” she said. “I also represent Dorchester and I often hear residents remark about the waterfront. I had seniors in Codman Square Public Housing say, “I want to go to that new neighborhood” at the Seaport. To them it felt so far away. So when we’re talking about what it means to advance a bold vision, inclusivity is critical. The best thing about the waterfront is not just making sure that folks in every part of the city feel as though this space is theirs but the economic vitality in this community can help create jobs to close the racial wealth gap for entrepreneurs in our immigrant communities. In addition, it can bring us together. We’re still very much a segregated city so inclusivity is key.”
Essaibi-George said the waterfront here in Eastie and around the city is a beautiful resource that should be enjoyed by all and added that there is economic opportunity that has been ignored.
“There are assets, institutions, opportunities and experiences right here and whether you live in Maverick Square in East Boston or Dorchester or Mattapan you should be able to experience these things and not leave it just for the tourists,” she said. “When we think about visitors to the city we think about the important role they play in our local economy but our residents should be able to enjoy these places too. While it’s about enjoyment (of the waterfront) it can also be about economic opportunity. I was a teacher at East Boston High School and I had a student that was really interested in studying marine biology and Boston’s waterfront became her place to explore that love in that career. But it took someone else making that connection so we need to make sure that we are not just opening doors for our families and our city’s residents to come in but that we’re going out and getting them and bringing them to these places.”
Wu said she comes from an immigrant family with parents that didn’t speak English for a good part of her childhood so she knows the invisible barriers other immigrants experience when it comes to inclusivity or lack thereof.
“I’m committed to making sure that the physical connection (to the waterfront) is easy,” said Wu. “We should be fighting for accessible, affordable transportation to be able to connect people (to the waterfront). We should be also working with our institutions to truly meet people where they’re at and reach our residents. The ICA’s Watershed over in East Boston is spectacular. The exhibit there right now features immigrant stories with local voices. It’s really important that the residents of Boston feel like the city’s theirs.”
Barros said as a young black man growing up in Roxbury he remembers feeling that the two blocks around his home is where he could explore.
“We’ve got to break those invisible walls,” said Barros. “We’ve got to make sure that we do programming–not just programming for the sake of programming–for those who want to reclaim their waterfront. That means that we’re bringing people together and we’re talking about what should happen while providing the opportunity for citizens to join the economic vitality of the waterfront. This includes talking about (job opportunities) for people to be employed there as well as allowing people to build wealth in companies on our waterfront.”