By Tania Del Rio
Last month, waterfront advocates and East Boston neighbors alike celebrated Mayor Michelle Wu’s announcement that she will prioritize waterfront development reform in East Boston. This much-welcomed step builds upon conversations around former-acting mayor Kim Janey’s decision to withdraw the Municipal Harbor Plan last year, which focused on the downtown waterfront while overlooking how recent development has transformed East Boston. The City’s new focus on one of Boston’s most vital -yet often cast aside- neighborhoods is a necessary step towards equity and is critical to addressing the neighborhood’s urgent and underlying challenges.
Our waterfront is currently regulated by a state law referred to as Chapter 91. It dates back to ordinances from colonial times that codified the “public trust doctrine,” an almost 2,000 year old legal principle that holds that the air, sea, and shore do not belong to any one person, but to all of us as a collective. These regulations must always be met and provide us with a great starting place for crafting our Municipal Harbor Plans, which provide flexibility for cities to meet their Chapter 91 obligations while also establishing a community-crafted vision for our waterfront. The planning process can help us envision our waterfront as a whole, instead of site by site, thereby helping us focus on protecting public access and ensuring development is responsible.
Over the past decade, we have watched luxury residential buildings spring up on the waterfront, stoking our community’s housing crisis. At the same time, we have witnessed streets, bike lanes, and basements flood with every major storm. Now, we are seeing the crisis caused by compounding threats of displacement; hearing from numerous District 1 residents that flooding has already been wearing on their homes, and that repairs are draining their pocketbooks. Their biggest concern, however, is that this is just the beginning. As a mother with two children, living in a house half a block from the water, I share this fear myself, questioning just how long our neighborhood will resist the threats of rising sea levels and intensifying flooding. The new waterfront development in these flood zones does not make our coastline more environmentally resilient, instead, it exacerbates the threats of displacement that have been intensifying in our waterfront.
Thankfully, District 1 neighborhoods are lucky to have organizers and advocates who are committed to protecting our communities from reckless development and a severe climate crisis. Local organizations like Piers Park Sailing and Courageous Sailing promote access to the Harbor for all and share its rich maritime history with young people. Harborkeepers fosters community stewardship of the Harbor by creating opportunities for neighbors to interact with the tidelands and water and move towards collective grassroots advocacy for a resilient neighborhood. Friends of the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway, Boston Harbor Arts, GreenRoots, Eastie Farm, and Friends of Belle Isle Marsh, just to name a few, are active advocates for a resilient community. I am proud to be a part of a community where community organizations are doing their part to confront our challenges. But to meet the moment, we need our resource-rich government to facilitate a comprehensive plan that incorporates the community’s vision. Only then will residents be able to step into their role and participate as actively as they are able in these planning processes to provide our input and form a true collective vision.
As a candidate for the Boston City Council’s District 1, I welcome the Mayor’s proactive approach to planning a waterfront that can withstand the threats of climate change and thrive for generations to come. I am pushing for planning and development processes that bring community voices to the forefront of decision-making. I will advocate for a process that engages residents to create a plan of action to protect our precious Harbor, builds a resilient coastline for the next generation, and creates green jobs for local residents. These are the tenets that any Green New Deal city needs to keep top of mind.
Over the last year, Boston has decisively voted for collaborative change, bringing in a class of new leaders with brave ideas for our city. I celebrate the Mayor’s announcement because I recognize the need to provide the most vulnerable neighborhoods with additional consideration and support. Despite the outcomes we’ve seen so far, I believe it is possible for zoning and development to be a tool to build more equitable, inclusive, affordable, and accessible neighborhoods – not only a tool for developers to build billion-dollar projects that are disjointed from the rest of the waterfront. As a Councilor, I will fight for this to be the case not only in East Boston, but also in Charlestown and the North End. The new decision from the Wu administration signals a similar strategy, one of building environmental resilience and justice into our city’s development process, so that we can truly maintain the Harbor as a public resource that both residents and visitors can enjoy.
Tania Del Rio is a BPS mom, Latina immigrant, East Boston resident, and proven leader in her community and our local government running for Boston City Council District 1 in the upcoming special election this spring. The preliminary election will be on April 5, and the general election on May 3.