Waterfront areas in cities offer unique opportunities to provide people with a beautiful and inclusive public space that encourages recreation and interaction. Unfortunately, they tend to appeal to a certain demographic and are oftentimes used as a means of gentrification, through the attraction of the richer, whiter class and the increase it brings to nearby property value. Boston itself has many waterfront developments, the most developed of which being Seaport, an area that is majority white, filled with expensive housing and shopping. Residents of East Boston do not have access to one of these unique parks because there is no developed waterfront in their area, and they do not have access to the unaffordable waterfronts in other areas. In addition, there is widespread worry among East Boston residents that their low-income areas will be developed and they will no longer be able to afford the living.
Therefore, our proposal is to give these residents the same opportunity to interact with beautiful waterfront areas without resulting in an increased property value. In order to do this, we must not turn the area into a grand site that will attract tourists, but rather a practical space that the local community will be able to enjoy. We plan to create a beautiful green path that circulates through the streets of East Boston and passes through multiple local parks located on street corners. The circulation will ultimately lead to the waterfront park that is made up of long walkways traveling over the water between two large open green spaces. The green spaces will be designed in a way that encourages recreation within them such as jogging, walking pets, fishing, and sports. The pathways traveling across the water, which mirror local street geometry, allow for more circulation throughout the public space and provide unique views of the water. In addition, the circular ‘pods’ which adorn the water under the bridge form raised terraces of soil, providing a home for various plant life capable of surviving in high levels of salt. A base of saltmarsh cordgrass provides an even coating of greenery allowing the circular forms to stand out, while pockets of seaside goldenrod adds color to the arrangement. Sporadically throughout the water gardens are some larger plants, such as yucca and New Zealand flax, followed finally by a few eastern red cedar trees which provide focal points among the gardens. In the spaces between these pods, many underwater plants and algae are grown, assisting in filtering the notoriously dirty Boston waterways.
before
after
before
after
The costs of development will be covered by local government, with residential tax money being directed away from policing and sitting government officials, and towards beneficial infrastructure development such as this. The project will also act as one of restorative justice, with measures in place to ensure that the money and attractions stay to the benefit of the community, and does not result in the same gentrification brought by other waterfront developments. This will largely be done by initiatives and measures taken to ensure that profits from the development land in the hands of the community by ensuring that activities are cheap or free, and carried out by local vendors so that if there are fees, they go right back to the community. As the last initiative, with the momentum from the budget reforms, there will also be a push to have legislation and community attention brought to the fact that the properties of the community should remain parcelized to act as a means of preventing large buyouts, in order to maintain local community ownership, rather than large realtor control.
