Introduction

Malden River Works (MRW) is a community-led project to prepare the City’s Department of Public Works (DPW) yard for climate change and create the first-ever public riverfront park on the Malden River, a historically industrial area that has left almost no river access for residents for generations. The project is focused on three main goals:

• Build a leadership coalition among Malden’s diverse communities of color through the MRW Steering Committee, a group comprised of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) resident leaders, along with environmental advocates and city government stakeholders.
• Create a new “both-and” model for development on the Malden River that resists green gentrification by introducing a new climate resilient public green space while also maintaining existing industrial uses.
• Increase climate resilience by adapting the DPW, as a critical municipal facility and second responder for disaster recovery, for climate change.

Together, these goals provide an example framework for community-based resilience planning that ensures transparency between government and residents in decision making, provides a mechanism for all affected community members or groups to have their interests considered through the both-and model, and ultimately increases the resilience for vulnerable community members in the event of a disaster.

Context

Malden is a Gateway City _{“Gateway Cities are midsize urban centers that anchor regional economies around the state. For generations, these communities were home to industry that offered residents good jobs and a ‘gateway’ to the American Dream. Over the past several decades, manufacturing jobs slowly disappeared. Lacking resources and capacity to rebuild and reposition, Gateway Cities have been slow to draw new economy investment.” Source: MassINC, https://massinc.org/} with a significant environmental justice population. _{97% of Malden’s population lives in an environmental justice block group. Source: Open Space and Recreation Plan, Malden MA 2017} The city’s racial and ethnic diversity is often cited as a source of civic pride, as it is a majority-minority city _{According to the 2020 US Census, 60% of Malden’s population are people of color, with 25.8% Asian, 14.2% Black, 10.4% Latinx, and 9.5% Other/Multi-racial} and home to the most racially diverse public high school in the Commonwealth with over 60 languages spoken, and growing Asian, Black, and Latinx populations. Malden has also been cited as a city with increasing upward mobility, particularly for its Latinx and Black populations. _{See Malden profiled as an “opportunity bargain” neighborhood, where rents are “below the median for the area and outcomes for children are better than the median.” Source: Scharfenberg, David. “Miracle on the Mystic: Chelsea, Everett, and the New American Dream.” The Boston Globe, October 11, 2019, https://apps.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2019/10/11/gateway-cities/} However, the city’s racial and ethnic diversity is not equitably represented in local leadership, such as municipal government positions and public school system teaching staff, _{The Bay State Banner, “Malden struggles with teacher diversity.” https://www.baystatebanner.com/2021/06/03/malden-struggles-with-teacher-diversity/} factors which can adversely affect participation and trust in local government, access to decision-making, and educational outcomes.

As a densely settled city, there are few opportunities in Malden for new green spaces, and residents most notably lack access to the Malden River. Many residents, including municipal staff, remarked at the first Malden River Works public meeting that they were not even aware that Malden had a river. This is due in part to historic patterns of development, as the river was the source of power for heavy industries such as tanneries, coal and metal refineries, solvents manufacturing, and a U.S. Navy Yard throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, creating an industrial district surrounding the river that remains to the present day. This area is a significant economic asset to the city as an employment anchor that comprises 12 percent of all jobs in Malden and serves as a pathway to middle income for workers. _{See Commercial Street Corridor business profile in the Commercial Street Corridor and Framework Plan, City of Malden, March 2018, p. 33, https://icic.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Commercial-Corridor-Framework-Plan-FINAL.pdf Recent studies have shown that industrial jobs in New York City pay on average almost twice as much as service sector jobs, providing pathways to middle income for individuals that have not had the opportunity to attend college. Source: Engines of Opportunity: Reinvigorating New York City’s Manufacturing Zones for the 21st Century, The New York City Council, November 2014, p. 2, https://council.nyc.gov/land-use/plans/enginesofopportunity/} However, these low-lying and heavily paved facilities are also particularly vulnerable to flooding exacerbated by climate change, with compounding risks from legacy contamination and handling of hazardous materials.

The site is currently home to Malden’s Department of Public Works (DPW), located on the Malden River. It was chosen because it is the only lot on the river that is owned by the city, and as such its transformation can serve as a model for future equitable and resilient riverfront development for Malden and other communities where rivers, industrial uses, and vulnerable populations intersect. The key challenges of the project are to increase equitable access to open space and prepare for climate change while preserving industrial uses and employment. Additionally, the DPW plays a vital role in Malden’s resilience infrastructure as a second responder for disaster recovery, providing the labor force and equipment for debris removal, street repair and cleaning, water and sewer line repair, tree removal, crowd management, and snow removal.

Approach

The Malden River Works approach to increase equitable access to open space involves a governance structure that foregrounds the leadership of BIPOC residents to promote an equitable process and outcomes. This structure departs from standard planning and development projects led by professional planning experts, municipal staff, and/or private interests by focusing on decision-making and leadership from local residents who will be most affected by project outcomes. It relies on the coordinated effort of two teams: the MRW Steering Committee and the MRW Project Team.

The twelve-person Steering Committee is primarily composed of BIPOC residents who receive compensation for their time and represent Malden’s African American, African, Haitian, Latinx, Arab American, and Vietnamese communities, as well as government representatives and environmental advocates. _{Government representatives on the Steering Committee include a City Councilor and Chair of the Council’s Waterfront Access Committee, a Senior City Planner, and the Director of the DPW. The resident environmental advocate is the President of the Friends of the Malden River advocacy group.} The Steering Committee, which meets bimonthly, guides the project to ensure that outcomes reflect community values and priorities, using a process of open dialogue and debate. It also participates in MRW community outreach events and leads community outreach and participation initiatives, with a specific emphasis on achieving meaningful participation from BIPOC communities.

The MRW Project Team is a smaller working group comprising a community outreach and education specialist, a watershed planner, architect, and three members of the MRW Steering Committee to ensure communication between the two teams. The Project Team meets weekly and is responsible for implementing the day-to-day tasks related to community outreach and project design and development. _{Such tasks involve administration of the design and engineering team, grant-writing for design and construction funding, maintenance of the project website, among others.}

Many cities take an “either-or” approach to waterfront adaptation, replacing industrial districts with new waterfront parks that provide benefits of climate resilience but contribute to climate gentrification and the loss of valuable employment centers. _{See: Flavelle, Christopher and Patricia Mazzei. “Miami Says It Can Adapt to Rising Seas. Not Everyone Is Convinced.” The New York Times, March 2, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/climate/miami-sea-level-rise.html} In contrast, the Malden River Works approach prepares for climate change while preserving industrial uses—presenting a new “both-and” climate adaptation model. Accordingly, the physical design responds to the unique mix of uses on the site; it aims to create an environment that is safe and welcoming for the public and also efficient and sustainable for DPW operations.

The success of Malden River Works will be evaluated over two timescales: in the short term through the physical implementation of the project, and in the longer term through the replicability of the project’s governance model and “both-and” approach to climate adaptation without displacement. Already, there is evidence that the MRW governance model has served as an example in other communities. Members of the MRW Steering Committee have been invited to speak in panel discussions and webinars sponsored by state agencies and non-profit advocacy groups, and the city of Malden has applied the Steering Committee model to new planning initiatives. In terms of climate adaptation, the project team has successfully advocated for the city to adopt zoning policy changes that encourage the goal of public access alongside industrial uses on the Malden River.

Design Outcomes + Transformations

The MRW physical design is the outcome of a year-long community participation process. The design goals developed through the process foreground visual and physical connections to the river, connectivity, spatial and cultural inclusivity, and flexibility in uses. The park is organized around a central pathway that is a segment of the Malden River Greenway, _{The Malden River Greenway is the outcome of a planning initiative spearheaded by the Mystic River Watershed Association (represented on the MRW Project Team) in 2017-18} which will eventually create a contiguous loop of public access along the Malden River. Along the river’s edge, the design preserves mature trees for habitat value, shade, and shoreline stabilization, and introduces native plantings to help repair the riparian ecosystem that has been lost through years of industrial development. The park includes a small boathouse and dock to create the first opportunity for community rowing in Malden, while continuing to serve as the public high school’s crew team home base. A large open lawn is located on the upland area of the park, allowing for flexible uses by individuals and groups, and for events while serving as flood protection and a storage area for soils as part of the site’s environmental capping strategy. Over 200 new trees will be planted around the perimeter of the DPW to mitigate the urban heat island effect and serve as a vegetated buffer to reduce the transmission of airborne particulates between the DPW facility and the park areas. The DPW yard will be protected from riverine flooding by the elevated park area and will include a new drainage system using nature-based strategies (such as plants and special soils to store and filter contaminants from storm water) to reduce inland flooding and improve water quality.

Conclusion + Lessons

For its next steps, the MRW team is currently developing the park’s physical design and preparing for the environmental permitting process, while pursuing funding opportunities for construction. At the same time, the team is working on new ways to engage Malden’s communities through this stage of the process, and to develop opportunities to support cultural engagement and stewardship for the park beyond the construction phase. Meanwhile, the MRW experience has taught us several lessons:

• An equity-driven project requires an equitable governance structure. The MRW Steering Committee is primarily composed of residents of color to foreground their priorities and values in the process and project outcomes.
• Community leadership and meaningful community involvement requires additional funding and time compared to standard, ‘expert-driven’ planning and development practices. Community leaders should be compensated for their contributions, and additional time for project review and reflection should be incorporated at the outset of project planning and budgeting. As an example, the MRW Steering Committee reviews the format and outcomes two times (before and after) each public participation event, to gauge whether meeting materials and formats are relevant and accessible, and to review what was learned at each meeting. The Steering Committee and Project Team have also engaged in internal reflection at different project milestones to reflect on shared goals, progress, and the overall process.
• To increase participation, it helps to meet people at their place of cultural comfort: coming to where they already are, in their preferred setting and language, and ideally as an invited guest to an existing community gathering. After realizing that attendance at the major MRW public meetings was becoming static (many familiar faces, and fewer new participants), the team tried a new strategy of bringing the project to events and meetings that were already happening in the community, which required the production of meeting presentation kits, presentation scripts, and talking points that were translated into multiple languages and large print for greater accessibility. A pair of Steering Committee members chose three different Community Based Organizations (CBO) to present an overview of the project and receive feedback. Public meetings also incorporated invited talks from a community activist and a local poet on themes of environmental justice to create memorable shared cultural experiences through the outreach and participation process.
• Community participation looks different during different phases of a project. The first year of the MRW design process involved many interactive discussions between project team members, the Steering Committee, and Malden communities on project goals and physical design elements. As the design became more resolved over time, with less room to incorporate major changes, the nature of community involvement had to be reconsidered. For upcoming phases of the project, the team is keeping community members apprised of project development and milestones through meetings and regular website/newsletter updates. Community engagement activities are more focused on river and climate access and education, and cultural activities that can be supported at the new park.
• A predictable schedule and clear organizational tasks can help increase and diversify project leadership and participation. In the third year of the project, we co-created in advance a year-long timeline of regular Steering Committee and public meetings where members sign up to chair or take notes for each event. This has helped create more active dialog generally and more engagement from different members of the Steering Committee at each meeting.
• Think and act beyond the boundaries of the project site to promote climate resilience. Communication and coordination with the municipality and adjoining property owners has been a priority throughout the process. With the municipality, the project team has advocated for policy changes to ensure coordination of climate adaptation strategies between different property owners along the river (for example, alignment of flood barriers). The project team has also maintained regular communication with adjoining property owners to coordinate riverfront improvement plans.

As the project progresses, we look forward to enjoying a new open space for our community, but we also hope to share our model for equitably building resilience as a path forward for other communities facing similar dilemmas in adapting to climate change.