To the Editor:

Major changes are coming from multiple directions upon the residents of Dorchester in this time of increasing demands for our attention and decreasing individual free time for reflection and evaluation of priorities. It makes citizens more vulnerable to possible adverse outcomes resulting from city and state agency’s limited planning budgets. 

While fiscal year objectives are pushing schedules, residents need to be kept informed and can discuss and weigh options together to protect and promote their priorities. Community Visioning is at the heart of neighborhood stability, resiliency, and potential. An example where these dynamics and opportunities are concentrating is within the Savin Hill & Malibu Beach area. Most pressing is the multi-state agency K Circle- Morrissey Boulevard- Neponset Circle Climate Resiliency Project. The planning is being coordinated and led by Mass DOT. A third meeting of the commission will be held on May 2 at Boston College High School.

The Dorchester Bay Basin includes the beach and adjoining McConnell Park, which are valuable public assets for relaxation and recreation. The area needs to be protected and improvements made in public health, safety, and access. Despite the welcome improvements in water quality resulting from the MWRA Deer Island sewerage treatment project, the environmental legacy of extractive capitalism has left the harbor bottom dangerously contaminated with deep and soft muck.

The current proposal for a 7- to 8-foot-high climate resiliency berm in the alignment of Morrissey Boulevard and possible tide gate at the Beades Bridge replacement would have at least two negative effects: Loss of long view of Dorchester Bay from the shoreline walkways and reduced tidal flow through the inlet, further compounding silt buildup on the bottom.

Upcoming work should improve public access to the beach for swimming and wading, not reduce it. The I-93 Southeast Expressway adjacent to Savin Hill Beach and Clam Point occupies what previously was Commercial Point, a center on generations-long maritime economy and maritime culture vital to Dorchester and the Port of Boston. It’s possible a synergistic new vision of Dorchester Bay Basin can solve a few problems and create new, resiliently durable, and positive use for the area.

By actively participating in Dorchester’s civic associations, we can help envision, communicate, and advocate for what we want Dorchester to look, feel, and function like 10 years from now. Waiting for the government to tell us what they will do is not in our best interest.

John Rich
Savin Hill Avenue