Pols using $1.65M to soak up park flooding
A flock of politicians descended on the South Boston/Dorchester line to tout the “pre-disaster mitigation” cash awarded to try to stop the water from sweeping through the soon-to-beoverhauled Moakley Park in a big flood.
The $1.65 million earmark “will be used to complete all planning, design, and permitting for key climate resilience projects on City- and State-owned lands located on either side of Moakley Park,” the city said.
Mayor Michelle Wu was joined by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, state Rep. David Biele, City Council President Ed Flynn and City Councilors Michael Flaherty and Frank Baker in a press conference near Carson Beach and the park.
“As a coastal city, we must stay focused on taking bold action to protect our waterfront,” Wu said, saying this helps the city handle the “rapidly changing climate” with worsening storms and rising seas.
The idea is to use berms and other tweaks to the shoreline of the inlet that forms Carson Beach near Moakley Park to help stop floods from coming over the beach, across the park and through the large Mary Ellen McCormack housing project. That project is slated soon to be the target for a huge public-private partnership overhaul.
“We need to protect that investment,” Lynch said. “But we also we also need to preserve an opportunity for people who enjoy the beach and enjoy the park as well.”
The park itself soon will be the target of a quarterbillion-dollar overhaul — a project for which the overall price tag continues to creep up without an overall guaranteed funding source.
The first part of the project, though, has been programmed and is expected to start next year, according to city documents from this spring. The next meeting on the Moakley Park overhaul, which will raise the wateradjacent side of the park significantly to further head off flooding, is slated for July 20.
The idea is to make the 60-acre park a better buffer for water, but a better place to come for people, connecting the housing projects and surrounding areas to the beach while having more trees and areas for visitors to relax.
“It’s heavy lifting,” Baker said at the press conference when asked about the price, saying the city and different partners including the firm behind the upcoming huge Dorchester Bay City development in nearby Columbia Point will be kicking in cash.
The city also has sought further FEMA grants of millions of dollars for the park.