Celebrate Boston's Public Open Spaces By Pitching A Blanket

Last month FPNA invited you to Waterfront Development In Your Neighborhood presented by the Harborfront Neighborhood Alliance in partnership with Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and Boston Harbor Now, focusing on your rights to public access and amenities along our waterfront. 

This summer CLF and the Boston Waterfront Partners* invite you to pitch a blanket with your friends and neighbors, enjoy games and refreshments, bring a picnic, and learn more about your rights along Boston’s waterfront. Did you know that Massachusetts law grants each of us the right to use open spaces on Boston's waterfront? Getting out and pitching a blanket is a great way to reclaim public spaces in Boston’s Seaport and Downtown Waterfront areas. It's only by actively using our public spaces that we can ensure Boston Harbor remains vibrant and accessible to all – the People's Harbor we all deserve.  

Celebrate Boston's Public Spaces 
Thursday, July 25, 2019
5:30 PM –7 PM 
The Public Green, Seaport District 
1 Marina Park Drive, Boston

Sign Up Here

Please keep in mind that per the rules of the Public Green no dogs are allowed. 

What else can you do?

Know your rights. CLF will be providing “People’s Harbor” tote bags to guests on a first come, first serve basis. Each tote bag will include a USB with copies of the People’s Guide to Chapter 91 in English and in Spanish. 

Get out and enjoy Boston's Waterfront. Use the Boston Harborwalk Map Tool to discover public spaces along the Harborwalk and waterfront. You can find restrooms, green lawns, seating areas, fishing docks and observation decks. You can also look up Chapter 91 licenses and management plans governing access to waterfront public spaces in your neighborhood. 

Take the pledge to Protect the Boston Harbor and the Public Waterfront. 

*FPNA and the Harborfront Neighborhood Alliance are members of the Boston Waterfront Partners along with CLF and many other advocates of our waterfront. 

originally published 7.18.19

Time To Gear Up For New Year's Celebrations

Celebrate New Year's in and around the neighborhood. 

Boston Harbor Now invites you to the sixth annual New Year's Eve on the Waterfront. Filled with family friendly activities including a Harbor Map Tour at the Boston Harbor Hotel, Touch-a-Truck with First Responders at the Envoy Hotel, a Ice Sculpture Stroll and for the big kids midnight fireworks. 

This year's ice sculpture stroll will transform the Downtown and South Boston Waterfront and Harborwalk into a magical, winter wonderland come Monday, December 31st. Stroll hours are 1 pm to  4 pm. Visit all 16 ice sculptures and take selfies to enter in a Waterfront 'Staycation' Giveaway Contest. Download the official Waterfront Ice Sculpture and Fireworks Map (PDF) and use the included coupon for all-day discounted parking ($20.19) for New Year's Eve at the Boston Harbor Garage (270 Atlantic Avenue).

Ring in the year watching fireworks at midnight over the Boston Harbor. The fireworks are generously sponsored by Boston Harbor Now, City of Boston, Friends of Christopher Columbus Park and the Wharf District Council. Suggested viewing locations are: Fan Pier, Christopher Columbus Park and the East Boston Harborwalk.

The L Street Brownies continue in the footsteps of thousands before them over the last one hundred years by taking the plunge into the Boston Harbor on New Year's day. The event starts at 9 am on Tuesday, January 1, 2019 at  the L Street Bathhouse. Meet up with your neighbors first at the L Street Tavern at 8 am and enjoy a personal escort by 103rd Postal Fire Column Pipes and Drums to the plunge. Spectators welcome. For helpful information visit Caught In Southie. 

If diving into freezing water is not your thing, Murphy Memorial Rink in South Boston will be holding free public skating hours on New Year’s Day from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.  

However you celebrate the New Year whether it be in Fort Point, the Seaport or from afar, FPNA (Fort Point Neighborhood Association) wishes you, our neighbors and friends, a very Happy New Year.

Climate Ready Boston To Focus On Fort Point Channel & Harbor

South Boston is expected to experience more coastal and stormwater flooding due to climate change. Remember the flooding and ground water rise from King Tides over the past two years?

The City of Boston is exploring solutions to decrease these risks as part of the Climate Ready South Boston initiative.

Add your on-the-ground perspective to the neighborhood’s resiliency

by completing this community survey.

In 2016, Climate Ready Boston released a comprehensive report of risks and protection strategies for a climate-impacted city like Boston. Last weekend, the City released study results and recommendations for East Boston and Charlestown. The City kicked off Climate Ready South Boston on October 4, 2017.

South Boston faces increased climate risks going forward. From now to 2050, nearly a quarter of South Boston’s land area will be exposed to a 1 percent annual chance of coastal flooding event, with some areas along the Fort Point Channel exposed to even higher probability events. Some streets and highways are also expected to be exposed to low-probability coastal flooding in the near-term, with those likelihoods going up as time goes on. Protecting South Boston also protects the connected neighborhoods of South End, Roxbury, and Dorchester from future flooding risks.

The City is committed to finding both short- and long-term solutions to coastal flooding and other impacts from sea level rise, and currently studying the issue to explore potential ways to minimize or eliminate flooding challenges, with a focus on key floodwater entry points into the neighborhood.

For the South Boston Waterfront the flood entry points are: along the edge of the district, including flooding from Fort Point Channel, Boston Harbor, and the Reserve Channel. The low-lying nature of the South Boston Waterfront likely requires flood protection connections to high ground across Fort Point Channel. Potential flood protection solutions include a floodgate aimed at preventing storm surge from flowing into the South Boston Waterfront from Fort Point Channel. The gate could be placed at a number of locations, including the Northern Avenue Bridge, Seaport Boulevard Bridge, Congress Street Bridge, or Summer Street Bridge. In addition to a gate across Fort Point Channel, flood protection solutions would require either a barrier system to connect to high ground south of West Broadway, perimeter protection near the Reserve Channel, or a gate across the Reserve Channel. (source: Climate Ready Boston report)

You can read more about neighborhood climate risk and resilience in the South Boston section of the Climate Ready Boston report here.

Take the survey and add your voice to this critical discussion about how to prepare Fort Point and the whole city for a more resilient future. Sign up for our Greenovate email list to stay up-to-date on details for the December community open house. Greenovate will also be a featured speaker speaker January 30, 2018 Fort Point Neighborhood Gathering hosted by the Fort Point Neighborhood Association.

originally published 11.1.17

Globe Article on Rising Sea Levels and Southie

There's an article in the Globe on the Risks of Rising Sea Levels which includes a great map created by the Boston Harbor Association (www.tbha.org/).

Boston Harbor Sea Levels - Forum 11/9-10

From Dan Osterman:

Over the past few years the Fort Point Channel waters have risen, till now at high tide they regularly come within a few feet of the bottom of the Summer St. Bridge. When we have storm surges they crest the retaining wall and creep up to the level of the sidewalk on the Gillette parking lot. It's a problem for me as a property owner on A Street across from the Gillette parking lot and for all property owners on what is basically flat, former marshland. I am no climate scientist but from what I've seen over the past ten years this problem is not going to go away and we have to start planning for it now. This may be the next Big Dig for all I know, but it will surely be a problem for Boston and sooner rather than later.

-Dan

--

Boston Harbor Sea Level Rise Forum- 9-10 November 2010
http://www.tbha.org/



The Boston Harbor Association invites you to the first "Boston Harbor Sea Level Rise Forum" on the evening of 9 November and the morning of 10 November 2010 through lunch.  The Forum will be one of the most informative and stimulating forums on this timely issue, and will debut maps showing potential impacts of sea level rise and climate change in Boston Harbor. We are pleased that Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Princeton University Professor Guy Nordenson, who coordinated the Museum of Modern Art's 2010 exhibition, "Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfront," will be keynote speakers.

Tuesday, 9 November, 6:00-7:30 p.m, reception to follow
New England Aquarium IMAX Theatre, Boston
Keynote Speaker:   Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Boston Harbor Sea Level Rise Mapping:  Dr. Ellen Douglas, UMass Boston, and Dr. Paul Kirshen, Battelle Institute
Open Mike Session:  questions and comments from the public.

Wednesday, 10 November, 8:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m., lunch provided
John Joseph Moakley Courthouse, Boston
Opening Comments: Mayor Thomas M. Menino
Keynote Speaker:  Guy Nordenson, Co-author, "On the Water/ Palisade Bay", and Coordinator, "Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfront" exhibition
Boston Harbor Sea Level Rise Mapping:  Dr. Ellen Douglas, UMass Boston
Responses: Tom Kinton, Massport
David Begelfer, NAIOP
Hubert Murray, Partners HealthCare
Leo Robinson, Chelsea City Council
Rick Dimino, A Better City (moderator)
Open Mike Session:  questions and comments from the public
Wrap-up Session:    Kairos Shen, City of Boston's Chief Planner

The Forum is free and open to the public, reservations required.  To register, please click on the links below:

9 Nov.: http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=9jx8b8cab&oeidk=a07e31xi4sr60823d0b

10 Nov.:  http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=9jx8b8cab&oeidk=a07e31z7je016c30762