Special to the Journal
On Monday Nov. 18 at 10am, the Metropolitan Beaches Commission and Save the Harbor/Save the Bay hosted their annual hearing on the state of the beaches at the Massachusetts State House. The hearing featured testimony from Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Commissioner Brian Arrigo on the progress the agency has made toward infrastructure, maintenance and equity recommendations by the Commission, as well as a discussion of the vulnerability of the recreational beaches to storm surge and sea level rise.
“I have really appreciated the responsiveness from DCR over the past year under Commissioner Arrigo,” said MBC Co-Chair, Senator Brendan Crighton. “While we continue to make progress on our water quality issues on the North Shore, our district regularly sees the impact of storms on our coasts, seawalls and beaches. MBC looks forward to supporting DCR in understanding the vulnerabilities our beaches face.”
I’ve seen first-hand how much people in my district in East Boston rely on Constitution Beach for recreation, especially in the hottest summer on record,” said MBC Co-Chair Rep. Adrian Madaro. “I know East Boston residents are eager for infrastructure updates to this critical natural resource, so I look forward to learning about the progress that DCR has made under Commissioner Arrigo. In addition, I am interested in their accomplishments towards the equity recommendations in last year’s Breaking Barriers report and hearing about goals for the coming beach season.”
Arrigo testified to the Commission, highlighting the actions DCR took in 2024 to address the MBC’s recommendations for improved beach access for non-English speakers, people with disabilities and people of color.
“Having access to beaches, parks, and green spaces is a matter of equity,” Arrigo affirmed. “As we experience more and more periods of climate-change driven extreme heat during our summers, it’s vitally important that all of our residents and families feel welcome at and can safely enjoy our beaches to cool off. These spaces build healthy communities. We are grateful to the Commission and Save the Harbor/Save the Bay for their continued partnership in our work to break down accessibility barriers to our Metro Beaches.”
To that end, in the past two years, DCR has introduced new water safety and shorebird protection signs, featuring QR codes that offer translations into nine additional languages. Additionally, every Metropolitan Beach now hosts welcome signage in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean Creole, Arabic, Mandarin, Traditional Chinese, and Russian. DCR will also be installing new easier to understand English and Spanish beach rules signs at all beaches, ahead of the 2025 summer season. The new signs, which will be available in the nine languages via a QR code, feature logos reminding beachgoers not to engage in certain activities for their safety.
DCR also invested more than $300,000 on new beach wheelchairs and over 1,000 feet of mobility mats. Over the last two years, DCR has added 44 new beach wheelchairs to the Metro Beaches. The DCR Universal Access Program, tasked with providing adaptive and accessible recreation opportunities, worked alongside Save the Harbor staff to conduct an accessibility audit of public beaches in 2023, and this data is being used to plan future capital projects. Save the Harbor also established the Beach Accessibility Advisory Committee to help update DCR lifeguard training.
Finally, Save the Harbor’s Executive Director Chris Mancini commended Commissioner Arrigo’s continued support for the Better Beaches Partnership, which aims to give decision-making power directly to community members over community spaces. This year, Save the Harbor distributed $315,000 in grants to 83 community groups, artists, and coalitions to host free events all summer long on DCR beaches. “72% of our 2024 Better Beaches grantees are led by or directly serve people of color,” Mancini reported.
Following Commissioner Arrigo’s testimony, Save the Harbor Policy Manager Jason Rundle presented an update on the Commission’s work around coastal resilience, which featured 11 community climate workshops in 2024. “Understanding that the vast majority of community members value their beaches as spaces for rest and recreation emphasizes the importance of preserving these resources,” said Rundle. “We need to take a look at both short-term vulnerabilities to storm surges and long-term beach migration and sea level rise so that we can support the state in developing interventions that can protect our beaches.”
Finally, the hearing opened to public comment during which residents from across the region brought attention to instances of poor water quality on some beaches, improvements to bathhouses and public bathrooms, and the need to reevaluate the state testing and flagging protocols that communicate when beaches are open and closed to the public.
Looking ahead, the MBC intends to prioritize better understanding of the beaches’ vulnerability, consistent efforts to improve equity and accessibility, as well as ongoing maintenance and infrastructure improvements to playgrounds, seawalls, plantings and other needs as identified by beachgoers in each community. The MBC Commissioners agreed that each of the 13 Metropolitan beaches needs its own vulnerability assessment to plan adaptations in the face of increasing climate impacts. Save the Harbor is looking forward to supporting DCR in this effort in 2025.
