Surf Drive is considered one of Falmouth's prettiest and most iconic shore side roads. But its future looks uncertain as the effects of climate change make maintaining the road more expensive. WGBH Morning Edition Host Joe Mathieu spoke with WGBH Cape Cod Bureau Reporter Eve Zuckoff to learn more about what could happen to Surf Drive. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.
Joe Mathieu: This is fascinating. It started with you getting your hands on Falmouth's grant application to the state ,asking for money to study Surf Drive [and] come up with some designs that could change it. One option, as you said, is abandoning parts of this road. If you look at the map, this is the bottom edge of Falmouth, and it's the barrier between a couple of ponds and the ocean. What would abandonment look like? What form would that take?
Eve Zuckoff: Right now, the town's really careful to say everything is on the table [and] nothing is set in stone. But abandonment could look like, if that's what it comes down to, basically letting this road revert into a dirt road, and taking the paved part and putting it behind this row of houses and that would become "Surf Drive." And everything in front of it would maybe revert to beach. We really don't know. It could be on parts of the road where there are basically no homes, or it could be on the part of the road where there are homes. We just don't know yet what it really could look like.
Read More: Climate Change Creates Uncertain Future For Falmouth's Surf Drive
Mathieu: We heard from this individual [who's] lived there for 30 [or] 33 years on Surf Drive. How about the people who've bought more recently? Are they concerned?
Zuckoff: Yes, definitely. I spoke to a man named Bruno Gallinelli, and he bought his home just two years ago on Surf Drive. [He says he's] invested $2 million since then, he says. This is his retirement plan, his nest egg. This is what he plans on giving to his children, and he feels really angry that he didn't know in the last two years of applying for permits ... that this was going on. So there's a lot of frustration. But I do think it's important to note that, you know, this is not town versus townspeople. This is climate change versus everybody. This is everybody looking forward and trying to plan for what's here and what will keep coming.
Mathieu: In this case, climate change is pushing the town to change a neighborhood. I'm guessing there are other places along the state's coastline that could or should be having this conversation?
Zuckoff: Oh, definitely. There are 240 miles of roads in Massachusetts that are at risk of flooding. Many of those are on the Cape, but East Boston is at serious risk. And the city predicts nine inches of sea level rise by 2030. I mean, we're talking about every neighborhood. We're talking about Southie [and] Downtown. There's nowhere that really is on the coast that shouldn't be thinking about having these town conversations.
