It’s summertime and as many people flock to aquatic fun spaces, like splash pads, pools and beaches to escape the sweltering heat, one group is working this season to help ensure that more people can enjoy Boston’s waterfront.
This week’s Joy Beat celebrates the Waterways initiative from the nonprofit The American City Coalition. Through advocacy and free events where attendees can sail or kayak, Waterways promotes access to the water for Dorchester and Roxbury residents and encourages them to shape the development of waterfront and open space projects.
Willie Bodrick, II, The American City Coalition President and CEO, joined GBH’s All Things Considered Host Arun Rath for the Joy Beat to share more. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Arun Rath: So tell us, I just get sort of relaxed and happy hearing that sound [of water lapping against a sailboat in the Boston Harbor]. Tell us about what that sound means for you.
Willie Bodrick, II: That sound is all about the joy and the excitement of summer, the opportunity to come together with folks in community, to draw closer and closer to nature. And it reminds me of just the relaxation of summertime and gathering together, that we’re enjoying the beautiful waterfront that we have and enjoying our community and our families.
Rath: One of the things I love about what we’re talking about, I feel like the waterfront now kind of sparks different thoughts for people than it did when I was a kid. I mean, now it feels like people think of luxury condos and restaurants and hotels. Tell us about how your work with Waterways takes on something different, right?
Bodrick: Yeah, I mean, well, Waterways, the work that we’ve been doing, we launched in 2018, and it really started around identifying barriers and access in order to catalyze sustained engagement so that more folks from our neighborhood, Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan would feel both connected and invested in the waterfront. And so, a lot of the work that we’ve been doing at Waterways through TAC, is implementing strategies that reduce community-identified barriers and having access to that waterfront. And there’s also creating recreational programming to engage folks and connect them to the waterfront, as well.
Rath: It’s brilliant because a lot of people don’t realize that, you know, you’d think in Massachusetts everyone has access to the water, but it’s not the case.
Bodrick: It isn’t the case. You know, this work comes directly out of the Massachusetts Public Waterfront Act, which is also known as Chapter 91. And it’s really around protecting your rights to have access to use the waterfront. Chapter 91 is an old law that became law in 1866, and it’s the oldest type of law in the United States regarding the waterfront, and it’s based in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. However, the reality is not everyone felt that they had that access, and the history has shown us that not everyone had that access.
And so, the tagline of Waterways is, “This is way more than water.” We engaged and listened to 500 residents from Roxbury and Dorchester and identified the barriers that were present in addressing some of the access that we know was not available through to the waterfront. And that research included focus groups, surveys, trips to the waterfronts, data walks. And what we identified was a few barriers. One was familiarity. Another was affordability. Another was transportation. The other part was around how welcoming or unwelcoming the space was. And then there were other personal reasons that were present. And so, we realized that there was a need for multigenerational operational programming and activities that combined on-the-water and on-land activities with making sure that people felt that the law that was already in place, Chapter 91, was accessible, not to just some, but to everyone.
Rath: What are the reactions you get from people when you tell them that you have this legal right to the waterfront?
Bodrick: Well, it’s interesting. Depending on those various things, I think there is a history that we must identify, right? You know, particularly in communities like a Black and brown communities, there’s been a history of being distant from the waterfront, particularly in some of the areas where we are working. And so folks, you know, began to ask the questions like, one, “How do I get there? What’s going to be happening down there? What am I going to eat?” [Those] are some of the number one things, as well as, you know, “How do I navigate the area? Are there maps being shown?” You know, thinking about language inclusion, creating multilingual materials to include in its advertising and thinking critically about just affordability. If you think about the Seaport right now, are there accessible, affordable options for food? And so, we really began to do the work of thinking critically around how do we make sure that folks have connectivity to the space, but also how do we begin to do the work of creating a more welcoming space?
And so, a lot of our programming has been really catered to that. And we’ve been excited to kick this off for this summer. We kicked it off with our Sailing + Science in the Charles River Esplanade this summer, and it was an amazing time on water — events that we were doing through the sailing and engaging, having fun on kayaks. But also, you know, I had fun playing, cornhole with one of the young people in the neighborhood and going back point-for-point with him. So, those are things we’ve been excited about and having amazing partnerships to be able to execute that work.
Rath: What’s it like watching someone come to a Waterways event and step into a kayak or sailboat for the first time?
Bodrick: Well, you know, it’s exciting. It’s exciting to see people lining up, asking the many a questions, but also excited to have this new experience and it goes from sometimes some early trepidations and fears to excitement and joy. It feels like some of our young people are excited to be out there with their siblings and families out there. And it’s a beautiful thing because it brings out all different folks from all walks of life in our neighborhood and we are excited to be able to see that this is another opportunity for folks to convene, to create community, but also just to relax and have a good time.
Rath: It’s a beautiful setup to this piece of tape I wanted to play. This is Waterways Ambassador Tessa Knights, who convinced one of our producers to get on a sailboat on the Charles where Tessa explained her love for the water.
Tessa Knights: Being on the water is one of the best things I’ve ever done in my whole life because it’s not only peaceful, but you get a whole worldview as opposed to being on land where you’re a bit secluded and you don’t actually realize that. When you’re out here, you recognize that most of the world is this. And you realize like, wow, there are no borders really anywhere, and you feel more unified as one with the world.
Bodrick: I think Tessa is an amazing ambassador. She comes to a lot of our various programming, and I concur with her. You know, I’m a person who loves to be out in the water, whether it’s out fishing or on the ferry headed to one of the islands. You know, it’s just a beautiful time. And, you know, for me, I think we connect this work to also just the health benefits, right? That it reduces stress, it lowers your blood pressure, it improves your mood. I love the word she used, it gives you peace, right? And that’s the beauty. That’s the connection, not only to the folks who we’re in community with, but it’s also the connection to the very nature and the land and the water, and drawing us back to the very elements that creates life, and so, I think that is an amazing testimony to how this is just helpful to create a healthy space for mindfulness, for peacefulness and most importantly for us, an overall improved quality of life.
