Tensions ran high at a meeting last month as some residents questioned the priorities and methods of the Charles River Task Force, one of the latest efforts to reconcile contention over issues such as weekend road closings at Riverbend Park.
“This is what failure looks like,” one resident said. “This is a failure: an upset room.”
The task force’s goal is essentially a checklist of ways to ensure and improve engagement with historically underrepresented communities, said its creator, state representative Marjorie Decker: “How do we ensure voices that have often been marginalized are part of this process?”
But Decker and the state present slightly different views of the work, and the confusion plays out in meetings that spark the same conversations from past years about race, class and equity instead of setting policy. A Nov. 17 public meeting brought familiar discussions about who is identified as an important “stakeholder” in the talks and how people or institutions requesting to be stakeholders could be considered. Minutes from meetings in August and September show the same conversations.
When the November meeting split up for small discussions, though, questions drawn from the task force’s survey focused on issues such as Memorial Drive, and when it closes to motor traffic to become “Riverbend Park,” rather than the community engagement Decker described.
“Some of the frustration expressed at the hearing stemmed from the lack of clear communication in both DCR’s and the City of Cambridge’s outreach for the event,” Decker said by email Dec. 5, referring to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. “Public materials – such as emails and flyers – simply invited residents to provide ‘community feedback on Memorial Drive’ without making clear the specific charge of the task force.”
For example, a notice by the city of Cambridge sent Nov. 13 called for any “resident, commuter or visitor who uses Memorial Drive” in the defined area to go to the meeting and give feedback. Decker’s newsletter to constituents from the next day said the meeting was about “bringing residents from subsidized housing and communities of color to share their experience and expertise.”
The city’s publicity work took its cues from the state, Cambridge spokesperson Jeremy Warnick said. It was DCR flyers that first welcomed any “resident, commuter or visitor.”
A big effort
The Nov. 17 meeting at the Cambridge Community Center gathered a large crowd of people, filling rows of chairs and spilling out to the edges of the room. (DCR reported that 175 people attended, Warnick said.) The task force is made up of 17 city officials, local organization representatives and residents working to engage communities in decisions affecting some of the city’s Charles River area. Over the course of seven meetings, three public hearings, a site visit, various outreach efforts and a public survey, the task force is gathering feedback from the community to inform how future projects are decided and communicated with residents.
The effort, which got no specific state funding, began in August. The task force said it would begin to draft a report this month and have it ready to publish in early spring, before a final hearing.
After the hearing and the 30-day written comment period, the task force will have a final meeting before finalizing and submitting the report. In an email, Decker noted she has extended the deadline to “ensure the team has the time needed to achieve its goals thoughtfully without rushing.”
Different goals from one document
The budget act that created the task force is comprehensive. Decker’s publicity and the publicity for meetings done by state and city pull from different parts.
To Decker, the specific charge of the task force is captured in three bullet points about addressing equitable access to the Charles River between the Longfellow and Eliot bridges; ensuring inclusive engagement with all relevant stakeholders in decisions affecting the Charles river area; and improving communication with those stakeholders.
The task force’s website tells the public differently. Its four bullet points are about considering “environmental justice principles when making decisions” about the river land; Decker’s specific charge doesn’t mention that, but speaks of “equitable access to the Charles River.” The state says it wants to improve programming on the land; Decker doesn’t mention programming.
The stretch of Charles River land defined by the state and Decker, between the Longfellow and Eliot bridges, begins in West Cambridge, passes through Riverside and Cambridgeport and ends in Area II at Kendall Square.
The state’s task force website says it wants engagement from “stakeholders” along that river area – “a diverse range” or “a wide variety”; Decker’s clarification of “relevant” stakeholders in her email newsletter reflects how the statute defines task force membership: “not less than six individuals whose primary residence is within a half-mile of the Charles River and who are members of an environmental justice population or live in subsidized housing; provided, however, that at least two [live] in the Riverside neighborhood,” which is historically predominantly Black and immigrant.
“The purpose of the task force has not changed, to ensure that all voices are represented,” Decker said. In shaping membership, “I was very intentional in ensuring that these voices were included, so they would play a meaningful role in shaping the process and developing the Task Force’s recommendations.”
Most of Cambridge is considered an environmental justice population, though part of West Cambridge closest to the Eliot Bridge is excluded, according to a state map. But the focus is to “meaningfully engage communities that have historically been marginalized and underrepresented,” Decker said.
“The statute does not clearly articulate the task force’s primary goal, which has led to some understandable and unfortunate confusion,” she said.
That the affected area in the statute includes Cambridgeport but task force membership doesn’t name the neighborhood perplexes state representative Mike Connolly, whose district encompasses Cambridgeport. Noting the discord at the Nov. 17 meeting, Connolly said: “I have a lot of concerns about how this came to be.”
Familiar themes
Jonathan Guzman and Monika Roy, who work in environmental justice for the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and DCR, respectively, led November’s second of three public hearings. (The Metropolitan Area Planning Council is consulting with the state agencies.)
“All of your lived experiences help to shape this task force and what comes forth in the spring,” Roy told the crowd.
Some of the meeting, though, felt like a replay of one organized by Decker about Memorial Drive in January 2024, in which attempts to speak by some were shut down. Christopher Cassa of the Memorial Drive Alliance noted that some possible stakeholders – various neighborhood groups and Harvard University – were not present.
That drew objections from others in the crowd.
“This is the time for us to talk, because we were not allowed to talk,” one Riverside resident said. Another emphasized why Riverside voices should be prioritized over students who would someday leave the area she calls home: “It’s recreation for them, it’s quality of life for us.”
Nearly all the speakers who addressed city staff from the audience were Black.
Engagement efforts
Since the first hearing on Nov. 10, Metropolitan Area Planning Council staff door-knocked along River Street and Putnam and Western avenues to make contact with neighbors. They focused on homes, staff said, and didn’t reach apartment buildings in the area.
Decker and multiple residents noted Nov. 17 that there were specific areas to be engaged with that weren’t reached by these methods, including areas of Riverside and lower-income and assisted-living apartment complexes.
“Historically, DCR’s been terrible at engaging communities,” Decker said. She expressed frustration, saying she was not told that certain areas weren’t reached.
“There have been 40 years of conversations where Riverside has been excluded,” said Lawrence Adkins, one member of the task force. “For whatever reason, process stopped at River Street … open the means of conversation, open the means of planning!”
“Surveys and word of mouth is insufficient,” another audience member said. There have been complaints from previous Riverbend Park meetings about late notices and a lack of communication with affected communities.
Planning Council staff assured there are meetings scheduled with properties along Memorial Drive and are working to connect with the Cambridge Housing Authority. The group will continue organizing small group meetings, one-on-one conversations and focus groups, staff said.
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