The Charles River Task Force wrapped up a year of work Tuesday June 30 with the submission of recommendations shaped by the community for how the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) can engage with neighborhoods along the Charles River.
Born from a history of contentious decisions and poor community engagement by DCR, the task force was started by state Rep. Marjorie Decker to improve communication and engagement in the area, particularly with underrepresented communities.
“What I hear most consistently, regardless of who I’m talking to, is that everyone is hungry for a better relationship with DCR,” Decker said in a statement to Cambridge Day. She described the task force as a way to “innovate what equity and inclusion could actually look like in practice.”
The task force convened community members and representatives of local organizations, and was co-chaired by DCR and the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA). The project focused on the area along the Charles between the Longfellow and Eliot bridges, with emphasis on Riverside, historically a predominantly Black and immigrant neighborhood.
“I saw this as a great opportunity to interact with DCR, an agency that has always been in the background,” said Denise Haynes, a Riverside resident and task force member. “Engagement in the past was minimal,” she said. Haynes said she thought the process helped the state understand “what communities are looking for in working with government agencies.”
The task force, supported by consultant group Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), held 12 meetings, four public hearings, four focus groups, conducted two public surveys, held one-on-one meetings with local organizations, and also went out to knock on doors and post flyers in nearby neighborhoods. After months of gathering feedback and facilitating conversations with community members, the group began drafting a list of recommendations to improve DCR’s engagement process in the area.
“The one-size-fits all approach is not what actually works in effective community engagement,” said Laura Jasinski, a task force member and the executive director of the Charles River Conservancy, in a phone interview. “What really gets people feeling connected, included, and empowered — which then translates into them becoming advocates and active participants — is that personal human relationship and interaction.”
Much of the task force’s work focused on identifying stakeholders and recognizing gaps between DCR’s current engagement strategies and the ways residents actually gather information. The group focused on language accessibility, multiple modes of communication and a combination of in person and virtual meeting options to ensure residents with different needs and varied availability could be involved.
“We made a concerted effort to hear from new voices,” Monika Roy, DCR’s senior director of environmental justice and task force co-chair, said via email. “The recommendations in the report are a step towards identifying how DCR can communicate, build relationships, and engage communities moving forward.”
The task force posted a draft of its recommendations April 27. These outlined improvements in four areas:
- process and communication
- project planning
- equity and environmental justice
- implementation
Each recommendation included context on current agency practices and a list of recommended changes. Some of the specific actions suggested included tailoring outreach to various communities, implementing communication about projects and changes that are distributed both in person and online, designating points of contact within state departments and local offices, ensuring equitable access to information and coordinating with local organizations.
Over the course of the project, the task force fielded complaints and misunderstandings over which voices from the community were prioritized. Frustrations built at meetings last fall, when confusion about goals and process affected the project. Residents were expressing concerns about specific road closures, intersections and speed limits. These were outside the task force’s scope, and its members had to repeatedly refocus public discussion on DCR’s engagement process.
“Because it’s historically been so difficult for the public to engage DCR directly, I understand why some people saw this process as their opening to try to direct DCR toward their own priorities,” Decker said. “But this task force was specifically charged with developing recommendations to help DCR engage marginalized communities more intentionally.”
However, the feedback was incorporated into the recommendations report, which included a section on implementation which suggests DCR use task force strategies to “address the physical infrastructure-related feedback received.” This would give DCR the opportunity to apply the communication and outreach recommendations laid out by the task force and create a “pilot” for utilizing the report findings across the Commonwealth.
In a final meeting June 24, the task force approved an updated version of the report for submission to DCR on June 30, the statutory deadline for the project. “I hope DCR views this as the beginning of a new way of doing business, not the end of a task force,” Decker said. “I’m encouraged that DCR leadership has been engaged throughout this process and is already taking steps to improve their communication systems.” At previous meetings, DCR staff described communication tools that are already in development, which they hope will be ready to implement this year.
However, the recommendations came the day before the start of a new fiscal year July 1, in which DCR faces significant budget cuts. “We continue to ask DCR to be better and do more with less,” Jasinski said. “They need resources to make those improvements.” DCR’s operations funding will take an 8.3% cut under the new budget.
Haynes said “If they are able to get the recommendations, or short-term ones, in place, it would be a win. And hopefully that will alleviate some of the divisiveness within the city of people feeling left out of communication.”
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