Posted on June 22, 2021
When former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh took the stage at a 2017 ribbon-cutting in the Seaport District, he spoke with pride of a neighborhood “hitting its stride.” He spoke of new retail, housing, entertainment venues, and green space. He spoke of job creation and “smart growth.” He spoke of an area that represents “our future economy here in Boston.”
“The Seaport,” Walsh said, “tells the story of our city.”
Where Walsh saw a story of vision and innovation, others — including some city officials, scientists and environmental advocates — see something else.
Over the past two decades, the city, state and federal governments have invested billions of dollars developing a new gleaming financial hub above what was once mudflats and salt marshes, without much planning for sea-level rise. Now, the Seaport is one of the most vulnerable waterfront areas in Boston.
By the 2030s, sea levels around Boston are projected to rise 9 inches above what they were in 2013. When that happens, a single nor’easter could potentially cause $1.2 billion worth of damage in South Boston, where the Seaport sits at the head of a number of major flood pathways.
There are plans to protect the area but little coordination — and big questions about who will foot the bill.
“We’ve got to get clear how we are going to sort that out, and not leave it to chance,” said Bud Ris, senior advisor to the Boston Green Ribbon Commission.
The Seaport wasn’t built for the higher seas coming with climate change.
For centuries, the area now called the Seaport was mostly tidal marshes and mud flats. In the 19th century, investors constructed sea walls and filled land there to build a massive shipping yard. They built the new land just above the level of the highest high tide — a level that sea-level rise is making obsolete.
By the 1990s, the space had become a desert of parking lots and warehouses. Then-Mayor Tom Menino saw promise in the desolation, and set out to develop it.
“These 1,000 acres are among the most prized real estate in the East Coast,” Menino said in 1997, “and we intend to put them to good use.”
Twenty years and about $20 billion of city, state, and federal investment later, the Seaport is now a destination.
There are beer gardens, restaurants, and museums. There are waterfront parks overlooking sailboats and the Boston skyline. There are luxury apartment complexes filled with residents with a median household income of $153,545 — the highest in the city and more than double Boston’s median income.
And there are glimmering glass towers filled with some of the biggest businesses in the world, including Amazon, Vertex, and General Electric.
