Transforming neighborhood wellbeing: How dedicated public funding will build safe, vibrant green spaces for children across MA
For decades, a vacant lot on Norwell St in Dorchester has been gathering litter and baking in the sun. Just across the train tracks sits the newly renovated and bustling Harambee Park, filled with brand new play equipment, shade trees, and amenities for community members of all ages to enjoy. Dorchester neighbors have done their best to keep the vacant lot on Norwell St clean and active with local events, but with little shade and no amenities, the property is sadly underutilized. Recognizing its massive potential, neighbors have spent over a decade advocating to transform this space into a vibrant community park.
This is a common occurrence in urban areas across the Commonwealth. Too many children and adults face a “nature gap,” meaning they do not have close-to-home access to nature and the benefits and joys it provides. For thousands of Massachusetts residents, a neighborhood park is their only daily access to the outdoors, but for many these spaces are hard to access, in disrepair, or unsafe.
Green space is not a luxury. It is critical public infrastructure. Parks give people access to improve their health, connect with others, and make whole neighborhoods more climate resilient. This November’s Protect Water and Nature Ballot Initiative gives Massachusetts voters a historic mechanism to conserve nature across the state. By allocating as much as $100 million annually from the existing sales tax on sporting goods, residents will have the power to transform vacant and underutilized urban lots into vibrant, safe neighborhood spaces, as well as conserve natural landscapes across the state, without raising a single cent of new taxes.
At Trust for Public Land (TPL), I manage our portfolio of urban parks, schoolyards, and trails in the state. This type of land conservation looks different from land conservation in more rural parts of the Commonwealth. In highly developed areas like Boston, there is less land available. We’re tasked with making the most of small spaces to increase public access to nature. Conservation in a city is not about keeping people separate from nature but intentionally designing spaces with the people who will use them, ensuring that everyone has access to the joys and benefits of the natural world.
Building a high-quality neighborhood park takes dedication —years of planning, design, and construction, often stitched together by various funding sources. At Trust for Public Land, we approach it by building community trust, intensive planning, creativity, and patience to create a space that is loved and stewarded by the community. To continue to design and build these loved, highly used spaces, at a scale across the Commonwealth, we need predictable, systematic funding, not a patchwork of temporary public grants and private philanthropic contributions. If the Protect Water and Nature Ballot Initiative passes, this will be the first funding source of its kind in Massachusetts to create and improve outdoor recreational spaces.
Take the vacant lot in Dorchester. While this land is just months away from becoming the newly built WOW Park, the highly anticipated neighborhood space has taken a decade of community engagement and advocacy to get to this point. Seven years ago, TPL joined the neighborhood group, the WOW Coalition, to engage the community in meaningful participatory design, provide resources, and bolster the community’s voice.
The future park will make the most of its 12,770 square feet, packing in as much of the community’s wish list as possible. There will be play equipment, fitness equipment, a small splash pad, a stage for events, and a lawn for picnics. There will be new shade trees, permeable pavement, and lots of new vegetation that will welcome pollinators and protect the whole neighborhood from the summer heat and stormwater flooding. While the vacant lot already serves as a community gathering space, once the park is completed, it will become a true neighborhood hub, serving over 10,000 Dorchester residents (many of whom are people of color or from low-income families) within walking distance.
Current funding opportunities for spaces like WOW Park are competitive and uncertain. Massachusetts does not currently have a way to sustain building local neighborhood parks at a scale across the state.
If the Protect Water and Nature Ballot Initiative passes this fall, green spaces like WOW Park could become the standard across urban areas in Massachusetts. By tapping into existing sales tax revenue from sporting goods, this initiative will provide as much as $100 million annually to improve outdoor access, safeguard clean water, and protect communities from flooding and storm damage—all without raising taxes by a single cent.
This sustainable funding will have a direct and tangible impact on all residents of the Commonwealth, no matter their zip code. It will be used to cool cities, by planting trees and fighting the dangerous effects of heat. Or used to transform vacant land and provide the capital needed to convert neglected parcels into public places that everyone can enjoy. Or used to create new neighborhood parks, ensuring young people have access to safe, resilient, close-to-home spaces to explore.
This past year, over 122,000 people have supported this initiative by signing to get it on the ballot. Now it's your turn to join nature advocates, community leaders, and residents to cross this finish line together. Voting YES on the Protect Water and Nature ballot initiative is a direct way for you as a Massachusetts constituent to create and improve parks, trails and greenspaces for public use across the Commonwealth.
The environments that we build today will have lasting long-term impacts on communities' health, happiness, and social connections of tomorrow. Access to nature, shade, places to exercise and play, leads to healthier lives and a healthier planet.
Vote YES on the Protect Water and Nature Initiative this November. Your vote will help our state plant more trees, build more neighborhood parks, and create more outdoor recreational spaces like trails and greenways across the state that everyone can enjoy.
About the Author
Melissa Green is the Associate Director of the Massachusetts Parks for People program at Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national non-profit that works to connect everyone to the benefits and joys of the outdoors. She oversees a wide portfolio throughout Boston of urban parks, multi-use trails, and community schoolyards, all designed to ensure everyone has close-to-home, equitable access to nature.