JetBlue Shamrock Splash

On Sunday, March 12th at noon, more than 170 “Shamrock Splashers” hit the cold, clean water at Constitution Beach in East Boston and raised more than $57,000 to support Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s Better Beaches Program partnership with the Department of Conservation & Recreation. 

Participants won prizes for biggest fundraiser and best costumes, including flights on JetBlue and great swag from Harpoon Brewery, The Daily Catch chowder, Harpoon beer, lawn games with Volo and mocktails from Namastay Sober and Topo Chico after their splash.

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s Executive Director Chris Mancini thanked their program partners and event sponsors, JetBlue, Harpoon Brewery, FMC Ice Sports, Volo, P&G Gillette, National Grid, Coast Cannabis, the Daily Catch, Comcast, Mix 104.1, The Blue Sky Collaborative, Namastay Sober, Topo Chico, BostonHarbor.com, The Boston Foundation, and The Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation. 

Mancini thanked Metropolitan Beaches Commission Co-Chairs Senator Brendan Crighton of Lynn, and Representative Adrian Madaro of East Boston and the legislative and community members of the Commission for their support for our beaches and our communities. He also thanked the Healy-Driscoll Administration, the Massachusetts Legislature, Save the Harbor's partners at the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Boston Centers for Youth & Families, the YMCA of Greater Boston, and the hundreds of people who took part in the Shamrock Splash for their support.

Here's a screenshot of the leader board which you can find at www.shamrocksplash.org.  

Proceeds from this year’s Shamrock Splash will be invested in free events and programs on the metropolitan region’s public beaches in Nahant, Lynn, Revere, Winthrop, East Boston, South Boston, Dorchester, Quincy, and Hull. You can find out more on their website at www.savetheharbor.org

A Successful Kickoff to the Splash Season!

Last Tuesday, members of our waterfront communities and local organizations joined Save the Harbor/Save the Bay and the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) at Harpoon Brewery to kickoff the annual Shamrock Splash! Participants at the kickoff created teams and started fundraising with support from fellow community members, all while enjoying Harpoon beverages and pretzels.

Every year, community members, local leaders, and familiar faces splash into the cold water of Boston Harbor to raise tens of thousands of dollars to support Save the Harbor's Better Beaches Program in partnership with the DCR.

Individuals and organizations interested in receiving Better Beaches grants attended the event to meet other prior and prospective grantees and to learn more about the grant from Save the Harbor staff. DCR staff was present to help participants learn about the beaches and the guidelines for beach events, and to answer any questions.

If you or your organization has a great idea for a beach event, apply for a Better Beaches grant here!

To participate in the JetBlue Shamrock Splash, make a team, and raise money for fun beach events in your community, register here!

Dorchester Bay City Project Public Meeting on Public Realm and Resiliency

Join us to provide comments on Dorchester Bay City's plans for public benefits in open space and climate resiliency. 

This is a terrific opportunity to hear their plans, and provide constructive comments on our hopes, wants and needs for a project with extensive opportunity for public benefits.

Great public spaces make a great city, but they don’t happen by accident. They require careful thought, hard work, attention to detail and perseverance. They also require your participation!

Click here to register for the February 7, 2023 Public Meeting from 6:00pm-8:00pm

Can’t attend live? Submit comment letters here. 

To request live interpretation at the Listening Session please email Caitlin.Coppinger@Boston.gov no later than 5 days prior to the meeting date.

About the Dorchester Bay City Project

The 36-acre site is designed to create a balanced neighborhood with a mix of uses that includes affordable housing and prioritizes an inclusive ground floor experience, new pedestrian and bike access, multiple open spaces with different programming opportunities, and flexible retail spaces to create opportunity and support small, local and MBE/WBE owned businesses.

The Project transforms underutilized urban sites currently occupied by obsolete office buildings and surface parking lots -- marked by a dearth of trees, open space and pervious areas -- into a vibrant and inclusive, transit-oriented, resilient and sustainable mixed-use community that is welcoming to all.  Consistent with the goals of the Columbia Point Master Plan, the project creates:

·       A system of pedestrian and bike-friendly streets that connect people to transit resources, open space resources, and each other

·       A mix of buildings where people can work, live, and play

·       Multi-modal, improved access to major open spaces in the area and the resources of Dorchester Bay

·       Diversity of housing types can attract individuals, couples, and families from many backgrounds

·       Diverse and inclusive retail available to all

Dorchester Bay City focuses on the importance of creating a development that will knit together nearby neighborhoods isolated by the site’s current surface parking lots and allow those neighborhoods to enjoy improved access to the water, park, beach, and Harborwalk, which define this community.

Throughout the Project, public open space and other design elements serve dual purposes and enhance the resiliency of the Project site and the surrounding community, address the risk of sea level rise and reduce heat island effects.  

By raising the Project Site to an elevation of 21.5-feet± BCB and creating a raised ridge at 22.7- feet BCB extending from the southern boundary of the site northward to Day Boulevard, these resiliency improvements both assure that the Project can withstand future sea level rise and protect the surrounding neighborhood from potential flooding events.  

With $5,000,000 in funding for a flood protection on DCR Land adjacent to the Harbor Point Apartments as specified in the Climate Ready Dorchester Plan (provided during Phase One to DCR), the Project also carefully considers the needs of our neighbors and the community beyond our site boundaries.  This includes completing an evaluation of the connection between the Project, DCR's Dorchester Shores Reservation behind Carson Beach, and the future Moakley Park flood protection systems.  In total, approximately $18.5 will be invested in off-site resiliency efforts.

The Project employs sustainable design principles to reduce the project’s carbon footprint and contribute to the state and city’s 2050 carbon-free goals by converting 36 acres of asphalt park lots into urban mix-use developments near transit with various open and green spaces, a new stormwater management system. These new open spaces with approximately 1,000 new trees will prevent the urban heat island effect while contributing to the city’s Urban Forest Plan and Heat Resilience Solutions for Boston Plan initiatives. 

The Project’s site-level and building-level sustainability design principles will reduce energy demand generated by buildings and GHG emissions. At a site level, the developers committed to SITES Certification and LEED ND Gold Certification design standards. Building level commitments include all residential buildings to be designed at a minimum of LEED Gold and 25% of Commercial buildings (except ground floor retail) to be designed at LEED Platinum, and 75% of Commercial buildings to be designed at minimum LEED Gold design standards.

Additionally, the project will include approximately 3,700 indoor bicycle parking spaces for buildings and 476 outdoor public parking spaces to further encourage people to use sustainable transportation modes.

Read more here!