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Let’s Go Down to the River to Play
I join a group of pedestrians on a tour of the 11th Street Bridge Park site. As we weave our way through rush hour traffic to the Anacostia waterfront, dodging 18,000 workers who pour out of the Navy facility and thunder onto the I-295 onramp, I warily eye the narrow, scary, unprotected bike lane and the high-speed traffic just beside it. We are careful about crossing over to the river, as a driver predictably runs a red light in a hurry to get to the highway. Finally, we arrive at the riverfront and stand amidst the roar of traffic from highways that separate us from the river itself.
Last summer, a landmark climate change court case was settled at the other end of the country to bring this afterthought of parks, pedestrian and bike lanes to the forefront. Youth plaintiffs in Hawai‘i asked the courts to issue a declaration of law that the transportation system, and its resulting greenhouse gas pollution and climate harms violates the state’s constitutional public trust doctrine, and infringes upon the youth plaintiffs’ constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment.
It is a huge challenge to reduce emissions and to do so in a way that is equitable and provides benefits to the community, particularly to its underserved members. Yet, it is one that must be addressed if the climate crisis is to be tackled. This is particularly critical in the transportation sector which is the largest source of emissions in the U.S.
While actual outcomes are yet to be realized, Washington D.C.’s Department of Transportation’s Bridge Park project is one that seeks to address this challenge– of a clean, equitable, and resilient community, especially in an underserved area of the District that has suffered disinvestment over the decades. Building Bridges, the non-profit partner in this project, is working with residents to transform old infrastructure into the city’s first elevated park: a new venue for healthy recreation, environmental education, and the arts.
Big projects—like bridges, highways, rail systems—have a multi-generational lifespan, and impact communities for decades after. Building anything within a community means long term involvement. Just how long is not always understood nor appreciated. But for something that will impact us for decades, taking the time to do it well seems a no-brainer.
The District’s Bridge Park has been in the making for 12 years—the time it took for little JoElle, Rasheeda, or Helena to begin kindergarten and graduate with high school diplomas and honors. Many of these 12 years have been dedicated to intense involvement– of the community, by the community, and for the community. Over 1,000 community meetings later, where the design was selected and decisions made by members of the community, this is a shining example of what happens when the process is driven by people, supported by their chosen representatives, career bureaucrats, and consultants. “[Because] local residents drove major decisions such as programming, selection of the design team, etc., there has been true ownership over this new civic space” says Scott Kratz, Senior Vice President of Building Bridges.
One of the obstacles the project faced included counteracting the impact of large-scale infrastructure investment on housing prices in the surrounding area.
New York’s innovative aerial High Line Park helped transform west side Manhattan, but also increased nearby residential property prices faster than other areas. Building Bridges has been cognizant and watchful of this “halo effect” for the Bridge Park project, and aims to plan for success. Its equitable development plan outlines how current residents can continue to afford living in their neighborhood once the park is built– by providing grants for closing costs to first time homeowners and standing up the Douglass Community Land Trust that now has over 230 units of permanently affordable housing in adjacent neighborhoods.
The Bridge Park project supports businesses through pro bono technical assistance and grants to Anacostia entrepreneurs and building a trained workforce. Its plan prioritizes the hiring of neighborhood residents for construction and post-construction Bridge Park jobs and helps in the training and mentoring of this workforce, including artists. It supports existing and new local small businesses. In short, “the park is a driver of inclusive development” says the plan.
Climate change action means that the transportation system also needs to change. People need choices for moving around, especially around their neighborhood which includes the river. The Park project embodies this transformation. As part of the project, the Department of Transportation and Building Bridges are working together to redesign the narrow, scary, unprotected bike lanes that lead up to the park and expand a safe network — for children and families who want to recreate in the park, and get to the places where they work, shop, go to school, and live. The Park is an example of how intentional local planning must take place now to make that huge trajectory change over the decades to come.
NIH researchers say that green space exposure is vital to good health, birth outcomes, and morbidity. The authors summarize that “Greenspaces may form part of the arsenal for combatting health inequalities, and our findings should encourage practitioners and policymakers to give due regard to how they can create, maintain and improve existing accessible greenspaces in deprived areas.” For Ward 8, where the Bridge Park project will reside, this could be very impactful for health, given up to a 15-year life expectancy difference between the two sides of the river, according to a VCU study.
And finally, let’s talk about the river itself. The Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS) partners with the D.C. government on RiverSmart, a restoration and river cleanup program that helps neighbors learn about how to reduce runoff from the area by installing rain gardens, rain barrels, and pervious and green surfaces.
To address river health and water cleanliness, AWS has been planting trees and native grasses, which will restore the forests (70 percent lost since the 1700s) and wetlands and help counter the effects of rapid development in the surrounding areas. Here again, the impact of the community is palpable. Through the involvement of students and other volunteers that monitor water quality, the goal is to have the river become swimmable and fishable by next year.
The Bridge Park project is planning for an environmental education center that will teach local school children and the community about the river’s importance. This vision is supported by green measures – from a kayak/canoe launch and a pollinator meadow, to capturing rainwater for irrigation, building LEED Gold facilities, and solar power generation.
The project, even though awaiting groundbreaking, has not lain dormant. Its Anacostia River Festival just completed its 10th year–with as many as 9,000 attendees. A part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival and in partnership with the National Park Service, it ties the region’s celebration and beauty of spring into a big party by the river, free to all.
Historian and journalist Lynn Culbreath Noel wrote “The river moves from land to water to land, in and out of organisms, reminding us …that you cannot separate the land from the water, or the people from the land.” (2014).
We used to know water, and how to live with it, in it, and beside it. We are born of water, and we have gill slits at one point in our lives. Street names like Silver Spring remind us of where a water body once flourished. As we built modern life where water comes from a plastic bottle or a tap, somewhere along the way, maybe we forgot about water.
Through this project, we may remember how to live with water again.
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*Anukriti Lirio Hittle worked most recently for the State of Hawai‘i as its first Climate Change Coordinator. She is now based in Washington, D.C. and continues to work on equitable climate change mitigation and adaptation at the local and state levels.
