My Sandy Beach Revitalization Proposal

In my hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts, my favorite place to visit has always been Sandy Beach, a quaint spot in my neighborhood with a charming rocky shore, aged wooden dock, and salty ocean smell. Perfect for enjoying a summer sunset or hearing the birds gull, locals in the area hold a special place in their hearts for the beach. All in all, I think that almost everyone in my neighborhood can agree that Sandy Beach is a hidden gem.

What many do not know is that in 1892, the beach was home to ‘Old Elm’, a vibrant waterfront area, with an amusement park, carousel, concession stands, and even a dance pavilion. After a devastating sequence of a 1930 fire and a series of hurricanes in 1938, a majority of the area was destroyed, and in the decades since, Sandy Beach has slowly declined and fallen from its graces. 

“With the City of Fall River looking to enliven its waterfront areas and attract outsiders, the revitalization of Sandy Beach offers a simple and affordable opportunity to appeal to visitors and restore the liveliness of the Mount Hope Bay neighborhood.”

I still visit Sandy Beach regularly, whether it be to enjoy a sunset, ride my skateboard along the coast, or clear my mind after a long day at work. I’ll be the first to admit that Sandy Beach currently offers little aesthetic appeal. With weeds growing throughout, missing grass patches, overly rocky shores, rusty entrance arches, rotten wooden benches, a structurally unsound dock, and litter dispersed throughout, it is apparent that the beach is in need of significant revival. For years now, I have wondered how I could get members of my community together to partner up and give the waterfront the love it deserves. With the City of Fall River looking to enliven its waterfront areas and attract outsiders, the revitalization of Sandy Beach offers a simple and affordable opportunity to appeal to visitors and restore the liveliness of the Mount Hope Bay neighborhood. In this post, I set forth my three-pronged strategy that focuses on the “Three A’s” of waterfront revitalization: Appearance, Activity, and Accessibility.

APPEARANCE

• Invite Locals to Participate in a Clean-Up: Before even thinking about any other improvement strategies, the foundation for revitalization starts with removing all the excess weeds, patching up the grassless areas, and picking up all the litter and debris. 

• Removal of Shoreline Obstacles: On the shore of Sandy Beach, there is an abundance of large rocks and remnants of concrete foundation from ‘Old Elm’ that obstruct visitors. I feel that a simple excavation of these rocks and remains would open up the coastline and create more space for people to walk or sit down. 

• Beautify the Landscape: After the clean-up has been accomplished, improving the aesthetic appearance of the area would then require a bit of beautification of the landscape. For this step, I would suggest planting small bushes, saplings, and perennial flowers, or even starting a community garden, where vegetables and herbs can be planted and grown for locals to enjoy.

• Replace Worn-Down Benches with New Ones: Most of the current benches at Sandy Beach are decades old, and it shows. With help from vocational students at either Durfee High School or Diman Regional Vocational Technical School, we can replace these worn-down benches with new, locally-made ones that invite visitors to sit down and enjoy the views the beach has to offer. 

ACTIVITY

• Seek Donations for Picnic Tables: A major part of this revitalization strategy entails inviting residents to not only visit the beach, but to stay at the beach. Introducing two or three picnic tables on the grassy area would welcome locals and visitors to sit down and enjoy a picnic, play cards, or simply gather around and engage in conversation as the sun sets.

• Welcome a ‘Take One, Leave One’ Book Exchange: One of my favorite things to do when I am sitting on a bench near the water is to pull out a book and read. I have seen various ‘Take One, Leave One’ book exchange stands before, and it is a great way for visitors to find something to do if they find themselves bored.

• Install a Swing Set: Adding a two-person swing set would be an incredible way to enjoy the sunset with a partner, friend, or family member. Fun for all ages and relatively inexpensive to build, a swing set would be a unique addition to the location.

• Seek Donations for a Chess Table: The Fall River Boardwalk at Battleship Cove is home to a handful of locally-made chess tables and benches. These tables, made of local granite, are a fun way to attract visitors to stay longer and engage with one another through a game of chess or checkers. 

• Designate a Fishing Area to Welcome Anglers: When the weather is warm enough, locals (myself included) love to head down to the water and fish. Loaded with striped bass and scup, the Taunton River is a great angler location.

ACCESSIBILITY

• Introduce Bicycle Lanes to Encourage Cycling: Sometimes, when the weather is nice, I hop on my bicycle or ride my skateboard instead of walking down to Sandy Beach. Without any sort of bicycle lanes, there were times when I had a few ‘close calls’ with cars driving down Mt. Hope Avenue. By introducing bicycle lanes and narrowing the street to motorized vehicles, locals are encouraged to ride around the neighborhood on their bicycles, while feeling better protected in the process.

• Adopt Daylighting Streetscape Improvements: As initiatives to improve pedestrian safety continue to mount in cities like San Francisco, planers have begun to adopt a new measure called daylighting. Achieved by removing curb parking spaces or visual barriers within ten feet of an intersection, daylighting functions by increasing visibility for pedestrians and drivers alike, in turn minimizing risks for accidents. At the intersection of Atlantic Boulevard and Mt. Hope Avenue, I can recall numerous incidents where cars have nearly hit pedestrians because their line of vision was interrupted by vehicles parked too close to the intersection. By adopting these daylighting streetscape improvements, pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike are all safer. For more information on daylighting, check out this link.

• Widen the Sidewalks Along the Waterfront: When walking along the waterfront near the entrance to the Sandy Beach dock, there is no sidewalk. Rather, pedestrians walk along the grass or cross the street to walk along the sidewalk on the other side. By introducing some sort of designated pedestrian walkway along the water or connecting the two, pedestrians are better protected from vehicular traffic and are able to enjoy a nicer walk.

• Add Colored Crosswalks for Pedestrian Safety: As things currently stand, for pedestrians seeking to get from the sidewalk on one side of the street to the shoreline, there are no crosswalks. Vehicular traffic is not heavy enough to prompt immediate concerns, but introducing three colorful crosswalks would give pedestrians a safer way of crossing the street.

Of course, as with any neighborhood project, there are a few potential setbacks that I have considered.

POTENTIAL SETBACKS:

• ‘NIMBY’ Attitudes: A typical setback faced during most revitalization projects, concerns over ‘NIMBY’ (“Not in my backyard”) attitudes can arise. By improving the Sandy Beach area and attracting new visitors to the neighborhood, there is a significant possibility that locals may oppose the new influx of activity. Communicating effectively with residents across the neighborhood about the scope and implications of the project will be critical in gaining their support.

• Fears That Visitors Will Destroy Improvements: If the project succeeds and attracts new visitors from other parts of the city or other municipalities, a big concern of mine is that people may vandalize the area. Whether it be by breaking wooden panels on the doc, leaving graffiti on picnic tables, or littering the area with alcohol bottles or drug paraphernalia, the chances of the beach degrading become higher when outsiders engage in reckless activity.

• Preservation Concerns: Given that this proposed project will be led by local residents and active citizens of Fall River, one of my biggest concerns is who will continue to engage and protect the beach. Without the City being involved, who will trim the weeds, pick up the trash, and repair broken benches? Finding a way to sustainably keep up with preserving the beach will be a big question.