With the arrival of court-ordered busing a decade earlier, the Boston of 1984 was still a place where the wounds of racial divisions and neighborhood conflict cut off vast swathes of our city’s waterfront from communities whole.

Thanks to a legion of visionaries, investment of more than $4.5 billion during the cleanup of Boston Harbor, an investment of nearly 15 billion dollars Thanks to the Big Dig Central Artery/Tunnel project and countless public and private investments across generations, the Harborwalk took root and became the essential public resource it is today.

This was not a case of “build it and they will come”. Strong, intentional, and tenacious action was needed to make the Harborwalk attractive, vibrant, and truly welcoming to everyone who lives in or visits Boston, of all backgrounds and identities. At the beginning, it was necessary numerous trials and legal actions to ensure that harbor landowners would provide the public with Harborwalk rights of way mandated by law.

How well the city, state, landowners, Boston Harbor Now and our partners ensure access to the Harborwalk is a question we continue to address every day. It’s also a question that Boston Harbor Now is exploring in a rigorous data-driven study to try to answer: Who uses the waterfront? What do these data points mean show where public investments are succeeding, or failing, in promoting truly equitable access to this world-class port that public and private partners have all worked so hard to protect and improve?

By examining racial and economic disparities in access to public spaces, our organizations aim to inform better planning and development strategies in waterfront neighborhoods.

There are examples of best practices in some, but not all, parts of the Harborwalk. There can be so much more: welcoming multilingual signage, accessibility for people of all abilities, seating, public restrooms, dining options of all types and prices, and events and activities that invite and engage people of all ages, abilities, backgrounds and cultures.

The city also faces the critical challenge of ensuring the waterfront is adapted to the complex and growing threat of climate change, including storm surges, sea level rise, increased precipitation and heat . The new city Office of Climate Resilience integrates the Harborwalk as a critical aspect of Boston’s coastal resilience infrastructure. It must include berms landscaped with native, salt-tolerant vegetation that provide both protection and cooling of the shoreline and natural beauty for visitors; boulder fields, oyster reefs, islands and pebble berms to slow wave energy and increase habitat; and living dikes that green these places.

Promoting a much broader deployment of the best practices known today is a key priority for us as stewards of the Harborwalk. We must decide where invest in nature-based approaches, build new sea walls, and even manage retreat. We look forward to the day when all 43 miles of the Harborwalk meet and exceed today’s best standards and play a vital role in reimagining the waterfront and creating a resilient coastline for all to enjoy.

The city and its partners have made huge strides in transforming the port into what it is today: cleaning it up, better connecting it to the city via the Big Dig, and working to overcome the long history of Boston’s segregation in waterfront neighborhoods with welcoming and inclusive spaces. and programming. The vision set out two generations ago has undeniably transformed the city for the better. The city must now seize this moment to help shape a future in which Boston’s waterfront is not only a symbol of accessibility and beauty, but also a beacon of resilience and equity for all.

Kathy Abbott is President and CEO of Boston Harbor Now. Brian Swett is the climate manager for the city of Boston.