The Great Revere Beach Heist

The Great Revere Beach Heist

Landscape architect Charles Eliot never envisioned Revere Beach, our nation’s first public beach, being out of public reach

By Doug Pizzi

Let me explain. It is a decades long story of unintended consequences. Despite recent increases in its Parks and Recreation Operations budget, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) remains under immense pressure from the Governor and Legislature to increase user fees to fund the agency’s stewardship of 450,000 acres of public land, our land. To meet these demands, DCR has begun charging for public parking by installing meters on agency-controlled parkways in Revere and Cambridge. Other meters on DCR parkways in Boston and Watertown may follow.

Last October DCR held virtual public meetings and to no one’s surprise, most opposed the meters. DCR moved forward in April anyway, installing the meters on Memorial Drive in Cambridge and Revere Beach Boulevard, part of Revere Beach State Reservation. Enforcement began May 1. In Revere, the meters will be enforced on a seasonal basis, Monday through Saturday between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., from April 15 to Oct. 15 annually.

In defense of the Revere meters, DCR Commissioner Jim Montgomery told the DCR Stewardship Council that MBTA Blue Line commuters using the nearby stop enjoyed free parking on the Boulevard. Why shouldn’t they pay if they are not even using the beach, he asked?  If commuters hogging beach parking is the problem, there are other remedies that do not involve pricing the public off of a beach that has been free for 125 years. 

Opponents demonstrated against the meters. Meetings ensued. Some Revere state and local officials pressed Montgomery, and in an effort to placate them and keep the meters, they cut a deal. DCR would install meters on a three-mile stretch of Boulevard between Eliot Circle and Carey Circle, covering about 800 spaces. In return, DCR would designate a 1.5 mile stretch on the southbound (inland) side between Revere Street and Carey Circle, about 200 spaces, as residents only (read: private) parking 24/7 during the months the meters are enforced.  Some opposition dissipated, but not all.

In an April 25^th editorial, the Lynn Item wrote that the residents only parking was to accommodate recent accelerated development along the beach, which in turn was the fulfillment of Administration transit-oriented development policy to encourage housing near the Revere Beach Blue Line stop. And some housing it is, with one-bedroom apartments at Eliot on Ocean renting for between $2,172 and $2,610 per month. In the end, the public’s right, your right, to freely access some of the most valuable land in the state has been given away.

And what did we get in return? A shot at a parking ticket on the next trip to Revere Beach. We would be remiss not to mention that Revere Beach Boulevard is part of DCR’s Revere Beach State Reservation. It is the first public beach in America created in 1895, designed by the architect of the Metropolitan Park System, Charles Eliot, for whom Eliot Circle is named. Remember 2021 as the year that historic legacy was given away for some quarters in parking meters.

More recently, the Massachusetts House of Representatives approved an outside section to the FY22 budget that will allow DCR parking meters on parkways only if communities allow it. Of course, Revere already had. The question remains as to whether trading meter income for privatized public parking precedent will proliferate. What politically astute legislator would not want to give some private parking to constituents in exchange for a few new parking meters? That remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the Administration and Legislature continue to demand DCR increase user fees instead of adequately funding the agency with public tax dollars. Think about this: the total DCR budget is $3.0 million less today than it was in 2009, while the total state budget has grown by $18 billion. This is why pressure on DCR to charge the public user fees continues unabated. Still early in the budget process, budget writers are so far seeking a $5.0 million increase in DCR’s user fee target, called Retained Revenue, bumping it to $25 million. It is sad to see that historic disinvestment in public lands continues during a pandemic, which has proven open space essential to our physical and mental health. Someone is just not getting it.

In the end, MCV believes that 24-hour private parking is an unlawful taking of public land under Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution. Article 97 conversions of public parkland such as Revere Beach Boulevard require a process. That includes, among other things, filing an Environmental Notification Form with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office, an alternatives analysis, a public comment period, and a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

Municipalities should not be taking state land for the use of a few well-off residents at the expense of the general population. DCR should not be giving it away without fulfilling Article 97 requirements either. We taxpayers paid for it. We taxpayers own it. MCV urges DCR to reverse this decision or at least follow the state’s own public land conversion policy.

All of this comes at the expense of families who do not have a house on the Cape, who do not go skiing in Aspen for Christmas, who are just trying to enjoy the beach on a hot summer day as families have been doing for 125 years. It’s a crying shame and a real crime.

Doug Pizzi is Executive Director of Massachusetts Conservation Voters

MCV reached out by phone and email to DCR for comment but did not receive a response