Boston Herald, July 2025
This is a moment of both urgency and opportunity for Massachusetts. In June, Governor Maura Healey introduced the Massachusetts Environmental Bond Bill – officially the Mass Ready Act – a sweeping $2.9 billion proposal to shore up our infrastructure, protect natural resources, and safeguard communities against the mounting impacts of climate change over the next five years. Its core goals are clear: Invest in flood control, dam safety, and nature-based solutions to mitigate extreme weather. Upgrade roads, bridges, culverts, and coastal defenses. Fund clean-water initiatives, PFAS remediation, and biodiversity conservation. Support farms, food infrastructure, and land-use planning. Streamline environmental reviews to accelerate housing and restoration projects. Even more commendable is its focus on historically underserved communities, those bearing the disproportionate burden of pollution, aging infrastructure, and climate driven hazards.
Yet, as one who represents the Grove Hall community in Dorchester, I know that “prioritizing underserved communities” on paper does not always translate into the targeted, concentrated investment these neighborhoods desperately need. That is why I coauthored the Commonwealth Green Zone Act. Imagine a white shirt with a stubborn stain. If you wash the entire shirt equally, the fabric may brighten, but the stain remains. Only by applying extra detergent and focused scrubbing to the spot can you remove it altogether. Grove Hall and similar districts have decades of under-investment, leaving them with more hazards – brownfields, heat islands, poor air and soil quality, and higher energy burdens than other neighborhoods. A “whole shirt” approach disperses funding too thinly; a Green Zone concentrates resources where they will have the greatest impact.
