Malden River Works Awarded Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Action Grant

The Baker-Polito Administration announced $11.1 million in grants to cities and towns through the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program. Established in 2017, MVP supports municipalities in Massachusetts to begin planning for climate change resiliency and enable the implementation of projects. The City of Malden has been awarded a $150,015 Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Action Grant to continue work on the Malden River Works effort at the Department of Public Works site.

Malden River Works is a new, experimental resilience project in the City of Malden, Massachusetts. The effort has brought together a new coalition of community leaders of color, youth, environmental advocates, and government stakeholders in action. This new coalition is driving a community-led planning and design process for the creation of a new flood-resilient public open space on Malden’s industrial riverfront. Malden River Works proposes an innovative 'both-and' model, resisting waterfront gentrification while introducing essential climate resiliency improvements with existing industrial uses and open space. This award will be used to begin the design-engineering phase of the project.

In 2019, Malden River Works was named the winner of the first Norman B. Leventhal City Prize, which was established to catalyze innovative, interdisciplinary urban design and planning approaches worldwide. In its first cycle the prize sought proposals that tackled equitable resilience.

Learn more about the Norman B. Leventhal City Prize and Malden River Works.

Press release from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.