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Mayor Wu, Governor Baker, and Coast Guard leadership kick off a major waterfront infrastructure project in Boston's North End.

Boston faces increased frequency and intensity of heat waves and extreme precipitation. With 47 miles of coastline, the City is also exposed to overland flooding and inundation from storm surge. The City’s climate action and coastal resilience plans call for adaptation in anticipation of 40 inches of sea level rise by 2070, which would exacerbate coastal and river flood damage valued at $1.4 billion.

To mitigate these potential impacts, Boston’s adaptation plans call for substantial investments in nature-based solutions, green infrastructure, urban forestry, flood management infrastructure, infrastructure maintenance, and other measures. These investments are part of a comprehensive Climate Action Plan that also includes a $2 billion overhaul of school facilities, $50 million for updates to public housing units, and $30 million to electrify the City’s vehicle fleet, including vehicle charging stations.

The OWD successfully met its main project goals by securing partnership commitments and beginning planning and design processes. Through a needs assessment and other initiatives, the OWD has identified several challenges that the coastal resilience workforce initiative can help address. Trade unions and the workforce development and educational departments of Boston’s community and technical colleges currently offer sustainability-related certificate programs in: energy efficiency; solar energy; building management and maintenance; construction materials and processes; and electric transportation. Improving coastal resilience will require additional knowledge and new skills. Recognizing the significance of this need, the OWD is bringing coastal resilience, stormwater management, nature-based solutions, and water and wastewater operations into Boston’s education and training pipelines.

Training programs do not always provide the soft skills and teamwork skills that employers are looking for, so OWD is supporting training in these areas as well. Many employers have identified those skills as critical for hiring and career advancement. 

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City of Boston's Anti-Displacement Action Plan

Because young people are not getting driver’s licenses at the same rate as previous generations, one training partner is organizing pre-training to help students earn learners permits for commercial driver’s licenses as part of its job training initiative. The OWD is also piloting drivers education training programs of its own.

As part of the City’s wider economic development mission, the OWD is recruiting trainees in underemployed communities and implementing English as a second language programs, childcare programs, stipends, and “earn to learn” opportunities for trainees.

The high cost of housing has encouraged a trend in which employees with good jobs migrate to more affordable suburbs, thereby undermining economic development efforts within the communities they once lived in. To meet this challenge, the City is working to create additional affordable housing and mixed-use occupancy opportunities throughout Boston as part of its Anti-Displacement Action Plan.