The City of Malden is making plans to connect the western part of the city that a river once flowed through to the Northern Strand Community Trail via a new shared-use path – but one city councilor is raising objections to a crucial path segment on Canal Street, where his family owns a function hall.
The proposed Spot Pond Brook Greenway would stretch as far as Coytemore Lea Park and in part go through Malden Center, mostly along widened sidewalks on existing streets like Canal Street, Charles Street, Middlesex Street, and Dartmouth Street (see map above). The idea is to create a safe and accessible active transportation option through the city’s downtown.
Historically, the Spot Pond Brook once flowed from Melrose through Malden and Malden Center into the Malden River, Spot Pond, and the Ell Pond in Melrose. However, due to flooding and the growth of the city, the city buried the brook in an underground pipe in the early 1900s.
Following a 2020 feasibility study and three public meetings from September 2020 to January 2021, construction for the Spot Pond Brook Greenway (SPBG) was slated to begin in 2027. However, this has since been moved to 2029 due to ongoing community conversations and feedback from “businesses, councilors, and the public.”
Last summer, the community held a series of public meetings with the general public and businesses and abutting buildings around and on Dartmouth, Pleasant, and Middlesex Streets.
Since then, the project has entered another round of public engagement in its early design and community engagement stage.
Politically, the 11-member City Council has been divided on this project, with members like Councilor at Large Craig Spadafora coming out against the Canal Street portion of the work and councilors like Ryan O’Malley (Ward 4) and Steve Winslow (Ward 6 Councilor and Bike to the Sea founder) vocalizing support of the project.
Path's route requires trade-offs along city streets
On May 15th at a public meeting on the project, Managing Engineer Amy Archer of Pare Corporation walked through the project proposal, explaining how the project team is working to balance the preservation of trees and utilities, the protection of pedestrians, cycles, and other vulnerable road users, the maintenance of existing road use, and the facilitation of keeping businesses accessible.
The project team seeks to balance safety, cost, access, and community input with this community upgrade.
Key takeaways from the presentation include:
- A shared-use path on Canal Street
- Prioritizing truck access to reach local businesses
- Keeping most parking intact while removing a few short segments to improve truck turning space and visibility at crosswalks
- Doubling the width of some sidewalks
- Adding a mountable curb in certain areas so emergency vehicles or trucks can get around without blocking traffic
- Adding vegetated (or sometimes brick/concrete) buffers between the path and the road
- Rerouting the path to save mature shade trees and protect green space
- Keeping vehicles separate from pedestrians and cyclists
- Adding bump-outs near busy intersections to shorten crossing distances and increase pedestrian visibility
Shortly thereafter, on May 28th, Councilor Spadafora hosted his own public meeting at Anthony’s on Canal Street – which also happens to be his family’s function hall.
At this meeting, advocates from The Mystic Valley Gun Club, Malden Safe Streets, L&L Trucking, the Mystic Valley Charter School, city government, and the general public came together to discuss the project.
According to the Malden Safe Streets organization’s notes from the event, the meeting included discussions on business operations and pedestrian and ADA accessibility on Canal Street and north-south bike and pedestrian connectivity to Assembly Square, Malden Center, and other developments.
Attendees also discussed the project’s various costs, like utility relocation and environmental clean up (the current $4.8 million grant is expected to fund the 75-percent design).
Advocates for the project highlighted the advantages, including reduced car dependency, accessibility for residents and businesses alike, and economic development, as well as creating a cohesive multimodal network.
Those against expressed concerns that ranged from traffic congestion to truck and emergency vehicle access.
There was palpable tension in regards to how the meeting was communicated (there were no official agenda, recording, or meeting minutes from this event), when the meeting was scheduled for (10 a.m.), and the lack of participation from public agencies like MassDOT or from other nearby businesses.
Still, the meeting appeared to end on a hopeful note of urging stakeholder engagement, and to not prematurely scrap this project but rather to work through any challenges or concerns as a community.
Advocates speak out for more pedestrian space
Advocates have sounded off on the urgency of this project, with Malden Safe Streets calling the SPBG an “important step” towards accessibility for all.
“It will make the streets a little bit safer and make the city center that much more attractive, accessible and inclusive,” wrote Malden Safe Streets in a social media post.
Advocates for the Greenway have raised concerns around the relatively narrow sidewalk designs, specifically along Canal Street, where designers are proposing an 4.5-foot sidewalk on one side of the street and an 8-foot sidewalk on the other side.
Canal Street connects several important pedestrian destinations, including the Stop & Shop supermarket, the CHA Malden Care Center, and the Orange Line’s Malden Center T station.
Bike to the Sea, a North Shore trails advocacy organization, has proposed replacing the on-street parking along Canal Street with a wider 10-foot sidewalk with a a 4-foot landscape or lighting buffer between pedestrians and traffic,, and a curb design that allows trucks to access businesses without endangering pedestrians (see below).
Next steps
From here, the revised 25 percent design will be submitted to MassDOT for analysis that will take at least 3 months, sparking a new round of public engagement. The public’s input will support the project team’s efforts to reach more detailed plans based on community feedback to produce shovel-ready blueprints.
Through community collaboration, inclusive design, and smart funding, the Spot Pond Brook Greenway will be not just a new path for Malden, but a connective tissue between the city’s past, present, and future, a lifeline for multimodal freedom and environmental justice, and a bridge between residents, businesses, and neighbors.
For more information on this project and how to get involved, visit the project page.
