Arlington Awarded More Funding To Cool Off Mystic River

ARLINGTON, MA — The Arlington Department of Planning and Community Development, on behalf of the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC), was received $10,000 from the National League of Cities (NLC) through its Leadership in Community Resilience Program for additional support with the Wicked Hot Mystic Project.

Seven communities were awarded funding during this round, including Alton, TX; Cedar Rapids, IA; Dubuque, IA; Flagstaff, AZ; Portsmouth, NH; Raleigh, NC; and Spokane, WA. Each community receives $10,000 in direct financial support as well as technical assistance and advisory services from NLC staff and partners to help them meet community-specific resiliency goals.

The state's Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) program in September awarded Arlington, on behalf of the entire RMC, a $186,200 grant to develop regional maps using high-resolution, watershed-wide, baseline data on ground-level air temperatures, humidity, wind, and particulate matter.

Partnering with the Museum of Science and hundreds of trained volunteer community scientists, RMC communities will collect this data over the summer. Funding will allow the RMC to engage with community members in some of the hottest neighborhoods to begin the community-led design of effective cooling strategies.

"The Wicked Hot Mystic Project is enabling the Resilient Mystic Collaborative to focus its attention and resources on historically disinvested environmental justice neighborhoods with fewer street trees, green spaces, and access to water," Emily Sullivan, Arlington's Environmental Planner and Conservation Agent, said in a statement. "Funding and support from the National League of Cities will move us from data collection to initial community-led design of solutions to help people stay cool and healthy during heatwaves."

The Resilient Mystic Collaborative is a partnership between 20 of the 21 cities and towns within the Mystic River Watershed, facilitated by the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA). The collaborative works on regional projects that decrease collective risk of harm from flooding, drought, extreme temperatures, storms, sea level rise and other climate-intensified risks.

To learn more about the Wicked Hot Mystic project, contact Emily Sullivan, Environmental Planner and Conservation Agent, at 781-316-3012 or esullivan@town.arlington.ma.us.