10 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 In other communties, the defining challenge was infrastructure expansion, which created mismatches between the built and natural environment. Highways and other infrastructure were built along – or directly over – waterways, limiting access and cutting nearby neighborhoods off from the waterfront. In Middletown, Connecticut, participants described how a highway constructed over the river significantly restricts public access. Elijah Huge emphasizes that “the river is the reason for the city,” but now “a state highway separates it from the city and erases the river.” Completed in 1969, CT-9 was built directly along the Connecticut River, severing the downtown core from its waterfront. Tall, overgrown trees lining the highway further obscure the water, making the river almost invisible from the city itself. Similar mismatches between waterways and public life were described in Meadville, where the Mill Run stream “runs through downtown.” While some access remains, the river corridor has been paved over, reducing both its ecological function and its potential as a recreational space. These infrastructure decisions made decades ago, particularly in the 1970s, continue to constrain how waterfronts function today. By prioritizing cars over people and place, communties inherited waterfronts that are difficult to reach, underused, and increasingly vulnerable to erosion and neglect, despite their central role in the city’s history and identity. Climate Change Risks: Progress and Undoings The challenge of reconnecting people to their waterfronts is unfolding as climate change accelerates. Rising seas, frequent flooding, and erosion are compounding the consequences of decades-old development decisions, increasing the urgency of delayed improvements while threatening to undermine recent progress. In Stamford, participants noted that while “public access is getting better,” “flood risk [is] getting worse, fast.” In Hudson, NY, the “sea level rise may erase walkable park” which is “one of the only accessible and walkable spaces in the city.” Efforts to restore public access to waterfronts may be outpaced or undone by rising seas and flooding. Scenario 2: Mismatch: Built over Natural
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