Press & News
Projo — Shifting sands: Who has access to Lloyd's Beach in Little Compton?
By Paul Edward Parker — … But some perceive ugliness at the beach’s entrance on Rhode Island Road: a gate in a chain-link fence. A sign warning that only Little Compton residents are allowed to enter this paradise. Sometimes, a guard is posted nearby to dissuade outsiders.
EastBayRI — In Portsmouth: Building a path toward climate resiliency
By Josh Bickford — Portsmouth Park, Prudence Island and a shelter on the draft list for capital projects
The Boston Globe — Summer is over, but battle over Narragansett Town Beach heats up
By Brian Amaral — Town Council members heard a proposal from the town’s parks and recreation director, Michelle Kershaw, to raise walk-on admission fees to the Narragansett Town Beach from $12 to $15 per person
What’s Up News — Aquidneck Island Climate Caucus forum to ask: Retreat from rising sea, or raise buildings?
By Brian Amaral — How is this affecting our lives on Aquidneck Island? What are the policy options for preparing for sea rise? The forum will be an opportunity to discuss these questions with local experts in the field.
Projo — Collapsed roads, flooded basements, submerged cars: Flood risk growing in New England
By Hadley Barndollar — If a major flood happened tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of homes, commercial buildings, roads and critical infrastructure across New England are at risk of damage, according to a new report by the First Street Foundation. And the dangers are only expected to grow over the next 30 years.
Projo — A little-known deal allows public beach access at Gaspee Point in Warwick
By Antonia Noori Farzan — If you show up at Gaspee Point looking for a way down to the water, you may start to worry you’ll be accused of trespassing... But you’re actually on the way to discovering one of Warwick’s best-kept secrets.
Wash Post — The price of living near the shore is already high. It’s about to go through the roof.
By Darryl Fears and Lori Rozsa — As FEMA prepares to remove subsidies from its flood insurance, a new assessment says 8 million homeowners in landlocked states are at risk of serious flooding because of climate change
Projo — Armed with dusty old maps, activists fight to reclaim beach access in Weekapaug
By Antonia Noori Farzan — Ben Weber started working for his father's construction company when he was a teenager. So a few years later, when a security guard at Fenway Beach in Weekapaug tried to tell him that he wasn't supposed to be there because it was private, he knew the solution was to find a public easement.
The Boston Globe — Finding a 50-foot-wide path to the shore in Westerly, R.I.
By Brian Amaral — An April 1939 plat map, unearthed by attorney Michael Rubin, shows that a blocked off path on Weekapaug Point used to be accepted as a public right-of-way
ecoRI News — For Many On Coast, Climate Crisis Means Rising Insurance Rates
By Caitlin Faulds — The country’s largest flood insurer is changing how it analyzes risk, and it could signal a reckoning for coastal communities.
Projo — Waterfront Warwick neighborhoods are full of 'No Parking' signs. Many aren't legal.
By Antonia Noori Farzan —Try to get to the water in Warwick's desirable Potowomut neighborhood, and you'll quickly find that virtually every street is lined with "No Parking" signs. But on many of those streets, parking isn't actually banned by the city.
The Boston Globe — Life, liberty, and the right to a beach cabana?
By Brian Amaral — Some Narragansett residents up in arms over the possibility of term limits for coveted cabanas
The Public’s Radio — ‘It doesn't seem fair’: In shoreline fire districts, taxes buy residents ‘beach club’ perks and exclusivity
By Alex Nunes — In South County, several shoreline fire districts bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes and other revenue annually but spend much of it on expenses more in line with a private beach club, not a fire department. That has drawn the ire of beachgoers who are being blocked from the shore.
Projo — Top DEM official urged staffers to expedite wetlands application from former McKee aide
By Antonia Noori Farzan — A top official in the Department of Environmental Management urged staffers to expedite a wetlands-alteration application filed by Anthony Silva, a former top aide to Gov. Dan McKee, records show.
The Public’s Radio — R.I. Superior Court finds no wrongdoing in coastal agency’s mediation with Block Island marina owner
By Sofie Rudin — Rhode Island’s coastal agency followed the law when it went into mediation with a Block Island marina owner. That’s the decision released Thursday by Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Lanphear.
The Boston Globe — The view of R.I. beach access from a private beachfront home
By Brian Amaral — While activists are pushing for more access to the shore, property owners are trying to balance their own rights with the public’s
The Public’s Radio — Former assistant R.I. attorney general: ‘White collar vigilantism’ has denied beachgoers public right of way in Westerly
By Alex Nunes — A special fire district says it owns a contested path to the ocean and that it can block the public from using the trail. Now a retired Rhode Island assistant attorney general has joined shoreline rights activists to try to open the path up to the public.
Projo — The little-known story ofwhy Narragansett TownBeach can charge to geton the sand
By Antonia Noori Farzan — One summer Sunday in 1991, dozens of protesters streamed onto Narragansett Town Beach, breezing past the guards who asked them to pay the $4 admission fee.
The Public’s Radio — House commission to invite public comment in South County on shoreline access
By Alex Nunes — A State House commission set up to study access to Rhode Island’s shoreline will take one of its meetings to South County later this year to get public comment from communities where disputes over beach access have been most contentious.
Projo — Sept. 9 deadline looms for ruling on controversial Block Island marina deal
By Jim Hummel — The mediated settlement of a controversial marina expansion on Block Island was a common-sense solution to nearly two decades of litigation. Or, it was a secret backroom deal that violated state law and excluded opponents who had fought the proposal every step of the way.