The lost beaches

We've all heard about the newer, cleaner Boston Harbor. So why aren't more people jumping in?

by Jason Gay with Sarah McNaught

Today is hot -- nasty hot, Boston-meets-New Orleans hot, hot enough to cook a Fenway Frank on the sidewalk and toast the bun, too. You need relief. An iced coffee or a shade tree won't do the trick. So you look at a map, and you decide to head for the shores of Malibu Beach.

Malibu Beach, Dorchester, that is: a quarter-mile stretch of waterfront off Morrissey Boulevard, in the shadow of Savin Hill. A pretentious paradise it's not. Your view features the Southeast Expressway, industrial parks, and the paint-blotched Boston Gas tank. But city life seems distant here, and you find a dozen people on the sand facing a grassy, surprisingly tranquil inlet of Boston Harbor.

The water is safe here, you are told. The multibillion-dollar clean-up of the harbor has made the ocean at Malibu Beach -- as well as at other urban beaches beneath the Boston skyline -- clean again. The state has committed $30 million to a Metropolitan District Commission campaign called Back to the Beaches and is currently rehabilitating the long-neglected Boston shoreline. And yes, the beach does look nicer than you remember it from years ago. But the water still looks murky, and other than a dreadlocked man crawl-stroking a few yards out, nobody here is getting wet. You wonder why.

You watch the water lap against the Malibu sand, and you take a deep breath. You consider the consequences, remember the bad rumors. You cannot take the plunge. This is Boston Harbor, you say. I'm not going in. Forget it.

Part 2

Jason Gay and Sarah McNaught can be reached at jgay[a]phx.com and smcnaught[a]phx.com, respectively.