Take a Look at the Malden Waterway you may have never heard of

MALDEN — Compared with some of Greater Boston's other waterways, the Malden River flies under the radar.

For more than a century, the narrow river, stretching 2.3 miles from the Mystic River to under Malden Center, was lined with factories and, often, filled with their waste. Its banks sat unreachable behind chain-link fences and warehouse parking lots.

Now, there's a slow but deliberate effort underway to change that.

Over the last few years, a collection of groups — Friends of the Malden River, Mystic River Watershed Association, and the cities of Malden, Everett, and Medford — have been planning a string of parks and paths to open up the river to the public.

The centerpiece is the reimagining of Malden's Department of Public Works complex — a five-acre warehouse and storage yard along Commercial Street — as a climate-resilient waterfront park.

The plans for it are nearly done. The city is launching on permitting and cobbling together funds, said Malden senior planner and policy manager Evan Spetrini, including a $100,000 award from MIT's Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism. It hopes to start work late next year.

Getting to this point took a lot of conversation.

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