Famous Local Landmark Needs Hospice
March 9, 2026
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NEWPORT, R.I. — The Ocean State is sinking a lot of money into a project falsely branded as coastal resilience. Newport’s famous Cliff Walk is a dead man walking.
A new $210,000 philanthropic investment from a Rhode Island foundation will help the University of Rhode Island “accelerate two high-impact projects designed to strengthen coastal resilience in Jamestown, Newport, Block Island, and Prudence Island,” according to a Feb. 17 URI press release.
Of the $200,000-plus, $160,000 will be used to launch a program designed to identify flooding solutions for the islands mentioned above. The rest of the money will be lost at sea.
The second project, for $50,000, involves the collection of topographic data along the 3.5-mile Cliff Walk using drone technology to determine methods and products to aid resilience planning.
This tech will show us what we already know: the Cliff Walk is going to suffer the same fate as New Hampshire’s Old Man of the Mountain. It will collapse. Mother Nature’s pull is too strong.
URI president Marc Parlange, like so many of us during this climate-changing time, is delusional. “This investment enables URI to deliver the cutting-edge science, technology, and community partnerships needed to protect our shoreline, strengthen local resilience, and ensure these treasured places remain safe and vibrant for generations to come,” according to a quote attributed to him in last month’s press release.
There is little chance the Cliff Walk remains “safe and vibrant for generations to come.”
The city’s webpage devoted to the tourist attraction notes that “due to structural damage to a section of the Cliff Walk, detours will be in place between Narragansett Avenue and Webster Street for the foreseeable future.”
This “catastrophic failure” happened in March 2022.
Five decades ago, in 1975, the Cliff Walk was designated as a National Recreation Trail — the 65th in the nation and the first in New England. It has since welcomed some 750,000 visitors annually.
I’ve walked it several times. It is a great landmark with beautiful views. But there is no amount of money that can save it from an ocean burial. It’s one thing if a private foundation wants to throw money at the problem, but using taxpayer money while the issues of homelessness, rising health care costs, cuts to public education, green space mutilation, and growing inequality rage is a dereliction of duty.
Since Mother Nature warned us four years ago about the fragile environment in which the Cliff Walk resides, $22.75 million in taxpayer money has been procured to fight a losing battle — $11 million from a federal grant, $5 million from a federal earmark, $3.75 from a local bond, and $3 million from the 2024 Green Bond.
The two already-collapsed sections and other parts of the Cliff Walk will continue to fall into the sea. We need to be retreating from the coast, not wasting precious tax dollars ignoring the inevitable.
I realize this will be an unpopular opinion. I take no joy in saying the Cliff Walk needs to be taken off life support.
Frank Carini can be reached at [email protected]. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.
Unpopular? Maybe. But you are correct, Frank.
Not unpopular at all. It is time to stop fighting the inevitable.
Cathy
Only been there two or three times in the last 10 years, and I believe you are correct Frank. The writing appears to be on the wall, or the cliff walk in this case. I guess sections might be preserved into the near future but long term the continuity of the walk is already a thing of the past it would seem.
There is obvious alternative. The expansive front yards to the sea held by the mansion owners are an opportunity to retreat and maintain the Cliff Walk. Unfortunately, the uber rich are happy to see the Walk go. With little to lose the Newport could use eminent domain arguing the economic loss of the CW justifies the action. A favorable outcome in state court would be welcome precedent for ensuring historic public access.
I love The Cliff Walk. Having something beautiful available all year round, free to the public is not a common thing these days. I say, if it can be repaired with private donations, go for it!
I somewhat agree with Curt re taking parts of the spacious lawns. But wonder if that might all eventually go as well.
Private $$ is another possible idea. I do not favor more taxpayer money. Too many other more important uses for taxpayer dollars.
I went to Salve 1966-80. Many happy memories of Cliff Walk, class pictures, “study” dates, but the times they are a changing!
Oops! 1966-1970!
Reading your opinion broke my heart but I understand your valid point. However, I think people need places to visit where their viewpoint isn’t stopped twenty feet away by a house or some other building. I know this might sound silly but when I am on the cliff walk, something inside me feels like it is soaring like a bird. Whenever I have lost someone close, I am drawn to places like the cliff walk, it brings me peace. For sure those other problems are significant and more pressing but I think there are solutions for them that can be found without sacrificing the cliff walk.
I testified at the legislature when they were debating money for cliff walk. it is a dead man walking, and should be allowed to fall ibto the sea as a demonstration of how idiots in DC and in the State House are continuing to support burning the fossil fuels that are causing rising sea levels and more powerful storms. Unless we stop burning fossil fuels, there is no way to save cliff walk, and we should spend no money on it until we end the use of fossil fuels in RI
Sunrise Wind has proposed to pay for it, seemingly as part of its historical preservation mitigation strategy. I’m sure if that happens praise will be sung here at EcoRI.