Two parks and two playgrounds in Fox Point are set to be rebuilt for about $4 million this year. The work in India Point Park will be the largest, with a budget of $1.6 million. The rebuild of Brassil Playground was completed in late July, and work on Gano and Cabral Parks will follow. Overall this year, the city says it has committed nearly $12 million to improve 29 parks. Last year, 39 parks got $13 million in improvements. “When we invest in our parks, we are making tangible quality-of-life improvements,” notes Mayor Brett Smiley.
Now 50 years old, India Point Park is a waterfront destination that Parks superintendent Wendy Nilsson refers to as “everyone’s favorite spot.” Work will include an expanded and re-landscaped picnic grove, more tables and trees, swings big enough for adults, and shoreline work to protect the park without fighting with the bay. Public toilets are not in the plan. “It’s an issue that needs to be solved at some point,” Nilsson says. There’s also no money in the plan to remove pilings, and the 20-year fight continues to bury the utility towers. However, David Riley, leader of the drive to remove the towers, seems hopeful. The mayors of Providence and East Providence, he explains, have committed to work to bury the power lines.
The improvements at Brassil Playground include a new slide, more swings, a bigger sandbox, a picnic area, playhouses, and climbing stations, for a total of $485,000. For about $1 million, Cabral Park, next to Vartan Gregorian School, is getting a full rebuild. The chain-link fences are coming down, the sprinklers from the water park are being moved to scattered sites, and the ballfield and the playground are being rebuilt. At Gano, for $800,000, the plans call for moving the ballfields, rebuilding the basketball courts, and landscaping.
Established in 2012 at the request of Mayor Tavares’ administration, the Elmwood and South Providence Neighborhoods Crime Watch (ESPNCW) has, from its inception, been an advocate for safe, inclusive, and healthy communities. ESPNCW understands that crime is only a part of a constellation of systemic factors, rooted in historical legacies such as structural racism and red-lining, that must be addressed to build healthier communities for everyone. Systemic disadvantages include, but are not limited to, poverty, disinvestment, healthcare, homelessness and lack of affordable housing, problems of opportunity access, equitable educational opportunity, political underrepresentation, recreational access, library services, access to growing your own food, lack of green spaces and street tree cover, gun violence, the availability of street drugs, and public transportation. ESPNCW works directly with Providence police, elected officials, residents, nonprofits, and business owners to move the needle of change. A weekly neighborhood newsletter is published featuring local organizations that are making a difference, along with relevant news and environmental items, things to do, ways to engage and a weekly crime report. To receive this newsletter, contact Doug.crimewatch@gmail.com.
For the first time, Summit Neighborhood Association’s (SNA) annual community yard sale will be happening over two days. Held on Saturday and Sunday, September 14-15, from 9am-1pm each day, yard sale participants are invited to set up shop either or both days. To join the map, register online at SNA.Providence.RI.us/yard-sale-registration-open/.
SNA is also seeking additional neighborhood volunteers to help deliver their triannual newsletters, which are typically published and distributed in March, August, and November, and they can always need more hands (and feet) to help make sure all Summit neighbors receive them. Contact SNAProv@gmail.com to join the newsletter delivery group, or to join the general volunteer email list for more opportunities as they arise.
Helping to drive the Litter Free Rhode Island program forward, RIDOT launched initiatives to strengthen the fight against the plague of trash on our streets and roads. A team from RIDOT came to the Jewelry District Association’s (JDA) monthly meeting in July to make one of the first public presentations of the online Trashboard. Led by David Walsh, RIDOT’s assistant director of administrative services, the team showed how this Internet-based utility tracks data from a wide range of Litter Free RI initiatives, from the total weight of trash picked up and the number of bags that have been filled to the locations where public and privately organized cleanups have taken place across the state. For example, by the end of July, RIDOT had picked up 15,446 45-gallon trash bags on our highways in 2024.
In this “disposable society,” highways and city streets are often favored spots for discarding unwanted items. Governor Dan McKee and wife Susan McKee launched the Litter Free RI initiative and an associated grant program for clean-up events. RIDOT is continuing the initiative and adding its own special efforts in making it a success.
Surprise guests joined the meeting to the delight of the JDA members and attending public. Unannounced, the celebrated Big Nazo troupe, including Rusty Dog himself, appeared carrying the message that tossing trash in public places is much more than a minor nuisance. The Big Nazo characters interfaced with the laughing, cheering audience, marking a new high point in the organization’s meeting history.
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