Bringing together planners, enviromental leaders, economic developers, recreationalists, city planners, community changemakers, and thinkers from Pawtucket, Central Falls, East Providence, Cumberland and Providence, this experience is a call to reimagine the future of the Blackstone, Pawtucket, and Seekonk Rivers.
Park(ing) day is a global, public, participatory project where people across the world temporarily repurpose curbside parking spaces and convert them into public parks and social spaces to advocate for safer, greener, and more equitable streets for people.
On November 12, the Future of Small Cities Institute brought together regional trail leaders and community members at the Blackstone Valley Visitor Center and Museum in Pawtucket for “Paths to Possibility: Building Connected Greenways.” The evening explored the partnerships, public leadership, and shared imagination needed to connect our communities through trails.
On October 15, a group of planners, advocates and citizens headed into Pawtucket for the second in a series of survey rides exploring the roughly seven-mile on-road gap between the off-road Blackstone Valley Bikeway, terminating in Cumberland, and the East Bay Bike Path, terminating in India Point Park, Providence, RI.
Members of the Blackstone River Greenway working group took to bicycles for a field survey of potential Greenway connections through Cumberland and Central Falls. The ride provided an opportunity to experience the corridor firsthand, examine several challenging locations, and discuss possible solutions together.
The Future of Small Cities Institute has begun working with the City of Pawtucket on the Tidewater Riverfront Initiative, a multi-pronged effort to activate Pawtucket’s riverfront and to advance a regional stewardship strategy for the the entire Blackstone River corridor.
On May 14, the Future of Small Cities Institute joined local, state, and regional leaders at the Tidewater Riverfront Symposium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, a day-long gathering focused on the future of the communities connected by the Blackstone River Valley.
Reif Larsen, Executive Director of the Future of Small Cities Institute, will be speaking at the Tidewater Riverway Symposium on May 14 in Pawtucket, joining regional leaders, designers, and community members to explore the future of the Blackstone River corridor.
The Future of Small Cities Institute is teaming up with local organizations in Boston to create a series of Climate Spaces—community storytelling labs that showcase resilience designs and sustainable technologies.
On March 6, the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center launched its new Urban Room redesign and opened its door to the community!
As part of the Beacon Climate Conference, a contingent of us visit CALA a mixed-use “urban village” adapted from a former brutalist school building in Somerville, MA.
The FOCUS Lab
