NeighborWorks Brings Initiative, Accountability to Constitution Hill

NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley, a non-profit community development organization, has set up shop in Woonsocket’s Constitution Hill neighborhood, providing in-depth home ownership services, as well as community development, including programs for the city’s youths, an artist-in-residence program, and regular community events such as HealthWalks, and, every other week, NeighborWalks.

I joined ’ Margaux Morriseau and Erin Boucher for a recent NeighborWalk, a jaunt around Constitution Hill which, on this occasion, was through Costa Park. During the walks, NeighborWorks staff and community officials join neighbors for an informal look at different parts of the Constitution Hill neighborhood. Bearing clipboards and pens, the tour measures NeighborWorks’ progress in revitalizing the area, and finds new issues to prioritize.

Joining NeighborWorks’ Boucher and Morriseau on this walk were Constitution Hill resident Mirta Sanchez; Officer Joshua Rucho, representing the Woonsocket Police Department; Bob Moreau from the Woonsocket Housing Authority; and Armand Binette, the city’s senior housing inspector.

The southern edge of Costa Park swelled with unbound weeds, and the entrance squeezed between walls of green. Sight-lines into the park were very limited. At the bottom of the entrance, as the group followed a path that swung around the park’s center, its basketball courts and modest green, Mirta Sanchez paused to acknowledge her first trip into the park, after nearly fifteen years in the neighborhood. “I’ve never been down here,” she said. Gesturing to the story of steps climbing high up to Olo Street, she continued “I call my kids from up there, but I never come down here.”

“Wow,” responded Boucher, “that’s telling, and it’s sad, because this is a beautiful park.”

rests a dozen feet below Olo Street, and is bordered on the north by the Blackstone River. It boasts a pair of basketball courts, a baseball diamond, and a small soccer field’s worth of level green. A footpath follows the park’s perimeter just feet from the Blackstone River and passes a small pavilion on its way to a gazebo. The view of the river, however, is obscured by rising weeds. The weeds were cleared last summer by volunteers and students.

“It seems like we just pulled all of this out. Now it looks like someone just mowed a path through it,” said Boucher.

Officer Rucho offered his perspective: “If I was responding to something down here, I would have zero visibility from the street.” The weeds and overgrowth went back on everyone’s lists.

“Everything remains on the list until it does get changed,” said Morriseau. “How long it takes depends on who owns the property. But people have been really good about ‘yeah, come on my land and give me a hand’-they’ve been really open about accepting any help.”

At the end of the path, a small gazebo has had a recently repaired railing torn off; a barrel chained to a fence is labeled “Unregulated Waste;” a power exchange box is crowded with puerile tagging. All of these things were added to NeighborWorks’ lists.

The path ends at a polished playground busy with neighborhood children and families. The pockets of litter found in the rest of the park are absent from the playground. Children can play here away from their parents, or under the supervision of older siblings. The playground is clean, and sound. One of the guiding principals of NeighborWorks, it seems, is accountability: the spaces in Costa Park that are used most frequently are kept clean and sound by those who use them, for the most part; the basketball courts, baseball diamond, and playground remain welcoming and safe.

“This park was founded by a bunch of neighborhood residents,” said Morriseau. “They petitioned the city and begged and pleaded...and the residents did most of the work.” With limited funds, equipping the park has been slow, but where it is equipped, it is used, and used responsibly. NeighborWorks’ goal on Constitution Hill is not merely to pull weeds and power-wash graffiti, but to provide ideas, ideals, and concepts worth pulling weeds for.

The NeighborWalks convene every other Thursday evening at 6 p.m. on the corner of Olo Street and Center Street. The next walk is July 14. All are welcome and encouraged to contribute to a walk. You can also find NeighborWorks on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ourneighborhoods.