With 22,000 citizens living in 1.2 square miles, Central Falls, Rhode Island is the smallest and most densely populated city in the smallest state in the country.
There’s not a lot of open, green space in Central Falls. There isn’t room for it.
“Every opportunity for green space is welcome and needed,” said Jim Vandermillen, the city’s assistant director for planning and economic development.
Lowe’s recently helped Central Falls revitalize one of the city’s few parks – the Phillips Street Community Garden – which had fallen into disrepair. “It was just a very sad garden,” said Zuleyma Gomez, chief of staff to Mayor Maria Rivera and a Central Falls native.
Thanks to community partners such as Lowe’s, the Phillips Street Garden is now on its way to being a resource for the neighborhood and an outdoor learning lab for high school students.
In her Lowe’s Hometowns grant application, Gomez wrote, “I believe everyone deserves access to green spaces. It’s important for mental health. Being outside was soothing for me during the pandemic. We need to create these spaces for the people of Central Falls who were heavily impacted by COVID.”
Vandermillen agreed. “Central Falls is not large in terms of geography, but we’re very densely populated,” he said. “We’re an industrial city. Houses are close together, and there are a lot of extended families living under one roof. People are in very close quarters.”
Because of the city’s high density, Central Falls citizens were especially hard hit by COVID. “During the pandemic when many could work remotely, a lot of our residents didn’t have that option,” Vandermillen explained. “They’re essential workers who had to be on-site at their jobs. When they came home to their family and extended family, there were many more opportunities for COVID to spread. City leaders, with Mayor Maria Rivera leading the way, helped establish vaccination clinics. So, while we were hard hit, the response was incredible.”
COVID wasn’t the first time the city survived a crisis. Central Falls went bankrupt in 2012, Gomez said. The state had to take over. But Central Falls is bouncing back. In fact, some have dubbed it “The Comeback City.”
Still, public funds are tight. Gomez said that the city has limited resources and needed assistance to complete the garden project. Before Lowe’s involvement, Central Falls had hired a local landscape architect – Groundwork Rhode Island – to create renderings of a reimagined space. The public voted on their favorite design.
Vandermillen said the site used to have a house situated on it that received a number of building code violations over the years. Eventually, the structure was demolished.
“Some members of the community kind of claimed this site and put a garden there,” he said. “Then, a teacher from nearby Central Falls High School and her students put in some vegetables in raised beds and began tending their garden. They’ve been using it for years as a learning lab. There’s been no formal upkeep of the site for the past couple of years, so it became overgrown.”
The site began to spring back to life this fall. In late October a dozen volunteers from two area Lowe’s stores, about 20 high school students with their teachers, a crew from Groundwork and city staff went to work. Lowe’s Hometowns provided a $75,000 grant and volunteer labor to plant trees, shrubs and bulbs, rake and mulch the soil and construct a raised garden bed.
“It was really rewarding to help a community that’s been struggling,” said Bill Fields, assistant store manager for the North Providence Lowe’s.
Vandermillen added: “The event really jumpstarted the project. We got a lot more done than I think anybody imagined.”
Lowe’s went above and beyond what city leaders expected. One Lowe’s teammate noticed the poor condition of a chain-link fence around part of the site. “We intended to replace that, but we didn’t have a specific plan for it,” Vandermillen said. “She offered to replace the fence and sent us photos of our options. The event led us to start a relationship beyond the generous grant.”
Earlier this fall, with the help of students, the city weeded and removed debris from the site. The city also put in a new waterline. The next phase will involve installing pavers for a patio area and bringing in garden furniture, a shade structure, chess tables – for the high school’s chess club and anyone else who wants to play – and concrete seats.
"We really transformed the site, it’s a different place. If you don’t have your own back yard – and a lot of people in Central Falls don’t – this garden can essentially become your back yard. It’s a place to gather – a real community asset."
