Cliff Wood | The Providence Foundation executive director
When people come back to downtown Providence, they need to find it safe, active and inviting. Here are some ways business and nonprofit leaders can help make the vision a reality through their own staffs and operations:
Patronize:
• Support through sponsorship, promotion and engagement programming activities and events to enliven streets and create a welcoming, safe-feeling atmosphere.
• Buy local – support small businesses to get them over this hump and into recovery. Shop local during organized outdoor events. Promote these events to your employees and tenants.
• Eat local – Enjoy the safety of the outdoors and patronize outdoor dining.
• Patronize and support the local arts and cultural institutions that are significant contributors to our local economy.
• Make sure these places enjoy the support needed to transcend this transition period, as vaccines roll out, to ensure that they are still here when the pandemic fades.
Maintain/beautify:
• Invest in lighting and beautification in and around property and workplaces. Support public art. Maintain the cleanliness and presentation of public gathering spaces. Advocate for city and state government to invest in and maintain the parks and public spaces that will be the safe gathering spaces during the recovery.
Collaborate:
• Downtown Providence has been badly impacted by COVID-19. The resources that we have will go further [if] we strategize and work collectively. Market events together, share infrastructure for planning events – security, maintenance, equipment, guidance, bathrooms.
We are not alone in this situation. Downtown revitalization requires creativity and those that creatively adapt can come back stronger.