Trashed: Months Later, Elorza Administration Fails to Clean Up Graffiti at Waterplace

Trashed: Months Later, Elorza Administration Fails to Clean Up Graffiti at Waterplace

In early May, GoLocalProv reported on the failure of Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza’s administration to maintain one of the state’s most heralded public parks — the award-winning Waterplace Park.

Waterplace was trashed in hundreds of graffiti tags. Now, three months later, the problem has only grown.

The linear park constructed in the 1990s was built with hundreds of millions of dollars of state and federal funds and in the early 2000s, the ownership of the park was transferred to the City of Providence.

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The creation of the park and restoration of the rivers cost more than $270 million and was the linchpin to the city's "Renassaince."

 

Elorza Administration Assured It Would Be Cleaned

In May Elorza, claimed that the graffiti had built up due to the pandemic.

“The City's Parks Department has been removing trash and graffiti for most of the last year,” Elorza’s spokesperson Ben Smith told GoLocal.

Smith said that in addition to the Parks Department doing maintenance, the City of Providence contracts to "state agencies" to do additional work.

“The state agencies normally responsible for maintaining Waterplace were unable to return to their regular duties due to COVID-19 regulations. They resumed their regular schedule of operations on April 26, 2021,” added Smith. 

Three months after the graffiti clean-up was supposed to begin, the problem has grown.

 

 

 

Today, Graffiti Grows, Homeless Sleep

Visit Waterplace on any morning, and the park is now becoming a sleeping area for some of Providence's homeless. Individuals, primarily men, sleep along the river in the concrete benches and on the ground. The area surrounded by upscale apartments and hotels is now emerging as an epicenter of severe urban decay. 

In the next few days, WaterFire will begin its season -- on Wednesday, July 28, the season will kick off with a ceremonial mini-lighting. 

Each year WaterFire attracts nearly 1 million visitors to downtown Providence to experience art in the city. Annually, WaterFire activity creates $113 million in economic output for local businesses, generates over $9 million of tax revenue for the State of Rhode Island, and supports an estimated 1,294 jobs according to an economic analysis.

But as residents and tourists return they will experience a Waterplace Park scared by the lack of maintenance and a growing homeless community.