Skip to main content
 

Subscribe to Get Our Latest News Delivered Right to Your Inbox

Stay up to date on our Latest News by subscribing to our Newsletters! You can sign up for both our Grow Smart RI newsletter, and our Main Street RI newsletter. 

Follow @GrowSmartRI

Our newest episode of Main Street is out now, featuring Dwayne Keys and Helen Baskerville-Dukes from the Mount Hope Community Center Business Alliance (and our RI Main Street Learning Cohort!)

Listen at the link in our bio 🔊🎧🎙️

#mainstreetri #growsmartri

6 1
Open post by growsmartri with ID 18041917874524737
Our newest episode of Main Street is out now, featuring Dwayne Keys and Helen Baskerville-Dukes from the Mount Hope Community Center Business Alliance (and our RI Main Street Learning Cohort!) Listen at the link in our bio 🔊🎧🎙️ #mainstreetri #growsmartri

Next #MainStreetRI Roundtable:

Asset Mapping: How to Identify Economic Development Assets in Your Main Street

March 5, 2026
12-1PM: ZOOM
Link to Register in Bio

Featuring: Miriam Parson, Main Street America Director of Network Capacity Building, Launch

Asset mapping focuses your economic development strategy on what make your place unique to both residents and visitors.

Assets are what we want to keep, build upon, and sustain for future generations. They can be physical things, like historic buildings or a local park, or cultural assets like a festival or an intergenerational social club.

Join us to learn the Whole Assets Approach with Main Street America. Leave with your own asset map to continue developing with stakeholders back home.

#growsmartri

5 0
Open post by growsmartri with ID 18129802201469708
Next #MainStreetRI Roundtable: Asset Mapping: How to Identify Economic Development Assets in Your Main Street March 5, 2026 12-1PM: ZOOM Link to Register in Bio Featuring: Miriam Parson, Main Street America Director of Network Capacity Building, Launch Asset mapping focuses your economic development strategy on what make your place unique to both residents and visitors. Assets are what we want to keep, build upon, and sustain for future generations. They can be physical things, like historic buildings or a local park, or cultural assets like a festival or an intergenerational social club. Join us to learn the Whole Assets Approach with Main Street America. Leave with your own asset map to continue developing with stakeholders back home. #growsmartri

It’s not every day you get to take your U.S. Senator for coffee on the bus! We recently did just that, meeting Senator Whitehouse at Kennedy Plaza and riding the #33 to Wayland Square to talk transit—timely, as he’s helping negotiate the reauthorization of the federal Surface Transportation Funding Act.

Over coffee at Madrid Bakery, we talked about the positive benefits of a strong transit system: vibrant local economies, lower emissions, and its role in expanding housing choices in walkable neighborhoods.

Here’s to 2026 being the year Rhode Island restores recent transit service cuts—and begins implementing a comprehensive, data-driven Vision and Master Plan for a system that gets people where they need to go, safely, affordably, and with dignity.

Read the full post in our stories and highlights! #rhodiesrideripta @rideripta and see who else has hopped on board #rhodiesintransit

#growsmartri

152 10
Open post by growsmartri with ID 17970633452999386
It’s not every day you get to take your U.S. Senator for coffee on the bus! We recently did just that, meeting Senator Whitehouse at Kennedy Plaza and riding the #33 to Wayland Square to talk transit—timely, as he’s helping negotiate the reauthorization of the federal Surface Transportation Funding Act. Over coffee at Madrid Bakery, we talked about the positive benefits of a strong transit system: vibrant local economies, lower emissions, and its role in expanding housing choices in walkable neighborhoods. Here’s to 2026 being the year Rhode Island restores recent transit service cuts—and begins implementing a comprehensive, data-driven Vision and Master Plan for a system that gets people where they need to go, safely, affordably, and with dignity. Read the full post in our stories and highlights! #rhodiesrideripta @rideripta and see who else has hopped on board #rhodiesintransit #growsmartri

Is parking on your mind? If so, you`ll have to attend our next #MainStreetRI Roundtable:

Parking (Part 2): Can Parking Reform Save Our Downtowns?

February 12, 2026, 12-1PM on ZOOM
Featuring: Kevin Lowther and research from the RWU School of Law Housing Policy Lab

Parking is an issue of great interest for Main Street districts, so we’re building on our earlier conversation about Parking Studies to see what the research actually says about parking and what we can do to better manage it.

Last fall, the Roger Williams University School of Law launched a Housing Policy Lab, and parking was one area they explored. One of its inaugural students will share their findings about parking and ideas about possible reforms, especially as they pertain to commercial district activity and the cultivation of new and successful small businesses.

Kevin Lowther is in his final semester as a law student at Roger Williams University. Last semester, he participated in the school’s inaugural housing clinic, where he studied parking reform and wrote state legislation that will be part of the advocacy agenda of Neighbors Welcome. He is an advisory committee member of Neighbors Welcome, a board member of Habitat for Humanity South County and a former Town Counselor and Planning Board member in Westerly, RI.

#growsmartri
@rwulaw
@bigluxviolin

8 0
Open post by growsmartri with ID 18040720520727156
Is parking on your mind? If so, you'll have to attend our next #MainStreetRI Roundtable: Parking (Part 2): Can Parking Reform Save Our Downtowns? February 12, 2026, 12-1PM on ZOOM Featuring: Kevin Lowther and research from the RWU School of Law Housing Policy Lab Parking is an issue of great interest for Main Street districts, so we’re building on our earlier conversation about Parking Studies to see what the research actually says about parking and what we can do to better manage it. Last fall, the Roger Williams University School of Law launched a Housing Policy Lab, and parking was one area they explored. One of its inaugural students will share their findings about parking and ideas about possible reforms, especially as they pertain to commercial district activity and the cultivation of new and successful small businesses. Kevin Lowther is in his final semester as a law student at Roger Williams University. Last semester, he participated in the school’s inaugural housing clinic, where he studied parking reform and wrote state legislation that will be part of the advocacy agenda of Neighbors Welcome. He is an advisory committee member of Neighbors Welcome, a board member of Habitat for Humanity South County and a former Town Counselor and Planning Board member in Westerly, RI. #growsmartri @rwulaw @bigluxviolin
Close Menu