Paths to Possibilities: Building Connected Greenways

A panel explores how shared visions, state leadership, and community partnerships can build connected greenways in Rhode Island and beyond. A connected greenway can change how people experience a city—linking neighborhoods, opening access to rivers, and creating new places to gather. But building these pathways through an existing city means navigating a complicated landscape of industrial properties, busy roads, competing priorities, and overlapping jurisdictions. How do we turn a shared vision into a continuous path? This conversation comes as five cities join forces to close the seven-mile on-road gap between the Blackstone River Bikeway’s terminus in Cumberland and the East Bay Bike Path at India Point Park. Connecting these two regional routes presents an opportunity to rethink how we work across municipal boundaries—and who takes responsibility for bringing the missing links together. As Pawtucket and its partner cities work toward completing the Blackstone River Greenway, join us for a conversation with three regional leaders working to plan, fund, and build greenways in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Together, we’ll explore how state agencies, municipalities, nonprofits, property owners, and community members can move projects forward—and what it takes to close the most difficult gaps. Drawing on neighboring states’ experiences, we’ll consider how Rhode Island’s state agencies might take a more active leadership and ownership role in completing and managing the critical greenways that connect our communities. The panelists are: Lindsay Zefting, Principal Engineer and Planner at Verity Engineering in Troy, New York, will share lessons from her work helping deliver the 750-mile Empire State Trail. Gerald Autler, Director of Trails and Greenways at the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, will offer a state-level perspective on building a network of trails. Alicia Lehrer, Executive Director of the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, will discuss the decades of partnership and community engagement behind the Woonasquatucket River Greenway, including its recently completed connection between Olneyville and downtown Providence. The panel will be moderated by Reif Larsen, of The Future of Small Cities Institute and will be followed by audience Q&A. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, please visit: https://www.futureofsmallcities.org/events/paths-to-possibility-building-connected-greenways