The Blackstone River flows underneath a bridge on Main Street in Pawtucket, R.I. (Ben Underwood)
Where the Seekonk River flows into the Blackstone neighborhood in Providence and, running parallel, Hope turns into Pawtucket, the communities and their relationship to their neighboring rivers change drastically. The Seekonk, a central part of Fox Point, Blackstone, Hope, and other neighborhoods on Providence’s East Side, bears little resemblance to its northern tributary for the next few miles: the Blackstone River.
For its southernmost miles, as it traces the communities of Pawtucket and Central Falls, the Blackstone functions more as an inconvenient backyard than a community hub. In many places along the bank, it is an inconvenient backyard. The development prospects and sometimes unsightly polluted banks make the river an easily obscured target for commercial and political motives. To some community members, the Blackstone represents a potential community center and identity marker; to others, it’s something to be further obscured…