Saving the Bay

[Cotuit]

Save the Bay preparing to help improve Providence waterfront

The environmental group's new Explore the Bay Education Center, in Fields Point, is one part of that objective.

BY MICHAEL P. McKINNEY Journal Staff Writer | March 7, 2005

NEWPORT -- With its Providence educational center opening in a few months, Save the Bay put a striking focus yesterday not on its signature environmental issues but on the role the group is poised to play in revitalizing the capital city.

Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, the featured speaker at Save the Bay's 35th annual meeting, told a crowd of 220 about a vision for the city's waterfront in which people fish, swim and do boating. He said Save the Bay's new Explore the Bay Education Center, in Fields Point, is a bold step by the organization as the city works toward a mix of uses for the area, from residential to commercial to attractive public spaces.

The development of Providence in the next couple of decades "is directly connected to the Bay and our relationship to the water," said Cicilline. He added: "It will really be the beginning, I think, of what's going to happen to the Providence waterfront."

Save the Bay personnel are slated to begin moving in to the 15,000-square-foot building next month, with a May ribbon-cutting and a June 4 gala. Save the Bay officials yesterday also announced a new program, the Seagrass Society, in which a person can make a financial bequest in his or her will to Save the Bay. Officials also told the crowd that the organization's balance sheet is millions of dollars in better shape than at this time last year.

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Just about every political player, from Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey, a Republican, to U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, a Democrat, sat at tables decked in white table cloths. And Providence, once a city searching for downtown tenants but now fielding plans for new development and a range of building restorations, is turning to the waterfront.

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