Turning point

Olneyville, long one of Providence's most neglected neighborhoods, is being targeted for improvement. Can the effort succeed when it gives short shrift to the concerns of residents?

by Kathleen Hughes

If you know Olneyville, and the chances are you don't, you probably wouldn't connect it to old-timers' fond recollections of swimming in the summer or skating in the winter at Merino Park. If someone remembered swinging on a rope out over a river "like Tarzan," it wouldn't conjure images of the contaminated Woonasquatucket.

What's most distinctive about Olneyville these days is the number of keeling, boarded-up houses and weed-and-trash-choked lots. Just 15 percent of housing is owner-occupied -- the lowest of any Providence neighborhood -- and 20 percent of residential property is vacant or abandoned. Although the neighborhood's reputation as a dangerous place is overstated, it's arguably the most neglected part of Providence. "Olneyville is the forgotten part of the city," says Brother Lawrence Goyette, a member of a small Christian Brothers Catholic community on Manton Avenue.

Here's the good news: Olneyville is showing signs of improvement. A $4.5 million federal tax credit will support the construction and rehab of 32 single-family rental units; a five-mile bicycle-pedestrian path is to be built as part of the multi-million dollar Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project; and plans are moving forward for an environmental clean-up of polluted Riverside Mills. About 40 artists and entrepreneurs work at historic Atlantic Delaine Mills, including visual artistKara Walker, winner of a MacArthur "genius grant," and Morgan Manceaux, a painter, philanthropist and children's book author.

Perhaps even more importantly, community organizing at Olneyville's three churches and two community centers takes place across broad ethnic, religious and generational lines, forming an inchoate force for change. The vibrancy of the community can be seen at places like St. Teresa's Catholic Church on Manton Avenue, which regularly attracts a standing-room-only crowd and offers an array of community activities. The Joslin and Nickerson House community centers run popular child care and neighborhood programs, complete with waiting lists.

But, after Upper South Providence, Olneyville remains the city's second poorest neighborhood, and has a median family income of $16,857, according to the Providence Plan, a public-private partnership. It needs more jobs and green space. And while the number of murders in Olneyville in recent years is a fraction of those in similarly poor South Providence neighborhoods, crime remains a real problem, as evidenced by a recent stabbing at the Manton Heights Project.

When it comes to what the neighborhood needs, residents quickly cite two priorities: affordable owner-occupied housing and a more pronounced police response to curb rampant drug dealing and prostitution. Some of these needs are gaining attention. An infusion of more than $10 million is coming to Olneyville with the rental housing and environmental plans, along with a RIPTA transit center in Olneyville Square and the neighborhood's federal designation as an enterprise community, which brings job training, loan programs and other benefits.

But although many residents are grateful for these kinds of efforts, the most costly efforts -- such as the Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project and the Riverside Mills clean-up -- represent not their priorities, but those of outside planners. As a result, this historically distinguished, spirited, and increasingly diverse neighborhood seems both inordinately challenged and poised to climb out of its abyss.

THE TWIN TURRETS of the 1851 Atlantic-Delaine Mills on Manton Avenue provide a perfect metaphor for the neighborhood. They are at once proud and injured -- one has its original ornamental cupola, while the other is a boarded-up amputee. The storefront buildings of Olneyville Square recall an old main street, with its ice cream soda connotations. Yet the square is now, most immediately, a confusing six lanes of traffic. People? They're everywhere -- Asian, Hispanic, white, black, young, old, newcomers, and stalwarts of 50 years. Diversity in Olneyville is nothing new. Immigrants have been settling here for more than three centuries.

Prior to 1636, the Narragansett tribe's Woonasquatucket ("at the head of the tidewater") settlement was nearby. In 1700, Olneyville was part of Roger Williams' Providence colony and trading occurred via the river. In the 1850s, after the Atlantic Delaine and Riverside textile mills were constructed next to each other, they were filled with women and children, mostly Irish, English, and French-Canadian. Female Irish workers started a powerful regional strike at the Atlantic in 1873 to demand a 10-hour work day. In 1884, female workers organized the state's first socialistic daycare.

In the early 20th-century, the second wave of immigrants brought Italians, Poles, and other Eastern Europeans. Olneyville continued to be an active center of organized labor. Starting work at Atlantic Delaine as a boy of 13, Italian-born Al Sisti led a wildcat strike of his adolescent colleagues.

In the same way as other Providence neighborhoods, Olneyville's decline can be pegged to suburban flight, and the Southern migration of textiles and manufacturing. But these problems were magnified by the construction in 1951 of routes 6 and 10, which decimated Olneyville's seamless connection with Federal Hill and downtown Providence. High state-wide unemployment through much of the '60s and '70s meant that Olneyville stagnated still more.

The state credit union crisis in the early '90s was the proverbial last straw. With residents losing their homes and banks taking title to them, absentee landlords scooped up property, took whomever they could as tenants, and ignored routine upkeep, repairs, and improvements. The houses deteriorated and landlords disappeared. Drugs, prostitution, and poverty increased, and more long-time homeowners moved out. When it came to distressed neighborhoods, the city and non-profits focused on South Providence and Elmwood. Suddenly, it's 2000.

Juan Garcia

THE COHESION of Olneyville residents is both impressive, given the diversity of Hispanic, Asian, black, and white neighbors, and necessary, since the neighborhood is more densely settled than other parts of the city. Leading efforts to organize this community is the Rev. Raymond Tetreault, pastor of St. Teresa's Catholic Church on Manton Avenue. Tetreault is an admirer of the Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, assassinated during his country's civil conflict, who advocated for the poor. Talk to virtually anyone about Olneyville, and they offer praise to Tetreault.

One sign of St. Teresa's strength as a force for change is evident in how it's the only Catholic parish in the state to employ salaried organizers. "We work together to try and find people to work together," explains Juan Garcia, a Mexican native who works as the church's community organizer. These efforts have sparked programs -- help for immigrants, a community land trust that strives to keep housing locally owned -- and steered volunteers to worthy causes. "We get an amazing number of neighborhood participants in Olneyville, many from St. Teresa's church," says Herman De Koe, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Providence.

Immigrants come to Olneyville from Honduras and Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Laos, and elsewhere, and St. Teresa's program tries to help them adjust to American life. As the local chapter of the National Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty, the church supports general amnesty for the six million illegal immigrants in the US.

St. Teresa's also hosts a town meeting-style summit between parishioners, residents and police on the second Wednesday of every month. The most tangible result, Garcia says, is that seven drug dealers and at least 40 drug users have been arrested in the neighborhood since January. Still, many residents say much more needs to be done. "The police can do their job, but we need more of them," Garcia says. "In Johnston, they don't have this [drugs] problem. The political people -- the mayor, the governor -- need to pay more attention . . . Where's Olneyville? It's like abandoned territory." (Capt. John Ryan, a police spokesman, didn't return calls seeking comment.)

There are other difficulties. Olneyville Housing Corporation, a non-profit that should be a powerful nexus for community improvement, has floundered in recent years. Olneyville also suffers from the way that local wards are drawn -- neither Ward 15 Councilwoman Josephine De Russo nor Ward 6 Councilman Joe De Luca count Olneyville first in their constituency. De Russo has more people from wealthier Silver Lake, where she resides; a council staffer takes time to explain that De Luca "doesn't really have Olneyville," despite the fact that he represents Manton Avenue from St. Teresa's church to the Johnston/Providence line.

De Russo does point out that the city's first community police officer was stationed in Olneyville. "The community wants police visibility and they deserve to be satisfied," she says. "I think that's critical."

For his part, Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr. denies that Olneyville is being neglected. On the contrary, he says, reciting a five-minute litany of city, state, and federal efforts in the neighborhood. Regarding an enhanced police presence to curb crime, Cianci says, "When you go to quality of life polling, people in impoverished neighborhoods always say police protection is not adequate. That's all over the country."

State Representative Anastasia Williams

WHILE CIANCI's list of efforts is neither padded or exaggerated, no one denies that revitalizing Olneyville is a staggering challenge. The projects focus on two fronts -- housing and environmental remediation. And while residents appreciate the attention, they are less enthusiastic about the specific efforts.

Once the defining element of Olneyville, the Woonasquatucket River is hidden behind weeds, trees, fences, and refuse. Coursing by numerous mills and other industrial sites, the river hasn't been healthy in this century, let alone an appealing vista. But several million dollars, in the form of the Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project (WRGP), aim to change that. The greenway project includes plans for a 5.7-mile bike-pedestrian path, from the Johnston/Providence line, to Waterplace Park in downtown Providence. Olneyville's Donigian and Merino Parks will be used as "anchor parks" for the project. The formerly unused Dyerville State Park will become a small golf course.

"As a symbol, the bike path is important," says Chris Barnett, spokesman for the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation, a quasi-public agency, which recently announced the $4.5 million federal low-income tax credit package for rental housing in Olneyville. "It's a symbol of revitalization, confidence, of the city making an investment," Barnett says.

Although greenway officials solicited community input in designing the parks, the project is clearly the brainchild and the achievement of planners, not residents. As Barnett says, it's a symbol, a beautiful book jacket of sorts. Community members recognize this, and are skeptical. Will the greenway help the neighborhood? "It's hard to say," says long-time resident Barbara Ricks. "I don't think so." Her doubt reflects the prevalence of vandalism in the neighborhood. "A lot of kids today will destroy anything," she says.

But Rita Schiappa, a resident since 1964 and an assistant teacher at Joslin Community Center, says, "I think it will be nice." Somewhat hesitantly, she adds, "It's good that at night at least people will have a place to go and walk, maybe."

State Representative Anastasia Williams (D-Providence), who represents Olneyville, smiles when the project is mentioned. "Yes, the bike path," she says. "Who's it for?"

The greenway money, from a variety of city, state, and federal sources, has come more easily because the Woonasquatucket is one of 14 national American Heritage Rivers. This designation prioritizes the area for funding, says Jane Sherman, the Providence Plan-based project director for the greenway.

Big plans are also in the works for the former Riverside Mills, which burned down in 1989. The rubble-strewn lot has remained untouched, hideous, and dangerous for 11 years -- giving Olneyville another little-needed diorama of neglect and waste. But in 1998, the US Environmental Protection Agency dubbed the site a Brownfields Showcase Community, a designation available when the cost of remediation exceeds the value of contaminated industrial sites.

City, state, federal and private sources have committed some $4.3 million to clean and redevelop the area as green space with some commercial and/or light industrial development. This plan, combined with the greenway and the Woonasquatucket's Heritage River status, leads Cianci to label Olneyville as "the EPA's poster child." But while this might please planners, it does little to answer the main concerns of residents -- better housing and cleaner, safer streets.

"The immediate need [in Olneyville] is housing -- that's absolutely number one," agrees Sherman. "We're also trying to offer other amenities . . . People need a safe place to have a picnic, a safe place to play."

Adds De Russo, "Every bit of it makes a difference. We're trying to clean up the neighborhood to make people feel better about where they live, while we work on these other, more intimate concerns such as housing."

AFTER A FEW years in which Olneyville Housing Corporation (OHC) hasn't accomplished much, it will develop the 32-unit rental units recently outlined in the $4.5 million Rhode Island Housing tax-credit plan. "Housing is a catalyst," says Barnett. "It creates jobs, bolsters the tax rolls, and encourages additional investment."

For residents, however, the project is something of a consolation prize because it's rental, not owner-occupied housing. As Garcia, of St. Teresa's Church, says, "We need ownership for this neighborhood. Homeowners take care of their family, of their house, the neighborhood."

Frank Shea, OHC's executive director, says the federal money in the project mandates rental development. "On this scale, you have to do low-income housing tax credit and that's rental, not ownership," he says. Private ownership, Shea adds, tends to occur on a house-by-house basis.

De Russo opposed the rental project at first in favor of ownership projects. "But unfortunately," she says, "with the devastation, people are afraid to come." She describes the rental project as an "infusion of newness" and says that once the project was reduced in size, she agreed to it.

Still, Williams, the state rep, remains displeased. "They aren't paying attention to what the needs are," she says. "The community met for two years on this issue, saying they did not want rental properties, that they wanted ownership. But it fell on deaf ears." Williams adds, "The gain for the developers is less with home ownership than with rentals."

Carla De Stefano, executive director of Stop Wasting Abandoned Property (SWAP), a non-profit housing developer in South Providence, emphasizes that large-scale rental projects, like SWAP's 1992 project, Princeton Place in West Elmwood, can be springboards to larger ownership projects. "The fact is, you gotta get a start somewhere," de Stefano says, emphasizing Olneyville Housing's "new beginning."

That diplomatic phrase refers to another tender spot. Olneyville Housing started 12 years ago at Nickerson House with help from councilwoman De Russo. OHC has a community-based board of directors, a salaried executive director and staff. OHC's last executive director, Bob Ottiano, was fired in June 1999 amid suspicion that money was mishandled. Shea says a recently completed audit shows no money is missing. "[Ottiano] lost communication with the board," Shea says. "The board didn't know what he was doing and he didn't care that they didn't know, so they got suspicious." (Ottiano has moved from the area, and the Phoenix couldn't reach him for comment.)

Shea has been Olneyville Housing's executive director since January. While most say call him a welcome addition, Gioppo, a long-time Manton Avenue resident and former OHC board member, is concerned that Shea gets "twice the salary anyone has ever gotten and he's working part time."

As for working part-time, Shea says, "I'm paid-part time and I'm ending up working full-time." De Russo echoes this. "Whenever I call, he's there," she says.

Shea's $40,000 salary is in line with those of other executive directors of non-profit housing developers, says Brenda Clement, executive director of the Housing Network, an alliance of such groups. "He may be paid more than past directors [of OHD] but it's probably still not enough," she says. More importantly, the higher salary and Shea's commitment should be seen as a sign of OHC's rising profile.

DURING WORLD WAR II, Olneyville had the most volunteers of any Providence neighborhood, Cianci points out. Community policing was started here because, Gioppo says, she called the mayor and demanded it. Along the fantastic curving staircase railings inside the Atlantic Mills turrets, there are still minute, upraised wooden studs that were intended, owner Howard Brynes says, to keep child workers from sliding down the banister.

The details and narratives that make Olneyville compelling are numerous, as are the efforts to improve the neighborhood. Revitalization is complicated, and it takes time and a sustained financial investment. Long-time resident Annette Clift points out that efforts in some other Providence neighborhoods started 20 years ago. Says Williams, "If they would just drop a big Wells Fargo truck over there with an honest responsible individual who would, in fact, do the responsible thing with these resources for those people -- you know?"

Still, Olneyville needs more than money. A contemplated redrawing of city wards could enable the neighborhood to have its own councilor. Certainly, Olneyville, and other parts of town, would benefit from a more responsive brand of policing and a less dismissive tone from the mayor.

All this said, it's hard to imagine that this confluence of efforts, coming from both outside sources and the community itself, won't transform Olneyville. Still, these are beginnings, not conclusions. If Olneyville's history offers a lesson, it's that neither of these sides can succeed alone.

Kathleen Hughes can be reached at khughes[a]phx.com.