Thank You, Scott: Reflecting on 27 Years of Smart Growth Leadership 

Scott Wolf to Step Down as Executive Director of Grow Smart RI at the End of 2026 

For more than 27 years, Scott Wolf has been the heart of Grow Smart RI — a tireless advocate, a trusted voice, and a friend to everyone who cares about building a better Rhode Island. It is with mixed emotions that we share Scott’s plans to step down as Executive Director at the end of December 2026. 

Scott leaves behind a legacy that has genuinely changed the shape of Rhode Island. Under his leadership, GSRI has successfully worked to enhance Rhode Islanders’ economic mobility and neighborhoods, as well as their access to affordable housing and transportation. He leaves with plans to keep building on this work in the next chapter of his career.

“I’m proud of the impact Grow Smart RI has made during my tenure,” Scott said. “We’ve helped Rhode Island capitalize on our outstanding physical and natural assets. Our efforts have substantially improved the quality of daily life in our State.”

Among his proudest achievements is GSRI’s decades-long role promoting the State Historic Tax Credit, which Scott calls “the most powerful economic and community development tool for RI during the last quarter century.” He’s also particularly proud of the work done alongside transportation policy leader John Flaherty to develop the Transit Master Plan, and the impact of our Main Street RI program growing under the skilled leadership of Deputy Director Jillian Finkle. 

Scott has been and continues to be a connector in the deepest sense — serving on the State Planning Council, the State House of Representatives’ Commission on Housing Affordability, the Housing Works RI Advisory Board, and Smart Growth America’s Board for 18 years, consistently bringing national best practices home to Rhode Island. 

Scott is confident in the future of Grow Smart RI as it enters into this new chapter and is committed to helping  find strong new leadership. He is actively supporting the search.

The GSRI Board has established a five-member Executive Director Search Committee and prepared a comprehensive job description. If you know someone who would be a wonderful steward of this organization and its mission, we’d be grateful if you’d pass it along.

Learn more and view the full job description here.

Interested Executive Director candidates can apply by sending both a resume and cover letter to the GSRI Search Committee, gsri.search@gmail.com. 

Timeline of Key Grow Smart RI Accomplishments Under Scott’s Leadership

How to transform sprawl into human-scale, sustainable communities

Urban designer, planner, lecturer, and author Galina Tachieva wrote the book, literally, on retrofitting subdivisions, strip malls, and more

Grow Smart RI is proud to welcome Galina Tachieva to the Ocean State to deliver the keynote address at our Power of Place Summit on June 26. As managing partner of DPZ CoDESIGN, a renowned architecture and town-planning firm, Tachieva has 30 years of experience in urban design, redevelopment, and form-based codes, directing DPZ’s work in the United States and around the globe.

Tachieva is the author of Sprawl Repair Manual, an award-winning publication by Island Press which focuses on the retrofit of auto-centric places into human-scale, walkable communities. Hers is the first book to provide a step-by-step design, regulatory, and implementation process for fixing suburban sprawl, from turning subdivisions into walkable neighborhoods to reshaping shopping centers and malls into town centers and more.

As part of her Power of Place keynote address, Tachieva will point to examples of sprawl in Rhode Island and offer suggestions for how to transform those spaces. 

For DPZ, Tachieva manages complex projects and teams leading charrettes and other public processes from project initiation through implementation. Her projects have included downtowns and urban revitalizations, regional plans, environmental conservation, new communities, and resort towns.

“Tachieva brings a wealth of knowledge, insight and pragmatism to…the techniques for repairing sprawl at all levels of the built environment.”

— URBAN DESIGN Journal

Tachieva is deeply engaged in the broader planning and urbanism community. A Fellow of the Congress for the New Urbanism, she leads its national Sprawl Retrofit Initiative. She is a founding member of the Council for European Urbanism and has served as a visiting lecturer and design critic at Harvard University, the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, and at the University of Miami, among others.

The multilingual Tachieva was born and raised in Bulgaria. She holds a degree in architecture from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Miami School of Architecture. She is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and is a LEED-Accredited Professional.

Tachieva maintains an active civic engagement. A Fellow of the Congress for the New Urbanism, she leads its national Sprawl Retrofit Initiative. She is a founding member of the Council for European Urbanism and has served as a visiting lecturer and design critic at Harvard University, the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, and at the University of Miami, among others.

The multilingual Tachieva was born and raised in Bulgaria. She holds a degree in architecture from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Miami School of Architecture. She is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and is a LEED-Accredited Professional.

Members of the Rhode Island General Assembly are considering two resolutions — S-2676 and H-8316 — appropriating $150,000 to Grow Smart RI to bolster the viability of our state’s downtowns and village centers by extending our Main Street RI program into 2027. 

To date, 55 written testimonials have been submitted to legislators in support of the resolutions.  More than a dozen advocates have offered in-person testimonies before the House and Senate finance committees. We are grateful to Senator Lori Urso (District 8, Pawtucket), the key champion for this initiative, and to Representative Art Handy (District 18, Cranston) for introducing and passionately advocating on behalf of this legislation. 

In June 2025, the Rhode Island General Assembly made a landmark investment: $125,000 to Grow Smart RI to launch the state’s first Main Street program in partnership with Main Street America. The goal of our Main Street RI work is to catalyze the potential of our state’s underutilized downtowns and village centers, to transform them into thriving economic engines and vibrant community destinations by building local capacity, providing technical assistance and networking opportunities while serving as the official liaison between Rhode Island and Main Street America.

In our first year, Main Street RI established its first cohort of 11 teams with 85 participants representing 300,000 Rhode Islanders in the cohort communities. We hosted networking events and 12 monthly roundtables on topics ranging from parking reform to historical preservation. More than 100 participants from 20 municipalities registered for our inaugural Main Street Together Conference. We featured main street communities across the state in 10 episodes in our Power of Place podcast series. We’re just getting started towards building a stronger, more connected Rhode Island — one main street at a time.

Continued funding would allow us to expand the Main Street RI network and bring additional training to Rhode Islanders who want to reenergize and strengthen their downtowns and neighborhood commercial centers. 

Read more about the impact of Main Street RI’s first year

There is still time to let your representatives know that you support this work! Let them know why you support the Main Street RI funding appropriation bills. This is especially important if your legislator is on the House or Senate Finance Committees.

From Strip Mall to Gathering Place: Tulsa’s Global District and the Future of Main Street Revitalization

June 4, 2026 at 12PM

Featuring: Alejandro Garcia, Executive Director of the Tulsa Global District

The Tulsa Global District is a Main Street America program in the heart of East Tulsa, Oklahoma, the most multicultural area of the city. Founded in 2020, the organization works to support and amplify local businesses, celebrate cultural heritage, and host community events that reflect the district’s rich international identity. Leading the organization is Executive Director Alejandro Garcia, who brings a background in marketing and entrepreneurship to the role. Originally from Puebla, Mexico, Alejandro joined the Global District as Small Business Specialist in 2023 before stepping into the executive director position. He holds an MBA with a graduate certificate in entrepreneurship from Oklahoma State University and has coached dozens of small businesses on branding and market growth.

GROW SMART RI’S TESTIMONY IN SUPPORT OF BILL TO REFORM AND STRENGTHEN RI’S STATE HISTORIC TAX CREDIT PROGRAM:

April 28, 2026
Chairman Marvin Abney
RI State House Committee on Finance

Re: House Bill 8404–Grow Smart RI supports this bill to reform and strengthen the State Historic Tax Credit Program

Submitted to Christopher O’Brien, Committee Clerk: HouseFinance@rilegislature.gov.

Dear Chairman Abney and Honorable Members of the Committee:

Grow Smart RI is Rhode Island’s statewide smart growth advocacy organization. For 28 years, we have represented a big-tent coalition of business and civic leaders, and community stakeholders committed to designing and developing our communities in ways that put people first by strengthening our Downtowns and Main Streets, expanding affordable transportation and housing options, improving access to daily physical activity and protecting RI’s beauty, magic and soul.

We are convinced that our State can only effectively address our housing crisis and flourish in these volatile times by playing to our strengths with laser like precision. One of RI’s key strengths and competitive advantages is our nationally renowned collection of historic buildings and neighborhoods; many located within our Main Street and Downtown districts.

For these reasons and more, we strongly advocate passage of H 8404. This bill, introduced by your esteemed colleague Rep. Speakman, and co-sponsored by 9 other House members, is designed to make RI’s Historic Tax Credit (“HTC”) competitive with neighboring states and restore its ability to stimulate sorely needed, location efficient housing production and more transit friendly, walkable and bikeable neighborhoods.

The HTC Program: A Sound Investment with Major Dividends

Fortunately, there is nothing speculative or experimental about the State Historic Tax Credit. It is a time tested, high impact catalyst for housing production and community revitalization.

During the last 24 years, the HTC has been Rhode Island’s best economic and community development tool, facilitating rehab of 322 historic buildings in urban, suburban and rural communities, representing $2.18 billion in total investment in Rhode Island.

Other major benefits of the HTC include the cleanup of numerous environmentally contaminated sites (aka Brownfields) where many historic buildings are located, the addition of more than 6,000 units of housing, reduced opportunities for vandalism and arson as formerly vacant historic buildings spring back to life, and major increases in the property values and property tax revenue of economically challenged neighborhoods throughout RI.

In fact, data from Providence, Pawtucket and Woonsocket indicate the assessed value of historic buildings rehabbed through the HTC typically increases by 600% and sometimes by more than 1,000%.

HTC Reforms Sorely Needed to Get the Program Back on Track

The credits were designed to help cover the additional costs of historic rehabilitation (asbestos and lead paint removal, environmental cleanup, structural repairs, etc.), putting these projects on a level playing field with new construction. While once a model other states emulated, over time RI has added fees and restrictions that often outweigh the HTC’s tax benefits.

Examples of what makes the current program impractical and uncompetitive include:

1. A required fee of 3% of Qualified Rehab Expenditures (“QRE’s”), the highest in the nation, which is also non-refundable (adding risk). In RI, a project with $ 10 million in QRE’s pays a non refundable fee of $ 300,000. By contrast, in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts, the same size project would pay an HTC processing fee of roughly only $ 1,000!

2. The program currently disadvantages housing creation during an ongoing housing crisis by giving a 25% credit to commercial projects vs. only a 20% credit to housing projects. Again by contrast, historic rehab housing projects meeting certain criteria get a bonus State Historic Tax Credit in several other Northeastern states, including Connecticut and Maine.

3. Developers need to be confident the program will be around, and funded, when it’s their turn. Currently, Rhode Island’s Historic Tax Credit program will sunset in two months, on June 30, 2026. H 8404 provides for a 5 year extension of the HTC, until June 30,2031. This represents a longer extension than has been the norm in recent years.

4. A lack of transparency of the HTC Waiting List due to the fact that Waiting List projects’ names, locations, purposes and position in the queue are not shared with participants or the public, making it difficult for projects to plan and meet deadlines, and for other HTC stakeholders to assess the program’s evolution and advocate for it.

House Bill 8404 addresses these and other limitations to enable the program to once again be a strong housing and revitalization catalyst. Specifically the bill provides for a reduced filing fee; increasing the credit for housing projects to 30%, and up to 35% for housing projects with a significant affordable component; extending the sunset to 2031 and requiring more transparency for the HTC Waiting List.

Restoring the HTC Program’s Impact Also Requires New Funding`

While H8404 will improve the HTC program substantially, there is a stark reality that reform alone cannot address—the HTC program is virtually out of funding. In fact, our latest update from the RI Division of Taxation indicated that there was not enough HTC funding for the State to make commitments to Any of the 50 projects on the HTC waiting list as of October 29, 2025. These projects represent a projected total investment of more than $ 360 million in Rhode Island, but require collectively $75.5 million from the State over time to make this investment a reality.

This is why, as we prioritize fixing the legislative underpinnings of the program through passage of H 8404, we need to concurrently provide a reliable and consistent source of HTC funding, as our neighboring states do. In fact, many other states appropriate funds annually to their HTC programs. Connecticut makes $31.7 Million available each fiscal year; Massachusetts recently doubled its allocation to $110 Million per year for the next ten years. Maine’s program does not have a spending cap. We therefore urge this Committee and the full General Assembly to resume making a significant allocation to the HTC.

As a state whose Main Streets and Downtowns ooze charm and a profound sense of history, it is critical that we invest strategically in these RI showpieces and economic workhorses. Since the State HTC for more than two decades has been the best tool for generating major investment in ideal locations for housing and other forms of economic development, we thank you for your past support of it, and urgently request that you reboot this dynamic economic/ community development and housing production program.

Sincerely,

Scott Wolf,
Executive Director,
Grow SmartRI

RESOURCES

Meet placemaking leader C.J. Opperthauser

In his five years as executive director of Friends of Congress Square Park in downtown Portland, Maine, C.J. Opperthauser has cultivated a dedicated corps of volunteers and invited a wide variety of community programming to the pocket park year round. “You’re activating a public space,” he says of his work, “but really you’re building community.”

Formerly director of placemaking and training for Grow Smart RI, Opperthauser also freelances as a placemaking consultant. In presenting the “Activating Public Spaces” Main Street RI Roundtable, he began with the “why” of his work: “Public space is our one truly accessible, equitable platform for human connection, communication, expression, and simply being.” In the midst of a loneliness epidemic, increasing social divides, and threats to democracy, he sees public spaces as one of the better platforms to address many of those concerns.

PROGRAMMING

As the sole staff member of his nonprofit, Opperthauser works to cultivate a sense of co-ownership in all of the park’s functions, including the planning and executing of roughly 200 events throughout the year. The park hosts everything from small language table groups to dances, concerts, films, markets, and circus performances. 

For winter programming, Opperthauser started offering weekly S’mores Nights on Thursdays, 4-6 pm, December through February. He lights three fire pits and provide marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate bars. “As far as building connection, this event has to be the most bang for our buck.” 

Punching above its weight

Picture this: It’s a warm, sunny day. You feel a breeze on your face and smell salt air as you pedal along a mostly flat bike path, separated from the noise and rush of cars and trucks and surrounded by greenery. You are treated to expansive views of Narragansett Bay and scenic crossings of a few of its feeder rivers and coves. You pass by trailside playgrounds, restaurants, and picnic areas. If you like, you can easily turn off the trail to explore four town centers. 

These are among the features cited by the national Rail to Trails Conservancy when it named Rhode Island’s East Bay Bike Path as its January 2025 Trail of the Month, noting “the rail-trail has something for everyone.” Indeed, the 14-mile path connecting India Point Park on the Providence harbor with the seaport of Bristol is well used dawn to dusk by bicycle commuters often heading north to Providence, runners and walkers, and cyclists of all ages and abilities — including small packs of kids heading to school. 

Click the map to expand it!

RI State Greenways Plan Map. Photo courtesy from 2050 Long Range Transportation Plan

As the first rail-trail built in Rhode Island, the East Bay Bike Path is by most accounts the flagship route in the state’s rail-trail portfolio. But each of the longer greenways offers unique features and charms:

• The Washington Secondary Bike Path, named for the abandoned rail corridor, runs 19 miles, following the Pawtuxet River past a few historic mills and under luxurious tree shade between Cranston to western Coventry. The recently repaved path will soon stretch a few more miles to the state line and connect with an extensive trail network in Connecticut. 
• The Blackstone River Bikeway’s 18.2 miles includes 11.6 miles of off-road path between Cumberland and Woonsocket and segments of on and off-road bikeway heading south to India Point Park in Providence and north to the Massachusetts border. The path follows the Blackstone River where possible, including on tow paths along the historic Blackstone Canal. 
• The South County Bike Path, built on the former Narragansett Pier Railroad, runs 7.8 miles from the Kingston train station past turf fields and the URI campus and through the village of Wakefield to within a mile or so of the shoreline in Narragansett.

In total, Rhode Island is home to 75 miles of completed shared-use paths. The state’s  50-mile share of the 3,000-mile East Coast Greenway, a biking-walking route in development from Key West to Canada, is 67 percent complete, a ratio that many of the ECG’s 14 other states would covet.

Providence resident Eric Weis is a transportation planning project manager with Bowman Consulting. For 18 years he worked for the East Coast Greenway Alliance, including nine years directing greenway development up and down the East Coast. Ten years ago he shifted into active transportation projects focused mostly on Rhode Island. “When it comes to shared-use paths,” Weis says, “Rhode Island punches way above its weight,” given its relatively small size and population. 

Beyond the low-hanging fruit

Progress has slowed, however, on the Ocean State’s biking and walking landscape in the last decade, Weis warns, while neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts are stepping up their investment in such projects. Except for the last five miles of the Washington Secondary Trail, due for completion in the next few years, Rhode Island has “built out the low-hanging fruit,” the rail line right-of-ways that can be converted to trails, Weis notes. The work that remains to connect more communities across the state involves acquiring more challenging — and more expensive — right of ways.

The cost, time, and negotiation required to build greenways might surprise most greenway users. On average, a high-quality urban path costs $1 million per mile to build, and much more if the segments involve bridges or multiple road crossings. And resistance to their development persists despite plenty of successful examples such as the East Bay Bike Path (EBBP) that showcase the economic, transportation, social, and health benefits that greenways bring to communities.

The EBBP’s development offers a textbook case. In 1980 State Rep. Thomas Byrnes of Bristol submitted a bill to study the conversion of the rail corridor, which was purchased a few years earlier by the state’s Department of Transportation (RIDOT), into Rhode Island’s first multi-town bike path. In the midst of the oil crisis, Byrnes cited the energy-saving benefits of bicycle transportation. Community members along the route opposed the bike path idea, believing it would attract crime, hurt property values, and waste taxpayer money. But Byrnes had the support of then-Gov. Joseph Garrahy and Edward Wood, then director of RIDOT and an environmental advocate. Construction began in 1986 and was completed in four phases, with the final stretch opening in 1992. 

“Now of course people who live along the bike path boast about it and it’s become a main selling feature when houses are listed,” says John Flaherty, a Grow Smart RI senior adviser and member of the state’s Transportation Advisory Committee, which advises the State Planning Council on transportation issues and encourages public involvement in the planning process. 

Funding shared-use paths almost always feels like an uphill battle. Biking and walking paths and protected lanes “are never seen as integral, normal civic projects,” says Weis. “They are always funded through some special channel, even for maintenance. If an arterial road needs to get rebuilt for commuters, it’s funded from the DOT budget. But to build a shared-use path, that funding traditionally comes through federal earmarks or federal grants.”

Bob Billington knows first-hand the struggle to fund bike paths. In 1985 he founded the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council to bring focus to the region and restore its ravaged environment and economy. “As the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, the Blackstone Valley took America from bankruptcy after the American Revolution to the super-power status that we hold today,” he says. When the textile and other mill industries moved south, the valley was left with polluted land and rivers and economic depression. Seeking to revitalize the region while telling its story, Billington introduced sustainable tourism — including the creation of a 48-mile Blackstone Valley Bikeway, a project he spurred on by securing $15 million in federal funding two decades ago.

Now in its fifth decade of development, the bikeway is a little more than halfway complete. “The bikeway got people to rally around it. People use it and love it,” says Billington, who recently retired after 40 years of heading the tourism council. “Now we have to complete the work. Funding is our biggest challenge.”  

Beyond recreation

As laid out in the vision statement of the ​​Statewide Bicycle Mobility Plan, adopted in December 2020, “the future of bicycling in Rhode Island lies in the state’s ability to promote bicycling for everyday transportation…[with] the need to plan for well-connected, low-stress bikeways in urban, suburban, and rural areas.” Or, as Flaherty says, prioritize paths where they can connect people to destinations where biking can replace car trips. Encouraging more users to bike to work or for errands is simple, he says: Make it safe for everyone to bike.

Agrees Billington: “We have to get serious as a state that we want to connect all four corners of our state by these pathways.”  

In earlier years Ocean State bicycle advocates found support from elected officials, especially from Gov. Lincoln Almond (1995-2003) and Senators John Chafee (1976- 1999) and Claiborne Pell (1961-1997). The climate changed more recently. In 2015, then Gov. Gina Raimundo appointed Peter Alviti Jr., to lead RIDOT. Alviti saw repairing the state’s highway bridges as his mandate. He viewed bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure needs as a distraction, bike advocates say, and as competition for funding. In 2019 Alviti made the controversial move of taking $19 million in federal funding for pedestrian and bicycle safety and redirected it to address cost overruns on the Route 6/10 interchange project in downtown Providence.

Alviti’s retirement in late February 2026 and the November 2026 gubernatorial election present an inflection point for bike and pedestrian advocacy. “We just don’t know what the future holds,” Flaherty says. Robert Rocchio is serving as interim RIDOT director; a permanent replacement likely won’t be named until voters choose the next governor.

Dreaming of a safer, more connected future

After doing this work for 28 years, Weis can vouch for the patience it takes to see a route through from concept to paved path. “Being a trail advocate or professional isn’t a good career for people who need a quick return on investment,” he says. As a colleague once told him, “bicycle-pedestrian advocacy is a 12-step program for optimists.” 

If they could wave a magic wand and speed up a few project timelines, here’s what three biking and walking planners want to happen in the next 10 years:

Biking under the Route 116 Viaduct. Photo courtesy of Deirdre Bird

Blackstone Boulevard Bike Lanes. Photo courtesy of Deirdre Bird

Weis wants to see progress in the state’s most populated areas, including a safe, traffic-separated connection between the northern end of the Washington Secondary Trail and downtown Providence (“I’m very optimistic about this,” he says). He also wants to see more separated bike lanes with sidewalks alongside them, separating pedestrians, bikes, and motor vehicles. “I believe the future of shared-use paths isn’t necessarily the 12-foot separated greenway. It’s side paths alongside roadways with wide rights of way. There’s a lot more opportunity for that type of infrastructure, and the farther you can get bikes away from cars, the lower the level of stress.”

Flaherty hopes for the implementation of a rail-with-trail multimodal corridor along the Newport Secondary Line, a project that would connect walkers, cyclists, and rail passengers from Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island and on to Tiverton and Fall River (which now has connecting rail service to Boston).  “This has been studied for many years, is part of each community’s Comprehensive Community Plan, and is now getting renewed attention,” he says. The state’s recently updated Long Range Transportation Plan, “Moving Forward RI 2050,” calls for replacing the former railroad bridge connecting Portsmouth and Tiverton. 

Billington simply wants to see the state’s bicycle mobility plan completed in the next ten years, maybe half of it over the next five years. “That takes political will and funding,” he says. “These are legitimate transportation amenities that all sectors of our society use. It makes no difference who you are, the pathways bring people together to enjoy our state’s natural, commercial, and environmental resources. [Shared-use paths have] become the resource we are best known for and our most enjoyed resource.”

Resources for biking and walking advocacy in Rhode Island

• BikeNewport – Aquidneck Island nonprofit working to make bicycling accessible, safe, and inviting for all. 
• Guide to the East Coast Greenway: New Haven, Connecticut, to Providence, Rhode Island By Bike or On Foot — A newly updated guide from the East Coast Greenway Alliance that highlights history, culture, and places to eat and sleep along the southern New England stretch of the Key West to Canada East Coast Greenway.
• Paths to Progress – Statewide network of cycling advocates working together to complete and plan future bikeways in Rhode Island and advocate for funding to complete them..
• PVD Streets Coalition – An alliance of 42 community organizations, local businesses, schools, neighborhood associations, and thousands of engaged individuals advocating for people-friendly streets in Providence. 
• Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council — Nonprofit working to spark economic development by restoring the Woonasquatucket River and communities around it and by enhancing, extending, and bringing people to the Woonasquatucket River Greenway.

From developing canal tours and cultural programming to relentless advocacy, the Tourism Council helped reposition the Valley from overlooked mill towns into a destination grounded in authenticity. Progress was rarely easy.

“It takes a long time to bring a community back from an unsustainable condition,” Bob said. “Can we get it back to equilibrium?”

As riders filled the bus — every seat taken, conversations overlapping in a dozen directions — the question felt less theoretical. Equilibrium is not nostalgia. It’s the ability for everyday systems to work again.

And from John’s vantage point at Grow Smart Rhode Island, transit is central to that next chapter. “We have the opportunity to build a system that works for the entire state — strengthening economic development, transporting visitors, expanding housing opportunity (without more traffic), and helping families save money”, he said.

Even crowded, there was something energizing about it.

As we stepped off, Bob turned back toward the driver. “Good day everybody. Thank you. Keep it up.”

Upon returning to the Tourism Council offices, a group of schoolchildren had just arrived on their own school bus for a field trip about the Valley’s history. Their energy and curiosity were positively electric as they were entering the building to learn about mills, rivers, and reinvention.

“All these kids,” he said, “are like little Johns and little Bobs in the making. We just started it. Their generation can bring it home.”

Forty years ago, founding a tourism council here might have seemed improbable. Today, the river runs cleaner, downtowns and Main Streets are alive again, and visitors arrive seeking authenticity rather than nostalgia.

The road back has been long.

But if the first forty years were about restoration — about cleaning the river and reclaiming identity — the next twenty can be about connection. About building a transit system that links people to jobs, neighborhoods to opportunity, and visitors to a landscape that tells one of America’s most consequential stories.

View more Rhodies-In-Transit HERE.

SHARE THIS RIDE. And tell us, who do you want to see on the bus?! Tag @GrowSmartRI to let us know.

Transit … where all walks of life can ride together.

Mapping Your Main Street District’s Assets

Asset mapping has been used as a community development tool for many different purposes and there are several different approaches. This post explores the use of asset mapping in a Main Street context.

If your goal for your commercial district, village center or downtown is to be economically and socially vibrant, you’re going to need a plan that can be implemented by a group of people over time. While it’s often our inclination to start making that plan by identifying what is needed, what’s missing, or what’s wrong, a better approach is to start with everything that your district does have and then identify the gaps. Doing so leads to better results because when we start with the unique qualities of a particular community, we end up with a plan that builds on what is special and not what might already exist elsewhere.

What is an Asset Map? 

Assets are what we want to keep, build upon, and sustain for future generations. When identifying a Main Street district’s assets, consider all aspects of place, including the physical elements as well as people, organizations, programs, traditions, systems, and stories.

The end result of an asset mapping process might be an actual map (or several!) but more likely it is a collection of documents that together describe all of the strengths of a place and its community. It can be summarized in a written report and it can include one or more lists, maps, charts, graphs, pictures, links, drawings, or other methods of sharing information. 

It can be very simple, especially when just starting out. You can always keep a list of what is unknown or what data or information you want to find or research. 

One example of a comprehensive asset mapping report from a Main Street District is from the Heart of Ellsworth (Maine.)

However, a report is only a snapshot in time and as a district grows and changes the assets will change as well. Communities should be keeping track of these changing assets, conducting periodic assessments and updates.

What Are You Looking For?

Your reasons for undertaking an asset mapping process will determine what assets you want to identify. For a Main Street District, we are looking for the assets that will lead to the development of all four points of the Main Street Approach (Design, Economic Vitality, Promotion, and Organization) so you can organize your process around those categories. It will also be useful to identify assets that might not be within your district’s boundaries but are nearby and thus impact your district (such as a state park, major employer, etc.)

Who Participates in an Asset Mapping Process?

An inclusive approach that actively recruits participation from an entire community is going to result in a more complete asset map. Often it will take extensive outreach to get to everyone, but drawing on the lived experiences and diverse perspectives of those who live, work, and spend time in your community will offer insights that data alone can’t capture. Long time residents and business owners can describe how the district has changed over time and those newer to a community might have fresh perspectives on which spaces and opportunities have been overlooked.

How Do You Do It?

A variety of methods can be used to collect ideas from your community.

• Community meetings/workshops
• Online or paper surveys or asked in person
• Walk audits
• Focus groups
• As a guest speaker at existing meetings
• 1-on-1 conversations
• Review of media or other “literature”

A comprehensive process likely involves multiple occurrences of several of these methods, but you can get started with just one! 

What Asset Mapping can do for your Main Street District

Best Practices for Asset Mapping Your Main Street

From Insight to Action

Asset mapping is most powerful when it leads to action on your Main Street, such as:

• Identifying clusters of activity and reinforcing them through programming or design
• Supporting existing businesses that play key community roles
• Improving connections between assets (like linking transit stops to retail areas)
• Filling gaps where “missing assets” have been identified
• Using maps and community input to inform policy, funding, or development decisions

Visual tools—maps, databases, or even simple guides—can help communicate these insights to local officials, funders, and partners. They make a compelling case: this is not a place defined by need alone, but by opportunity.

See It. Map It. Build From It.

Your Main Street doesn’t need to be reinvented—it just needs to be recognized. By mapping what’s already working, your community can make smarter decisions, invest more effectively, and build on its existing strengths to shape what comes next.

We’ve collected some resources that we hope will help you along your Main Street asset mapping journey, and plan to add to these resources as we learn more.

• Asset-Based Community Development at a Glance, Tamarack Institute
• Asset Based Community Development Institute
• The Four Essential Elements of an Asset-Based Community Development Process, ABCD Institute
• Participatory Asset Mapping Toolkit, from the Community Research Lab
• What is Community Asset Mapping? A Strength-Based Approach to Community Development, Visible Network Labs
• Asset Mapping: User Guide Overview, Institute of Museum and Library Services

View more Rhodies-In-Transit HERE.

SHARE THIS RIDE. And tell us, who do you want to see on the bus?! Tag @GrowSmartRI to let us know.

Transit … where all walks of life can ride together.