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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Research papers
Description
An account of the resource
Students researched and wrote assignments on various topics related to Mashapaug Pond, the Gorham Manufacturing Company, and the Reservoir Triangle neighborhood.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Lucy Boltz
Ora Star Boncore
Hannah Burn
Ria Fulton
Adriana Isaza
Lizzy Landau
Jen Lawrence
Chang Lu
Katharine Mead
Araceli Mendez
Aditi Pinto
Julie Pittman
Maria Quintero
Anya Ventura
Anna Wada
Nate Weisenberg
Sarah Yahm
Document
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Text
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Murphy-Trainor Park, 4.6 acres of woods on the southwest side of the Mashapaug pond, was purchased by the city and developed into a passive recreation area in June 1994 under a five-year fight by the Mashapaug Pond Action Committee, which was a sub-branch of the Reservoir Triangle Neighborhood Association, to save the woodland from being developed into townhouses.
J.T. Owens Park was built by the state in 1950s and was taken over by the Parks Department in 1994. The park is dedicated to John T. Owens who was a famous baseball player in amateur local baseball team in Providence. People used to call him “Happy Owens”. Owens became a serviceman and was killed in WWII. In Providence City Directory, John T. Owens’s name disappeared after 1956.
[See attached file for more information and references]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Murphy-Trainor and J.T. Owens Parks
Description
An account of the resource
What is the history of the Murphy-Trainor Memorial Park (dedicated 1994) and the J.T. Owens Park? How and why were they created?
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Chang Lu
community
environmental activism
J.T. Owens Park
Mashapaug Pond
Murphy-Trainor Memorial Park
Providence Jewish community
Reservoir Triangle
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Omeka Image File
The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files.
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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Area photographs
Description
An account of the resource
Photographs of the area around Reservoir Triangle, and particular places that were mentioned in the interviews.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Mashapaug Pond contamination sign
contamination
environmental activism
Mashapaug Pond
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
Rhode Island Department of Health
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
warning sign
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Research papers
Description
An account of the resource
Students researched and wrote assignments on various topics related to Mashapaug Pond, the Gorham Manufacturing Company, and the Reservoir Triangle neighborhood.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Lucy Boltz
Ora Star Boncore
Hannah Burn
Ria Fulton
Adriana Isaza
Lizzy Landau
Jen Lawrence
Chang Lu
Katharine Mead
Araceli Mendez
Aditi Pinto
Julie Pittman
Maria Quintero
Anya Ventura
Anna Wada
Nate Weisenberg
Sarah Yahm
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document.
Those whose lives and experiences are touched by the environmental problems created at the Gorham Manufacturing site have over the years found ways of coming together to have their voices heard and their concerns addressed. The citizens have organized both to put pressure on state officials and organizations to clean up the site and provide information to residents, and also to educate each other about health and environmental concerns through community organized activities.
One organization that has been key in helping to bring together the communities around the Gorham site for discussion and education is the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island. This organization has helped to create a forum for community leaders to bring up their concerns and has also sponsored community meetings to inform residents on the ongoing work to clean up the Gorham site. In 2010, the Environmental Justice League held two main meetings regarding Gorham. The first was on March 10th at the Knight Memorial Library on Elmwood Avenue. This meeting, sponsored by the CARE Alliance brought Joe Martella, the Site Manager for the Gorham site for the Department of Environmental Management to talk to residents about the clean-up actions taking place to protect residents from the contamination.
The following month, a group of community organizers organized another community forum to bring attention to the Gorham site and its environmental and health hazards. This forum, held on May 11th, was supported again by the Environmental Justice League, whose website wrote,
“Recently a group of residents living near the site – which in addition to Alvarez High School also has a now-vacant Stop & Shop building and gas station – has come together again to work with the responsible parties – the Providence Redevelopment Agency, the Department of Environmental Management, and Textron – to ensure that everything is being done to fully protect residents from contamination still on the site, as well as communicate with residents about progress on the site’s full cleanup and redevelopment.”
The Environmental Justice League held another event later in 2010 which took place at the Renaissance Church in the Mashapaugh Commons Shopping Plaza on the evening of August 30th. This meeting brought together residents to “hear about the work the [Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry] ATSDR is doing at the former Gorham Manufacturing Facility Site” . This meeting brought together representatives from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, the Rhode Island Department of Health, Textron Corporation and the City of Providence and centered on health assessments and future planning for the Gorham site.
An EcoRI News report recapping this last meeting reveals that much of the community’s concern is currently the state of Parcel C, the still untreated and undeveloped parcel west of Alvarez High School. Not only are there questions about the future plans for this parcel, but there are also concerns about the soil from that site blowing around the neighborhood to people’s houses and to the school.
All of these community events reflect a long-standing concern on behalf of the citizens regarding the environmental issues within their neighborhood. While they may get support from larger organizations, they create movement towards change by coming together and asking for help from such organizations and putting pressure on politicians to pay attention to their demands. This is well illustrated by a letter written by the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for the Reservoir Triangle and South Providence to the Mayor of the City of Providence, the Acting Director for the Department of Public Property, and the Director of the Providence Redevelopment Agency in 2006:
“At recent community meetings regarding the Gorham/Textron Dumps Site…members of our organization have repeatedly queried the RI Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) as to the status of the former Stop & Shop facility…at the Gorham/Textron Dumps Site. Since no representative of the City has chosen to attend these meetings, the RIDEM could not provide answers to our questions.”
This short segment of the letter demonstrates the community’s ability to organize, their awareness of the environmental concerns, and the frustration with the lack of responsiveness on the part of the city. The letter goes on to ask for clarification on “what remediation technology is currently in place for the building on Parcel B [Alvarez High School]” .
When state officials have been unresponsive, the residents have taken matters into their own hands. As reported by EcoRI, on June 26th of 2010 residents of the Reservoir Triangle neighborhood came together to put up signs on the fence surrounding Parcel C warning people to stay out of the area. These hand-painted signs, written in both English and Spanish, were the neighborhood’s response to the failure of the Providence Redevelopment Agency to adhere to a court order mandating that the fence around the contaminated land have an eight foot fence around it, trees and shrubs to deter trespassing, and signs in both English and Spanish. As of October of 2011, the city still has not put up signs on the fence, but the residents’ signs remain.
In a further attempt to raise awareness of the contamination caused by pollution at the Gorham site, and particularly the effects of that pollution on Mashapaug Pond, the residents of the Reservoir Triangle neighborhood, again with the support of the Environmental Justice League, held the Fourth Annual Urban Pond Procession in May of 2011. As part of this event, workshops were held to educate the public about environmental issues and also about the history of Gorham Silver Manufacturing Company. Thus, the community has shown that it can organize to put pressure on officials and demand change, but that when such efforts show no response, they can also take charge of the effort to raise awareness and educate local residents about the environmental concerns at the Gorham site.
[see attached file for further research and bibliography]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Community Awareness Raising
Description
An account of the resource
In what ways have community activists tried to call attention to environmental concerns at the Gorham site?
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Adriana Isaza
Alvarez High School
community
environmental activism
Environmental Justice League
Gorham site
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
Urban Pond Procession
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b8462c4acd9a403f7915bf7c1edabe40
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Oral history interviews
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of excerpts from oral history interviews conducted by Brown University students in the class Oral History and Community Memory during the fall of 2011. We interviewed past and present residents of the Reservoir Triangle neighborhood and others with connections to Mashapaug Pond and the Gorham Manufacturing Company site.
Please check back often, since we will continue to add new clips to the site.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Lucy Boltz
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Ana Quezada
Location
The location of the interview.
J. Walter Wilson Building, Brown University, Providence, RI
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
Ana Quezada: Because we live -- the lake is in the back of my yard. People used to use it in the neighborhood for the children. They used to use it and go and have picnic and the children used to swim in there. That was many years ago. Since the company was there people noticed that they were throwing waste into the lake. Then that's why people stopped using it. There's still some neighbors that use it. They know about the problem they say that (sic) if you take a bath right away nothing will happen to you, but I only see one family using it. Most of the people in the neighborhood don't use the lake.
And when Textron had the company in there. Many years ago that company was there for 100 years in that place where the Stop and Shop is now. Then the city was building a school in there. Well they did build the school and most of the neighborhood was against it to build the school because they said that that land was so bad the children in there can have problems to grow and the teachers. And they build it anyway. They said they have a system that supposed to have an alarm.
Many of the children in the school are Latino, not necessarily from the neighborhood. And we think the school should do more for the people to know what's going on, but the school department for whatever reason, they're keeping it as a secret. Not even the teachers know what the problem in that school is and that's really maddening most.
I'm now a part of the board for the Environmental Justice League. And to talk about those issues. A few times- many people go to my house, I do a lot of meetings in my house.
We meet with the environmental, with the city of Providence, with Textron and us, the people from the neighborhood every three months. Because they are going to start cleaning. And the reason they're doing it is because the community is getting more and more involved in this.
And my husband would like to be in the back of the yard a lot. Now, he's doing his GED and now he's sitting there and he studies. And he likes that part of the lake.
Because I'm coming from a country. We don't pay a lot of attention to contamination or they don't believe in that because of the poor education. And everybody need to do a little bit. See, we all do a little things, this world would be different.
Well, one time I talked to one of the neighbors and she's been living there for the last 20 years. And she's been very disappointed with the whole thing. And she said to me "You'll be out of the community before they do something with that land." And I said to her, "I don't think so." When I do something. When I believe in a project I will continue to the end.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with Ana Quezada
Description
An account of the resource
Ana Quezada is a board member of the Environmental Justice League of RI, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic and a resident of the Mashapaug Pond area. She describes some of her perceptions of the community’s connection to the pond and contaminated land near a high school, the process of pressing Textron to clean up the Pond and the land that is contaminated, and conducting community meetings as well as meetings with the city of Providence. She reflects on immigrants’ (from Third World countries) relationship with environmentalism as well as her own motivation to keep on working on remediation efforts.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
October 29, 2011
Alvarez High School
City of Providence
environmental activism
Environmental Justice League
Mashapaug Pond
Textron