Rhode Island is the smallest, yet most urbanized state in the nation. The state contains 139 square miles of impervious surfaces, amounting to 13 percent of its land area, according to a 2022 study. These surfaces form an “intricate network of interactions and conditions such as elevated surface and air temperatures,” according to the study.
People living in these densely populated urban areas face higher temperatures than those in more leafy locations, and the phenomenon is exacerbated as the climate heats up. Scientists and advocates use the term “heat island” to describe an area that experiences many more days of extreme temperatures than those mere miles away.
Across Rhode Island, advocacy groups are planting trees, turning parking lots into community gardens, offering cooling centers like the one at Emmanuel House, and advocating for utility justice so everyone has air conditioning and running water during heat waves. Their efforts often focus on the state’s densely populated urban areas, including Providence’s Silver Lake, Elmwood, and West End neighborhoods with population densities of 14,987, 15,793, and 17,245 per square mile respectively. In comparison, the city’s Blackstone neighborhood has a density of just 4,986 people per square mile.
Advocates said that “greening” neighborhoods by pursuing both on-the-ground actions and policy change will help keep them cooler as the planet warms.
Often this literally means dirty work. “It’s very tangible,” said Amelia Rose, executive director of Groundwork RI, which creates community gardens, offers summer jobs to Providence youth, and advocates for compost initiatives statewide. The organization’s work is “not just advocacy or going to the State House and lobbying for a bill,” Rose said. Those actions are critical, too, she said, but getting plants into the ground allows residents to see visible, immediate results.
“Healthy Neighborhoods,” one of Groundwork’s initiatives in Providence, promotes greenspaces as a way to promote healthier communities. Rose’s projects have reclaimed parking lots and used the space to create community gardens. The organization now owns and cares for a total land area of about a half-acre throughout Providence, including two residential housing-size lots. Other endeavors included the launch of its urban farm and greenhouse in 2015. Groundwork is leading an effort to create a composting hub in the West End, and organizing tree plants in an effort to increase green infrastructure.
“It’s a community pride type of thing. It changes the way people view their neighborhood,” Rose said.
Not only are higher temperatures less comfortable, people’s health suffers. People living in heat islands are often impoverished, and as a result they tend to have higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and asthma. This makes them more vulnerable to heat stress than those living in greener, and therefore cooler, neighborhoods.
Marzullo said he has noticed that as temperatures rise, Emmanuel House residents experience visibly deteriorating health. “It’s very dangerous for some of my clients. The older clients, especially the clients that have breathing problems. … I see them coming in here, they’re beet red and purple,” he said.
Cassie Tharinger of the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program holds monthly tree-planting parties in Providence. The program focuses its efforts on the most vulnerable communities: densely built areas that experience eight to 10 days above 90 degrees every year. Elsewhere, near the coast, temperatures reach 90 degrees only about once a year, at the peak of summer heat, according to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
While some of this temperature difference stems from ocean breezes, urban heat islands endure disproportionately higher temperatures because of their built-up environments. Concrete and other common construction materials do not reflect light well; they absorb more heat and foster hot microclimates, according to a study in the International Journal of Environmental Monitoring and Analysis.
The Environmental Protection Agency defines heat islands as urbanized areas with structures such as buildings, roads, and other infrastructure which absorb more sun than natural landscapes. These surfaces re-emit that heat, increasing daytime temperatures so that these neighborhoods reach average temperatures that are about 1 to 7 degrees higher than those in outlying areas.
It’s important to employ a wide array of methods, said Jessica Wilson, design planner for the city of Lowell, Mass. Her office advocates for policies, plants trees, and designs parks for the city.
“Confronting environmental injustices means both on-the-ground work like planting trees, but also advocating for policy changes,” Wilson said.
“All the tree planting in the world, as much as that provides shade and a million benefits, on the hottest day of the year, that’s not enough,” she added.
High density means more buildings, more traffic, and more concrete. One area in Providence’s South Side has a 47 percent poverty rate and just a 6 percent canopy rate — the lowest percentage of canopy cover in all of Providence, according to the Tree Equity Score, which measures levels of tree canopy coverage in cities nationwide.
Neighborhoods with higher poverty rates and more people of color are also the neighborhoods with the least tree canopy. This lower income demographic is also at high-risk for health risks from extreme heat, according to the state Department of Health.
Environmental justice advocates, furious with the disproportionate impacts of urban heat islands on Rhode Island residents of color, pressed the state to protect residents from utility shut-offs during heat waves. In 2007, the state passed the nation’s first summer utility shut-off moratorium. When the state temperature average reaches 90 degrees, no households in the state can have their air conditioning, running water, or gas terminated by utilities.
While advocates have welcomed this step, the policy is “flawed,” said Camilo Viveiros, director of the George Wiley Center, a labor union that organizes for “utility justice.” Temperatures vary greatly statewide, and temperatures in urban heat islands are well above the 90 degree threshold even when the state average is well below it. Given the conditions of the policy and the varying conditions statewide, the moratorium rarely goes into effect.
Raffini, the youth program director for the Southside Community Land Trust, who only uses her first name, has lived in the South Side of Providence for most of her life, in a neighborhood that includes the most prominent heat islands in Providence.
Raffini said the ideal South Side neighborhood would provide safety, gardens, green space, and summer jobs for young people — including in community gardens. Central to the Southside Community Land Trust’s mission is integrating racial justice work with their hands-on gardening practices.
Any urban greening projects need to go hand-in-hand with education that links racial history with the importance of environmentalism. Not everyone is going to do this sort of work, Raffini said, but she encourages everyone to notice its value.
“I don’t want you to walk a mile in my shoes. I want you to stand in my garden,” she said.
Maya Kelly is a freshman at Brown University studying Urban Studies.
Sebastian Thomas leads URI past George Mason, 62-59
Sebastian Thomas makes a shot in the final seconds to lift the Rams over the Patriots at the Ryan Center on Jan. 4, 2025
SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Saturday afternoon saw Sebastian Thomas add another chapter to what is becoming a remarkable personal story in this 2024-25 men’s college basketball season.
The former star at Bishop Hendricken and Providence native has been Mr. Clutch for the University of Rhode Island, and so it was again with George Mason in town for the home Atlantic 10 opener.
Thomas dribbled, faded and nailed an off-balance jumper along the right baseline with 0.9 seconds left to electrify the Ryan Center yet again. The Rams slipped past the Patriots, 62-59, in a game where they trailed for nearly 30 minutes.
URI opted not to use a timeout after inbounding with 11.7 seconds left, and Thomas took a backcourt handoff from Jamarques Lawrence up the right sideline. He waved off any potential screening action and attacked Brayden O’Connor 1-on-1, creating some daylight just before falling out of bounds.
Thomas floated a shot that caught nothing but net and drew a foul, a conventional three-point play that snapped a 59-59 tie.
“I knew we were going to get the last shot,” Thomas said. “I definitely wanted the ball. I think my teammates trust me with the ball.”
Thomas helped drop Providence and Temple in previous games with 3-point daggers inside the final minute. This bucket and the ensuing missed full-court heave by O’Conner allowed the Rams to bounce back from a wretched road loss at Duquesne on New Year’s Eve. URI faced a 12-point hole early after a third straight ineffective half of offense, but Thomas and a revamped lineup took command just in time to win a fifth straight league home opener.
“He’s the ultimate gamer right now,” URI coach Archie Miller said. “Confident. Bailed us out there.”
Thomas floated home a soft jumper in the lane with 2:58 left to make it a 56-54 game, the first lead for the Rams since the 12:31 mark of the opening half. URI generated a couple key defensive stops and received another bucket at a critical time from an unlikely source. Quentin Diboundje beat the shot clock with a jumper from the left elbow with 23.5 seconds to play, and the Rams opened a 59-56 advantage.
“That was all the coach, right?” Miller quipped. “I give him credit. He’s been on the back burner. It’s been a 50-50 tossup for a long time about how we incorporate him.”
O’Conner slashed off the left wing for a conventional three-point play to answer, but URI opted against calling a timeout after the made free throw. Miller already had Thomas on the ball and didn’t want George Mason to switch defenses in its huddle. It was a decision that ultimately helped the Rams match the 9-0 start in Kingston they enjoyed during a special 2017-18 campaign.
“Find a way to score so we can win the game,” Thomas said. “I’ve been in that position a few times this year, and it’s worked for me.”
URI (12-2, 1-1 Atlantic 10) grinded its way back even thanks to some defensive energy. David Green’s steal in the lane led to a Diboundje layup in transition down the left side with 4:30 to play. Javonte Brown’s blocked shot – one of his career-high six – sent Thomas down the left side for a layup that made it 54-54 with 3:53 left, and the Patriots (10-5, 1-1) were forced to use a timeout.
“The message at halftime wasn’t basketball as much as it was our togetherness – to shake us up,” Miller said. “We had to give each other more energy. We had to have a little bit of spirit.”
URI celebrates its comeback victory over George Mason at the Ryan Center
Sebastian Thomas makes a final-seconds shot and hits the free-throw to seal the Rams comeback over Atlantic 10 rival George Mason on Saturday afternoon
It was the first appearance for Diboundje since some late minutes in a Nov. 24 blowout of Charleston, as the Rams juggled their rotation after a 67-55 stinker against the Dukes. Miller went a step further in the second half, putting Tyonne Farrell on the bench for the final 15:46 and Cam Estevez alongside him for the last 10:13. Thomas, Lawrence, Diboundje, Green, Brown, Jaden House and David Fuchs were the primary seven who limited George Mason to 1-for-8 from 3-point range, cobbled together a 9-2 scoring advantage off nine turnovers and pressured the paint to the tune of a plus-11 margin in made free throws.
“We just had to get back to our basics – Rhode Island basketball,” Brown said. “Playing physical and moving side to side.”
URI was fortunate to trail by just nine at the break, suffering through a field goal drought of 10:23 and finding itself on the wrong end of a 15-0 run. Brown’s putback with 5:27 left earned a sarcastic cheer from a crowd of 5,803 fans, a gathering whose mood had turned 180 degrees by the stretch run. The Patriots finished just 9-for-18 from the stripe, including a 1-for-7 start to the second half.
“We really didn’t have any business winning that game for a long period in the first half,” Miller said. “It could have gotten away from us.”
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On X: @BillKoch25
Providence rings in the new year
Illuminate PVD: New Year’s Eve Celebration and Fireworks at 195 District Park and the Van Leesen Pedestrian bridge
Here are some of The Providence Journal’s most-read stories for the week of Dec. 29, supported by your subscriptions.
Here are the week’s top reads on providencejournal.com:
PROVIDENCE – New Year’s Day ushers in a raft of new state laws, and the final step in a years-long march to a $15-an-hour minimum wage for Rhode Island.
Some of these laws were debated and passed during the legislative session that ended in June, and others years earlier with phased-in effective dates, as was true with the minimum wage law passed in 2021 that raised the rate from $11.50 to $15 an hour over four years.
Other laws taking effect on Jan. 1 include one of the most popular to emerge from the 2024 session, benefiting those age 65 and older. Read the full story for a rundown of changes affecting Rhode Islanders in 2025.
Politics: Minimum wage hike, flavored vape ban and more: These new RI laws go into effect Jan. 1
PROVIDENCE – As feared, the hackers who breached Rhode Island’s expansive, Deloitte-run public benefits computer system RIBridges have released “at least some” files to a site on the dark web, the governor’s office disclosed on Monday.
“Right now, IT teams are working diligently to analyze the released files,” the governor’s office reported in a news release that went out at 11:52 a.m.
“We do not yet know the scope of the data that is included in those files, but as we’ve been saying for several weeks, we should assume that data contained in the RIBridges system has been compromised,” the statement said of the benefits system formerly known as UHIP.
The system contains the records of roughly 650,000 people who are receiving – or have previously received – Medicaid and SNAP (formerly known as Food Stamps), or who enrolled in private health insurance through HealthSourceRI.
Data breach: Stolen info from RIBridges hack being posted to the dark web. What to know.
In 2018, Timothy and Anne-Marie Corbett paid $2.2 million for a four-bedroom home near Sandy Point Beach in Portsmouth. The real estate listing featured photographs of a lush, green lawn with panoramic Sakonnet River views and gushingly described it as “one of the most spectacular waterfront sites available.”
Over the years, that lawn has grown smaller as the ocean has gotten closer. According to the Corbetts’ lawyer, Michael A. Kelly, approximately 30 feet of the couple’s property washed away in storms during the last two winters.
He blames the Coastal Resources Management Council, which prohibited the Corbetts from using heavy boulders to fortify the crumbling bluffs at the edge of their backyard – a defense mechanism that can help stave off erosion but often at the expense of neighboring properties and nearby beaches.
In December, Kelly filed a class action lawsuit that alleges it’s unconstitutional for the CRMC to stop homeowners from taking such steps to reduce erosion. He expects dozens of other waterfront property owners to join in.
Read on to learn more about the latest chapter in Rhode Island’s tug of war between public shoreline access and private property rights.
Political Scene: RI couple’s lawsuit challenges whether CRMC has say over homeowners’ seawalls. Why it matters.
It has the ring of an urban legend.
So it’s easy to understand why one What and Why RI reader wrote in to ask, “Was Al Pacino really arrested in Rhode Island?”
But it’s true.
Years before he made his movie debut, Pacino was briefly inmate #48634 at the Adult Correctional Institutions, which listed his occupation as “unemployed.” He’d been picked up by the Woonsocket Police Department early on the morning of Jan. 7, 1961, and charged with possession of a concealed weapon.
What happened next? Read the full story to find out.
What and Why RI: Was Al Pacino really arrested in Rhode Island? Here’s the story
As 2024 drew to a close, Journal food editor Gail Ciampa declared that it was one delicious year.
Restaurants and chefs in Rhode Island put on a remarkable show. Ten were honored with James Beard Foundation nominations, widely considered the Oscars of the dining world. Many were noted for excellence by Yelp, the crowd-sourcing platform and Open Table, the reservation company. National media including the New York Times and USA Today cited several for excellence.
Here are five experiences that topped Gail’s list. Will they be on your menu of dining destinations for 2025?
Dining: Five memorable meals across RI made 2024 a delicious year. The places to try in 2025
To read the full stories, go to providencejournal.com. Find out how to subscribe here.
WEST GREENWICH, R.I. (WHDH) – An investigation is underway after four people were found dead inside a home in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, Friday.
Officials say a co-worker of someone who lived at the house called police after the person didn’t show up to work for two days.
Police say all appeared to have gunshot wounds.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
New Year life lessons from country star: 'Never forget where you came from'
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24982514/Quest_3_dock.jpg "Meta’s ‘software update issue’ has been breaking Quest headsets for weeks")
Meta’s ‘software update issue’ has been breaking Quest headsets for weeks
These are the top 7 issues facing the struggling restaurant industry in 2025
'Politics is bad for business.' Why Disney's Bob Iger is trying to avoid hot buttons
The 25 worst losses in college football history, including Baylor’s 2024 entry at Colorado
The top out-of-contract players available as free transfers: Kimmich, De Bruyne, Van Dijk…
New Orleans attacker had 'remote detonator' for explosives in French Quarter, Biden says
Carter's judicial picks reshaped the federal bench across the country
