You’ve seen the solar-powered BigBelly trash compactors throughout Greater Kennedy Plaza. Now each of the six environmentally friendly receptacles has a partner — bottle + can recycling! No need to hang onto your empty bottles while you’re out and about or, gasp, throw them in the garbage. Now you can hit up one of the six convenient locations throughout Biltmore and Burnside Parks as well as the Soldiers & Sailors monument area in Kennedy Plaza while you’re hydrating downtown.

Learn more about citywide efforts to increase recycling here!

Have you seen this fun trio of ads zooming around on RIPTA buses? Former Providence resident Jesse LeDoux created them for the Bank of America City Center! LeDoux is a grammy-nominated artist whose clients include Nike, Target, Tiny Showcase, and Sub Pop Records. His artwork has been exhibited in museums and galleries world-wide. You get to see it for free any time one of these 15 buses goes by!

Please give a warm welcome to the newest feature around Greater Kennedy Plaza - hanging basket planters! We’re excited for the added color and immediate transformation they create. Thank you DID and Providence Parks Department!

The Greater Kennedy Plaza season is just about to begin! We’ve posted our new schedule over at the Weekly Events page. Highlights include:

*  The Market Bazaar will now be on Mondays!
*  The Farmers Market will have more vendors this year!
*  And there’s a rumor that there might be a beer garden each week along with the Thursday night concert series!

Programming begins May 26th and then really swings into gear with our season kick-off block party on June 4th! Come on down!

Twenty-four new bike parking posts were just installed around Greater Kennedy Plaza! A great day to bike to work.

The Transformation of NYC’s Madison Square

Fred Kent of Project for Public Spaces was back in town this past weekend as the keynote speaker at the Garden Clubs of America conference.

On Saturday afternoon Fred, his PPS team and members of the Greater Kennedy Plaza Working Group facilitated a workshop with over 170 conference attendees to examine how this particular public space could be better utilized. Please visit www.pps.org for more information on the Placemaking process.

There are now five new BigBelly solar compactors eating up trash throughout Biltmore and Burnside Parks as well as Kennedy Plaza proper.

The BigBelly “uses the sun’s energy to compact trash at the point of disposal, dramatically increasing capacity by 5 times within the same footprint as ordinary receptacles. Increased capacity reduces collection trips and can cut related fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions by 80%.”

Made in the USA, BigBelly can operate for eight years on the equivalent energy it takes to drive a garbage truck one mile!