NEWS & CITY LIFE
Co mmuni t y Cl ean Up | by Robert Isenberg
Mural on Mokban Korean Bistro
Small Business Strong In the wake of a riotous night, community volunteers flooded downtown to dress the city’s wounds There are so many things Karen Beebe could not have anticipated that Monday evening. She’d heard that recent protests could turn violent, and looting was possible, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. At 3am, she received a call from her alarm company; she used an app on her phone to access security cameras in her Downcity store, Modern Love. And from her home Beebe watched as strangers smashed a shop window, overturned racks, and ran off with a computer. The “downtown riot” is now an infamous episode in the annals of 2020. Many businesses were hit, and some witnesses estimate as many as 100 participants in the wanton
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ProvidenceOnline.com • July 2020
destruction. The mob forced its way into Providence Place Mall and set a police cruiser on fire. The riot sent shockwaves through Providence – and in that moment, it set a frightening precedent for the protests to come. But then something remarkable happened: An army of volunteers showed up at the break of dawn to clean up the damage. Many came from the Downtown Improvement District (DID), wearing their recognizable yellow uniforms. Others were regular people, who had heard about the clash and wanted to help out. Only hours after police and rioters had descended the streets, residents from all walks of life were calmly sweeping glass from the pavement.
“When I arrived that morning, there were already so many volunteers that were there to assist in the cleanup,” Beebe recalls. “Words cannot describe how overwhelmed I was, and still am, with the outpouring of community support – and some of them I didn’t even know. It was a really beautiful movement of a community that came together to help one another.” Lisa Newman Paratore, owner of the store Homestyle, had a similar experience: Early Tuesday morning, a friend called to express condolences for damage done to her shop. But by the time Paratore arrived downtown, the cleanup was already underway. “There were already community members –
