One hot day after dinner, I had an urge to follow Ruth Krauss’s advice, “Everybody should be quiet near a little stream and listen.”
It gave me two challenges. The first challenge was to find a little stream. The second — because if I were to sit on the bank like the child in the Sendak illustration, I might have trouble getting back up — was to find a little stream where there was a bench.
To my surprise, there was in fact a bench facing the Mill Brook behind Main Streets Café. The restaurant had set several benches around for customers waiting at its outdoor eating area, and some inspired worker had turned one toward the stream.
So I sat there a while, and as I sat, I began to wonder if there were other sections of this stream with benches. I also wondered where the stream went.
When I was working at the Boston Fed, I went to a conference about towns like Pawtucket, Rhode Island, getting the idea to “daylight” waterways that had long been hidden in culverts under streets. Towns have been burying assets like that for centuries. Why? Daylighting has really transformed Pawtucket and would be good everywhere.
I’m not sure where the Mill Brook starts, but I can tell you that from a swampy shopping center parking lot, it runs under the pretty pedestrian bridge I’ve shown in other posts, past Main Streets Café, under Main Street, behind several businesses, a theater, an unused bank building (which has a perfect spot for a bench if anyone thought about it), behind private homes, under Heywood Street, and behind the fire station. I know because I went looking.
After the fire and police complex, it went under Walden Street and came out from a culvert near the community gardens, but where it went next, I couldn’t discover. I thought I might find it entering the elementary school grounds, but although I walked up and down there, I couldn’t discern so much as a burble. For me, the stream had vanished behind the homes on Magnolia. It will doubtless show itself when our drought is over and flood season causes it to burst out in a pent-up rage.
I fully intend to investigate the routes of other local streams. You probably need to be retired or a person who likes to walk — or both — to spend time on this activity, but I recommend it. It’s interesting.
Meanwhile, check out what Maria Popova has to say at the Marginalian about Open House for Butterflies and being quiet near a little stream.
Photo: Suzanne and John’s Mom
Bench near a little stream.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
That sounds like a lovely pasttime.
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Peaceful.
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No doubt! 💞
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Love this post! There is a stream that runs under parts of Arlington and appears every now and then before becoming into a covered waterway again. Hurrah for Pawtucket choosing to re-open a connection with these wonderful waterways! And hurrah to you for sharing some of your explorations with us!
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I hope more people will try sitting by a stream — and listening.
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Delightful post! Glad you found a bench facing a stream. I am fascinated by what Pawtucket had done with their decision to “daylight” waterways. We have lots of lakes, ponds, and streams in our community, and it never occurred to me to wonder where water might be hidden.
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Blacktopping everything may not be so bad in your part of Maine, but cities are awful that way. Let me know if you find any hidden streams.
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Will do!
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In my career, I managed California’s Urban Stream Restoration Program, which made grants to partnerships between citizen’s groups and local governments to restore streams so they would have open channels, public access ways, native vegetation and still provide flood safety. After a couple of years, and dozens of completed projects, we employed a professor from UC Davis to look at economic consequences of the restoration work. His graduate student and he published a paper that indicated houses within a quarter mile of completed restoration projects sold on the market for $10,000 more than similar size and vintage houses on un-restored streams. The paper was published by John Loomis and his grad student Caryl Streinor. This was close to 30 years ago, and the home prices and increase in value has probably doubled.
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This is important and timely. Thanks so much for letting us all know.
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Had to dig a little to find the reference to the hedonic property value of urban streams that was published by JB Loomis and Carole Streiner back 20 years or more ago.
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Love it. What a great idea. I will suggest it to my walking group here on the Peninsula. Sibby
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Wonderful! Let me know what happens.
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Thank you for the walk through my former hometown. If I were still there, I’d want to join you in your exploration!
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That would be nice. Many more streams to follow!
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Love the bench by the stream! I agree sitting by a stream ,listening to the sounds around you is truly a peaceful experience, it’s also refreshing to stick your feet in the bubbling waters.😁
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Indeed! Especially during heat waves.
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