Nice story in today’s Providence Journal about recognizing something precious in our midst every day. Pleasant Valley Parkway is a tiny green space tucked away behind Chalkstone Avenue with its own stream.

It emerges from under Academy Avenue to meander on its own through a grassy, tree-lined median between the lanes of Pleasant Valley Parkway, giving it a look that justifies the road’s name. It curves east after a few hundred yards, into a concrete channel built for it in the 1930s. Then it goes straight to a culvert under Davis Park, behind Roger Williams Hospital, where it vanishes until reappearing momentarily before joining the waters of the Woon-asquatucket River on their way to Waterplace Park, Narragansett Bay and, eventually, the Atlantic Ocean.

This year that anonymous stream will be getting a name: Pleasant Valley Stream.

It won’t be the only one. Six other streams in the watershed of the Woonasquatucket River — five in Smithfield, one in North Smithfield — and Pleasant Valley Stream have been nominated for naming by the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council.

Nothing changed but perception. That’s everything. Read the rest of the story here.