PROVIDENCE — When a man was shot in broad daylight in a park adjacent to Kennedy Plaza in March, few eyebrows were raised.

Rather than sully the park’s reputation, the shooting simply reinforced the notion that unless there’s an event under way or another specific reason to be there, there are probably better places to hang out than Kennedy Plaza.

The city wants to change that perception. This summer, Providence is scheduling events in Kennedy Plaza nearly every day of the week to draw residents and prove that city’s centerpiece park, plaza and bus station is a safe destination.

Large festivals, weekly farmers and vendors markets and Sunday DJ performances are planned to show a constant presence in the park and lure city residents to a space Mayor David N. Cicilline says is not living up to its potential.

“This public space in the center of downtown has the potential to become a lively gathering space where families and visitors can enjoy the work of local artists, shop for unique items at the Marketplace Bazaar, enjoy live entertainment or simply sit at café-style tables and people-watch,” Cicilline said. “I envision a public space as vibrant as New York’s Washington Square Park with the unique character of Providence.”

Providence started mulling the Kennedy Plaza issue in earnest in February when a public-private partnership brought New York’s Project for Public Spaces here to run a brainstorming exercise on the future of the area. Since then, local business owners have become heavily involved and the area encompassing Kennedy Plaza proper — Burnside Park, The Bank of America Skating Center — has been rebranded as Greater Kennedy Plaza.

The exercise showed that one of the problems that needed to be tackled was the perception that the plaza area was unsafe.

There is a significant police presence there, with a police substation next to the bus station and the headquarters of the business-backed Downtown Improvement District and its yellow-shirted cleanup and safety patrols. The plaza, said Police Chief Dean M. Esserman, is the site of the city’s first community policing effort and the situation is much improved over five years ago.

But it remains a hangout for the homeless and the site of numerous fights and robberies throughout the year.

The city does not want to kick out so-called “undesirables,” such as the homeless who congregate around the central fountain and near the statute of Gen. Ambrose Burnside in Burnside Park.

The premise, as Fred Kent of the Project for Public Spaces, explained, is that “The best way to handle the undesirables is to make it attractive to everyone else.” The city has taken that to heart.

“We’re trying to have regular weekly events so people feel like there’s always something going on,” said Alix Ogden, the mayor’s operations chief and the former parks superintendent. “When you have activity from all different kinds of people, that’s the security that you need.”

Ogden pointed out physical improvements the city is making as well, such as plantings around the fountain, refinished benches and the removal of some of the park’s internal fencing.

She noted that the park seemed vibrant yesterday, though some of that may have been as a result of the city’s programs, such as like the vendors market under way nearby. She pointed to several people in the park enjoying the sun.

“The real turning point will be when people like the lady sunbathing over there and the man with his kid, when they feel they can come here when we don’t have some kind of programming going on,” she said.

The activities kick off in earnest today with the first FarmfreshRI farmers market of the year, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The farmers’ markets began operating in 2005 and were one of the first recent introductions of events to the plaza.

Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., area nonprofit agencies will set up kiosks providing information on topics ranging from the arts to fitness and the environment.

Thursdays, from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m., vendors selling antiques, books, food and small crafts will set up shop along the Burnside Park sidewalk.

And on Rhythm & Soul Sundays, the Providence Black Repertory Company’s Afrosonic Collective will play from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., featuring five prominent local disc jockeys, such as Blackdove, MikeDelick and Nick de Paris drummers.

Through the summer, a string of major events is planned, including the Heineken Latino Celebration July 6, the IndieArts Festival July 19, Providence Roller Derby July 25 and the Bolivian Festival Aug. 17.

Some events that were once held elsewhere in the city are moving to Kennedy Plaza as part of the initiative. The IndieArts Festival is a successor of sorts to the defunct AS220 street festival, FooFest, which was held in recent years along Empire Street. Now, some of the organizers of that event are taking their combined record sale and music festival to Kennedy Plaza and hope to be part of the park’s resurgence.

“It’s really a pretty neat park, with the fountain and the statue and it’s definitely underutilized,” said Jennifer Daltry of What Cheer Antiques & Vintage, which is helping to put together the festival.

Organizers are even tying the event to its new host site and its massive statue of Burnside. The best sideburns will win a prize, an homage to the Civil War general famous for his facial hair.

dbarbari@projo.com