Community News

from your neighborhood associations

News from Brown Street Park By Allison Spooner

Spring is here and we are getting ready at the park! In the move from sledding to sun, our sponsors have been working diligently to get things prepped. The 2009 programming and events starts now. Details below and on our website at www.friendsofbrownstreetpark.org.

First we’d like to thank some sponsors who helped us get ready for the new season. Newport Collaborative Architects (www.ncarchitects.com) was very helpful in creating a blueprint for the proposed adult fitness expansion. Mid City Steel gets a mention for their invaluable consultations. Also, Louis Raymond of Renaissance Gardening (www.rgardening.com) has been designing a new garden, thanks to Ginny Fox, Director of the Peace Flag Project (www.thepeaceflagproject.org). We are hoping to have these projects completed for summer. Lastly, we can’t thank Bartlett Tree Experts (www.bartlett.com) enough for all of their work to make the trees healthier.

Our many thanks to Ktenia and William Harmon for sponsoring FBSP for a charitable grant of $2500 through the Harmon Foundation. This will serve us well and allow us to continue to move forward with our revitalization project.

We welcome Margot Nishimura as our new Volunteer Coordinator. Are you interested in getting more involved in the community? We are looking for an event photographer as well as a membership coordinator. Contact Allison at allison@friendsofbrownstreetpark.org if you are interested.

To kick things off, our Earth Day Celebration is Saturday, April 25th from 1 – 4pm. The focus will be on the grand park cleanup and creating natural backyards. Bring the kids. We will be entertained by Joe’s Backyard Band and our prominent sponsor, Whole Foods Market University Heights, will be providing healthy snacks. Projects for all ages, including sunflower planting for the little ones. Adults and teens can join our green teams. Please contact Margot at margot@friendsofbrownstreetpark.org to volunteer and get signed on. A few more Earth Day details...

Have you been curious about rain barrels? Save the water from your roof and use it to water your garden. One inch of rainfall provides a lot of “natural water”: a 20’ x 50’ roof with four downspouts and a gutter system, can collect up to 620 gallons of water from this 1,000 square foot area. The RI Water Lady will be at Brown Street Park for our Earth Day event delivering rain barrels and discussing how to use them. Order your rain barrel directly from the website, www.riwaterlady.com by March 25th and pick it up at the park on Earth Day. Include a note that this is via BSP: If 24 or more people order rain barrels we can all receive a 10% discount. The Worm Ladies of Charleston will also be joining us and teaching how worms can enrich your soil & how to make your own compost. They will be selling worms and worm castings as well!!! Pre-order at www.angoraandworms.com.

You can support the FBSP when you collect your East Side Marketplace receipts for “The Friendship Fund.” Please leave your receipts Marcy Wemple of 87 Benefit Street, Providence, RI 02904. Eastside Marketplace will then make a donation equivalent to 1% of the total to Friends of Brown Street Park to support our revitalization efforts. Thanks to all of you who have saved receipts on our behalf!

FBSP youth and adult T-shirts are available for $15, infant gear for $8 and our new canvas tote bags for $12. Membership fees are $15 for an individual and $20 for a family. Please visit our Get Involved page for more details.

If you would like to become a member, volunteer, sponsor or donor of Friends of Brown Street Park, please visit our website at www.FriendsofBrownStreetPark.org to learn more.

Friends of Brown Street Park is a 501C(3) non-profit organization. All donations to the group are tax-deductible.

Blackstone Parks Conservancy By Anna Browder

Save the date! Annual Meeting Thursday, May 14 at 4: P.M. at the Trolley Shelter
Please join us to help with the Blackstone Park Improvement Association Spring Clean-Up, Saturday, May 2, 9 am to 12 pm. Volunteers meet across from the Narragansett Boat Club on River Drive, at the end of Angell Street, to pick up gloves, trash bags, refreshments, and assignments. Bring a friend; it’s more fun and easier working with a partner.

In late spring we will kick off our fund raising for Phase II of the Trolley Shelter restoration. New plantings, lighting, and paving will transform the shelter and shelter landscape into a community asset that can be used for a variety of events. Along the edge of the boulevard across from the cemetery, the Parks Department plans propose low metal trellis work covered with roses. Both the interior and exterior will be lit at night. Between the shelter and the jogging path, there will be a wide area surfaced with large irregular granite flagstones, with spaces between them for grass or ground cover. The rustic, informal look is based on studies of Olmsted Brothers designs for other similar settings, as we do not have the landscape design plans for this shelter. Other plantings will skirt the base of the building itself.

Blackstone Park is part of what’s called a flyway, a seasonal route followed by birds migrating to and from their breeding areas, chosen because it offers food and resting places. The park is adjacent to other heavily wooded land: Riverside Cemetery in Pawtucket, Swan Point Cemetery, Butler Hospital, and the East Bay Bike Path. Now that food has become available in the north at this time of year, birds are returning from winter homes to breed.

Beginning May 1, bird watchers (birders) from all over Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts will be enjoying birding in Swan Point Cemetery. The peak period for spotting the migrating birds is May 10 to 20, but throughout the month you will see birds that you won’t see in Providence any other time of year. Here are some things you need to know if you want to participate. Normally, the gates to the cemetery do not open to the public, including bicycles and joggers as well as automobiles, until 8 am. But during the month of May, a guard will be stationed at the gate to admit birders from 7 am (perhaps 6:30-you can ask the first time you show up). You must park along Blackstone Boulevard, not in the entry drive to the cemetery. Do not climb over the wall, or you may be disqualified from birding.

Birds will be feeding all morning, but they leave in the afternoon. And they don’t show up on rainy days, so you shouldn’t either. There will be more birders around after 8, as many as 40 to 50 on a good day. Do remember that this is an active cemetery, be respectful, and stay far away from funerals that may be taking place.

As always, we welcome your Eastside Marketplace cash register receipts, which help cover our expenses. Mail receipts to The Blackstone Parks Conservancy, PO Box 603141, Providence, RI 02906.

Visit our website, or write to our P. O. Box, to learn how to become a BPC member at www.blackstoneparksconservancy.org, which is designed and updated by our invaluable volunteer, Dominic Capuano, of Capri Systems, Inc. Our web site also provides an electronic way of contacting us.

Fox Point News By John Rousseau

Now that the Mayor’s Office has rejected a tentative four-year agreement with the Providence Public Library (PPL), to operate the city’s library system, there appears tangible hope that its branches will remain open beyond July. In a late-February press release, Mayor David N. Cicilline said that besides closing branches, the PPL plan “would lead to insolvency within the next two years.”

The Fox Point Branch is one of the five facilities targeted by PPL for closing or for conversion to “Neighborhood Learning Centers,” which would require additional funding from the city besides the $7.5 million PPL request.

The rift between the Mayor’s Office and PPL has strengthened the viability of the Providence Community Library (PCL), a new “community-based branch library system,” which has devised a plan to take over the management of all but the main location of PPL’s system. After its formation-as a spin-off of the Library Reform Group-in January, PCL began holding forums at library branches throughout the city to explain how their plan would work.

At a February 25th meeting with the mayor, PCL presented a petition with over 1,000 signatures of library patrons urging he save the branches. (PCL also has garnered widespread support from city council members.) In the news release, which followed the meeting, the mayor firmly said, “I will not allow branch library services to be eliminated.”

The board of the Fox Point Neighborhood Association, (FPNA), agreed to sponsor the February library forum at the Fox Point Branch at which representatives of PPL and PCL presented their cases. Prior to that meeting, Marcus Mitchell, president of PCL, explained to the board their proposed offer to the city to operate all branches of the library system for $4.8 million.

Mitchell noted that PPL has not engaged in significant fundraising in recent years, which has resulted in deteriorating community support. He said part of PCL’s approach would be a “robust fundraising initiative,” to augment city and state funding. Past fundraising efforts over many years have generated a large trust, which remains under the total control of PPL’s Foundation, Mitchell said.

The foundation, whose trustees include only PPL members plus one representative each of the mayor’s and governor’s offices, needs more community representation, Mitchell pointed out. “The community, who uses the branches, has no representation on the foundation’s board.” These funds in the foundation’s endowment, many of which were raised to support the branch system, are not being directed in a fair way to the branches, Mitchell charged.

The economic downturn may have affected the foundation’s investments, but no one outside of the foundation knows exactly how much money remains in it, he said. Some estimate a figure between $25 million to $40 million, he added. So far, PPL has denied transparency of not only the foundation’s funds, but also information on top administrative salaries and pension fund figures, he added. “We get a sense that they view staff as 60% percent of the expenditures but deny access to information on salaries of top administrative personnel.”

Board member Arria Bilodeau asked if jettisoning some of the heavy administrative costs would mean a loss of necessary library expertise. Mitchell answered that a professional library director, fundraising professionals and existing levels of branch staff personnel would be maintained within PCL’s proposed budget. Should the city decide to divert some PPL funds to PCL, then the maintenance needs of each branch would be evaluated and prioritized, he continued. Mitchell hopes the city will allocate $3.5 million for PCL’s operation of the branches. That amount, along with $750,000 in state aid and renewed fundraising initiatives would be enough to save all branches in the system, he added.

Now, the city’s decision on operation of the library system is expected before July 1st, according to an agreement signed by PPL and the city last fall. According to the terms of the agreement, should the city decide against PPL, then PPL agrees to “convey to the city such facilities, together with all of the equipment, books and materials therein, as expeditiously as is practicable.”

Meanwhile, Ward I Councilman Seth Yurdin said he has been working with the Boys & Girls Club, the current landlord to the Fox Point Library Branch, to consider a reduction of its current rent. He also said he is encouraging the organization to repair the broken library elevator, which makes the facility in noncompliance with federal handicap access laws.

FPNA Supports Gas Meter Legislation
FPNA Board Member Arria Bilodeau represented the association before a Rhode Island State Senate Hearing to support Senate Bill 107, to protect Rhode Island homes and property owners against exterior gas meter installations. The legislation, which was introduced by Senator Rhoda Perry, is in response to National Grid’s repeated attempts across the city and state to arbitrarily move meters from residences’ basements to the front of their exteriors.

“Not only are these installations visually and physically intrusive, particularly for historic homes, but we in Fox Point feel that the meters could potentially be a hazard if placed in tight-fitting side drives and on the front of houses that are set so closely to the street-as they are in the densely populated historic Fox Point area,” the FPNA statement read.

“Please support this legislation that is important for all of Rhode Island and particularly for densely populated urban areas,” Bilodeau said.

Fox Point Crime Report
FPNA Board member Chris Owens reported meeting with Lt. John Ryan of the Brook Street Substation on recent crime statistics in the neighborhood during January. Most disturbing was a house invasion on Gano Street near Wickenden Street. The invaders were armed, but fortunately no one was injured, Owens reported. No arrests have been made in this case as of our press deadline of March 2, 2009.
Also in January, there were two muggings near the Point Street Bridge and 21 non-violent break-ins of residences and cars. Lt. Ryan also reported the arrest of three juvenile graffiti vandals. These arrests, like most arrests for graffiti vandalism, resulted from resident tips, Ryan said. Lt. Ryan asks that residents immediately call the police if they see anything suspicious. The location of the incident and the color of the exterior layer of clothing of the suspects are extremely helpful to the police,” Ryan said.

Spring Membership Meeting Set for April 23rd
FPNA has scheduled its Spring Membership Meeting for Thursday, April 23rd from 7 to 9 pm. at the Sheldon Street Church, 51 Sheldon Street. Elected officials including Mayor David N. Cicilline, State Senator Rhoda Perry, Representative David Segal and Ward I Councilman Seth Yudin have been invited to address the membership. The FPNA Board seeks to inform the membership and hear of their opinions on neighborhood issues at these bi-annual events. Look for FPNA flyers with agenda and finalized guest information to be distributed in the neighborhood in April.

Contacts:
FPNA email: fpna@cox.net
Website: www.foxpointprovidence.org
Gateway Committee: info@headofthebaygateway.org
Councilman Seth Yurdin: ward1@providenceri.com, 521-7477
Emergencies: 911
Non-emergency reports of suspicious activity: 272-3121
Brook Street Substation: 243-6990
FPNA meets on the second Monday of each month in the first floor of the Bath House Library in the Vartan Gregorian School. If that date is a holiday, the meeting is held the next day, Tuesday.

Wayland Square News By David Kolsky

The next meeting of the Neighborhood Discussion Group at Books on the Square (471 Angell Street at Elmgrove Avenue, opposite Starbucks) will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 22nd. All are welcome.
To keep track of future meetings (usually on the fourth Wednesday of each month), local news, and suddenly-breaking events, please visit our publicly-visible Yahoo! Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Waylandsquare (However it appears in this printed column, “Waylandsquare” in the Internet address has no spaces, no breaks and no punctuation.)

College Hill News By Barry Fain

College Hill Neighborhood
Annual Open Spring Meeting
Monday, April 13 from 7-9pm
At Moses Brown School
Program: An Open Discussion with
Mayor David Cicilline

Mayor David Cicilline is the planned speaker at this year’s College Hill Neighborhood Association (CHNA) Spring Public Meeting. Among the subjects expected to be covered are: City plans to deal with the current budget deficit, the impact of the stimulus package on the City, the latest East Side crime issues and statistics, graffiti abatement opportunities, new initiatives for the Brown Street Park, upcoming property revaluations and pothole repairs. It is expected key department heads will be in attendance as well. The meeting is open to all residents of the East Side. Refreshments will be served as well. It should be a lively and informative meeting as well as a wonderful opportunity to chat with many of your neighbors. Please come!

Thayer Street: The State Division of Business Regulation has been reviewing the liquor license that was recently granted to Sharks, a new 130-seat sushi restaurant planned for Thayer Street. CHNA and several merchants have objected to the license on the basis of the extra traffic it would draw to the area. Previously Sharks had requested, and was granted, a variance that would allow them to open the 125 seat space without providing any parking at all based on their argument that they depended almost entirely on walk-in traffic. Now it has requested a liquor license because it has decided it’s a destination restaurant after all. As we go to press, no decision had been made on the appeal.

In other Thayer Street news, the Roba Dolce restaurant on the corner of Thayer and Angell was unexpectedly closed for non-payment of rent. On a more positive note, the newly expanded Brown Bookstore has officially re-opened, complete with a new in-store coffee bar. And finally, a meeting is being planned between the CHNA board and the Thayer Street merchants to explore areas of mutual cooperation.

Brown Street Park: Board member Allison Spooner informed us of some of the wonderful improvements and activities that are being planned for the Spring at the Park as well as some of the events planned for Earth Day on April 25. For more specifics, check the separate Brown Street Park report on the next page. Plans are underway for our June Annual meeting that will be held at the park.

Dues: CHNA is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to the preserving the well being our neighborhood. It depends on dues of $20/family to help support our efforts. To date, about 60% of last year’s members have already renewed their memberships for 2009. Please send checks made out to Sara Bradford, treasurer CHNA, Box 2442, Providence, RI 02906. Be sure to include your email address if you have one so we can send you our regular e-newsletters. And then volunteer to join us. We definitely can use your help!

Meetings: CHNA meetings are generally held on the first or second Monday of the month at the extraordinary School One on University Avenue. Meetings are open to the public. Please check out our website at www.collegehillneighborhoodassociation.org for dates and times. And, as always, thanks for your support.