Dear Editor,
Today (June 8th) Providence Streets Coalition volunteers, with supply donations from the Providence Department of Public Works, painted the curbs of several bus islands along Broad Street. These bus islands are routinely hit by drivers which damages vehicles, and causes a safety risk to bus riders and bike lane users. By painting the curbs a bright yellow these islands are now more visible to both drivers and bus users, thus improving safety for all. Providence Police also stopped by to express gratitude for the safety improvement. So if you’re an R Line user, check out the improvements next time you ride!
Attached are some photos from the painting.
Best,
Daniel Morris
Providence (Summit), RI
To the Editor of the Providence Eye,
The Providence Sustainability Commission’s letter to the Mayor regarding concerns about the City’s proposed comprehensive plan and its failure to address the health and safety issues surrounding Providence’s industrial waterfront raises a critical issue for the city and should be taken seriously. Industrial development is an important part of a thriving economy and Providence’s industrial waterfront plays a critical role in our regional economy. However, the world is rapidly changing, and we must position our city for the growing industries that provide quality jobs for Rhode Islanders, like offshore wind, the blue economy and advanced manufacturing. The Commission’s letter offers smart solutions for how the plan must be changed in order to better balance industrial and residential uses and future-proof our city, community, and regional economy.
The comprehensive plan is an important regulatory document that all zoning and development in the city must adhere to. Alongside zoning, the purpose of these plans is to offer a consistent and clear regulatory framework for development in the city, and to ensure that nearby land uses are compatible with each other. In fact, zoning was created in the early 1900s as a response to public health concerns from heavy industry in New York City and Los Angeles.
The current situation in the Port of Providence is a prime example of the failures of such regulations. The Sustainability Commission’s letter provides clear evidence of how the residential neighborhoods near Allens Ave, such as Washington Park and South Providence, have been victims of bad regulations and poor planning. The City, through its comprehensive plan and zoning, has allowed by right (meaning property owners need no special approvals) dangerous and dirty industrial uses that should not be allowed near any residential areas, let alone in a dense city like Providence. The fact that these uses are being permitted, and will continue to be permitted under the new plan, next to predominately low-income, communities of color makes this a civil rights issue. Furthermore, while each industrial facility is subjected to various regulations through RI DEM, no one is tracking or responsible for the cumulative impacts of these facilities. Good planning and zoning is our only lever to prevent this sort of pollution and harm from happening in our city.
The comprehensive plan is an opportunity to set a clear vision for our city and lay the groundwork for development that will move our community forward. The new comprehensive plan, as it is currently drafted, reinforces the status quo. It would allow for more polluting entities like RI Recycles Metals and Narragansett Improvement Co. (an asphalt plant) to set up shop in an already polluted and over-burdened community.
The draft plan has some good language in the sustainability chapter. One of the goals is to “Protect, preserve, and restore the natural environment; improve resilience to climate and environmental hazards; ensure equity in environmental policy; and mitigate the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, and contamination on residents’ health, safety, and quality of life.” While this reads well, the details of the plan do not back it up, and it is the details that matter legally speaking.
The Sustainability Commission’s letter calls for moving away from vague terms like “clean”, “green,” “sustainable,” and “resilient,” which can easily be used by polluting industries. Instead, the comprehensive plan must set clear standards to promote specific uses in our industrial areas that align with our vision and goals. Specifically, the Land Use chapter and the use table must be modified to reflect this.
Mayor Smiley has been quoted saying that it is a “dangerous and slippery slope to start picking and choosing which businesses can go there (in the port) specifically.” It is neither. It is good planning, and it is the responsibility of our government to ensure that industrial growth does not come with a public health crisis, especially when it is disproportionately impacting our most vulnerable community members.
What is dangerous, Mayor, is to continue to allow industrial development to harm our residents and expose the entire greater Providence region—from Barrington to Downtown Providence to Pawtuxet Village—to the risks and hazards associated with these dangerous and expiring industries. Our comprehensive plan must prepare us for the future and it is up to us to hold our leadership accountable to putting forward an effective plan for a livable, healthy, community. This is not a bold or politically risky concept.
I am grateful for the Sustainability Commission for doing the hard work to examine this plan carefully. Read their letter in full. There is still plenty of time to get this right. The plan is set to go before the City Plan Commission meeting on June 18th and you can offer public comment by attending the meeting (online or in person). If the CPC approves the plan, then it will go to the City Council who will then have additional open meetings and public comment. You can also contact your City Council, the Mayor, and the Planning Department to give direct feedback.
Planning can be a bit wonky, in the weeds, and flat out boring to many. But if we don’t get this legal structure right, there will be nothing we can do when the next polluting company wants to open their doors in Providence. This is important and we must pay attention.
Leah Bamberger, Ward 5
Loved Hannah Dean’s cartoon!
Winnie
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