Greater City Providence

The 195 Commission doesn’t shovel the sidewalks on “their land”

The 195 Commission doesn't shovel their sidewalks

When speaking at an event or talking to the press, the members of the 195 Commission are quick to remind everyone that the parcels formerly occupied by Route 195 is “their land.”

I know they were recently installed and they’re busying getting up to speed and finding parking spaces, so let me remind the Commission, we have a law in Providence that says abutting property owners must clear the snow from the sidewalks adjacent to their property.

The 195 Commission doesn't shovel their sidewalks

While I’m in sidewalk rant mode, let me pass on this.

Ian Donnis from RINPR recently interviewed Providence’s new Police Chief Hugh Clements on WPRI’s Newsmakers program. Ian asked his Twitter followers if they had any questions for the Chief, I asked:

Ian was not able to ask the Chief on the air, but asked him about it after taping. This is not a direct quote, but paraphrased and filtered through the 140 character limit of Twitter:

Maybe the Chief can send a ticket to the 195 Commission.

Jef Nickerson

Jef is Greater City Providence's co-founder, editor, and publisher. He grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Boston; Portland, Maine; and New York before settling in Providence. In addition to urbanism, Jef is interested in art, design, and ice cream. Please feel free to contact Jef if you have any question or comments about Greater City Providence.

8 comments

  • So, regarding Ian’s question of the new police chief–it is an important police issue, or it is an important quality of life issue that code enforcement should do instead? Which was it? Because there’s a heck of a lot more police officers on a shift than code enforcers…

  • My landlord *never* clears the sidewalk in front of my multi-family apartment building. The parking lot and shared walkways are rarely tended to either, though I was promised snow removal would be taken care of when I signed the rental agreement.

    There’s not much I can do about the on-property stuff, but I bet he’d be more responsive if it hit him in the pocket. Who can a resident call/write to file an anonymous complaint?

  • I was pleasantly surprised this evening. I noted most all of the sidewalks were shoveled from curb to building front on Broadway.

    I believe the sunshine had a great deal to do with that. This snow is what falls into my category called ‘Pain in the ass” snow. It’s a pain in the ass because there really isn’t enough to shovel. But there’s just enough to slow everything down.

    Then of course there’s phenomenal plowing job they did on Royal Little Drive. The shoulder starts out with snow about 2 feet wide and then fans out to about 8 feet from the curb! WTF! And put your damned plow blade down. Oh wait, you didn’t replace the rubber guard edge? Too bad. Tear up the damned plow.

  • I don’t think reporting unshoveled sidewalks does anything. I usually get a response after reporting some kind of trouble through that site. I never got a response after reporting unshoveled sidewalks. Last year, I reported several in the neighborhood. I think I received one response to one I reported about a law office building on Chalkstone. The city doesn’t want to fine the residents, which is stupid. We’re all in this together. If you don’t do your duty, you should get fined.

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