Providence Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Agenda
April 15, 2013, 4:30 PM, 444 Westminster Street, First Floor
Agenda
4:30 – Old Business:
5:00 – Downtown Circulator and Related Bike/Ped Concerns: Fountan, Sabin, etc.
5:30 – Public Comment, Additional Issues
5:50 – Reschedule or Relocate May 20 Meeting
Full disclosure: I am a member of this Commission.
2013 State of the City Address
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 • (as prepared for delivery)
Photo of the Mayor delivering the State of the City from the Mayor’s Office.
Governor, Mr. President, honorable members of the Providence City Council, distinguished guests, and my fellow residents of our great Capital City –
One year ago I stood before you in this Chamber with an urgent message for our City and the entire State of Rhode Island. Providence was in peril. Despite many difficult decisions and painful sacrifices made to pull Providence back from the brink, we were still $22 million short of closing a $110 million structural deficit.
Crucial steps necessary to navigate our City safely through our Category 5 fiscal hurricane had not yet come to pass. We still needed to reform our unsustainable pensions. And we needed Providence’s large, tax-exempt institutions to contribute more.
As I stood before you on February 13, 2012, Providence was running out of cash, and running out of time. In the months that followed, there were some who said Providence could not avoid filing for bankruptcy.
Today it is my privilege to deliver a much more hopeful report on the State of our City: Providence is recovering.
Through collaborative efforts and shared sacrifice, we have all but eliminated our City’s $110 million structural deficit, and we expect to end this year with a balanced budget. Working together, we have accomplished what few believed possible.
We were determined to address the root causes of Providence’s fiscal emergency and prepared to act unilaterally if necessary. And we knew our City would never achieve a lasting recovery without addressing our unsustainable and spiraling pension costs.
In April, following months of actuarial analysis and public testimony, this City Council unanimously approved a pension reform ordinance that put Providence’s pension system on a sustainable path.
We recognized that passing the ordinance would likely lead to a high-stakes lawsuit with no real winners – because a decision in favor of the status quo would push our City over the brink. However, faced with the challenge of negotiating pension changes with more than 2,000 retirees who were not represented by a single entity, we saw no alternative.
Variable message sign at LaSalle Square
Update: Two-way traffic to begin Tuesday morning, January 10th before the AM commute. See Press Release in the comments below.
Signs are up on Weybosset and Empire Streets alerting drivers that those streets will become two-way in “January 2012.” When exactly in January, it doesn’t say.
My understanding is that the final striping and signage and such to convert the streets will be put in place on a Saturday and Sunday morning, Ta Da!, two-way streets. I can’t imagine that work will take place on New Year’s Eve, so I’m speculating we have at least another week to go.
This is of course all part of the Downtown Circulator Project which got underway in April, and was due to be completed in November, oops!
The rebuilt intersection of Weybosset, Richmond, and Mathewson Streets, aka PPAC Square, is also part of this project.
If previous plans hold true, work should begin next year on Phase 3 of the Circulator Project which will include the redesign on Emmett and LaSalle Squares, conversion of Sabin Street in front of the Convention Center to two-way traffic, and the possible two-way conversions of Exchange Terrace and Dorrance Street between Washington Street and Emmett Square.
Phase 2 of the “Downtown Providence Traffic Circulation Improvements” project gets closer to completion as blacktop is laid on Downcity streets.
Empire Street
This week Empire, Weybosset, Broad, and Dorrance Streets have been getting their final coats of pavement and the activity at PPAC Square has been fast and furious as crews race to finish work ahead of PPAC’s season starting.
Click Image to enlarge
Today the Mayor’s Office held a press conference announcing the designation of the intersection of Weybosset and Mathewson Streets as “PPAC Square.” This is part of the larger Downtown Circulator Project.
Speakers included the Mayor, Director of Planning and Development Thom Deller, Joe Walsh the Chairman of the PPAC Board, and Laurie White of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce.
Phase 2 of the “Downtown Providence Traffic Circulation Improvements” have begun in earnest. This morning a lane was dropped on Weybosset Street, Mathewson Street is closed between Weybosset and Chapel (through June), and a worker was out with a giant machine cutting hacking away at the sidewalks.
You might be thinking, “Phase 2, did I miss Phase 1.” Well, you might of, I did. The Circulator Project (not to be confused with the Core Connector Study) is to make more Downtown streets two-way, to make traffic flow better and the city more predictable to navigate. Phase one was the conversion of Washington Street to two-way traffic and happened some time early in the last decade.
| Today | Saturday | Sunday | Monday |
|---|---|---|---|
 Chance of a Thunderstorm 75°/50° |  Rain Showers 54°/41° |  Chance of Rain 64°/45° |  Partly Cloudy 75°/45° |
City Meetings
