Miriam Hospital will host a community meeting to discuss pandemic flu preparedness Tuesday evening July 18th, 6:30-8:30pm in the Fain Building second floor lecture hall.
There will be representatives from Miriam and RI Hospital. (If a flu pandemic were to occur, Providence residents will receive care from RI Hospital; Miriam has been assigned by RI Department of Health to provide care to East Providence and Barrington.) The meeting will address a range of community preparation issues.
East Side Monthly (and sister pub Providence Monthly) are adding online content from their print editions. Most recently, the neighborhood notes have been put online, from Summit and others.
We’ll provide a permalink in the future to these notes.
A recent press release from the Mayor’s office reads:
“Initiative significantly increases fines for graffiti offenses, offers rewards to those who help police apprehend graffiti vandals, and enhances city’s clean-up capabilities” (read full release here).
There exists the potential for some positive outcomes with the new proposal. Increasing the penalty from $200 up to $1,000 may have a deterrence factor. Likewise, the release indicates that the City may step up and enforce a city ordinance that gives private property owners 10 days to remove the graffiti or seek the City’s assistance in doing so. Enforcing existing regulations is a great start.
Another initiative referenced in the release is that citizens can file a graffiti report electronically at the city’s website. Unfortunately, the graffiti reporting tool is yet another government run roach motel (in that data goes in, but it never comes back out). Providence must follow the lead of other large cities (Chicago’s ICAM data drives chicagocrime.org or Washington DC’s Service Request data) that are using technology to increase transparency and visibility into city services.
What is missing on the City’s graffiti reporting site is a view of the data that citizens have submitted. A view that includes
Something perhaps like this:
The electronic reporting is a good first step, let’s hope our city takes the next one towards greater transparency into the services it purports to provide.
Here’s an encouraging update on the inclusion of grass strips in any sidewalk replacement scheduled for Ward 3, which includes Summit. At SNA’s request, our councilman, Kevin Jackson, has coordinated with DPW to revise the sidewalk bids to include grass strips, which should be covered by current funding. We will confirm as the work is scheduled, but this looks like a big win for a walkable streetscape in Summit and Mount Hope !
Attached is the SNA resolution on the grass strips. Read on for the history. (more…)
Miriam Hospital has announced the dates of its Community meetings for the 2nd Quarter of 2006. All meetings will be held in Miriam’s Fain Building. Dates and times are below.
Community members are encouraged to attend these meetings, and feel free to post comments with any feedback following the meeting.
Landscaping Meeting
Monday June 12th 6:30-7:30pm
Fain Building 1st Floor Conference Room
Environmental Committee
Tuesday, June 20th 6:30-7:30pm
Fain Building 1st Floor Conference Room
Quarterly Community Meeting and Free Pneumonia Vaccination Clinic
Tuesday, June 27th
Meeting Time: 6:30-8pm
Vaccinations: 5pm-6:30 and then following the meeting
Fain Building
Over the past few months, we’ve had an increased volume and variety of conversations about the streets of Summit – traffic calming, parking enforcement, signage, and resident parking permits. Some of these (traffic calming Phase I) are done deals, and some (parking permits, further traffic calming) are long term discussions. But parking signage and enforcement are every day issues. (more…)
RI’s beaches are one of the few reasons to bail out of Summit in the summer. Sheila Lennon is working on a mashup of map and beach-related data for projo.com that puts beaches a point-and-click away.
ProvPlan’s May e-newsletter features an interesting Fact/Map of the Month:
“To visualize how crime locations change over time, we produced four animated maps that track hotspots from 2002-2005. Although many of the same spots persist year after year, it is interesting to see how new ones appear and recede.”
The Providence Phoenix recently did a full review of local Summit restaurant Not Just Snacks. Read their rave review here.
On June 1st, the Congress for the New Urbanism, a development and planning conference, will visit North Main to explore and address its development and growth. Public participation is welcomed, and is free with RSVP.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
The Congress will use Providence as an urban laboratory to examine specific design and development challenges present in many older American cities. Labs will begin with a presentation of the design challenge, followed by a site visit and ending with a group problem-solving session. Participants will interact with national and local practitioners and stake-holders to challenge assumptions, provoke new thinking and develop action plans to be executed post-Congress. (more…)