SNA

SNA would like to  pass along the following message from the Fox Point Neighborhood Association about the proposed I-195 Redevelopment Legislation. Unfortunately, the timing of the next vote doesn’t give the SNA Board to take a position on either side, but regardless of how you feel on the issue, we urge you to contact Speaker Fox and the other Providence Representatives and make your opinion heard.

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The General Assembly has proposed I-195 Redevelopment Legislation that would take away our say in local building development, zoning and other matters over the I-195 parcels for the next 21 years.

Take 30 seconds and click on this link to kill this bill!

You can add a message to it that will go to Speaker Fox and all of the Providence Representatives.

Thanks,
Ian Barnacle, FPNA President

By SNA Admin, ago

Summit Crime Watch: Call for Block Captains

The neighborhood Crime Watch group is making a call for Block Captains.  Ultimately, this is a way we can help reduce crime in our neighborhood.  Can you be your block’s captain?  Can you forward this to the person who can?

Here is the website: www.summitcrimewatch.org

From Monica Anderson, neighborhood liason for Miriam Hospital and Crime Watch leader:

The Crime Watch of Summit Neighborhood (CRWSN) needs you!

Formed in 2009, CRWSN has surveyed neighbors, created a website, logo, and mission statement.  We  have a draft set of by-laws and are working on becoming a non-profit organization and we have held trainings and informational sessions with the police and other Crime Watch Organizations in Rhode Island.

The next step to effectively launch the CRWSN is to create a network of Block Captains within The Summit Neighborhood.  The Block Captain program is the most important next step to help make Summit a safer place to live.   Block Captains hold a meeting with neighbors on their street and serve as the central liaison for information sharing.  Block Captains then relay information back to the Crime Watch organization.

Below is an outline of the role of Block Captain. Block Captains are friendly ambassadors willing to hold a meeting or two and help get their street organized.  The role requires a little work up front, but the shared concern of neighbors looking out for one another on a regular basis eases the overall requirement of the position.

If you are interested in being a Block Captain and need assistance in setting up your first “block/street” meeting, please contact Monica Anderson by calling (401) 793 4040. The CRWSN provides support to Block Captains in the form of helping create and copy fliers for their meetings, providing educational materials, and by placing a notice on the CRWSN website.  We can even provide you with the names of people on your block who have already expressed interest in helping on their street.

The next Crime Watch of Summit Neighborhood Meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 20th at 6:00 p.m. at The Miriam Hospital Sopkin Auditorium.

Block Captain Responsibilities:

1.Ensure your group meets at least twice a year by coordinating the meetings, cookouts, block parties, etc. and report the meeting dates to the CRWSN President or Vice President.

For more information, please call Monica Anderson at 793 2120.

2. Educate your block on what suspicious activity is, and how and when to report it.

Be the central person whom neighbors call when they have a NON-Emergency, a question, or a non-emergency concern.  Be sure that you educate everyone on your block to call the police if they see any suspicious occurring.

3. Develop a block map and roster for your group that includes names, addresses, and phone numbers and e-mails for each group member.  Telephone trees can help expedite emergency information among your neighbors.  Develop a neighborhood chart that includes the names and phone numbers of all members.  Ensure that each individual listed on the tree knows whom he is to contact should emergency or other important information need to be disseminated in a hurry.  Develop an alert plan reflecting the name and phone number of each household – e-mail distribution list or phone tree for notification of suspicious activity.

4. Greet new neighbors and invite them to join the program

5. Inform and distribute to group members any crime related information received from the police department.

6. Keep a record of break-ins, vandalism, graffiti, and/or any activity that becomes a concern for you and your neighbors. Provide this type of information to neighbors at your next block meeting.

7. Be the liaison between your “Block” and the CRWSN.  Attend meetings, as you are able.

8. Attend one of the Block Captain training modules offered throughout the year.

9. Gather and share information

Knowing your neighbors’ basic habits and belongings will help you to recognize unusual or suspicious activities. Basic information you might exchange includes:

-Home and work phone numbers

-Number, ages and identify family members

-Work hours

-School hours of children

-Number and types of automobiles

-Who has dog(s)?

-Planned vacations or visitors

-Scheduled deliveries or repairs

-Any other helpful information

10. Encourage neighbors to advise you concerning criminal activity. Your position as a Block Captain does not give you any law enforcement authority. You are the person who facilitates the unity of the group, disseminates information, and coordinates activities.

Group Members Responsibilities:

  1. Be alert to suspicious activities in your neighborhood.

  1. Notify Block Captain if your contact information changes.

  1. Learn neighbors’ names and be able to identify their vehicles and other vehicles usually in your neighborhood.

  1. Keep an up to date block map, roster, and other important group information in an accessible and secure location.

  1. Implement security measures suggested by your CPO or Block Captain.

  1. Notify police and block captain of any suspicious activity.

  1. DO NOT TAKE ANY PERSONAL RISK to prevent a crime or execute an arrest.  It is more important to have a healthy, injury free witness whose recollection of the incident is not tainted by fear, anxiety, or pain.  The safety and well being of every person in the group is most important.

  1. Attend the “Block” meetings.

By SNA Admin, ago

Next SNA Board Meeting this Monday

The SNA Board meets this Monday, June 20, at 7pm.  Meeting place is the usual: Summit Commons at 99 Hillside Drive.  Please do feel free to join us, just to listen or to get involved in the conversation!  As always, we would love to have you.

If you cannot make this one but you are interested for future meetings, they are normally scheduled for the third Monday of each month at 7pm.

By SNA Admin, ago

Our Second Annual Summit For Sale!

Get Rid Of Your Old Stuff

Help SNA

Have Your Best Yard Sale Ever

There’s strength in numbers!  Once again, we’re bringing Summit together with a yard sale that spans the entire neighborhood.  Get the most bang for your buck by teaming up with dozens of folks just like you.  After a small fee that benefits SNA, all the profit from your sale is yours to keep!  It’s easy:

1)    Fill out the form below and send it with your check no later than August 1.

2)    We’ll create a map of participating houses, then send it to all Summit residents and post it at public places throughout Providence.

3)    We’ll send you a special sign.  Display it at your yard sale on September 17 or the rain date of September 24 to show you’re an official participant.

4)    Enjoy the attention of countless people who want to buy your stuff!

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NAME_________________________________________________________

ADDRESS________________________________________________________

PHONE NUMBER OR E-MAIL_____________________________________

(not made public and only used in case we need to reach you)

Please make checks out to Summit Neighborhood Association and send them to P.O. Box 41092, Providence, RI 02940:

$10 (I’m already an SNA member)

$15 (I’m not an SNA member)

$25 (I’m not an SNA member, but I’d like to join)

By SNA Admin, ago

Summit Neighbor Judy Brown Recognized By The State On Her 80th Birthday

SNA received the following info from an alert neighbor, who told us that on March 24, 2011 the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island officially recognized the 80th birthday of Summit’s own Judy Brown.

Judy is a long-time supporter of SNA, serving on its Advisory Board and volunteering her efforts to manage the organization’s post office box.

Please join me, us, and the rest of the State of Rhode Island in wishing her a happy birthday!

By SNA Admin, ago

Zoning Variance Denied for Clarke’s Florist Site

Zoning Variance Denied for Clarke’s Florist Site

Report on the March 16 Zoning Variance Hearing

by Summit Neighbor Elva Mathiesen

The drive-thru coffee shop proposed for the Clark’s Flower Shop site on Hope Street was the last item on the agenda.

When the neighbors finished filing into the hearing room, all the seats were full and many people were standing.

The lawyer for the developer proposing the coffee shop (“Brewed Awakenings”) presented and questioned a small army of witnesses, as follows:

The architect of the proposed new building, parking lot, and drive-thru lane; a civil engineer, testifying that the present building has deteriorated beyond repair; a traffic engineer with traffic flow studies, testifying that the drive-thru is not incompatible with current traffic on Hope Street, even at rush hours; a real estate agent, testifying that the new business would not bring down property values; Mr. Schartner, the owner of Schartner Florists, LLC., the current owner of Clark’s, who has owned it for only a few years, testifying that he can’t make a go of the business; and David Levesque, the developer, the owner of several other “Brewed Awakenings” coffee/sandwich shops elsewhere in R.I. which, he says are highly successful.  (He said the one near the Capital Grille downtown had to close because it was dependent on foot traffic, and there was no foot traffic during inclement weather.)

As I listened, it seemed to me that Levesque, the developer, was speaking out of two sides of his mouth:  on the one hand, he insisted repeatedly that his coffee/sandwich shop would be a place to eat, meet people, and feel comfortable staying a while; on the other hand, he said that 40% of his business would be drive-thru.

It seemed to me that Levesque was overly sanguine about how many cars would be “stacked” in the drive-thru lane.   Orders would be placed at one window and picked up at another.  Levesque said that cars would have to wait at the pick-up window no more than 45 seconds, but I wasn’t able to follow his reasoning.

(If one car in the stack wants to turn left on Hope Street, it’s going to be idling a lot longer than 45 seconds, and so will all the cars behind it!)

Throughout the testimony of the developer and his witnesses, I couldn’t help but be struck by how careful they all were to avoid mentioning the day care across the street (1/2 block to the north) and the public elementary school one and a half blocks west.  The traffic engineer made no mention of the fact that during morning rush hour, prime drive-thru coffee time, parents would be parking and dropping off babies and toddlers, and kids would be walking to school.

The traffic engineer admitted that he hadn’t factored in bicycle traffic.

Anticipating one argument of the neighbors against the project, the issue of “intensification” of commercial activity, one of the developer’s witnesses (or the lawyer, or the developer himself, I don’t remember which) said that the stretch of Hope Street between Rochambeau and Olney was a neighborhood “in transition” between residential and commercial.  As evidence for this statement he cited the double- and triple-decker houses lining that part of Hope Street, saying that they were “four-, five-, and six-family houses, and one 7-family house.”  This was news to me!

(The few businesses in this mile of Hope Street have been there since before I came to Providence 44 years ago; and if there are residential buildings with four to seven dwelling units each, I haven’t noticed them.)

Sixty-one people came to the hearing and I estimate that at least half of them testified, all against the project.

A lawyer (hired by a neighbor) and Jesse Polhemus (vice president of the Summit Neighborhood Association) led off, Jesse quoting the Zoning Ordinance’s section on granting variances.   One of the qualifications for being granted a variance is that “intensification” of business activity does not occur.   (Providence’s Comprehensive Plan also forbids intensification of business activity on this segment of the Hope Street corridor.)

Many abutters testified, expressing their concern about the noise and fumes from idling vehicles in the drive-through lane, and the lights in the parking lot.  (“Brewed Awakenings” would stay open until 10 p.m., and until 10:30 on Friday and Saturday nights.)

Some people asked:  why couldn’t the property, already zoned R-3, be subdivided and dwellings put in?  (On the tax rolls, it’s already two lots.)

One person suggested that rather than being razed, the greenhouse should be preserved as a valuable community resource for people growing their own food, especially in this time of rising food prices.

Asher Schofield, who owns Frog & Toad, directly across the street from the Citizens Bank parking lot and drive-thru, and Robert Mathiesen, who lives at 45 Lauriston Street, three houses from the Citizens Bank drive-thru, testified that the Citizens Bank drive-thru is noisy and hazardous.

After the neighbors’ testimony, the lawyer for the developer summarized his arguments and droned on for half an hour, accusing the neighbors of NIMBYism and not buying enough flowers.

In my view, if the coffee shop and drive-thru go in, the 12-foot-high arbor vitaes touted by the architect are not going to shield the abutters from the noise, lights, and fumes.  And, regarding the fumes, one abutter testified that she has an asthmatic child.  In fact, the abutters’ quality of life would deteriorate drastically.

After the lawyer had his say, the developer himself took the floor and harangued us for at least 20 minutes about how his coffee shop would produce jobs (25 – 30, most of them part-time) and generate more tax revenue.  He got very emotional toward the end… but I don’t think his last-ditch appeal changed anyone’s mind.

The Zoning Board of Review’s deliberations began with one member’s stating that he counted 61 people who showed up to testify, the most he’d ever seen at a hearing.

Myrth York, the chairman, held up a stack of letters and a stack of e-mails, each at least one inch thick.  Summarizing them, she said that all expressed opposition to the variance, including letters from our state representative, our state senator, and our councilman.  (She did not mention phone messages.)

In addition to the universal opposition to the project, the Board’s deliberations focused on the issue of “intensification” of commercial activity in that location, which was explicitly discouraged by the neighborhood charettes and forbidden by the Zoning Ordinance and Providence’s Comprehensive Plan.

In the Board’s view, the drive-thru aspect of the project constituted “intensification”.

A motion to deny the variance passed 4 o 1.

A second variance, regarding dimensions of signage, was also denied.  (It became moot when the first variance, to raze Clark’s and build a new building with a drive-thru, was denied.)

Elva Mathiesen

45 Lauriston Street

<elvamath@gmail.com>

By SNA Admin, ago

Meeting with the Mayor

Mayor Angel Taveras will be at the Jewish Community Center  for a community Forum, on Thursday March 31, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.   It is the first of several forums to be held throughout the City.

Everyone is welcome to come down and join the conversation.

By SNA Admin, ago