Ward 3 PVD News: June 5

Hello Friends & Neighbors,

We are in full summer mode in Ward 3! The summertime market is in full swing, gardens across the neighborhood are in bloom — and the weather has finally warmed up! I’m looking forward to bumping into you in all corners of the ward now that so many folks are out and about walking and enjoying our beautiful neighborhoods!

A big thank you to everyone who came out to our May Ward 3 meeting at the Mount Hope Community Center! We had a great conversation about the sale of the Rochambeau Fire Station, traffic calming on Hope Street, and much more.

As always, there’s a lot going on in Providence, so I’ll hop right into it!

Update On The Green Revolving Fund

Great news! The Green Revolving Fund that I sponsored passed and has been signed by Mayor Smiley!The Green Revolving Fund allows us to invest the savings from our investments in energy efficiency and clean energy back into a revolving fund to help fund future projects. You might remember that two years ago, I wrote and then unanimously passed an ordinance requiring all municipal buildings to be carbon neutral by 2040. The City’s Sustainability Department has been hard at work on implementation!

With the attacks on clean energy at the federal level — and Governor McKee’s attempts to claw back support for clean energy in Rhode Island — Providence isn’t going to stand down. This Revolving Fund helps us basically reinvest our savings from greening our buildings (as well as any previous incentives we’ve received), and invest them in future projects — kind of making our own clean energy incentives!

You can hear more about it in this video I recorded! Investing in clean energy in Providence is not only helping the environment — it’s also saving us real money for our taxpayers AND creating good, local jobs!

 WATCH HERE  

Upcoming Events

Ways & Means Committee:

The Ways & Means Committee (which has replaced the Finance Committee) continues to meet at least twice a week to review sections of the budget. You can see upcoming meetings and which departments are scheduled to present on the City’s Open Meetings Portal. When the second public hearing is scheduled, I will share that information here and also through my social media channels!

City Council:

The City Council continues to meet as a full body on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month at 6 pm in the Council chambers!

Miscellaneous:

Mount Hope Community Center Arts & Crafts Day at Billy Taylor Park — June 13th at 11 am!

Miscellaneous Topics For You

There are quite a number of important topics before the Council and for our Ward right now – I wanted to just share a few!

Ways & Means Committee:

Last month, the Council created a Special Committee on Ways and Means to handle the review of the budget and future finance committee matters. This replaces the Finance Committee for this term. As you know, I have been enthusiastically serving on the Finance and the Ways and Means Committee since my first week on Council.Since I am not running for re-election, and it’s important to me to ensure continuity and strong financial oversight for the City, Councilwoman Davidson and I discussed it, and I have transitioned my seat on the Committee to Councilwoman Davidson so that she could have some time serving directly on this important committee before (hopefully!) being re-elected and returning to Council next term.I will still enthusiastically participate, but I wanted to ensure that I was creating the space for our newest member to have this direct, hands-on experience. Councilwoman Davidson and I have a close relationship, and will continue to coordinate and work together on this and many other issues, and I appreciate her and that she was interested in digging in on this!

MOHA Infrastructure:

I was so pleased to help shepherd a bond investment for new sidewalks and other infrastructure investments for Benefit Street late last year. Benefit Street spans 3 wards (1, 2, and 3), but is a historic treasure for the whole City and visiting tourists. I am so pleased that this past week, we kicked off implementation of this project with the Administration. The streets and sidewalks will be safer for pedestrians while maintaining their historic significance.

Nathan Bishop Courts:

I am so pleased to share that the Nathan Bishop Courts will be reopening by the end of the month! I know folks have been waiting for a long time for this project to be completed, and I appreciate your patience! We listened to a great deal of community feedback (and the feedback of students and teachers!), and the new courts will be a mix of dedicated space for tennis, dedicated space for pickleball, basketball, and some open play space for the students.

I know that no one ‘got’ 100% of what they asked for – but I am grateful that we have such a well-loved community asset that so many folks advocated so passionately for! I will continue to work hard and advocate for increased access to high-quality open space! Keep an eye out — Councilwoman Davidson and I will be doing a ribbon cutting to celebrate these new courts at the end of June, and we’ll invite every one of you to join us in the celebration!

Follow My Socials For Live Updates!

Between newsletters, I post frequent updates on more time-sensitive matters and general updates on what’s going on in council. You can follow below to make sure you don’t miss a thing!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the honor of serving you on the Providence City Council. I take this responsibility incredibly seriously, and I am grateful every day for the chance to serve you & our City.

Please reach out any time by replying to this email if there are issues of importance to you or ways I can be of service to you. Budget season is a busy season at City Hall, so thank you in advance for your patience if my email inbox gets a little flooded, and I take a day or two to respond — I do try to reply individually to every (non-form) email I receive!

With Gratitude,

Sue A