Ward 3 PVD News: May 11

Hello Friends & Neighbors,With the return of the Lippitt Park Farmers Market, we know that spring has finally sprung! This is one of my favorite times of year in the neighborhood — as everyone re-emerges after a long winter, looking to spend time connecting with neighbors in parks and neighborhoods!

As always, there’s a lot to share — so I’ll hop right into it!

Green Revolving Fund Passes Out Of Committee

As you remember, two years ago, I wrote and passed a law requiring all municipal buildings to be carbon neutral by 2040. The City’s Sustainability Department has been hard at work on implementation — and just released the Decarbonization Roadmap! As part of implementation, I am partnering with the Administration to create a Green Revolving Fund, so we can reinvest the savings from energy efficiency and clean energy upgrades — and any incentives we receive — into future projects.With so much building and renovating underway and so many attacks on clean energy from the federal government, it was important to move quickly — and my Special Committee on the Environment and Resiliency passed the ordinance out of Committee on Friday, May 1st. The full Council will now vote on it on May 7th and 21st.You can read about the ordinance in the Providence Business News!

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Upcoming Events

Ward 3 Community Meeting:

The next meeting is on May 16th at 10 a.m. at the Mount Hope Community Center! We will have several special guests: City Traffic Engineer Nate Urso to discuss traffic calming on Hope Street; Director of Real Estate Nick Ciccitelli to discuss the sale of the Rochambeau Fire Station, and School Board Chairman Ty’relle Stephens. As always, we’ll have plenty of time for conversation & questions!

Budget Review:

This year’s budget is being thoroughly vetted by the “Ways and Means Committee”, of which I am a member. As we have done in prior years on the Finance Committee, the Committee will meet at least 2x a week through mid-June to review each department’s budget, and we will have a second public hearing once the Council’s proposed amended budget is available for feedback. Please feel welcome to send me feedback at any time, and you can see the updated meeting schedule on the City’s open meetings portal. We will also be posting regular updates to the calendar on the Council’s Facebook Page to ensure folks can engage!

North Burial Ground Master Plan Community Visioning Session

North Burial Ground is developing a Master Plan to guide the cemetery for both short-term improvements and the long-term development and maintenance of NBG.Join us on June 1, 5:30-7:30 PM at Roger Williams Park, Clark Dalrymple Boathouse, 1000 Elmwood Ave, Providence RI 02907.RSVP to aheppner@providenceri.gov by Thursday, May 28.

Miscellaneous:

May 30th: Porchfest! I am so excited for the East Side’s annual music festival! Keep up with the latest updates and the lineup of performances through Porchfest’s social media.

Miscellaneous Topics For You

North Main Street:

Work continues with our North Main Street Task Force! The City is currently working through the contracting for the firm that will undertake the design/engineering phase of the larger changes to North Main! I can’t wait to announce who the selected contractor is.We are also working on two minor zone changes on North Main so that existing properties can add some units of housing and mixed-use development! As soon as there are plans to share, I will share them — but I am so excited for what’s in store!

Flock Cameras:

A big thank you to RIC Professor Robyn Linde (and Ward 3 resident!) and her class who did an excellent semester project investigating Flock cameras and their potential impacts on our rights to privacy. The Flock contract is not currently up for renegotiation in Providence, but will be in a year, so it’s important for my colleagues and me to understand the implications of this system. I have had serious concerns about Flock’s relationship with ICE, and while Providence itself has rules in place to not share data with ICE — it is important to understand how ICE has been able to access data in other places and use it to infringe on personal freedoms of residents. The class presented to my Special Committee, and materials will be posted here.

Newsmakers Segment:

Did you check out my segment on Newsmakers last week? See it here!

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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!

It continues to be my greatest honor to serve our community on the Providence City Council.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