Sorry for the short notice about this–although if you read our comments maybe you know already–but there’s a meeting tonight at 6pm at Capitol Ridge (the senior high-rise on Smith Street across from St. Patrick’s) to talk about the possibility of making Pleasant Valley Parkway one-way.  We posted about this issue before and have heard pros (ie. people would not be so confused when driving down a narrow divided boulevard where both sides are two-way, there might be fewer accidents, a bike lane could be created, stop signs would be less confusing to non-residents…) and cons (people that live on the parkway might be driving around the block to get home.)

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Remember like a million years ago when the city ran charettes to come up with a plan for each neighborhood?  Well, the results for the Olneyville/Valley/Smith Hill and Elmhurst/Mount Pleasant plans are up.  I haven’t had a chance to fully read either one of them yet, though after a quick glance I was surprised to learn that my part of town (Elmhurst) does boast a way-above-average unemployment rate, even by Providence standards.  (Which I suppose explains why none of my neighbors seem to have jobs. Who knew?)

You can see the reports in PDF form by going to providenceplanning.org, and the city is accepting comments on the reports until the 18th.  If you feel like doing so in person, then on August 18th beat at 400 Westminster Street, 4th floor, at 4:45 pm.  Phone and e-mail comments will also be read at that time.

Pleasant Valley Parkway, tucked behind Chalkstone Avenue, is one of the nicest things about Providence. Designed by Olmsted and Associates, it’s quiet and tree-filled and lined with some of the nicest houses in town. (And by nicest I mean most aesthetically pleasing, not just that they’re big. Although some of them are pretty spacious.)

There’s just one problem: The parkway is two-way. Which means that traffic runs in both directions on both sides of the road. It’s really counterintuitive and poorly marked out, so locals drive up and down both sides of the road and everybody else creeps confusedly down the middle.

There have been some accidents along the road lately, and residents are pushing the city to turn the road into a one-way with a running/bike lane, sort of like what happened on Blackstone Boulevard recently. It makes sense, since Pleasant Valley has a lot of runners and there’s only occasional sidewalks. And while there aren’t so many bikers as there on on, say, Broadway, they do exist.

Anyway.  There’s a meeting on Monday with Councilman Solomon and some people from the neighborhood.  Capitol Ridge (700 Smith St) at 7pm.  I thought I’d pass the info along since today is National Bike To Work Day and, since I’m working out of my apartment, I don’t really have any other way of participating.

I didn’t realize my post about voting would stir up such a brouhaha from District 7 over the weekend–especially with certain people posting multiple comments using different names (ahem!)–but those of you who live in the Giannini/Ward battleground might be interested in attending the Elmhurst/Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Charrette Follow-Up Meeting Thing tomorrow evening at Robert F Kennedy Elementary School on Nelson Street.  (That’s the one sorta behind LaSalle Bakery.)

I posted about the charrette back in March, after sitting through three days of flip charts and putting stickers on things that we thought were important, and listening to people complain about all the graffiti on Pleasant Valley Parkway, and getting dripped on by melted snow leaking through the roof of Triggs, and having one woman get really condescending and rude when she found out I lived on a street that was mostly multi-family houses (which was particularly annoying, because I don’t.)

The meeting starts at six.  Don’t be surprised if there are confusing activities and/or retired politicians there to remind everyone what a great job they did twenty years ago.

To get you in the mood for what I have to tell you, here’s a video of your girlfriend, Artemisbell, getting aboard the Fun Bus and heading out on the highway.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRNj6AQjthQ]

Ahhh, good times.

Anyway.  I live in Elmhurst, the neighborhood that nobody’s ever heard of between Smith Hill and Mount Pleasant.  There’s a lot of trees and at least one homosexual on every corner (really!) and there’s not one but two LaSalle Bakeries and in general it’s a very quiet and pleasant place to live, even if you do occasionally get woken up by neighbor-children or deranged birds screaming their tiny little dumb heads off for half an hour right outside your bedroom window.

Anyway, all summer the Friends of Elmhurst have been putting on a summer concert series in Fargnoli Park.  Fargnoli Park, in case you didn’t know, is notable mainly for two reasons.  One is that it’s directly across the street from a house that has two (2) cars parked on its tiny front lawn; the other it’s the it’s on the site of the last working farm in the city.

Unfortunately, most of the concerts in the park have gotten rained out, because this is the least summery summer ever.  But tomorrow, or today I guess, marks the series’ big finale.  Weather permitting.

I’ll be on my way to New York tomorrow afternoon (or today afternoon, I guess) so I’ll be missing out on the Big Nazo puppets, cookout, Polynesian dancers (!), dunk tank, local artisans and vendors, and something called The Fun Bus. (see above)  But you should go, even if you don’t live in the neighborhood.  Did I mention the Fun Bus?  It’s brought to you by the Friends of Elmhurst, whose mediaeval font selections make my day pretty much every time I walk down Smith Street.