What part of “public” did you not understand? On Tuesday the Coastal Resources Management council (CRMC) voted unanimously to designate Public Street a shoreline right-of-way providing permanent protection. Much credit for re-establishing its status — it should have been open all along — and getting some fences removed is owed to various neighborhood advocates. From Antonia Noori Farzan’s piece in the ProJo:
“Now we have permanent, legitimate waterfront access,” said Linda Perri, president of the Washington Park Neighborhood Association. “What we do with it is another complicated story. We need the funding, the money, and the collaboration with state, city and federal agencies to get the money to clean it up and to create a usable space somehow.”
Neighborhood organizations hooked up with Save the Bay and the CRMC who are actively working to safeguard pre-existing rights-of-way like Public Street, but are going even further.
Save the Bay, which sees expanding access to the coast as part of its broader environmental mission, actively looks for spots that could become shoreline right-of-ways. The CRMC has said that it wants one designated right-of-way for each of Rhode Island’s 400 miles of shoreline, but so far it only has a little over half that many, said Jed Thorp, the organization’s advocacy coordinator.
Go here for the CRMC designated rights-of-way online map to the shore.
Learn more at the Save the Bay Public Access page.
Farzan also covered the ongoing right-of-way battles in Barrington. Political gadfly and occasional gubernatorial candidate, Ken Block, thinks the use of parking restrictions has effectively blocked meanignful access to the shoreline guaranteed to Rhode Island citizens under our Constitution.
Go citizens!
*********************************
The view north towards the I-Way Bridge.
Public Street crosses Allens Avenue to the water. Go check it out — no one can stop you.
