City of Providence Cuts Mount Hope Out of the East Side

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Kate Nagle, GoLocal Contributor

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School on Camp Street, in Mt. Hope.

A list of upcoming neighborhood meetings for the City of Providence has drawn criticism from Mt. Hope residents on the East Side for how the city neighborhoods were divided -- but the city is denying it was the final plan.

A flyer from the city was posted on Facebook (see below) showing that the East Side neighborhoods Blackstone, Wayland, and College Hill in Wards 2 and 3 were slated for a meeting at the Jewish Community Center on Elmgrove Avenue next Tuesday; however it assigned the East Side neighborhood of Mt. Hope -- which is predominantly in Ward 3 -- to a meeting with Wards 4 and 14 at the DaVinci Center on Charles Street.

The Mayor's Office, however, said Monday that the flyer for neighborhood community development input meetings -- that were slated to start next week -- was just a draft, and not intended for distribution.

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"This is a draft document. It has not been distributed, and it is not correct," said Evan England, Spokesperson for Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza. "Meeting times and locations are being changed."

"Someone sent it to us," said James Monteiro, Executive Director of the Billy Taylor House in Mt. Hope of the poster, noting that it came from Prov WebGrants. "Maybe they changed their minds after the heard what folks had to say about it? I don't know, but what I do know is there's a constant effort to keep us divided."

Concerns Persist

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The flyer the city says is just a draft. (For a larger version, see below).

Despite the city's acknowledgement that the document is due to be changed with the potential for a new meeting assignments, Mt. Hope residents addressed what they see as a continued exclusion from the East Side, despite being in the technical geographic area.

"Mt. Hope's issues are Summit's issues, are Blackstone's issues," said Monteiro of other East Side neighborhoods. "Crime issues? That's Mt. Hope, but that's all the East Side. We need to work this out together. We started to do this on our own. I've had a lot of people from Summit say, 'I had no idea that's what it's all about.' It's all of the East Side, and we need to be having that conversation. Together."

Ward 3 Councilman Kevin Jackson said that he had not seen the document that was posted to social media and had sparked heated discussion -- but said on Monday that he had "continued concerns" as to how Mt. Hope was positioned on the East Side.

"My concern is that everyone always tells me they're not trying to separate Mt. Hope from the rest of the East Side," said Jackson. "I haven't heard about this [flyer], but I have been hearing that folks are being told in Ward 3 that their neighborhood school is Hopkins, and not Nathan Bishop. How can you not understand that Mt. Hope is part of the East Side?"

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Related Slideshow: Providence Snow Equipment Costs

Below are the costs of some of the recent plow trucks Providence has purchased. The slides also include some figures from the Department of Parks and Recreations for vehicles that could be used to plow snow. In addition to purchase prices, the cost of repairing vehicles in the Department of Public Works is included over a five-year period. Because city budget records do not have a separate line item for snow plow trucks, the total cost of auto and truck repairs for each year is displayed. Sources: in addition to budget records, meeting records for the Providence City Council and the Board of Contract and Supply.