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barry's avatar

great coverage Steve (as usual!)

Another concern is that some reports say the results of the public preference that was allowed may not be made public.

I do suhhest some nuance - I don't think its so much that RIPTA wants to help the politically connected downtown realtors as much as that they are a weak ahency dependent on the power structure for financing and they have little leverage to resist. Their Board is appointed by thr Governor and mostly they will try to please the Governor who is so influenced by those downtown realtors.

Also, Kennedy Plaza is not without problems, one being it is rather spread out - some find it daunting to have to walk across Burnside Park to some stop locations, especially after dark or in bad weather. It also has been given a bad reputation by actual, perceived, or hyped up reports of criminal and scary behavior. I for one have found it hard to persuade some people to take a bus downtown because of the KP rep.

What is also sad about this is that the downtown business community and the Providence Mayor see transit as a negative rather than their one transportation advantage, and its potential to reduce congestion, pollution, climate emissions and accidents. Not all downtowns have this attitude, for example downtown Columbus OH businesses were promoting transit for their employees by payng their fares (before covid hit) while RIPTA's employer "ecopass" program has gotten only miniscule support.

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Steve Ahlquist's avatar

I had to edit the vote count that I estimated after recieving final results from Randall Rose, who organized the outside protest.

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