I'm writing to alert the campus community - students, faculty and all employees - to opportunities to become involved in two exciting city initiatives.
I ran for City Council in 2002 - at least in part - because my predecessor, a conservative Democrat, was the Council's most strident opponent to the inception of the Providence External Review Authority, a board of civilians whose role is to monitor and mediate accusations of police brutality.
The push for PERA began in earnest after the 29 year-old off-duty police officer Cornel Young Jr. was shot and killed in Providence's Olneyville neighborhood by two fellow officers who mistook him for a suspect.
But concern about heavy-handed police conduct wasn't new to Providence in 2000. A 1991 study by Human Rights Watch illuminated the astonishing fact that the rate of complaints of police abuse was higher in each of Providence, East Providence and Pawtucket than in any other cities in the country, except for New Orleans. A subsequent Human Rights Watch study determined that Providence's police force was the nation's third most abusive, behind Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
There's little doubt that the situation is much-improved relative to a half-decade ago. Our current, progressive police chief, Colonel Dean Esserman, has decentralized his department and made it more neighborhood-oriented. The department's Ninth District, which includes Brown's main campus, is fortunate to be overseen by the superb Lieutenant Paul Campbell, but that does nothing to undermine the importance of the role PERA serves in our community.
Each Councilmember is allowed to make one appointment to PERA's board. The term of Ward 1's current appointee will end in a month's time. For a variety of personal reasons, she has chosen to step down, so the search has begun for her replacement. I'd ask that anybody who's interested in serving get in touch with me, at the email address or phone number listed below. The ideal candidate would be able to commit to completing a 3-year term, and should reside within Ward 1 - the East Side, south of Angell Street. The position is unpaid, and would entail attendance at meetings one or two evenings per month.
As The Herald reported last fall, the Parks Department and I are working to establish a community garden in Fox Point. It'll be located east of Gano Street, just off of Power Street - about a 10 minute walk from the Main Green. It's on a sliver of city-owned, unused greenspace that had been slated for paving-over.
I've been working with students involved in the Sustainable Food Initiative, the Brown Environmental Action Network and others, to get the garden up and running. The Parks Department has tested the soil and is devising a landscaping plan. Decorative fencing will be done by an artists' collaborative, the Steel Yard. We anticipate being ready for plantings in late April.
If you're interested in gardening with us this summer, please contact me. We think that we'll have room for 50 or so 100 square-foot plots, each to be cared-for by an individual, family or small group.
For those who are interested in a more substantial investment in this project as well as a summer job, we're in the process of hiring one or two garden managers. The (paid) positions would entail 5-10 hours of work per week, from April until October, with a little bit of work in March too. Candidates should have good managerial skills, and some gardening experience. We hope to have managers identified within a couple of weeks, when we'll be holding meetings with the garden's stakeholders.
This will be the East Side's first substantial public garden - we're excited to make sure that it's a success.
David Segal is Ward 1's City Councilman. Reach him at (401) 521-7477 or David@VoteSegal.com.
