Members of the College Hill Neighborhood Association said at their monthly meeting Monday night that they weren't bothered by the University's siren test two weeks ago.
The meeting, which took place at School One off Blackstone Boulevard, also covered an initiative for open space in Fox Point, the probable destruction of Brown's Urban Environmental Lab on Angell Street and graffiti on College Hill.
Brown's emergency alert system, which featured a loud siren on Feb. 28 at noon, did not upset Neighborhood Association members.
Ed Bishop, who owns the local real estate company E.F. Bishop Reality Inc. and insurance company E.F. Bishop Agency Inc., said the siren "didn't bother me." But in the event of a real emergency, he added, it would be unclear what the hazard was and where to go for safety.
Other members, including President William Touret and East Side Monthly Managing Editor Barry Fain, did not have complaints about the siren.
Members also expressed support for an Fox Point-based initiative for open space, proposed by David Riley, vice chair of the Head of the Bay Gateway Steering Committee. But few details about the proposal emerged at the meeting, so association members decided to hold off on monetary contribution until they knew more about it, they said.
The meeting's attendees disapproved of the impending removal or relocation of the Urban Environmental Lab, at 135 Angell St. The lab, which sports a carriage-house design, will most likely be replaced by the Mind Brain Behavior building.
"I don't think anyone wants to see it demolished," Touret said.
Street graffiti was briefly mentioned at the end of the meeting. Bishop told The Herald that he wants to see spray-painting graffiti, currently a misdemeanor, made into a felony. He called graffiti a "very serious thing" and said brick buildings often "lost their glaze" when they are sandblasted to remove graffiti.
Half-jokingly, Fain even proposed to "raise Brown's tuition to stop graffiti."
