the airing of grievances

[bucketeer]

that's what i love about these high school girls... i get older, they stay the same age...

thanks for that rant, it's good to hear it from an actual teacher.

Haha, great movie.

Thanks for the rant support!

[Cotuit]

There are some places the four way stop works (it certainly has done wonders for the center of Wayland Square, where it's made things orders of magnitude safer for pedestrians, a worthy goal, yes?).

Four-way stops can work. The intersection needs to be marked properly, i.e. stop signs in places where they can be seen, and proper lane markings, stop lines, and crosswalks. However, as Recchia pointed out, they shouldn't be implemented as a reactionary traffic control measure in places where they don't work.

As people know, I don't have a car, but occassionally, I do get my hands on one and drive. EVERYTIME I'm in a car, I fly through the four-way stop at Federal and Bradford Streets. There wasn't a stop sign there when I moved here, but one suddenly showed up. How many cars go through that intersection an hour, 3? Where is the need for a four-way stop? I go through it, because it wasn't there when I first learned that street, and now it makes no sense. And this is one of those places where the signs are just thrown up helter skelter (another problem with area signs is uniform height, they all seem to be too tall or too short, drivers have muscle memory of where signs are supposed to be and if they aren't in that general zone, they don't see them). There's also zero lane markings here.

The other extreme is a place like Benefit at College Street. That intersection, in my opinion needs a traffic light. It's too busy for a four-way stop, and is one of those places where people's inability to navigate a four-way stops increases the danger to both cars and pedestrians. Drivers are too distracted trying to figure out who's turn it is, or to assert that it is indeed their turn to even notice that there are also pedestrians in the mix. Again, Helter Skelter signs and a derth of lane markings. And these ugly random signs are in a historic district.

no, they're city roads... drive around the east side.

You could also walk around the East Side to see what I mean.

[Garris]

From the NY City area as in the NYTimes:

Parents to Sue Over Cellphone Ban

- Garris

[runawayjim]

From the NY City area as in the NYTimes:

Parents to Sue Over Cellphone Ban

- Garris

while that ban is very restrictive (it should require that students keep them turned completely off and kept in their locker), the parents are over-reacting... what did kids do before cell phones? times weren't much different. if anything, i'd say they're safer now than they were before (especially in new york).

[Cotuit]

I assume these schools have phones that parents can call if they need to get to their child in an emergency. I remember way back when I was in school, all school buildings had telephones and a receptionist to answer them.

Seriously, this need to be able to constantly reach their children is only serving to hurt the children. You have to cut the apron strings and allow your child to go into the world and stand on their own feet.

Certainly if there is some kind of extreme emergency at the school (like heaven forbid Columbine), students can turn on their phones and reach their parents.

[Jerry2]

From the NY City area as in the NYTimes:

Parents to Sue Over Cellphone Ban

- Garris

That is pitiful and represents what is completely wrong with this entire system. I applaud Mayor Bloomberg for getting tough on that.

[Recchia]

I can't believe how much cell phones have exploded recently. I remember when I was in high school (98-02), nobody even had any, and I went to that stuck-up fake-uppity Catholic high school in Warwick.... I didn't even want one but got one senior year for "emergency" purposes. Now everyone has them. I saw a girl who couldn't have been more than 9 years old walking down my street a few weeks ago two-waying on her nextel...

[runawayjim]

I can't believe how much cell phones have exploded recently. I remember when I was in high school (98-02), nobody even had any, and I went to that stuck-up fake-uppity Catholic high school in Warwick.... I didn't even want one but got one senior year for "emergency" purposes. Now everyone has them. I saw a girl who couldn't have been more than 9 years old walking down my street a few weeks ago two-waying on her nextel...

they became big when i was in college. i remember my super-senior year counting the number of people on them walking between buildings (literally just walking across the street) and i think we counted like 20+ students on them. it was like people couldn't be without them or not be in touch with people. i personally hate the "age of information" because i don't feel a need to always be in touch with everyone in my life at the press of a button. the only reason i got a cell phone originally was because it was cheaper long distance for calling my girlfriend in new york.

[brick]

what happened to books on the square at empire and Washington?

Hopefully they didn't close (I haven't even been by to see what you are talking about), but that would be a perfect spot for your dessert cafe

[Cotuit]

Here's the stop signs at Federal and Bradford I was talking about. Granted, there's nothing at this intersection (not even a sidewalk in some areas, but that's a different grievance), but does that mean they can't put the stop signs up properly?

[jencoleslaw]

i'm willing to bet that intersections with more than one stop sign per side are that way because people run the stop and there was an accident and the cops, or neighbors or council person decided that more stop signs would actually facillitate stops.

it is my opinion that thrown rocks, or moving violations would actually make people stop at stop signs.

[brick]

i'm willing to bet that intersections with more than one stop sign per side are that way because people run the stop and there was an accident and the cops, or neighbors or council person decided that more stop signs would actually facillitate stops.

it is my opinion that thrown rocks, or moving violations would actually make people stop at stop signs.

That or actually making them visible once in a while, as several here have pointed out. I swear the city must put up half of their stop signs in the winter since half the signs in the city are blocked by vegetation in the summer.

the East Side is notorious for this. I can only assume because East Siders would rather have people blowing through stop signs everywhere than having the city distrub their sidewalk with a real sign.

[jencoleslaw]

i saw political signs NAILED into trees on the east side today.

[runawayjim]

i saw political signs NAILED into trees on the east side today.

i think the people those political signs represent should be fined for each offense... or at least their campaigns fined.

[AriPVD]

THE SIDEWALKS DOWNTOWN ARE MISERABLE!!!!! WHAT A HORRIBLE AND EASILY FIXABLE IMPRESSION WE MAKE ON VISITORS. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH.

[jencoleslaw]

you know what else? There's always a really yucky smell right at the Dress Barn corner. not matter what time of the year it is, it smells like sewage.

bleck!

[Cotuit]

THE SIDEWALKS DOWNTOWN ARE MISERABLE!!!!!

I'm annoyed about how poorly the sidewalks on Washington are, considering the street was recently rebuilt. When Empire and Weybosset get redirected, they must rip out and rebuild the sidewalks.

[jencoleslaw]

i'm not feeling well today so i suspect i'll be all about the complaints, but last night someone was laying on their car horn for hours. no joke. from 8 pm until well after 11 someone would lean on their horn for 10 seconds or more, at least 10 times an hour. clearly someone's parking spot was blocked or something but it was making me insane.

almost as a crazy as i am when the house across the street uses the car horn as the doorbell for the entire four apartments. Cheezes, just use your cell phone if you're to damn lazy to drag your sorry carcass out of the car and walk the 15 ft to the door to ring the damn bell.

cars registered in Providence should have their horns disconnected.

[Recchia]

I cannot get over people's laziness. It's truly alarming. Walking to people nowadays is considered one of the biggest chores of a lifetime. My neighbors are a shining example of this, they will do anything to not even have to walk an extra 20 feet to their apartment door, even if that means blocking me in. I want to hurt them.

Random, but the line of cars at the drive thru DD on Central Ave near me is ridiculous. Literally ten cars waiting in line, and maybe one person inside. Are we that lazy that we'll waste 15 mins sitting in a car instead of walking 20 feet to go get a coffee in 2 minutes?

[CtownMikey]

I'm annoyed about how poorly the sidewalks on Washington are, considering the street was recently rebuilt. When Empire and Weybosset get redirected, they must rip out and rebuild the sidewalks.

will they?

[runawayjim]

i yell out my window at the lazy idiots who use their horns as doorbells... of course in my neighborhood, they're usually old and lazy... except for the high school kids across the street.

[basachs]

Is the car horn as doorbell unique to Providence? I have lived in three other cites and a host of suburbs and never heard people use this as much as here or even at all.

Our neighbor's house is plagued by this and whever we hear it, my wife and I say DOORBELL! really loud to each other. Nice to see it annoys others too.

[jencoleslaw]

Is the car horn as doorbell unique to Providence? I have lived in three other cites and a host of suburbs and never heard people use this as much as here or even at all.

Our neighbor's house is plagued by this and whever we hear it, my wife and I say DOORBELL! really loud to each other. Nice to see it annoys others too.

last summer i lived in a gigantic souless apartment complex in Northern VA and no one EVER used their horn from the parking area. Even if it meant walking up three flights of stairs to knock on the door. i suspect people just called from their cellios and said "dude, i'm downstairs." Why folks can't do that here is beyond me.

[Cotuit]

i suspect people just called from their cellios and said "dude, i'm downstairs." Why folks can't do that here is beyond me.

You've got a lot to learn girlie. Cell phones are for use only on buses, and only in chirpie let the whole world hear about your life's problems mode.

[Garris]

I'm annoyed about how poorly the sidewalks on Washington are, considering the street was recently rebuilt. When Empire and Weybosset get redirected, they must rip out and rebuild the sidewalks.

What I'm amazed at is the fact that a condo conversion ongoing here just ripped up the old sidewalks to put in an entrance for their parking lot. After they were done, they repoured a new sidewalk in its place.

The whole process (ripping up the old sidewalk, putting down the wood boundries, and pouring the new concrete) took about a day and a half for that 1/3 of a block or so, and that includes them putting down the larger parking lot. This didn't look that hard for these guys to do.

So my question for development savy people is how expensive and time consuming would a decidated project be? On Westminster, for example, how much would one block (both sides of the street) cost? Based on watching the project here, I bet it would take at longest 2 weeks...

Ideas?

I cannot get over people's laziness.

There was a recent poll asking people why they don't use blinkers, and I think it was 18% that said laziness. This is moving the turn signal stalk with their finger while driving... Incredible...

- Garris