West Broadway Neighborhood Association

Last Tuesday, 1 April, was the meeting of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association, or WBNA. Located in an old Texaco gas station on Westminster, just a block down from our apartment, the WBNA is a coalition of neighborhood organizations trying to make the "West End,"or at least this part of it, a nice place to live.

About 7 p.m. Sue and I grabbed our coats and headed over to the meeting. She had just gotten back from Gracie's and barely had time to shower before we had to leave.

But hey, it was a nice balmy evening for a short walk.

The small meeting room, in the old garage portion of the gas station, was about half-full of folks who live in the area. One of our builders, Peter, was there to talk about the rehab project of the old funeral home. He and Bob even laid out some munchies and wine for anyone from the meeting who wanted to come and take a look at what had been done to the Prata family funeral home (quite a few did in fact).

The meeting last about an hour with several folks making brief presentations on upcoming events and resources in the neighborhood.

It was kicked off with a talk by a rep from the city parks department and one from the Neighborhood Planting Association. They brought everyone up to date on the upcoming planting of trees in and around our neighborhood for this season. They also talked a bit about how folks could apply for tree plantings (mostly free) on their street.

They were followed by a young man who talked a bit about the farm fresh program and how people could buy shares for the season -- in other words, getting on a food plan for fruits and vegetables from local farms throughout the coming season.

A woman then talked for a few minutes about the status of the local coop store at 1577 Wesminster, almost right across the street from the WBNA office. Several years in development the store may (or may not) open this year. They are about a third of the way to their target number of shares, although we have no idea how the money issue stands at present. As you can see from the photo the projected land remains untouched. (The property in question is where the decaying building in the center of the photo now stands, sort of.)

Afterwards we both commented that a store, no matter how small, within walking distance would be a real step forward for the neighborhood to be sure. We're certainly planning on buying shares.

Upcoming events for the WBNA are:

6 April (this Sunday) is the anniversary party celebrating 25 years since the WBNA was created. Its going to be held at Julian's on Broadway from 5:30 to 7:30 and we're definitely planning on going. Great opportunity to meet more local folks and to put our money where our mouths are and join up!

12 April the RI Statewide Historic Preservation Conference is going to be held inside the Armory -- it's 40 bucks for the day-long program but I say it's worth it to get a serious look inside one of the states most gorgeous -- and underused -- buildings. Quite an architectural wonder.

26 April is spring cleanup, definitely needed.

17 May will be a neighborhood-wide yard sale -- this should be interesting.

After the meeting Susie and I and Deidre, who lives in our building, strolled back to the "home." We stopped in at one of the empty units, the model, sipped a little wine, ate a few munchies and met some of our neighbors who had taken Peter and Bob up on their offer to see the place and have a glass of wine in the bargain.

We invited Deidre to join us for dinner -- baked rice and a roasted melange of meat and veggies I had put in the oven before we walked to the meeting. She accepted and the three of us spent the evening getting to know each other. We've lived here for four months now and had hardly said much to each other than a quick hello.

It was, I thought, a fitting ending to a neighborhood meeting.

Wish you had been there,

Steve

You can find out more about the WBNA by checking out their website: http://www.wbna.org/