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Was anyone else seriously incommoded by the Ironman race yesterday?
It took us forever to get off the East Side with ice cream melting in the car!!
Every intersection we came to was blocked off and there didn't seem to be any thought given to people who live in the neighborhood or downtown- for that matter- as to their ability to get out of their houses and on to the roads. Blackstone Blvd was blocked, Wayland Sq. blocked, etc etc. We must have driven miles and miles to get to where we needed to go!!
The police just glared at us when we tried to ask them a question as to route.
I really wish they would put these runners on the bike paths and in the parks- like Roger Williams Park or Goddard or Lincoln instead of on the roads we all have to use to get around. Luckily, it was not a medical emergency for us!!
I think that it is great for the area to have a bigtime event like an ironman in town. People come from all over to take part in Ironman competitors and this brings money and expose to both Rhode Island and the city of Providence. It actually started with a swim in Narragansett, a bike threw Exeter, West Greenwich, Coventry, North Scituate and Johnston and a run in Providence. I have a friend who competed in it, but I was unable to watch it because I am all the way down in Florida.
It is hard to get unless you do these kind of activities, or have friends and/or family that do. Maybe if you are doing a 5k walk for charity it would be fine to do it in a park, but this is a 70.3 mile event we are talking about with hundreds if not thousands of people! This would not work in Lincoln woods. Too many people, too long of a distance. People would be crashing into each other. It would also be super boring and no one would want to do it. Imagine the Boston Marathon in a park! It would not be what it is today. Having part of it downtown is what makes it so appealing for athletes. Also downtown is what we want out of towners to see and where we want them to spend their money. This is why they did it on a Sunday, when it is usually pretty quite on the east side (I worked in a store on south main st. and it was always dead on Sunday), and I am sure they reported this on the news. Also, events are planed in such a way so that EMS and Police can work around them or cut threw them (I have seen it in action). If anything, EMS (to attend to athletes) and Police (to control traffic) are all out and around the course anyway, so the surrounding area is actually more covered then usual. Probably the best place you could be if you needed help...an ambulance or police car at every corner. A lot of people are in a rush to get nowhere so I can see how some people could get flustered with detours, but how often are we inconvinenced (and 99.9% of the time thats ONLY all it is) by such events that are so good for the city?
Last edited by MikeB4681; 07-14-2008 at 07:09 PM..
"A lot of people are in a rush to get nowhere so I can see how some people could get flustered with detours"
We weren't in a rush to get nowhere - we were trying to get off the east side to meet some people at a specific time. When we finally got out of the neighborhood, we were trapped downtown. We were hemmed in by barricades & cops who weren't being helpful at all.
Providence has plenty of events for tourists. It's been discovered. I don't think we need to attract giant events with thousands of people swamping a small area.
We've already gone from being a small peaceful town to a downtown full of condo developments which are inappropriate and out of scale for the area. It's discouraging to see. If you've been in Fla you haven't seen the latest growth. Providence had a chance to be really unique. Unfortunately, the current politicos are pro growth at all costs.
This cracks me up. I guess South County is a state of mind. They barricaded large segments of 1A on a sunday beach day (you know the road that goes to the beaches?) for the bikes and their wasn't a soul complaining. Shop owners and patrons stopped and cheered. Frankly I was supposed to be somewhere too but I got there when I got there. My daughter and I just watched these amazing athletes, took some pictures and then went about our business.
I am sorry the police treated you poorly- most of the people on our route were volunteers. But the police were doing a fine job too.
We saw the swim at the beach a few years ago (last year?) and it was really something else. I love being able to expose my kids to an event like this in our own backyard. Especially right before the olympics, it really drives home what people are capable of
"A lot of people are in a rush to get nowhere so I can see how some people could get flustered with detours"
We weren't in a rush to get nowhere - we were trying to get off the east side to meet some people at a specific time. When we finally got out of the neighborhood, we were trapped downtown. We were hemmed in by barricades & cops who weren't being helpful at all.
Providence has plenty of events for tourists. It's been discovered. I don't think we need to attract giant events with thousands of people swamping a small area.
We've already gone from being a small peaceful town to a downtown full of condo developments which are inappropriate and out of scale for the area. It's discouraging to see. If you've been in Fla you haven't seen the latest growth. Providence had a chance to be really unique. Unfortunately, the current politicos are pro growth at all costs.
Small peaceful town? More like Providence has gone from being a dump to a nice mid-size city that still has a ways to go if it wants to sustain its progress. And to sustain that progress you need growth, which means change, which means people will be inconvenienced now and again.
[quote=Hollytree;4461092]"A lot of people are in a rush to get nowhere so I can see how some people could get flustered with detours"
We've already gone from being a small peaceful town to a downtown full of condo developments which are inappropriate and out of scale for the area. QUOTE]
Can you explain to me how high rise condo's are "out of place" for a downtown? A downtown is supposed to be vibrant and have highrises. Would you rather still have unmaintained dirt/weed lots surrounding waterplace park? And don't forget that Blue Cross is also building new downtown, which will open up their current smaller buildings for new office space, something the city could use given its very low office vacancy rate compared to other cities.
Hello friend provguy! Please reread what I wrote. I said I thought the condos were "out of scale" not out of place. I have no problem at all with the Riverwalk area being developed. I just think the buildings should be in scale, and fit in with the historic fabric of the area. To me, the new condo towers look very out of scale and look like section 8 housing. That's my opinion- it's a matter of aesthetics.
People seem to have taken my comments a little too far! I'm not against the Ironman itself either, I just feel it could could have been less awkwardly routed for such a huge event.
I'm sorry I thought you were commenting on the development of condos downtown as a whole, not just the aesthetics. I'll agree with you in saying that the new Waterplace Towers are ugly. I'd still rather have something there instead of a vacant lot though.
“We must have driven miles and miles to get to where we needed to go!!”
The RI concept of “miles and miles” is seriously skewed.
“I really wish they would put these runners on the bike paths and in the parks- like Roger Williams Park or Goddard or Lincoln instead of on the roads we all have to use to get around. Luckily, it was not a medical emergency for us!!”
If there were less cars on the road (ie. No traffic jams), there would be no difficulty in responding to medical emergency’s at all. Are you suggesting that we should have fewer cars on the road? If so, I agree.
This is one of the reasons I don’t want to live in RI again. The whole automobile-centric, get out of my way, I need to drive someplace NOW attitude. I don’t view more cars driving somewhere as “Quality of life”. More people walking, biking and talking is. (covered in a previous post “Cranston Observations”)
As taxpayers, we all subsidize automobile travel at a far greater rate than biking, rail and public transportation. I’m not convinced that the runners shouldn’t get to actually use those roads one or two days a year.
I'm all for better public transportation- but this thread doesn't have anything to do with that. Leaving Rhody for Maine because too many people feel entitled to drive here- huh?- They don't drive in Maine???
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