PROVIDENCE — Transit advocates signaled concerns about RIPTA’s planned move of a bus hub from Kennedy Plaza to a site on Dorrance Street and called for more investments on Tuesday as they celebrated Rosa Parks’ birthday.
The event, called Transit Equity Day, was held at Burnside Park, looking out on the bus hub that has served generations of riders.
“The bus riders aren’t giving up on having their voices heard,” said event emcee Rochelle Lee, a Providence resident who’s involved in RI Transit Riders and who takes the 22 bus.
Parks’ birthday was Thursday. Her refusal to give up a seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama, bus in 1955 led to a boycott that played a key role in the Civil Rights movement. While Parks died in 2005, her birthday is marked around the country, including on Tuesday in Providence.
Lee was wearing a shirt that summed up Parks’ refusal to give up her seat: “Nah,” the shirt said. She was among those not yet sold on the idea of moving the Kennedy Plaza bus hub to Dorrance Street.
“I’m a skeptic,” Lee said. “Why in the world would we do that when we can invest in Kennedy Plaza?”
RIPTA says the reasons for the Dorrance Street project include more amenities and a mixed-use development right along the R-Line, the busiest RIPTA route.
“Our plan is to make it better,” said CEO Scott Avedisian, who attended the event.
The plan right now would use $35 million from a bond about a decade ago, plus an undetermined amount of other money, potentially from a private developer. It’s projected to be done by 2026 or 2027. The state has released a request for proposals to build and operate the facility. Responses are due April 17. There’s been a lot of interest, Avedisian said.
Plenty of bus service would continue to serve Kennedy Plaza, even as the center of gravity moved toward the Providence River, Avedisian said.
“The goal is to create a system that is world class,” Avedisian said.
The plan has been in the works for several years, in different iterations. The state shelved a plan to create multiple bus hubs around the city after blowback. The opposition to the Dorrance Street plan is more ambivalent — if they don’t outright oppose it, some transit riders will say they haven’t seen the details and can’t firmly say yes or no (of course, other riders say they can say one way or the other). Some say they’re worried about the lack of investment in Kennedy Plaza in the years it takes to build Dorrance Street, dovetailing with larger concerns about RIPTA service.
Generally, too, some riders say they like Kennedy Plaza and it shouldn’t be dismantled for the benefit of one private developer.
One man held a sign at Tuesday’s event: “No to Paolino. Save Kennedy Plaza. Save RIPTA.”
Paolino is a reference to Joseph R. Paolino Jr., the former mayor of Providence and now an influential developer. Paolino said in a text message that he had nothing to do with the choice of Dorrance Street, which will be implemented by the city and state. But if people want to know, he does think the bus hub at Kennedy Plaza should be moved, he said.
“I guess I am a good target for criticism, but (Kennedy Plaza) does not work,” said Paolino, who has cited quality of life and crime among chronic problems downtown.
RIPTA riders aren’t all on board, to say the least. About two dozen attendees of the event were asked to jot down their thoughts on a white board, and Dorrance Street was front of mind.
“Why should riders be moved to Dorrance Street?” one person wrote. “We are not convinced of uncertain, costly Dorrance plans.”
Opinion wasn’t unanimous. Grow Smart RI deputy director John Flaherty, who attended the event, said in an interview afteward that the skepticism was well earned given the history of not prioritizing Rhode Island transit riders. But he is more optimistic about the Dorrance Street project and its ability to improve on Kennedy Plaza than others.
“I’m cautiously optimistic about the future of the Dorrance Street hub,” Flaherty said. “I think RIPTA has led a good effort.”
Kennedy Plaza and Dorrance Street are perhaps the most high-profile transit issues, but they aren’t the only ones: “Service, service, service,” one person wrote on the white board.
Avedisian, for one, would agree with those last three: He said they need more money, and to do that, they need to show the value of RIPTA, which had 881,039 riders system-wide in December 2022, compared to 1,238,047 in December of 2019 and 558,692 in 2020, in the thick of COVID-19.
Whether those trends continue to rise or not, some of those riders in the following years will use a bus shelter honoring Rosa Parks. RIPTA announced Tuesday that a new bus shelter honoring her will be installed in front of the Powers Building at the intersection of Smith Street and Park Street in Providence.
“We can never forget the importance of public transit in the Civil Rights movement,” said Jim Vincent, a local community leader and RIPTA community outreach officer.
Brian Amaral can be reached at brian.amaral@globe.com. Follow him @bamaral44.