This blob of thunderstorms erupted today of the coast of South Carolina. There’s a good chance that this blob is turning into a tropical depression as I type, and given the current weather pattern, could possibly bring some much-needed globules of moisture next week. This is what the weather folks in Taunton have to say about it:

OTHER FEATURE WORTH MENTIONING WILL BE THE QUASI TROPICAL WAVE CURRENTLY OFF THE SOUTHEAST U.S. COAST. AS BROAD SOUTHWEST FLOW BECOMES ESTABLISHED ALONG THE EASTERN SEABOARD EARLY NEXT WEEK IN RESPONSE TO LONG WAVE TROF OVER THE GREAT LAKES AND NORTHEAST…THIS SYSTEM WILL BEGIN MOVING NORTHEAST AND POSSIBLY TRACK ACROSS OR NEAR SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND MON OR TUE. THIS MAY RESULT IN A WIDESPREAD APPRECIABLE RAINFALL EVENT.

The uppercase letters don’t necessarily mean they’re “yelling,” that’s just the way the National Weather Service discussions are formatted. But you never know – weather folks get excited about this kind of stuff.

We need globules of moisture.

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From Friends of the Pawtuxet:
Peyton and Nate Fleming will be selling the first sweet corn of the season this Saturday at the Pawtuxet Farmers’ Market. The corn is grown in Warwick by Confreda Farms.

Rhode Island Transit Authority bus 22’s detour through Garden City lasted just over 30 days. With increasing pressure from Garden City Drive residents, RIDOT and RIPTA have arrived at a complex solution involving four bus routes that will return the residential neighborhood to its bucolic self.

The detour had been prompted by a sudden RIDOT-imposed weight restriction on a Pontiac Avenue bridge. To remedy the situation, RIPTA announced the following changes in a press release late last week. The 22 line will now end at the Euston turnaround on Pontiac Avenue, about a couple of blocks from the start of Garden City Drive. Route 13 will serve the Garden City and Chapel View shops, but will now bypass Reservoir Avenue and use Route 95 to get to and from Kennedy Plaza. Much of bus 13’s old route will be picked up by a new line, bus 21. The 21 line will utilize smaller buses to meet the DOT’s bridge weight restriction on Reservoir Avenue. RIPTA will also introduce bus 23, which will use Route 95 to get to and from the Howard Center, and pick up much of the former 22 line, serving Mayfield Street, Warwick Mall, RI Mall and CCRI. The RIPTA web site has an even longer and equally confusing explanation of the new routes. All the changes went into effect Saturday.

The dissatisfaction with the buses on Garden City Drive had reached the boiling point. A neighborhood meeting was scheduled for July 17, with an open invitation to DOT Director, Michael Lewis, RIPTA General Manager, Alfred Moscola as well as the city administrators. The meeting was coordinated with the help of state rep Peter Palumbo. This was the actual illustration on the flyer that was circulating:

My personal favorites were “wear and tear to our roads,” “public safety?” and simply “outrageous!” The illustration inspired me to create one of my own:

As neighborhood causes go, to me this one didn’t carry the same weight as the Cement Plant fight (with no pun intended). And...More...

In High Gear
Friends of the Pawtuxet warns us that the Pawtuxet Farmers’ Market is “in high gear,” with appearances by the likes of blueberries, strawberries, cucumbers, lettuce, pea pods, zucchini, summer squash, peppers, beets, green beans, eggs, kale, scallions, potatoes, odd leafy edibles, honey, broccoli and others.

Indoor Wormless Composting Workshop
From the Friends:

Make fantastic compost indoors for your garden over the winter, or year-round if you like. Learn about this simple system for recycling your kitchen waste that does not involve worms.

No smells, easy and satisfying! And all the vegetable waste you compost will be removed from the trash stream.

Stillhouse Cove’s Elizabeth Coombs will hold an informal workshop on her three bucket composting technique this Saturday July 10 at 10 AM at the market. No advance sign ups are necessary.

Be a Pot Holder
Big ones, small ones, seedling trays, save them all. The Market is asking everyone to save their pots this summer. In the Fall the pots will be collected and redistributed to the farmers for reuse. Look for the announcement.

Apparently the pots can’t be recycled by the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, despite the symbols on the bottom.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We see the weekly press releases from AAA. Projo blogs about it. WPRI dedicates a segment on it. Gas prices are still rising.

Now a monthly traffic volume study by the Federal Highway Administration suggests that vehicle miles are dropping for the first time since 1983. The April 2008 study shows that traffic volume, after years of steady increase, has been decreasing in the US since the beginning of this year.

The only region to show an increase in total vehicle miles in April 2008 was the northeast. The bright spot was Rhode Island, the lone northeastern state to show a decrease in urban arterial roads travelled. Both Vermont and Rhode Island posted losses in total vehicle miles for all roads combined.

More bicycles? More people on the bus? More carpooling? Whatever the reasons, a decrease in cars on Rhode Island roads is.. alright.

And RIPTA Bus #22 rolls on as the undisputed RIPTA heavyweight champion. Grab a seat early, it quickly goes SRO.

For the last couple of months we’ve been wondering what kind of functionality was going to be built into Cranston’s web site to enable online feedback on the city’s comp plan. A draft of the plan made its debut on the city’s site back in early June, but a formal place to offer input has not followed.

Today, Principal Planner Jason Pezzullo clarified that the planning department will be accepting comments through the existing contact forms on the Cranston city site. The feedback will be recorded and included in the comp plan. To submit input on the plan, use one of the following forms:

Peter Lapolla, Director
Jason Pezzullo, Principal Planner

In addition to the emails, the public can comment on the plan at the weekly workshops, which will begin on July 16. To help facilitate the conversation, the workshops have been moved to the Senior Center at 1070 Cranston Street. All the meetings will start at 6 PM.