Projo — Waterfront Warwick neighborhoods are full of 'No Parking' signs. Many aren't legal.
Sep 22, 2021
By Antonia Noori Farzan — WARWICK — Try to get to the water in Warwick's desirable Potowomut neighborhood, and you'll quickly find that virtually every street is lined with "No Parking" signs.
But on many of those streets, parking isn't actually banned by the city.
Warwick is littered with hundreds of "illegal or illegitimate" parking signs, mainly in waterfront areas, according to Aaron Mackisey, an aide to Mayor Frank Picozzi. Some were put up by the city decades ago, at residents' request, but have no legal power because there are no ordinances in place to back them up.
In other cases, "you’ve had some residents make their own parking signs," Mackisey said. "They used to buy them up at Benny’s and just throw them up in a tree.”
The days of DIY parking restrictions are now coming to an end: Warwick plans to remove many of the unofficial or unenforceable "No Parking" signs. Some will remain, but only if police have conducted a traffic study and determined that a parking ban is warranted and the City Council agrees.
Part of the goal is to ensure that Warwick is "fulfilling our obligation to provide access to the coastline," says councilman Vinny Gebhart, whose ward includes Potowomut.
"No Parking" signs also cause headaches for residents
Throughout Rhode Island, neighborhoods with public right-of-ways leading to the ocean also tend to have a high concentration of "No Parking" signs. Residents cite the need to ensure that there's enough room for fire trucks or ambulances to pass through, while activists say that the restrictions are an exclusionary tactic designed to prevent outsiders from getting to the beach.
Opening up parking on some streets in Warwick's waterfront neighborhoods — even if it was technically legal all along — has the potential to be contentious.
"If you’re someone who’s lived here for 50 years, and you’ve had a 'No Parking' sign by your house for 50 years, removing that could cause some heartburn," Gebhart acknowledges.
But Gebhart, who worked with the mayor's office and Police Department to review restrictions in Potowomut, says neighborhood residents were also getting frustrated with the abundance of "No Parking" signs.
…