Since moving to Providence a year ago, I have fallen in love with the amazing art around the city — especially the murals The Avenue Concept has created and supported. Adding color and meaningful art to a city adds so much beauty and life to drab buildings. Even this summer, I’ve seen a couple of murals go up in high-traffic areas on Wickenden Street.
I bike everywhere in Providence, from school to the hospital, to the grocery store. The bike paths in combination with the art make for safe scenic rides pretty much everywhere I go, with one key exception. The stretch of Eddy Street that passes under Interstate 95 is not only drab but is quite unsafe for walkers and bicyclists alike.
The tunnel that connects the city’s Jewelry District neighborhood with the campus of Rhode Island Hospital is extremely poorly lit — even during the daytime, it is notably darker — and there is no bike lane. Eddy Street emerges at a confusing intersection where cars make a super-tight, almost blind turn. Advertisement This is really unfortunate as this tunnel is the final link between downtown Providence and the hospital, which employs so many of Providence’s residents.
With the hundreds of people either struggling with illnesses or taking care of patients traveling through it every day, it could use a mural to brighten it up. It hasn’t always looked like this. In 2013, a mural and new lighting were put up in this underpass as a celebration of Rhode Island Hospital’s 150th anniversary, commissioned by Lifespan in collaboration with Governor Lincoln Chafee’s Beautify Rhode Island highways initiative, and included in the state’s Highways Best Practices guide in 2014.
Over the next 6 years, the mural became outdated and was defaced with graffiti. With the recent announcement of Brown University and Lifespan affiliating and renaming as Brown University Health , this is the perfect opportunity to revitalize the physical connection between Brown University, downtown Providence, and the Rhode Island Hospital campus. These renovations don’t need to be much, but they should make it so people aren’t scared to walk or bike through this tunnel.
Joseph Inger is a medical student at Brown University who lives and works – and bikes – in Providence..
