Thayer St. parking meters boon to Warwick, Cranston businesses

By Don Fowler
Posted 6/1/16

I've been a big fan of the Avon Cinema for over 50 years. Dinner and a movie, plus an occasional shopping spree, have been a part of our lives on many weekends. While I review movies for the Warwick Beacon and the Cranston Herald that are

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Thayer St. parking meters boon to Warwick, Cranston businesses

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I’ve been a big fan of the Avon Cinema for over 50 years.

Dinner and a movie, plus an occasional shopping spree, have been a part of our lives on many weekends. 

While I review movies for the Warwick Beacon and the Cranston Herald that are playing at the Avon for more than a week, I often enjoy a “busman’s holiday” with a short-run double feature.

The City of Providence, in one of its dumber anti-business moves, decided to install parking meters on Thayer St.

Not just throw-a-quarter in the meter machines, but contraptions that require at least a master’s degree to operate.

Thousands of signatures have already been gathered in opposition to the new revenue source, but meter maids continue to hand out $25 tickets to people who want to shop, dine or see a movie on this charming street.

Responding to strong opposition, plans are on hold for extending the foolish idea to Hope St. and Wickendon St., while merchants and customers gather their own forces to fight off the invasion.

The irony is that the Thayer St. meters are good business for Cranston and Warwick, as merchants look to relocate at venues that offer free parking, like Garden City, Chapel Hill, Warwick Mall, Pawtuxet Village, and business districts like Rolfe St. and East Greenwich’s Main St.

With a two-hour timeframe, people are no longer able to catch a movie and get something to eat, browse in one of the many specialty shops, let alone browse in a quaint specialty shop.

Ken Dulgarian, a prominent businessman who owns the Avon and other businesses on Thayer St., has been a strong spokesman for removing the parking meters, as he was in fighting to never put the monsters there in the first place.

“Providence is losing tax dollars, tenants, suburban customers and pedestrian traffic because of the meters,” Dulgarian said. “I’ve had tenants telling me that they are moving their business to Garden City.”

Dulgarian speaks for a multitude of merchants and customers when he shares information showing the loss of taxes and the drop in customers from restaurants to his own unique theatre.

When I talk to many Cranston and Warwick residents about seeing a movie at the Avon or dining at the many ethnic restaurants I have reviewed (Korean, Middle Eastern, Greek, Italian), parking is the main reason they give for not making the short trip.

We’ll still go to the Avon, but I’ll drop my wife off, drive a few blocks to the meter-less streets and walk to the theatre until the city turns the parking meters into flowerpots.

So thank you, City Fathers, for driving your businesses and tax dollars to Cranston and Warwick.

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