The letters desk

Write to the gazette

A gazette without letters is only half a paper, so this page exists to make writing to us easy. Whether you found a gate across a path we praised, walked a loop we have never heard of, or simply want to argue about a bridge, the postbox is open. Letters are read by the editor herself, in the order they arrive, on the office days listed further down this page. We read them the way we walk, at an unhurried pace and all the way to the end.

The form below reaches the same desk as the mailing address, so choose whichever suits the letter you have in mind. Short corrections do well in the form, while longer route suggestions sometimes deserve the room that a proper message allows. Either way, a real person reads every word, and nothing you send is passed along, sold, or added to any list you did not ask to join. The privacy policy explains, in ordinary sentences, exactly what happens to a message after you post it.

One practical note before you begin: this gazette does not plan trips, sell tickets, or arrange travel of any kind. Letters asking us to book a seat, quote a fare, or recommend an operator will get a polite reply and a pointer back to this sentence. What we can do is walk, check, correct, and publish, and letters that feed that work are the ones that get the fastest answers. We also cannot speak for fares, schedules, or service changes, since those belong to the operators who run them. Everything else, from a mislabeled illustration to a misspelled street, is squarely our business, and we want to hear about it.

Before you write

A little structure helps a letter land well, and it helps us answer in one pass instead of three. None of this is required, and a plain hello is always welcome, but the letters that include a few particulars tend to turn into printed corrections and future routes. Here is what the desk finds most useful. If your letter fits none of these shapes, send it anyway, because the better half of the archive never fit a shape either.

For a correction: the route title, the date on the piece, and where along the walk the text goes wrong.
For a route suggestion: the transit stop it starts from, the loop you have in mind, and why it matters to you.
For a privacy request: write to the privacy address listed below, and see the privacy policy for what to include.
For anything about how the site works: the page, what you expected, and what happened instead.
For a plain hello: nothing at all, just say where you last walked.

Response times

The postbox is tended on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, Eastern Time. Most letters get a reply within five office days, and corrections are acknowledged first because they affect readers who walk next. If a correction involves a turn, a staircase, or a closed gate, we walk the spot ourselves before changing the piece, so the printed fix can take a little longer than the acknowledgment. Letters that arrive outside those hours simply wait in the rack, safe and unread, until the next office morning. Phone messages left outside office hours are returned on the next office day, in the same patient order.

Privacy requests go to the separate address below and follow the timelines set out in the privacy policy. Route suggestions get a reply when they are read, though the walking itself may wait for the right season, since a harbor loop in February tells you less than the same loop in May. If you have waited longer than two weeks on any letter, write again without apology, because paper mail and form mail do occasionally go astray. Persistence is not rudeness at this desk, it is a favor to it.

The letter form

The postbox

Publisher: Hayrace Media LLC
Address: 50 Kennedy Plaza, Providence, RI 02903, United States
Phone: +1 (401) 421-5836
Email: [email protected]
Privacy email: [email protected]
Hours: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, Eastern Time

Letters have already changed this gazette more than once, and we say so in print when they do. A reader's note moved a crossing on the Fox Point piece, and another sent us to the small harbor at Wickford in the first place. If your idea becomes a route, the finished piece will credit the suggestion plainly, because that is how a paper thanks the people who make it useful. And if you only write to say a walk went well, know that those letters are kept in a folder that gets reread on rainy office days. Nothing sent to this desk is wasted, even when the reply turns out to be short. The desk is small, the plaza outside is loud on the hour, and every envelope is opened the same way: with interest. Post the letter, and give it a few days to walk over.