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I was walking home last night from downtown Providence and I took my time, enjoying all of the great architecture and stopping in Prospect Terrace, enjoying the gorgeous Providence skyline.
Some people tell me that Providence has come a long way from where it used to be, say thirty years ago. I can't say as I've lived here just shy of a year, but the city looks awfully good to me, though I think it's time for the next Big Thing, whether it's the proposed transformation of KP or the much-talked about trolley system.
So, has Providence gotten "better," or is it backsliding? Is it making progress, or have the improvements pretty much stopped?
My view is Providence has succeeded in turning itself into a moderate tourist destination, more than anything else. But the bones of the city, most of the neighborhoods, are in getting worse not better. A tourist based economy is not enough to sustain the city.
The area you're in Alfie, is not backsliding, although Brown is continuing to make it less residential and RISD is determined to make it less historic. The East Side and downtown definitely forging ahead, but many parts of the city are not.The next big thing is likely growth into the I195 land area vacated by the freeway demolition and continued improvement of the harbor and jewelry district sections. J&W Harborside is rapidly expanding. The south side has seen little progress along with the rest of the rest of the poor areas. The city is not just relying on tourism... it has education & medicine sectors as well as banking, advertising.
Declines seen across the country in terms of the dwindling of the middle class are particularly acute in Providence. The middle class are mostly concentrated in the ring towns.
The area you're in Alfie, is not backsliding, although Brown is continuing to make it less residential and RISD is determined to make it less historic.
...
Have you seen renderings of the horror story RISD is building on North Main Street? It belongs in an office park, not on the East Side.
Holly, you're a resourceful person. Do you know where on the Web I can find before/after photos of downtown, before it was redone?
[quote=AlfieBoy;30657796]Have you seen renderings of the horror story RISD is building on North Main Street? It belongs in an office park, not on the East Side.
So, has Providence gotten "better," or is it backsliding? Is it making progress, or have the improvements pretty much stopped?
I've known Providence my entire life and it is most definitely getting worse. The disinvestment in neighborhoods is palpable. There is much hullabaloo about some perceived "renaissance" of the city based entirely, I guess, on a couple of coffee houses on Wickenden Street, some restaurants in and around the Westminster-Broadway area, a huge urban mall, and a - by now - tired monthly log burning ritual on the Woonasquatucket River. Other than that, the city is in deep decline (sadly).
Other than the East Side, which is pretty much the same as it has always been in my lifetime - from Wayland Square to RISD and from India Point to University Heights - there really isn't much going on. Olneyville is a dump; Elmwood is a dump; South Providence is a dump; Washington Park is a dump; Smith Hill is a dump; ... Well, I could keep going, but you get the picture. And, the longer people in Providence delude themselves into thinking their city is "happening" based entirely on restaurant reviews in Travel & Leisure magazine, it would seem, the harder it's going to be to keep the city from becoming more like Springfield, Hartford, et. al.
Add to that the fact that much of the downtown area has been appropriated by the non-taxable, quasi-college, JWU, and you have a recipe for sure, continued economic disaster.
As you can probably tell, I have strong feelings for/about my hometown. And, nothing pains me more than to drive through neighborhoods that haven't seen investment in literally decades, with absolutely zero evidence of anything to change that.
I see- sort of like a glass wart. There used to be some canard in modern architecture that new construction should be distinct from the old and cannot copy it. I think RISD needs to update its academics. Do they not also get that "modern architecture" is now old school?
FYI Ranger, the colleges pay property taxes now and have done for several years. They were shamed, bribed, cajoled, and threatened. J&W actually, stepped up to the plate, and was fairly generous.
I see- sort of like a glass wart. There used to be some canard in modern architecture that new construction should be distinct from the old and cannot copy it. I think RISD needs to update its academics. Do they not also get that "modern architecture" is now old school?
Among my favorite architects of the past are McKim, Mead and White, who designed the State House and also the Towers at Narragansett (as well as some houses in Watch Hill and Wickford). Charles McKim did the Newport Casino. They were almost commissioned to do City Hall (instead we have the Munster House). Anyway, as a firm they had a goal to give a "nod" to nearby buildings; that is to say the architects blended their buildings with their surroundings. This piece of **** is an outrage. And RISD as a client! Well, their museum also blows.
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