Newport Redevelopment Plan

[Gusterfell]

Wait, do you mean to tell me that what is now the 2nd floor used to be the 1st floor?

[Lone Ranger]

It had never occurred to me to use Livelocal on Newport before. New toy!

I see what you're talking about, the colonial top 2 stories of the building on the corner of Spring & Touro. Completely escaped me before. I would never have imagined ... of course, why would I imagine ... wow though.

I've heard of new buildings being built above previously existing buildings. I'd never heard of a new building being built beneath a previously existing building. I love Newport.

I would love to see a Newport where street-level retail was considered that valuable. For that matter, I'd like to see a Providence like that too.

[Gusterfell]

I'm not sure which is the current proposal, but I'll do some asking around.

[Lone Ranger]

That is a very busy gas station.

Thanks for asking for me.

There are both pros and cons to the approach they've chosen, I think. But it will certainly be better than it is right now, with that gaping hole.

[MapmanNo1]

The Touro Synagogue visitors center is a worthy project that seems to be in permanent limbo. It's really a shame...I wonder if the Synagogue is any closer to completing it. Coffey's Texaco, though a great local business, is what's really holding Courthouse Square back. Imagine a small park with a three-story mixed-use building on the north side...it's way better than a confusing gas station. But alas, we all know that Coffey's is here to stay.

Brooks Brothers at the old JT's Chandlery location? I know Carnegie Abbey is looking to open up shop across the street at the Armory, but I didn't think Lower Thames was putting on the ritz that much! Then again, Christie's has been replaced by the marina owned by a resident billionaire...maybe the downtown cachet is starting to move beyond Bannister's Wharf. I've always wondered why J. Crew never opened up shop downtown...I have a hunch they would do well.

I'm not sold on the ideas that Parsons is throwing out there for the North End. The city already has one of New England's largest upscale lifestyle center retail areas built around a water feature - it's called downtown! The North End has always been Newport's back door office, and previous efforts to improve it have been enormously successful because they focused on the people who live there and use it - rebuilding Tonomy Hill into Newport Heights, building a CCRI campus, rehabbing the Newport Mall into RK Center, etc. They aren't high-end or glamorous, but they did wonders for residents. In a city whose main industry is catering to visitors, this is a zone that is all local. What more can we do to improve the North End for residents? After all, swamps at the end of a bridge ramp isn't exactly Newport Harbor, nor should we try and make it into something it's not. Let's be real here: what is it that Newporters need in the North End? (It certainly isn't a lifestyle center build around a canal - or a hotel with an indoor water park.)

Below is a regular column in the Daily News on handicap accessibility. At issue is handicap parking and other accessibility problems at the Florence K. Murray courthouse at the head of Washington Square/Eisenhower Park. These problems came about as a result of the ongoing reconstruction of Washington Square. Some of the proposals to fix the problem would shift traffic patterns in the area. The link will expire this Saturday; this issue seems to be under discussion...

Meetings explore solutions to make courthouse accessible

Access-ability/Annette Bourbonniere

Recently, this column detailed how difficult it is to access the courthouse in Washington Square, especially since the three designated parking spaces for people with disabilities have been taken over by court officials. Because this problem has potential civil rights violation written all over it, we have been able to get the attention of both city and state officials.

Several meetings have taken place that have included a representative from the Governor's Commission on Disabilities, representatives of the courts and representatives of the city, including the Accessibility Advisory Committee. The matter is being taken very seriously...

[Lone Ranger]

Brooks Brothers at the old JT's Chandlery location? I know Carnegie Abbey is looking to open up shop across the street at the Armory, but I didn't think Lower Thames was putting on the ritz that much!

[MapmanNo1]

So in essence, what you're saying is that the po' folk of Newpawt deserve a sprawling, blighted, characterless, space-wasting, white-trash, penny-wise-pound-foolish North End?

I don't think the economy of the city of Newport, nor for that matter of the state of Rhode Island, is in such good shape that we can afford to dismiss an important opportunity to expand our state's single biggest tourist attraction.

[Lone Ranger]

Low paying jobs with little room for advancement? Where's the room for advancement in the North End now? Stop & Shop? Pizza Hut? Waste Management?

[Gusterfell]

I want the North End to become walkable; I want it to connect to the rest of the city; I want to encourage development there. But what I don't want is for an upscale lifestyle center to get built when area residents are really looking for jobs and services that add to the community instead of another chance for a tourism zone. Newport already relies heavily on tourism; why should we make the poorest section of our city any more dependent on tourism dollars when we have a real opportunity to rebuild a section of our city? (And fwiw, saying that we can't afford to not do tourism shows that we aren't willing to take a risk or do something creative and bold - and that's what really hurts an economy.) Making it walkable and attractive does not mean that it has to be a lifestyle center. Imagine having a place that serves area residents AND is an attractive place to be!

[Lone Ranger]

As for Brooks Brothers, it is interesting to note that they once had a store here. I have a c. 1920 postcard of the stretch of Bellevue Ave. just south of Memorial, and a Brooks Bros. store is clearly visible in the corner storefront of the Audrain Building.

[Gusterfell]

Sure... I don't have a scanner handy, but I'll try to take a decent photo of it in a bit.

Edit: Here you go. Excuse the quality, but it is warped and sort of a dark picture, and i wanted to get close enough to show detail:

I don't know if you can make it out, but the awnings at the far right are labeled "Brooks Brothers."

[Cotuit]

This is an egregious twisting of what I was trying to say, and it paints me at worst as a racist, at best a snob. Please read my earlier post again, and I'll take another whack at what I'm trying to get across.

[Lone Ranger]

This is exactly the kind of problem we saw on the Cape. Families can't support themselves by working in t-shirt shops and the Cape had very little in the way of jobs beyond.

[Cotuit]

Again, Old Navy and 7-11 aren't much better. These places have "worked wonders" for residents?

[MapmanNo1]

Cotuit, I'm glad I'm not the only one here who sees value in diversifying the city's economy and providing services for residents. Many think that our options are either Wal-Mart or tourism (and nothing else), and that's simply not the case. We have a chance to create meaningful jobs that I fear is being squandered by fixating on a shiny new development.

Nobody is proposing that the North End be devoted entirely to tourism

[Gusterfell]

You can read the documents on the North End Master Plan process on the city's website, and they include such statements as:

Parsons did consider a light industrial park and a mixed-use new community, but chose a lifestyle center and hotel as their preferred alternative. I'm not convinced that a lifestyle center and a new hotel are better ideas, and Pasons hasn't given many reasons for their important decision to focus on tourism...check out their documents for yourselves.

As for quality jobs in the North End, Wal-Mart, Stop & Shop and the like are easy straw men to say that there are no good jobs there. Those jobs are no better than what a lifestyle center would bring - more retail work, which this city already has enough of. But look at the Halsey Street light industrial area - that place is full of local workshops and businesses, and there is a whole cluster of defense contractors at the Admiral's Gate complex on Third Street. We already have the base to build from there; why are we looking to import even more tourism?

[Lone Ranger]

So the since the state's track record on attracting industrial and white collar jobs is poor the people in Newport should just expect not to have any non-service sector jobs. I'd rather we strive to not settle for the status quo.

[MapmanNo1]

I think the real problem here is an identity crisis. Employment centers on the island all fit into three neat little categories: tourism/luxury, marine trades, and defense.

Melville = Marine City = world center for marine trades, some luxury from encroaching Carnegie Abbey, and Raytheon brings a dash of defense

Downtown = Tourism City = dominated by tourism/luxury, last remnants of downtown marine trades

Middletown = Sprawl City = critical mass of defense (and, of course, lots of retail)

So what's the North End? Well, it's got some defense, some retail, some miscellaneous local trades, and the elephant in the room - Newport Grand. The lifestyle center, if built, would bring in some tourism/luxury. But what's the North End's "______ City" name? Should we be building off Newport Grand as the center of activity? (They are primed for either expansion or a sale.) If so, then a lifestyle center would fit in with the "spend spend spend" focus. Should we be building off CCRI? Should we be building off the Naval War College - creating Education City perhaps? Would SRU, hemmed in by its neighbors, be interested in building in the North End? If a transportation center is built at the end of the Bridge, could SRU expansion be a possibility? How about a Green City? Is there burgeoning interest in sustainable technologies? Just throwing these ideas out there. The North End shouldn't be restricted to one type of industry, but we should know what it's focus will be.

The island's three major industries already have their centers; the North End has acted as a back door for decades. What identity can be used to turn it into the attractive "front door" gateway that it should be?

[Lone Ranger]

OK, so I spent a couple of hours last night reading through a pretty lengthy PDF talking about urban design in the heart of Newport. Plan 2004, it was called. Sounded pretty darn good to me. What exactly is keeping these (very good) suggestions from being implemented?

[Gusterfell]

Some of the recommendations are in the works, though the city is certainly taking its sweet time implementing them. The Mary St. Garage we debated in this thread a couple months ago is part of the plan, as are those road-construction style LED signs around town, directing visitors to the mansions, parking, visitor's center, etc. They are temporary signs put in place while the comprehensive signage system in Plan '04 is developed.

The city has also taken steps to create a roundabout/traffic diverter at Broadway and Marlborough St to help visitors find the visitors center. This is being fought by businesses on lower Broadway, but will likely happen eventually.

As for the other suggestions, they are more long-term guidelines than immediate proposals. I'd love to see them happen, especially the changes to America's Cup Ave, and the redevelopment of Long Wharf Mall and the adjacent surface lots on Marlborough and Thames Sts.

[Lone Ranger]

In particular, I'm looking at the proposed changes to America's Cup. Parking is important. Infill is important. But if you want to make a dramatic, immediate improvement to the Newport "experience," fix America's Cup.

[Lone Ranger]

Gusterfell, do you know what's happening with the old Coca-Cola building? The Market closed, and I heard a rumor that the site was going to become a bank. Complete with drive-thru, of course.

Are they planning on keeping the existing building? That would render the drive-thru a difficult proposition at best, probably an impossibility. So I imagine they'd want to build new. But if they build new, what sort of design might we see? Are we talking typical suburban-style crap? Please say no.

When The Market closed months ago, they ripped the (stone) Coca-Cola sign out of the building, and now the damn thing is just sitting there empty. I fear the worst.

Also, do you know anything about the condo development proposed for the biiiiig (like, a whole block to itself big) fenced-off lot where Kay meets RI Ave? I know it was meeting some opposition in the neighborhood because of the number of units proposed, but that was several months ago.

[Gusterfell]

Gusterfell, do you know what's happening with the old Coca-Cola building? The Market closed, and I heard a rumor that the site was going to become a bank. Complete with drive-thru, of course.

Are they planning on keeping the existing building? That would render the drive-thru a difficult proposition at best, probably an impossibility. So I imagine they'd want to build new. But if they build new, what sort of design might we see? Are we talking typical suburban-style crap? Please say no.

When The Market closed months ago, they ripped the (stone) Coca-Cola sign out of the building, and now the damn thing is just sitting there empty. I fear the worst.

[Lone Ranger]

I thought the existing mansion was condo already. Is it apartment? There are 10 or 12 tenants in there, I know that for a fact.

Not long ago, I went to Paul's Lock/Safe in Tradesman Center to have a few keys made. Paul was away, so his elderly assistant had the shop. There was one customer ahead of me, who asked the assistant for directions to Middleton Ave. The assistant gave him the directions, telling him it was off Memorial and to look for the old Coca-Cola Bldg.

I had to tell him that the Coke sign wasn't there anymore.

I'm also mad about the loss of The Market. People loved that place!

[Gusterfell]

I thought the existing mansion was condo already. Is it apartment? There are 10 or 12 tenants in there, I know that for a fact.