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IN PROGRESS: Roger Williams Park Botanical Center

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Garris Town

Garris

Posted
Posted

I wouldn't call the mall a tourist destination, necessarily...

Kinda' off topic:

The Mall of America (MOA) certainly is a huge tourist draw, from across the region and even the nation. I was never really sure of what ever made the MOA in Bloomington (next to the airport on the fringes of downtown Minneapolis) a tourist attraction aside from it being the biggest mall in the US (I lived in Minnesota 4 years). It is enormous, and has a nice little amusement park in the middle for kids and parties. When I left last year, it was opening more adult focused, non-chain restaurants in an attempt to be a little bit more of a local destination. They were also trying to increase the quality of life of the mall a bit (decreasing the roving teen groups, etc.) since many local "high end" shoppers were bypassing it and going to an "upscale" mall in a neighboring town that was much smaller, quieter, and less crowded.

Interestingly, the MOA is about to become somewhat of a dense, mixed use area as housing developments start to move in to take advantage of the LRT that goes to the mall, airport, and downtown.

- Garris

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eltron Hamlet

eltron

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AriPVD, please expand on this. I've been looking to visit upstate NY, especially Syracuse, to see what's up. Are you telling me, what I may have already heard, that there is a gang probem there?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll second what Ari said...

granted, it was about 6 years ago, before I departed Ithaca, but Syracuse was a hole. A giant mall (about the scale of Prov. Place) and a polluted lake. And the Carrier Dome. Thats about it.

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AriPVD Hamlet

AriPVD

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Not much has changed in 'cuse since you left Upstate. I almost laugh at the idea of someone visiting that town. It's so dangerous that kids at Syracuse U. won't descend their hill to go downtown (granted, there is a massive elevated freeway separating the U. and the downtown. There is some great mercantile architecture remaining, but they've knocked most of it down to make way for parking lots. There is just about 0 commercial activity there as well. Tons of vacant buildings. Upstate cities deserve their own web forum! With that said, the Finger Lakes are beautiful (Ithaca included) and I highly recommend a visit.

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Recchia Town

Recchia

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Posted

AriPVD, please expand on this. I've been looking to visit upstate NY, especially Syracuse, to see what's up. Are you telling me, what I may have already heard, that there is a gang probem there?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well I've said this before, but if you're gonna visit upstate NY, don't even bother with Albany either. I can sum up Albany for you right now:

-Buildings: 1 tall sony playstation on its side next to four shorter ones (Empire State Plaza)

-a long, longgggg a$$ mall on the edge of town, which seems to have become the hub for all the buses

-a big suburban school that resembles a prison (my good old SUNY Albany) next to a California style suburban state office park with massssive parking lots (seriously, if you think the DOT, DOA, DOH state office complex here is bad, you gotta see this one...)

-a smelly river (even worse than the Pawtuxet)

-a crappy street (Lark Street) that would be like Thayer Street if it had more than a few shops and restaurants

-rows and rows of vacant buildings and crappy student infested slums

Just so this post isnt completely negative, there is some cool Dutch architecture in the houses south of Western Ave, and the state house is cool.

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Jenkins Whistle-Stop

Jenkins

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Posted

As one the of the gems of Providence and the #1 tourist/visitor destinations in Rhode Island I thought it would be nice to begin a thread to discuss happenings at the park and share our thoughts and impressions and changes we'd like to see there.

http://www.providenceri.com/press/article.php?id=220

http://www.rogerwilliamsparkzoo.org/

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I went there for the first time this summer. Like much of RI it was both better and worse than I imagined. The pro's: large and open, Japanese garden is very pretty, great oasis in such an urban area. Cons: upon closer look the Japanese garden was unkept. Trash floating in water, shoddy work on the new bridges (glue was overused to keep the railings together, and in the heat and dripped down all over the place and then hardened in place!), and no walking biking areas. Too many cars everywhere. I have the same problem with Lincoln woods. Great place overall, but you can't get away from the traffic. Really puts a damper on the back to nature experience when some guy is crusing by you with the stereo pumpin'.

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basachs Burg

basachs

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Posted

I think this center is really a good idea and will be another jewel on the crown that is RW Park. It will bring more tourists to the park and provide more educational opportunities. It will also beat out Boston's grand plans for a Botanical center that looks like it will never happen.

I would feel a little better about this though, if the existing parks we had under the supervision of the Park Dept were better taken care of. When a neighborhood association has to get a grant to plant trees in a park that is supposed to be taken care of by the Parks Dept (Dexter Park), doesnt that suggest that maybe we should divert 6.5 million to the existing infrastructure?

Now I believe to grow, you have to build and I am not against this project in the least. I just think that this is something else the Park Dept will struggle to maintain.

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Lone Ranger Burg

Lone Ranger

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:unsure:

Hey, Mitchell was well before my time. And I don't listen to the Counting Crows. I've heard both versions on occasion, but I can't say I've ever sat down and listened to the song.

If the quotation used had been the famous lines from the chorus, I would have recognized it. That better?

I'm not young. I'm chronologically challenged.

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