Providence Place fetches $522 million

[provid]

Heck I would like to see it closed off from the light till the interesection with the church.

Nowhere to park the street anyhow plus the new 400car parking gar. is going up. Closing off the street would promote walking in the new section / downcity. Plus you would have the foot traffic from all the new apts. Talk about a nice street to live on without any cars outfront and lots of people walking the street.

I hate cars in the city. They have enough roads.

711 is in the old Payless shoe store.

[Cotuit]

Heck I would like to see it closed off from the light till the interesection with the church.

Nowhere to park the street anyhow plus the new 400car parking gar. is going up. Closing off the street would promote walking in the new section / downcity. Plus you would have the foot traffic from all the new apts. Talk about a nice street to live on without any cars outfront and lots of people walking the street.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They tried closing down the Downcity section of Westminster before, it was a flop. There's a really delicate balance to making a pedestian street work. You need really good density, lots of retail, and mixed uses for the buildings. Downtown Crossing in Boston works, but many cities are returning pedestrian streets to automobile use. Traffic adds to the hustle and bustle sense of city street life, and research has shown that people feel more comfortable on streets where cars are parked. Maybe it's a sense that the parked cars represent people that must be nearby. People seem not to like open spaces in cities, feeling alone in a big space equates to a feeling of danger. It could work if Providence had many many more people Downcity, but we won't see the density to make it work for a long time.

711 is in the old Payless shoe store.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Awefully close to the Kennedy Plaza one, but I bet it gets a lot of J&W kids.

[TheAnk]

Traffic adds to the hustle and bustle sense of city street life, and research has shown that people feel more comfortable on streets where cars are parked. Maybe it's a sense that the parked cars represent people that must be nearby. People seem not to like open spaces in cities, feeling alone in a big space equates to a feeling of danger.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Interesting.. And I feel this way.. Busy = safe for some reason to me..

[provid]

Unless you are driving down Benefit street when cars are parked on bothsides

[Garris]

I always thought that Westminster could work in a pedestrian fashion like the one in Burlington, but perhaps not... I thought I remember reading that the Church was also in favor of knocking down its square and the auditorium as well, but the issue seems to have vanished from view.

In fact, does it seem to everyone that almost all "big idea" city planning has vanished from view recently? The city seems to be slogging through the zoning issues at present. The current idea seems to be that no additional planning can happen until the zoning and parking and master plan issues are resolved. Progress is pretty slow, though...

- Garris

Oh, and there's a new Chipotle style Mexican grille across from J&W too now, right?

[provid]

Burlington's pedestrian section is about the best any city could do. Its always very busy with wonderful (high end) shops on both sides. Plus Burlington has parking everywhere.

Yes I forgot about the Grille. I've been twice and thought the food was very good for the price.

[Cotuit]

Oh, and there's a new Chipotle style Mexican grille across from J&W too now, right?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've heard good things about that place and need to make a point to go there at some point.

I went to the new 7-11 last night, I needed to pick up a copy of the Globe so I decided to head there since I hadn't been on Weybosset in a while.

Not that a convenience store is the greatest thing to happen to a city, but that place is BRIGHT! It chases away a lot of the shadows in that area of town and makes it feel much safer.