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Providence Tomorrow


Cotuit

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the only complaint i had about the whole event was the presentation of the completed exercises. my fiancee had made a comment that they should have had us all turn in the sheets and had a few people put together big lists for the group as a whole while we got ice cream and ate it and then presented a summary of what the larger group came up with.

I think the plan was to have people from the Planning Department actually sit in more with the breakout groups, but there were so many of us, that couldn't happen. They would have been able to steer us better (i.e. keep us on topic) had they done that. But I think what ended up coming out of the excersise was much more compelling (if not exactly on target to the project at hand) because of it.

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I think the plan was to have people from the Planning Department actually sit in more with the breakout groups, but there were so many of us, that couldn't happen. They would have been able to steer us better (i.e. keep us on topic) had they done that. But I think what ended up coming out of the excersise was much more compelling (if not exactly on target to the project at hand) because of it.

it would've been nice if the city council and the mayor were there to hear everything the people liked and disliked about providence... especially because it did not stay on the topic of planning.

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It also would have been nice if Lombardi didn't use the event as an opportunity to make a campaign speech for mayor. An office which, last I checked, he isn't officially running for. :rolleyes:

well, considering how good his speech was, i'm sure it didn't help him much... i don't think i've seen a public figure like that be such a horrible speaker since the last time i watched a bush speech. he was trying to be all emphatic, but having to pause to read from his paper totally ruined it.

that was also the first time i heard the mayor speak. he really is a good speaker and quite charismatic. the one thing about all the speeches that sort of bugged me was pointing out all the council people at the event. it was sort of like saying, re-elect all of them because they care about the people because they came to one event.

Edited by runawayjim
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the one thing about all the speeches that sort of bugged me was pointing out all the council people at the event. it was sort of like saying, re-elect all of them because they care about the people because they came to one event.

I'm sure the mayor's intent was not for us to notice and re-elect them. :rofl:

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Residents pack into workshop on future of city. Judging from the turnout at the first workshop on mapping out the city's future, the mayor said it is obvious that residents share a passion for the capital city. [ProJo.com]

The city planning department gets a ton of credit for running a great event yesterday. The turnout was rather inspirational. They had people put a small round sticker representing where they live on an enormous satellite view of the city, and that map showed that the crowd genuinely represented almost every neighborhood in the city, with an impressive representation from the Southern and Western parts of the city, which I think is what they were really hoping for. I think the choice of Roger Williams as a central, democratizing venue was an inspirational one given the range of turnout.

I'm usually, to be honest, a believer that huge feedback activities and forums like they had really are, well, fairly useless, and more PR than anything else. But I was thrilled to be proven wrong in this case, as clear trends and guidelines for the city really did emerge. The similarities in what people desired and felt could be improved upon were fairly consistent no matter the age, gender, or ethnicity of the people involved. Almost everyone there, for the most part, wants the same things as everyone who posts here: A safe, dense, walkable, vibrant, upkept city with robust transit options.

Of course, I think a lot of people would disagree on the definition of such things, but that's what the charettes are for, to hammer out the details.

Again, congrats to the city for a first rate event.

- Garris

PS: Nice to see familar faces like Cotuit and Jimmygreaves there and nice to meet runawayjim and his fiance.

PS2: A reminder to anyone who didn't make it that the city made a point that you could always send a letter or e-mail them any feelings or suggestions you have...

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The city planning department gets a ton of credit for running a great event yesterday. The turnout was rather inspirational. They had people put a small round sticker representing where they live on an enormous satellite view of the city, and that map showed that the crowd genuinely represented almost every neighborhood in the city, with an impressive representation from the Southern and Western parts of the city, which I think is what they were really hoping for. I think the choice of Roger Williams as a central, democratizing venue was an inspirational one given the range of turnout.

I'm usually, to be honest, a believer that huge feedback activities and forums like they had really are, well, fairly useless, and more PR than anything else. But I was thrilled to be proven wrong in this case, as clear trends and guidelines for the city really did emerge. The similarities in what people desired and felt could be improved upon were fairly consistent no matter the age, gender, or ethnicity of the people involved. Almost everyone there, for the most part, wants the same things as everyone who posts here: A safe, dense, walkable, vibrant, upkept city with robust transit options.

Of course, I think a lot of people would disagree on the definition of such things, but that's what the charettes are for, to hammer out the details.

Again, congrats to the city for a first rate event.

- Garris

PS: Nice to see familar faces like Cotuit and Jimmygreaves there and nice to meet runawayjim and his fiance.

PS2: A reminder to anyone who didn't make it that the city made a point that you could always send a letter or e-mail them any feelings or suggestions you have...

i was impressed by the turnout from south providence, although it was held in south providence, so i guess i shouldn't be too surprised.

my fiancee had mentioned that we were like the only dots from elmhurst... i mentioned that it's mostly elderly people and slowly filling in with young families that don't have time for things like that.

it was really nice to meet the 3 people from the forum that i did... (garris, cotuit, and jimmygreaves, and of course garris's sister and cotuit's boyfriend)

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I was also pleased with the event. We have a lot of good ideas in our forum group and it's great to see us getting as organized as we are. Looking forward to meeting more UP Providence posters.

i agree... i'm gonna make a better effort to get to the next meet up assuming i'm don't have other plans (or i don't fall asleep and forget about it like the last one).

and i also didn't look at the map as i was leaving... but i did keep an eye on it (although i only saw northern providence, which didn't have many people from... most likely for the reason i said earlier though.

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But I thought you were the cookie monster :lol:

Yeah I'll pretty much eat anything if you havent noticed...

would you have skipped your other meeting if it was a donut and beer social rather than an ice cream social?

I woulda skipped that meeting to get beaten with a bat...it was awful but I had to go.

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does anyone who was at providence tomorrow know where we should be emailing pictures to? i can't seem to find anything on the providence tomorrow site.

EDIT: after looking over the site, i guess i could just send them to thom?

Edited by runawayjim
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I've started a page on my blog to post photos and commentary on them (though I was having some technical issues when I was posting, so I haven't added commentary on the photos yet). I'm going to turn mine into a pdf doc when I'm done with them and put them on a disk.

As for who to send them to, you're right, the site doesn't list who to email them to just yet. I'll send Thom an email and ask him what's up with that.

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I've started a page on my blog to post photos and commentary on them (though I was having some technical issues when I was posting, so I haven't added commentary on the photos yet). I'm going to turn mine into a pdf doc when I'm done with them and put them on a disk.

As for who to send them to, you're right, the site doesn't list who to email them to just yet. I'll send Thom an email and ask him what's up with that.

that's a good idea... i'll start a crappy webpage with the pics i take. of course it's too hot to be wandering out taking pics today... ugh. at least i know where i plan on starting.

EDIT: after reading what i wrote, i thought i'd add this disclaimer... by no means did i mean to say that your webpage is crappy... in fact, just the opposite. mine is.

Edited by runawayjim
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I'm not sure 100% yet on what they want us to photograph that directly relates to planning. While I'd love to take a photograph of crumbling sidewalks, for example, I doubt that's helpful to them.

I'm assuming they want good, bad, and ugly:

- Buildings

- Public spaces

- Street patterns?

- Signage

Any ideas?

- Garris

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I'm not sure 100% yet on what they want us to photograph that directly relates to planning. While I'd love to take a photograph of crumbling sidewalks, for example, I doubt that's helpful to them.

I'm assuming they want good, bad, and ugly:

- Buildings

- Public spaces

- Street patterns?

- Signage

Any ideas?

- Garris

i plan on taking pictures of things in my neighborhood that i'm unhappy about and things that they've done that work well.

examples...

streets that get patched over and over again because the patches pop out as soon as the first plow goes, i plan on taking pics of admiral st, which is like off-roading in a car.

the park that i always beotch about by mr lemon off of hawkins st.... broken benches, not maintained, grafitti everywhere.

on my street the sidewalk starts and ends randomly, along with other nearby streets, forcing me to walk in the street during my walk to work, which is really only like 2-3 blocks.

i do like that they're finally putting in a sidewalk on the west side of huxley right next to PC's campus. although i bet the students who used to park on the dirt "sidewalk" and get away with it will be unhappy... and i bet the students will continue to walk in the street. but i plan on taking a pic of that construction as a good thing.

there's also some street signs that are wrong or bent or just plain suck in my neighborhood.

but yeah, i think anything related to providence tomorrow and the planning department should be just fine.

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I'm not sure 100% yet on what they want us to photograph that directly relates to planning. While I'd love to take a photograph of crumbling sidewalks, for example, I doubt that's helpful to them.

I'm going to basically take photos of whatever strikes me, I'll let the staff at the Planning Department figure out how, or if, it applies to zoning, or how zoning can improve or encourage what's depicted. Though I will steer clear of very minor issues that Planning/Zoning can't really help.

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