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Cranston listed in "The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America"?


quente

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I've always thought that Cranston was a nice place - in spite of the seeming putdowns related to the ACI, "big hair", etc.

A recently published book ranks Cranston alongside Allston as being among The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America. In response to this listing, the Boston Globe asked one of its reporters, a former Cranston resident, to fashion a response. While she ticks off a number of Cranston's finer point, she wraps up her article with the following observation: "Cranston is a place that doesn't let you leave. It's sort of like the ACI, come to think of it. But with much better food." Ouch!

Is it time for me to think about taking off the rose-colored glasses? :shades:

There's no place like home, especially Cranston, R.I.

By Tina Cassidy, Globe Correspondent {sodEmoji.{sodEmoji.|}} November 18, 2006

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/ar...ly_cranston_ri/

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As a longtime Cranston resident, I assure you that Cranston's only saving grace is its proximity to Providence.

Edit: a story, if you'll permit me.

A few weeks ago on a day off -- gorgeous day, perfect fall weather -- I decided I was going to make the trip up to Pippin Orchards in western Cranston to buy some cider. It's a little annual ritual of mine. I took Park Ave crosstown.

I hadn't driven across Cranston in a long time. I was shellshocked by what I saw. It really troubled me. At lunch with a friend that same day, I tried to explain to her the nagging brooding feeling I was left with. This is what I told her:

There is no such bleeping thing as zoning in Cranston. It's like the city planners sat around a table looking over biiiig a map of the city with a bunch of tokens representing different types of development, carefully placing the tokens where they thought them appropriate. And at the end of that laborious process, the planners said to each other, "That's good, we'll go with that." And they went home for the evening. That night, somebody came along and pounded heavily on the table, scattering the tokens pellmell across the city map. Then the city planners came in the next morning and implemented exactly what they saw.

Cranston is a nightmare. Beyond repair.

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I fidn cranston to be fairly nice in areas and then really crapty in others, and as far as development I don't think one building catches my eye in all of cranston. I mean the garden city scrubs is about the coolest thing I can think of, or the black glass insurance building on reservoir, i believe it is Metropolitian?
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Eastern Cranston is a very nice place. It is urban and walkable and has a nice range of neighborhoods, from the classic wealthy yet still urban Edgewood area, to the working class duplex and small single family home neighborhoods around Park Ave, up Cranston Street, etc. It also has a few nice little main streets (Broad Street in Pawtuxet Village, parts of Park Ave, Rolfe Square). Once you get west of Pontiac Ave though, it's strip mall suburbia hell, though not as bad as Warwick by any means.

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There is no such bleeping thing as zoning in Cranston. It's like the city planners sat around a table looking over biiiig a map of the city with a bunch of tokens representing different types of development, carefully placing the tokens where they thought them appropriate. And at the end of that laborious process, the planners said to each other, "That's good, we'll go with that." And they went home for the evening. That night, somebody came along and pounded heavily on the table, scattering the tokens pellmell across the city map. Then the city planners came in the next morning and implemented exactly what they saw.

Cranston is a nightmare. Beyond repair.

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I would kinda agree with this statement. I used to belong to a golf league that played at the Cranston Country Club weekly. Traveling down Phenix Ave from I-295 was a tour of pell-mell single-family housing developments along a winding and narrow country road. If you don't believe Phenix Ave can be dangerous, try driving it. Incredibly winding and hilly. Lots of cars on it. It's tood bad zoning regulations allowed that much development in that area; it really ruined what could be a nice rural area.

Cranstton Country Club is nice though; one of the better golf courses you'll find.

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