Downcity Business Improvement District Created

[Cotuit]

I'm really stunned about how visible and how effective this crew has been, and I'm also stunned that they are indeed getting the tools they need to do their job. I think this is sure sign that Providence has turned a corner and is now a city that is able to effect positive change (not that Waterplace Park and other projects weren't signs, but the DID is something the city has done all on it's own).

[eltron]

I'm really stunned about how visible and how effective this crew has been, and I'm also stunned that they are indeed getting the tools they need to do their job. I think this is sure sign that Providence has turned a corner and is now a city that is able to effect positive change (not that Waterplace Park and other projects weren't signs, but the DID is something the city has done all on it's own).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree...

now with the burden taken off city government Downtown, the city should be able to take care of business in the neighborhoods, right? hmmmm, what a novel concept...

but really, things ARE moving in the right direction in a lot of ways. good to see.

[Garris]

I'm really stunned about how visible and how effective this crew has been, and I'm also stunned that they are indeed getting the tools they need to do their job. I think this is sure sign that Providence has turned a corner and is now a city that is able to effect positive change (not that Waterplace Park and other projects weren't signs, but the DID is something the city has done all on it's own).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This may sound a bit melodramatic, but I was thinking today that, in a way, Providence is the future of urban American. No, really, I'm serious...

Think about it. If a city like Providence, with the perfect setup for urban success with...

1) Terrific old buildings...

2) Definable neighborhoods...

3) Lots of colleges, including some top ones...

4) Growing, educated population

5) Central location with good transport options (highways, TF Green, Amtrak)

6) A middle and upper class that *hasn't* fled, but is sinking in roots (the East Side, East Prov, North Prov, West End, Federal Hill, new Downcity neighborhood, suburbs located right next store, etc are STILL THERE)...

7) A larger nearby city with tons of people who can't handle its cost of living...

8) First rate shopping (Prov place), numerous neighborhood commercial zones...

9) More good restaurants than any city its size has a right to have...

10) Strong core local businesses...

11) Good healthcare industry...

12) Momentum, in the form of the Renaissance...

... If Providence, with all those assets, can't build a stable, thriving, dynamic urban community, then what hope do all those hundreds (no, thousands) of older, lesser, struggling small cities without those assets that litter an otherwise suburban America have at all?? If Providence fails, what kind of realistic future does Albany NY, Red Wing MN, New Haven and Bridgeport CT, Fall River, Springfield MA, Rochester NY, Mason City IA, Gary IN, Trenton NJ, Hartford CT, etc, etc, etc have at all? What will anchor them?

In my view, Providence is the perfect place for that 2009 Mayor's convention... By then, Providence will be a shining beacon of success and hope for everyone else (and I think it will be! Think of how different the urban face of Providence will be by then!) or it'll be a depressing sign that your only chance of making it as an urban center is to be a megapolis (like NYC or Chicago or SF) or be a pseudo-city that's just one big sprawling suburb with enough population to call yourself a city (like Las Vegas NV or Scottsdale AZ).

Providence really is the future... And I agree with Cotuit that the DID is a nice sign that the city wants to shape its own destiny...

- Garris

[soapbox mode off]

[kinematix]

Does anyone know how the DID is funded? City, State, or otherwise tax dollars or grants?

[Cotuit]

Does anyone know how the DID is funded? City, State, or otherwise tax dollars or grants?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The businesses in the area pay a special tax that goes to the DID. Businesses in the core of Downcity pay a higher rate and receive more intense serives, businesses further out pay a lower rate and recieve somewhat lesser services.

The fact that the businesses agreed to the special tax zone seems to me to be an endorsement of the Downcity area. These businesses believe that the Downcity core is worth investing extra capital into, and foresee a return on that investment. Improvement Districts were proposed in the past for Downcity, but the businesses there would not agree to the special tax in the past.

[provid]

Now if only the projo would give these guys some real press so that if the city were to take DID away from us then people would notice.

[Cotuit]

Now if only the projo would give these guys some real press so that if the city were to take DID away from us then people would notice.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You can email a story idea to the news desk. [email protected]

[Mike D]

This may sound a bit melodramatic, but I was thinking today that, in a way, Providence is the future of urban American.  No, really, I'm serious...

Think about it.  If a city like Providence, with the perfect setup for urban success with...

1) Terrific old buildings...

2) Definable neighborhoods...

3) Lots of colleges, including some top ones...

4) Growing, educated population

5) Central location with good transport options (highways, TF Green, Amtrak)

6) A middle and upper class that *hasn't* fled, but is sinking in roots (the East Side, East Prov, North Prov, West End, Federal Hill, new Downcity neighborhood, suburbs located right next store, etc are STILL THERE)...

7) A larger nearby city with tons of people who can't handle its cost of living...

8) First rate shopping (Prov place), numerous neighborhood commercial zones...

9) More good restaurants than any city its size has a right to have...

10) Strong core local businesses...

11) Good healthcare industry...

12) Momentum, in the form of the Renaissance...

...  If Providence, with all those assets, can't build a stable, thriving, dynamic urban community, then what hope do all those hundreds (no, thousands) of older, lesser, struggling small cities without those assets that litter an otherwise suburban America have at all??  If Providence fails, what kind of realistic future does Albany NY, Red Wing MN, New Haven and Bridgeport CT, Fall River, Springfield MA, Rochester NY, Mason City IA, Gary IN, Trenton NJ, Hartford CT, etc, etc, etc have at all?  What will anchor them?

In my view, Providence is the perfect place for that 2009 Mayor's convention...  By then, Providence will be a shining beacon of success and hope for everyone else (and I think it will be!  Think of how different the urban face of Providence will be by then!) or it'll be a depressing sign that your only chance of making it as an urban center is to be a megapolis (like NYC or Chicago or SF) or be a pseudo-city that's just one big sprawling suburb with enough population to call yourself a city (like Las Vegas NV or Scottsdale AZ). 

Providence really is the future...  And I agree with Cotuit that the DID is a nice sign that the city wants to shape its own destiny...

- Garris

[soapbox mode off]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Providence certainly seems to meet (or is close to meeting) almost all of the qualities you listed and its population is going up. With so much planned, it's certainly got a lot of potential. Only time will tell if it will be that shining beacon come 2009 when the Mayor's Convention comes to town. If the people, government and businesses work together, that will happen.

[CtownMikey]

wow.. although I have only been to providence, nyc, boston and washington D.C..as far as cities go.. ((and i put them in order by how many times i've visited)) if you read that list up above by Garris, and really think about it, does any city really have what Providence has??? like really?

[Mike D]

wow.. although I have only been to providence, nyc, boston and washington D.C..as far as cities go.. ((and i put them in order by how many times i've visited)) if you read that list up above by Garris, and really think about it, does any city really have what Providence has??? like really?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd say NYC comes closest

[Mike D]

But on a more serious note, Providence does look like it's meeting most of the things Garris listed - and excelling at some of them. At the same time, it has to keep working on them and more - the public schools have to improve significantly so that a couple won't bolt for the suburbs shortly after their first child is born. It's got to be a good place to raise a family too.

[gregw]

But on a more serious note, Providence does look like it's meeting most of the things Garris listed - and excelling at some of them. At the same time, it has to keep working on them and more - the public schhols have to improve significantly so that a couple won't bolt for the suburbs shortly after their first child is born. It's got to be a good place to raise a family too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think Mike D is right about education as something that holds Providence back. It's not, contrary to popular belief, impossible to get a good public education in the city. Plenty of kids have done the Martin Luther King to Green to Classical route and then have gone on to Harvard, Yale, etc., but it's getting harder and harder to maintain high standards with budget cutbacks. I would hate to see Providence become untenable for people with kids who don't have the bucks for private school.

[Mike D]

I think Mike D is right about education as something that holds Providence back. It's not,

[Garris]

Yeah, I would not want for Providence to have people who move here from somwhere else, stay for 5-10 years and then leave as soon as the first kid is old enough to attend school. Cities like Baltimore and Washington DC face this same problem. Both are on the experiencing urban renaissances similar to Providence's, but they too have failing schools, and parents often move out when their first child old enough to start school.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is already happening here on a large scale I'd say. I alone would say most of my 2 dozen co-workers all lived in Providence within the last 10 years or so and all moved out (mostly to West Warwick and East Greenwich) when their kids became school elgible because they didn't want to pay for private schools and didn't like the Providence public schools. A few still living in the city (except for one family) are all sending their kids to private schools.

I know one person in my workplace who recently moved to the Main Line of Philadelphia because it'll allow him to still live in an urban area but still have access to outstanding public schools. He doesn't want to have to move to a suburb for them.

- Garris

[CtownMikey]

In the sunday Projo.. there is an article basically saying how in 25 years.. all of the businesses may leave R.I. and New England, since we have the slowest population growth in the country. Money and Business section F. Pick up a copy and read it.. it's kind of interesting. My take on this is that this could be true unless we get out of staters to move in who are a younger age--. because companies don't move to where the baby boomers are settling.. but to where the young and upcoming work force lives. Thats how the article puts it at least. I'd like to hear everyones opinion.. because the Projo always seems to point out the negative things in R.I.

[Garris]

In the sunday Projo.. there is an article basically saying how in 25 years.. all of the businesses may leave R.I. and New England, since we have the slowest population growth in the country. Money and Business section F. Pick up a copy and read it.. it's kind of interesting. My take on this is that this could be true unless we get out of staters to move in who are a younger age--. because companies don't move to where the baby boomers are settling.. but to where the young and upcoming work force lives. Thats how the article puts it at least. I'd like to hear everyones opinion.. because the Projo always seems to point out the negative things in R.I.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Regrettably, I think the ProJo has got this one right... I heard a report on NPR a year and a half or so ago saying that Providence was undesirably on top of a list of US metro areas whose graduates leave the region to find work. I hear it endlessly from highly trained graduate students from Brown, RISD, etc that unless they get hired to stay on at Brown, RISD, etc, there's almost no work for them here in the Providence metro. If they want to stay in New England, they look at the Boston area. If there's nothing there, they open up to the rest of the country. Sadly, in a year or so, that's what I'll be doing too...

Here's a quote from the article:

"Consider this: If you had just graduated from one of our universities, or just started planning to get married and start a family, where would you go to live? That's not a question for sometime in the future. Ask your kid."

Recent graduates from my girlfriend's department at Brown are illustrative. The ones that haven't been hired to stay at Brown have gone to Columbus, OH; Santa Fe, NM; Nashville, TN; and St. Paul, MN. What do all of these areas have in common? They're all growing metro regions with multiple universities, low cost housing, and hip neighborhoods.

For all the talk of Providence being a "college town," our institutions of higher learning don't appear to be the economic engines for the city that other colleges are for their towns. Look at Yale and New Haven, Harvard/MIT/BU and Boston, Columbia in NYC, Princeton in NJ... They're economically growth oriented and are surrounded by supporting industries and spin-offs. They learned a long time ago that top-flight english, philosophy, and history departments don't make you billions of dollars but that engineering, biotech, and computer science do...

Brown is just now starting to leverage its resources and prestige for economic growth. J&W has big potential but seems more committed to making itself a national organization (with campuses elsewhere in the US) then necessarily making its Providence campus *the* destination. PC doesn't appear to be a factor at all, and neither do the smaller colleges, although Bryant appears ready to make a bigger play.

As the article points out, the NE has tremendous culture, colleges, attractions, etc that make it a place many want to live, but many can't afford to do it. Is that newly married respiratory technician with 2 kids going to want to live in Providence where their starter house will cost a minimum of $250,000, or live in Madison, WI where they'll probably make more money and can buy a new home construction that's double the size in a gorgeous neighborhood with a 3 car garage, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and a pool for no more than $150,000?

BusinessWeek just had a kind of depressing article on how to trim your household budget. Their #1 recommendation? Get out of the high cost West Coast and Northeast and move to a cheaper region of the nation where you can trim your fixed costs by 30-50% while getting yourself, on average, 5-10% higher salaries, more house space, and better schools.

Everything swings, though. As those new, cheap areas in 2005 develop the same high costs and legacy issues as the NE, their prices will go up too. As the NE has its boomers die and their population drop, home prices will drop, and it'll become a bargain again. That cycle has already taken place in cities like Pittsburgh and Cleveland and is starting in Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse now. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait 25-50 years for it to play out .

The only anecdote to this, in my mind, is to make Providence such a irresistably desirable city to live that people are willing to pay more for the privilege. This is what SF, Boston, NYC, Seattle, DC, etc have done... They're just cooler, hipper, more beautiful, more cultured, more happening places to be than Phoenix, Macon, Reno, and Jacksonville, so they can charge the premium and get away with it. Worcester, Hartford, Bridgeport, etc can't right now.

Can Providence? That's what's being tested right now... Will we have the answer by 2009? My guess? Maybe... As things stand right now, I think the answer is no... A lot of Providence's desirability to many people right now is the potential for what could be here... Now lets see if that potential is realized... I hope so!

-Garris

[CtownMikey]

i agree 100%. I also believe that the state is aware of this and will plan something to counter the negative effects. Who knows.. brown may be the leaser in biotech. in coming years... some how. and that may spark something else which may spark something else, which may bring in the crowds... I have no idea. But its also kind of sad because it seems unnavoidable unless something major happens

[CtownMikey]

I'm never clear in my posts.. but by brown of course I meant Brown University . And I have a few more things to add. JWU will hopefully be adding to the campus on the 195 land.. making it *the* premier campus. We also mentioned how Boston and NYC, although they have HIGH costs of living, are still extrememly desireable... and our response to that is how Providence still has cheaper housing costs and is close by to both cities. I also truly believe that the average person would agree with that Projo article.... and I doubt that Cornish and Proccianti along with all of those retailers going into the mall such as sony and apple, and all of the westminster retailers, who are taking a chance, WOULD take a chance and invest their time and $$ if they didn't address this issue and have a reason to believe that it may not end up that way. Also, if you visit the riedc website, it has the whole 'slater mill' thing and 'innovation at a smaller scale' idea.. which I don't know too much about but they seem to believe that it will make R.I. the premier place for businesses.

The businesses--->> They seem to be what will determine our future.

If I am somewhat correct, the development happening now will bring a younger, richer crowd to Providence, it will bring more conventions and tourism, and beautify the city and state. Therefore we are hoping that businesses will move here when they see this new rebirth in Providence and that young and skilled workers live here.

When they move here.. they will keep the current workers and hopefully bring more in. Eventually with a good amount of years passing, we will have a snowball effect and be a strong enough community to not have to worry about this population/age issue?? That how I view it all.. and Gtech seems to be the pioneer in this whole thing ?

[ArtInRuins]

Yeah, a chicken or the egg problem. Residents before retail, or retail before residents? Residents before jobs, or jobs before residents? Its hard to do one or the other with out the other... so you have to do both. CTownMikey, I hope you are right.

[provid]

I noticed todat the clean team has another ford F-150 but this one with a huge water/mix tank and power-washer. ( Im going to assume for removing graffiti downtown ) Good news.

[Frankie811]

A public hearing concerning the budget for the Downtown Improvement District will be held June 2 at 30 Exchange Terrace.

[Frankie811]

http://www.projo.com/metro/content/projo_2...13.24a38ef.html

[Cotuit]

I moved the economic and educations issues posts into a new thread. It's an important conversation that deserves it's own thread, and is really outside the scope of this one

[kinematix]

I saw two members of the DID using their huge power washer this morning on my walk to work and they were cleaning up graffiti!!! It was on Westminster right next to Grace Chruch and Hotel Providence. Never used a power washer before but it was amazing how fast the paint came off- just a few passes of the stream and the paint was nothing but a memory. Great to see but I still wish we could adopt the same policy that NYC has for their subways (all graffiti is removed within 24 hours thus discouraging people from doing it in the first place)

[provid]

Well I assume It will be removed in a rather short period of time since its such a small city but you are right that the sooner it is gone the less someone can feel good about what they left all over the city.