Hi,

I just found your blog based on a search on Urbanism. My blog is atlantalarry, and deals with various New Urbanist topics pertinent to the City of Atlanta, but also other cultural topics. I don't know if you've browsed them, but John Massengale's site http://massengale.typepad.com and Dave Sucher's site http://citycomfortsblog.typepad.com/
are worth perusing for New Urbanist topics, too.

Good Luck

Larry

Looks good to me Bil. Some more possible 'Local Links'...

http://www.providenceri.com/
http://www.providenceplan.org/
http://www.ppsri.org/
http://www.groundworkprovidence.org/
http://www.growsmartri.com/
http://www.dot.state.ri.us/
http://www.wbna.org/
http://www.warwickri.gov/
http://www.eastprovidence.com/

Give me some time, I'm sure I'll come up with more feedback.

Now I want to check out the sites Larry posted.

I am SO glad I just found your website! It looks like one of the few places where we can try to develop a holistic picture of what could be done. Providence has tremendous potential, but it's always on the verge of being destroyed, by both big and little decisions.

Here are my pet peeves about the city, in no particular order:
- why are there so few outdoor cafes on the river waterfront? I don't know of any except for Cafe Nuovo and then the Hot Club and Big Fish down near the Hurricane Barrier. There's a Gatehouse restaurant that might as well be in Foster for all the advantage it takes of its location. This is ridiculous. And if we can't quite make the commitment to have restaurants, can't we at least have street vendors? On beautiful sunny days, there is no one out on the river, probably because there's no place to just buy a hot dog and a drink for lunch.
- speaking of vendors, why aren't there any flowers for sale on street corners?
- why is the train station so rinky dink that the cafe closes down at 5:30 PM. Pity the poor souls waiting for their probably delayed Amtrak train and wishing they could have something other than stale chips from the vending machine!
- why is the bus system so horrible? In many places you can't even tell where the bus is supposed to stop (I suppose the adjoining property owners don't WANT anyone to know because (GASP) they might loiter in the vicinity waiting for the bus)and the schedules seem completely unrelated to any commuter or other needs
- in my neighborhood on the East Side, the residents seem to harbor the misconception that they live out in the country somewhere, and are adamantly opposed to anything anywhere at any time! The latest NIMBY is concern about the traffic posed by a music school!! If you want to live in Scituate, go live there -- let the rest of us live in a city
- how about bringing in a Marshall's to the real downtown (not the soul-sucking Providence Place) Granted, Marshall's is not in the unique boutique category, but it does generate lots of people traffic, which is what downtown needs. This city could learn a lot from Boston's Downtown Crossing, which has lots of vendors and manages to comfortably accommodate Macy's and Filenes with Marshall's, TJMax, Filene's Basement, Borders, and a bunch of other chain and unique stores. How about trying to woo IKEA to Providence? They can't get off the dime in Somerville, so let's get them to come here! New York City manages to get big box stores into dense downtown areas -- why can't we?

Oh my maude, it's like you're reading my mind on the Marshall's Plan (get it, Marshal(l's) Plan) for Providence. Marshall's or TJMax, though rightly considered big box reatial would be great for downtown. I picture it perhaps on the Journal lot at the edge of Kennedy Plaza behind the Biltmore, or maybe on that stretch of surface lots a block off of Empire (between Empire and Snow).

There's a good market in the Johnson & Wales and RISD kids that are living downtown, we're also reaching a critical mass of residents downtown. Plus it will be easily reachable by many people from the city's outer neighbourhoods via bus to Kennedy Plaza.

I'm currently living car-free in Providence, and let me tell you how much I would love to have a Marshall's in the city. If I want to buy something simple like underware or tube sox I need to either haul myself out to the KMart at Brewery Parkade in Cranston on a bus, or pay Filene's prices in the mall. The students with less disposble income, and the lower income people from the outer neighbourhoods would be great customers. Plus all of the office workers who could go on their lunch break, rather than having to fight parking and traffic on their way home at a suburban location.

Marshall's has a great urban location in Boston's Back Bay, so they are no strangers to the concept, and the store need not be a typicle box. It would most likely need to provide parking, doable underground, and then upper floors of the building could be offices and/or residential.

There was an article a few days ago in the Globe about Mayor Menino trying to woo some chains to artfully fit into the fabric of some of Boston's neighbourhoods, perhaps Ciccilline should give Menino a call to see how he did.

Oh, on the riverfront... I think when we see 195 come down we'll see a lot of action on the riverfront. From what I gather, where exit one is now, there will be buildings right on the water's edge, and you gotta imagine with the views, a few of them will be restaurants/cafes. 195 serves as a giant barrier between Corliss Landing and the upper river, as well as a barrier between Corliss and Wickenden Street. With the highway gone, we'll be able to stitch much of this area back together and create an uninterupted riverwalk which will give way to better leisure activity on the water.