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Think big
WHATEVER HIS FAULTS, no one ever accused Buddy Cianci of lacking ambition.
So it wasn’t out of character when Cianci unveiled a plan in June 2000, dubbed "New Cities," that seemed like it was painted from a broad palette of vision, wishful thinking, and fantasy.
The Promenade element of the plan, an initiative to bring fresh energy to the Woonasquatucket River corridor, has already started to unfold on its own. A curious pastiche of residential and retail developments is under way: JPI’s luxury housing behind the mall; the Monohasset Mill Project’s mix of affordable lofts for artists and market-rate units; Feldco Development’s retail complex in the heart of Eagle Square; and Armory Revival Company’s Rising Sun Mill on Valley Street. The last project has sparked some concern about the battle between investment and rising rents (see "Where will people live," News, February 7), and the combined effect of these various projects is difficult to entirely predict. Few would dispute that Rhode Island faces a serious gap between housing supply and demand. Then again, it’s hard to see the broadening of the tax base in a city with a high poverty rate as a bad thing.
The Narragansett Landing component of New Cities, a plan to transform the waterfront along Allens Avenue with hotels, office buildings, and a marina, appears to be a real stretch for now, mostly because of the cost and complexity of relocating heavy industrial uses in that area.
But in many ways, the third element — decking over parts of Interstate 95 to create space for parks, gardens, nearby development, and a better sense of connection between downtown and the increasingly vibrant West Side — seems like an idea whose time is coming.
Cianci’s original Westminster Crossing plan called for decking over the highway from Atwells Avenue to Broad Street. Developer Mark Van Noppen of Armory Revival says some of the same goals could be accomplished more easily by covering sections of I-95 between Atwells and Broadway, and Washington and Westminster streets. "If the community gets behind it, I think it’s entirely realistic," over the next 10 to 15 years, Van Noppen says.
Deller agrees that closing the chasm between the West Side and downtown — something that began with the development of I-95 and continued with construction on the Weybosset Hill side of the highway — is an important need for the city. In terms of the details, he says, "We’re going to have to think about that."
PROVIDENCE WAS transformed in the ’90s by the relocation of downtown rivers, and the construction of the Providence Place Mall added to the popular image of a city on the move. But some observers cite the large amount of public subsidy — federal grants for moving the rivers, a tax treaty with the mall, public subsidy for the convention center, and so on — in questioning to what degree the revitalization was manufactured. As former mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr., who served from 1984-91, puts it, "Is it really a renaissance or was it government-subsidized?"
(Deller, who previously worked in the Paolino and Cianci administrations, disputes the view that public subsidy outpaced private investment over the last 15 years, describing the private investment as larger by a factor of four or five.)
For all the razzle-dazzle of Buddy Cianci at the peak of his powers, some observers insist that the city lost development opportunities because of the graft associated with municipal politics. "After a while they’d [out of town interests] get the message there were costs associated with moving here," asserts developer Arnold "Buff" Chace, a major downtown property owner.
For his part, Paolino attributes the lack of more private investment through the ’90s to a failure by the city to transition from a reliance on traditional job sectors — banking, law, accounting, insurance, and the like — "to new and emerging markets where there is growth potential." Citing Providence’s hospitals and universities as the engines of future job growth, Paolino is calling for the city to hold an economic development summit with the institutions to chart collaborative opportunities. As it stands, he says, the sale of Fleet Bank’s downtown headquarters marks "the beginning of the end of Fleet’s major downtown presence."
Cicilline, however, who won an overwhelming electoral mandate based on his message of reform, says that the start of a new era in Providence politics has already changed the economic development atmosphere. "People tell me they wouldn’t have considered coming to Providence before and now they’re looking at sites," he says. "GTECH wouldn’t have happened."
Plans by the West Greenwich-based lottery systems maker to build its new headquarters in Providence, the first private development in the Capital Center in 13 years, mark an important symbolic step, even if GTECH got a very favorable deal from the city and state. To critics, the deal seems somewhat hypocritical at a time when Cicilline is trying to extract a revenue stream from local universities. The mayor, however, says the GTECH agreement will create property taxes that will increase over time and spur further spin off in the Capital Center. "I don’t think emotionally it’s just a good thing," Cicilline says. "It will be a good thing for our economy."
When it comes to fostering job growth in Providence, time will tell.
Meanwhile, the oft-cited goal of remaking downtown Providence as a lively residential neighborhood is inching forward. Chace’s Cornish Associates recently began work on two new residential conversions on Westminster Street, the O’Gorman and Burgess buildings, which follow a high degree of rentals in the Smith and Alice buildings. Although starving artists are unlikely to rent the units, the idea of bringing more vitality to downtown still seems like a worthwhile goal.
By early 2005, Chace envisions a "critical mass" of 225 apartment, close to 50,000 square feet in new retail space, and an additional 500 parking spaces in a garage to be built near the current Travelers Aid location. After working in the neighborhood for 11 years, the developer knows how difficult it is to carry off the residential concept. Still, Chace, who, during a reception last Friday, May 9, touted the value of dreams and persistence, holds out hope. If everything works out, he says, "It all could happen now."
PLANNERS FROM the Providence Department of Planning & Development are slated to fan out across the city over the next two years, working with residents to develop visions for particular neighborhoods and laying out concepts for how to achieve them. This in itself represents a significant change when it comes to planning and development in the capital city.
In the past, Buddy Cianci would pretty much get an idea and make it happen. Sometimes this was good. Sometimes — such as when he seemed ready to sign off on Feldco Development’s initial plan to destroy every 19th-century mill building in Eagle Square (the plan was changed after an outpouring of community protest) — this was pretty bad. And many observers say the city’s planning process under Cianci was autocratic and overly politicized. "In the past, this city functioned completely from the top-down," says Catherine Horsey, executive director of the Providence Preservation Society. "It was a question of the mayor reacting and directing various departments for them to do whatever he wanted them to do."
Community activists have high hopes that Cicilline and Deller, a professional planner, will foster a more proactive and responsive process. Carla DeStefano, executive director of Stop Wasting Abandoned Property (SWAP), which has helped to turn almost 1000 abandoned properties, mostly in South Providence, into privately owned homes, is typical in her outlook: "There are a lot of us who are very optimistic with this administration — that politics doesn’t necessarily have to touch every facet of life in the city."
It’s reasonable to believe that other Cicilline administration initiatives — such as Police Chief Dean Esserman’s neighborhood-based reorganization of the police department — will complement the planning and development process. But challenges could still be posed by the typical ward-based concerns of the city council. Jennifer Cole Steele, a member of the city Plan Commission, says the lack of a broader outlooks results in the kind of development, such as strip plazas on Broad Street, that would never be tolerated a few miles away on Hope Street.
Ward 10 Councilman Luis Aponte, who broke with informal council protocol when he spoke against the original Eagle Square proposal, agrees with Cole Steele to a point. But councilors are elected to represent their wards, Aponte notes, adding that in poorer parts of the city, "you almost find yourself foraging for any development and take the tack that any development is good development." In looking forward, Aponte hopes for "a more comprehensive approach and a more sort of merit-based approach, where development is comprehensive in terms of looking at what the needs are in a particular neighborhood and what kind of development makes sense."
This squares with the course described by Deller, who cites his overarching goal as creating a planning department that sets a vision for the city, and Cicilline. With sparse dollars, especially for such important needs as affordable housing, Deller says, "We’ve got to get creative, so we can do more with less."
It helps that city planners seem to have potential allies in the many community activists throughout Providence. In some cases, a little bit of investment or enhanced collaboration might go a long way. SWAP’s DeStefano, for example, estimates that there are about 500 three-family buildings in Providence where a decent attic apartment isn’t be used because the structures are zoned two-family.
Similarly, Jane Sherman, director of the Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project, describes how the project has sparked the interest of residents in different neighborhoods in caring for previously abandoned parks. When it comes to fostering other improvements, she says, "It needs city investment and effort on the part of the community."
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com
page 1 page 2Issue Date: May 16 - 22, 2003
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