Speaking of economic development, and I'm bit late in getting to this, but Jack Templin of the Providence Geeks sees a lot of promise in the ongoing I-195 relocation project:

For those interested in urban and economic development though, the much more exciting aspect of the I-195 relocation project is not what's going up, but rather what will be coming down - the old stretch of I-195. Once the new I-195 is complete (scheduled for 2012), the old elevated portion of I-195, that cracking, concrete, rusting, metal mess that obtrusively snakes through the middle of Providence, will be razed. With its demise, 19.2 acres of prime center city real estate will be freed for development. Let me write that again - 19.2 acres! ....

 

It is awesome to see our sector so prominent in the context of this historic undertaking. Many of us would love to see RI's info-tech and digital media have a geographic center, a physical hub. And the soon to be uncovered land seems like the perfect spot. Its strengths include:

 

• Easy access to both I-95 and the new I-195; within walking distance of the train station's Amtrak and MBTA lines

• Proximity to many of our institutions of higher learning including Brown, RISD, and Johnson & Wales

• A funky, walkable mixed-use neighborhood with plenty of amenities, and with plenty more to come, including a big new riverfront park

• Adjacency to the state's large and growing bio-tech and medical sectors. From computational biology to medical devices to bioinformatics, there are all sorts of opportunities for our sector and the bio-tech/medical/life science industries to collaborate and innovate

 

Already, there are a myriad of ITDM companies in the vicinity of the old I-195 including Dynamic Diagrams, Creative Circle, SprintOut, Andera, Providence Health Solutions, Diamond Star Media, Machine Hero and Public Display, just to name a few. (See the RI Nexus Map for more.) With the relocation project, and a strategy that has the our sector prominent in the mix, I have little doubt that we can reach the critical mass of people, companies, and activity needed to make the neighborhood the true center of our community.

 

Stay tuned - this could be great.

Grow Smart RI does a lot of good work in helping to preserve the best of the state's distinctive character, so Scott Wolf and his crew want you to know about the group's May 2 Power of Place Summit, for which registration closes next Tuesday, April 29, at noon.

Our inaugural Power of Place Summit in 2006 drew nearly 500 opinion leaders, state and local officials, academics, development professionals, investors, journalists and citizen activists for the launch of Rhode Island’s new smart growth oriented state land-use plan. There are now encouraging examples all across our state of how some of the plan’s long-term strategies and recommendations are being embraced and implemented to the benefit of our communities and future generations. Yet other key objectives - such as reducing our state’s over-reliance on the local property tax, better integrating our transportation system with desired development goals and targeting more of our state investment dollars to energy efficient urban, town and village centers - remain daunting challenges that keep us from reaching our potential.

This upcoming Summit will take a closer look at how the growth and development choices we make today will impact our economy, quality places, public health, environment, the efficiency of state and local government and the taxes we pay. We’ll look at what’s working and what needs to be improved to grow our innovation economy, revitalize our walkable centers, ensure agricultural viability, promote healthy community design and reduce global warming pollution, among other key goals for a prosperous and sustainable future.

Click HERE for the Detailed Program

Highlights:

• Morning Keynote Speaker: Bruce Katz, Founder and Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution "The Blueprint for American Prosperity" 
  
  
• Panel Response from Governor Carcieri (invited), Mayor Cicilline, Economist Richard Seline and Grow Smart Executive Director Scott Wolf
  
  
• Lunchtime Keynote Address: Patrick MacRoy, Executive Director, Alliance for Healthy Homes, Washington, DC - "The Connection between Public Health & the Built Environment"
  
  
• A total of 24 workshop on everything from Smart Economic Development, Place-Making and Renewable Energy to Low Impact Development, Tax Increment Financing and LEED-ND

Jef Nickerson of Greater City: Providence reports that there will a Zoning Board of Review hearing, at 7:30 tomorrow night, on the controversial tower proposed for Federal Hill. Here are the some of Jef's thoughts on the project:

I am writing on behalf of Greater City: Providence in regards to the petition to allow for zoning variances related to the development of a residential building which would be sited at #21 and #32 Federal Street in Federal Hill. We submit that it is premature to consider any ad-hoc zoning variances for this building until the completion of the Federal Hill neighborhood plan in accordance with Providence Tomorrow: The Interim Comprehensive Plan, which was approved by Providence City Council on December 7th, 2007 and by Mayor Cicilline on December 17, 2007.

 

The site of the proposed building is located in a section of the city which is defined by the comprehensive plan as a Transitional Area (Providence Tomorrow: The Interim Comprehensive Plan, Map 11.1, page 96). The purpose of these Transitional Areas is to “provide a transition in height, density and scale between the larger scale development anticipated in the growth districts and the lower scale and density of surrounding neighborhoods (Providence Tomorrow: The Interim Comprehensive Plan, Chapter 11.1, page 98). ....

 

If the Zoning Board of Review is responsible for “Ensuring that all zoning variances and special use permits conform to the (comprehensive) Plan” (Providence Tomorrow: The Interim Comprehensive Plan, Appendix D), then no decision on this request should be made until we have confirmation that this development is in accordance with the vision of this Transitional Area of Federal Hill . The creation of this vision should be decided by the Federal Hill neighborhood plan. That is why Greater City: Providence believes that it is premature to consider any ad-hoc zoning variances for this building approved at this time.

Things are heating up for the future of the land being made available by the I-195 relocation, as we saw with the announcement this week of a related partnership between the state and the city. In related news, David P. Riley and some other advocates have long called for maximizing public access to the land that will be available for fresh uses. A program on the subject is et for Monday:

Making a Special Place at the Head of the Bay Placemaking Workshop

Monday, April 7, 2008, 3 -7 pm, Radisson Hotel (foot of Gano St.)

 

Please join an interactive workshop led by the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) to imagine a future for the last expanse of shoreline open to the public in Providence, at the head of Narragansett Bay.  Join planners, stakeholders, and citizens concerned about the fate of the former Shooters nightclub for a presentation of what makes waterfront public spaces work in other cities, a placemaking exercise, and a brainstorming session to create a vision that makes the most of India Point’s unique geography and panoramic views and ensures public access to our most distinctive natural and historic asset.

 

Free and open to the public. Pre-registration required.    

Space limited to 100.  

Please call 831-5995 x712 with your name & phone number. 

Sponsored by Head of the Bay Gateway and Friends of India Point Park. Led by Ethan Kent from PPS.

Proponents of maximizing public access to the waterfront around India Point Park in Providence are concerned about a City Hall meeting tonight (6 pm, council chambers) that could result in the rezoning of a key parcel in the area.

David P. Riley writes via e-mail:

The RI Transportation Dept. (RIDOT) is planning to sell the Shooters parcel -- right next to India Point Park  -- to the highest bidder with no restrictions.

 

 At today's hearing, supporters of the Park will urge RIDOT to delay the sale until AFTER the planning process is completed. It would be tragic for the park, the city, and the state to rush into the permanent sale of one of the state's key assets, which could be a public gateway to the Bay providing significant long-term economic and civic benefits for the region.

In a letter to Mayor Cicilline, Thom Deller, and Councilors Wood and Yurdin, Jef Nickerson, president of Greater City: Providence, writes:

I am writing on behalf of Greater City: Providence in regards to the petition being heard by the City Council Ordinance Committee on Monday, March 3rd to change the zoning of Lots 344 and 345 on Zoning Map 18 from Waterfront Mixed-Use to Public Space. These state-owned lots are located on the waterfront at Fox’s Point next to India Point Park. We submit that it is premature to consider any ad-hoc zoning changes to these waterfront lots until the highest and best use of the entire Providence waterfront is decided in a charrette format.

 

Please consider the following:

 

The aforementioned lots are part of the moratorium area established by City Council Resolution 385, approved July 10, 2007. It declares that a moratorium will be placed on any development plans, construction, or demolition permits that do not comply with the adopted Zoning Ordinance in effect as of the date of the resolution’s adoption. Any development as a result of the zoning change would not be effective due to the stipulations of the resolution until its expiration which is currently, at the latest, July 10, 2008. .... 

 

Further, we understand that these parcels are currently owned by the state through RIDOT and that the state is facing a (to put it lightly) tough economic year. This economic stress is surely putting great pressure on the state to sell this property. We urge the Mayor and the City Council to work with the state to attempt to find a way to transfer this land to the city, of course understanding that the city’s economic situation is not any better than the state’s this year. Allowing the city to control this land and become the eventual developer of this land would ensure that the public’s wishes as set forth by the charrette process would be fulfilled.

Jen Cole, the estimable "tree lady" of Providence, continues her victory lap tomorrow in what doubles as the rescheduled holiday part for the local faction of Urban Planet, the urban planning discussion group:

Join us for drinks (and maybe cake) and for lively discussion about the past year in Providence development and urban matters, and to bid Jen farewell:

Wednesday, February 13th

5:30pm until whenever

Wild Colonial Tavern

250 South Water Street, Providence

Meanwhile,

-- SBANE, the Smaller Business Association of New England, is taking a look at Decision '08:

Join SBANE the Smaller Business Association of New England on Wednesday, February 13th, to hear June S. Speakman, Ph.D., the Wilf Professor of Political Science at Roger Williams University speak on the heated presidential race for the White House.

 

Dr.Speakman's talk will provide analysis of the nomination process as it stands in mid-February--after Super Duper Tuesday, but before the Rhode Island primary, and--depending on Where we stand on that day--discussion of how things will end up at the summer nominating conventions and beyond into November.

 

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 from 7:30 am to 9 am at the Providence Marriott. The fee is $25 for members and $40 For non-members. For more information contact Don Saracen at 401-254-0867 or e-mail: saracen@fctvplus.net.

I agree with those who call the historic tax credit something well worth preserving. Meanwhile, legislative leaders are set to announce plans to bring "a major film production studio" to Rhode Island.

From the State House:

The news conference is scheduled today, Thursday, Feb. 7, at 2:15 p.m. in the House Lounge on the second floor of the State House.

 

Expected to participate in the news conference are Speaker Murphy (D-Dist. 26, West Warwick, Coventry and Warwick), President of the Senate Montalbano (D-Dist. 17, North Providence, Pawtucket, Lincoln), House Corporations Committee Chairman Brian Patrick Kennedy (D-Dist. 38, Hopkinton, Westerly), Senate Minority Whip Kevin A. Breene, (R-Dist. 34, West Greenwich, Charlestown, Exeter, Hopkinton, Richmond), Hopkinton Town Council President Vincenzo Cordone and Hal Katersky of Pacifica Ventures, LLC.

Via BeloBlog:

PAWTUCKET -- A New Hampshire developer said this morning his company will move forward with a $22-million project to build rental residences in a Pawtucket mill building, despite the slackening economy.

Arthur W. Sullivan, of Brady Sullivan Properties, said the project will succeed despite an economic downturn that has tightened credit markets and all but crushed the demand for condominiums.

"The market is slowing down a bit," Sullivan told The Providence Journal. "[But] we have the capital to make these things work."

Sullivan's plan to convert the Slater Cotton Mill in central Pawtucket to 124 rental units is his company's second project in Rhode Island. In October, the company paid $2.4 million for the Grant Mill building in Providence.

Dan Barbarisi has the news today that John Kelly, whose incipient Providence mayoral campaign was first reported by Matt, is being replaced as chair of the Providence Zoning Board of Review by three-time former gubernatorial candidate Myrth York.

Kelly, who in November became the first candidate to file papers to run for mayor, is the CEO of Meeting Street School. He was appointed to the zoning board by Cicilline in 2006 for a term to expire in 2011.

“I want to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Unfortunately, these races become more and more expensive. Any time you start raising money, it raises those issues,” Kelly said.

“I’ve been talking to the mayor about it and I really felt like it’s a good time to get off. We’ve done a lot over there.”

Kelly tells Barbarisi that he will not run against Cicilline, should the incumbent choose not to shoot for a higher office. 

I reported last month on how Providence City Solicitor Joseph M. Fernandez has filed papers to run for AG, so he can also be expected to leave his city post at some point in the future.

Mayor Cicilline last night unveiled a proposal to slow the boomlet of demolition in Providence.

From Dan Barbarisi:

Cicilline’s proposals are intended to prevent developers from forcing “demolition by neglect,” the practice of allowing a property to deteriorate so that emergency demolition is necessary. Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Jerome F. Williams accused Carpionato Properties Inc. of attempting exactly that at the Fruit and Produce Warehouse building.

Cicilline announced two ordinances that he said could prevent situations like that at the produce warehouse from happening again.

One would empower the city to go onto a deteriorating, neglected property, do necessary repairs and pay for it by putting a lien on the property.

Yet isn't this a bit late in the game?

Hanging over the evening [of PPS' annual meeting] were the recent start of demolition Monday at the Providence Fruit and Produce Warehouse Co. building, and a judge’s decision Wednesday to reopen the case of the half-destroyed Grove Street School to question the city’s building official as to why he did not call for emergency demolition of that building. Earlier in the year, the police and fire station in La Salle Square was knocked down using an emergency demolition permit, and demolition was approved for the former Louttit Laundry building on Cranston Street.

A day earlier, David Brussat said that since Providence Fruit was ugly, its demoltion was a good thing. Meanwhile, over at Anchor, Marc says:

I wonder if a game was being played from the start to keep the [warehouse] price down based on a pretense of preservation that would ultimately prove unenforceable because the legal language guaranteeing preservation was mysteriously left out of the final deal.

Good question.

And at Greater City: Providence, Jef has this painful photo of the Grove Street School:

In light of the start yesterday of the demolition of the old Providence fruit and produce warehouse, the headline on this post seems prophetic.

And Jef at Greater City: Providence had previously noted this tart observation:

J. from ArtInRuins posted this rather prescient missive on UrbanPlanet a couple days ago:

1. Acquire a building that was once used for industry, preferably an obsolete one. These buildings have been known to be situated close to water and shipping lanes, so will have great views which you can exploit later.

2. Don’t worry if the building was on the National Register, or protected by the State. Don’t listen to the people who may have great ideas to redevelop the project. You don’t want all that hassle and all those “conversations”. 
3. Sit on it. For a long time. It would help if it was already derelict when you bought it because the previous owner was losing money as their industry was becoming obsolete.
4. Let graffiti accumulate. Hipsters will love it, but they don’t vote. The neighborhood will soon forget about the activity that went on there and the buildings own “glory days”. It will start to look horrible, and they will start to complain about it.
5. Keep sitting on it. It would help if you complained about the cost of potential renovations while you did so.
6. Let security around the perimeter go lax. Teenagers will get in, wreck the place, and maybe start a fire or two. If you are lucky, that will take care of it. If not, it becomes a hazard and a public nuisance.
7. Finally, after years of neglect, declare the place not worth saving, and suggest to the City that they let you demolish it. The city will go along because the neighbors have been complaining, and since you hold the checkbook, they will be too scared to demand anything more from you.
8. (Optional) Build a parking lot while you “wait for the market to become ripe”
9. Build something there that won’t last for as long as the building you just let go to waste, but instead will remain shiny and new for about five. Sell it to an out-of-town conglomerate once you’ve made your money, and let them worry about the upkeep.
10. Rinse. Repeat.

The ProJo's Dan Barbarisi does a good job today in teasing out some of the dissonance regarding the historic Providence Fruit and Produce Warehouse (1929) behind Providence Place, and Carpionato Properties' plans to raze the property.

If you're a mayor in a cash-strapped city, it's tough to not like developers, and it seems clear that David Cicilline signed off on the demo plan:

On Dec. 28, [Providence building official Kerry Anderson] issued a letter declaring the site unsafe and instructed Carpionato to procure a demolition permit as soon as possible.

But top state authorities say Carpionato intentionally allowed the property to deteriorate in order to make it easier to justify its destruction.

According to DOT Director Jerome F. Williams, Carpionato has “intentionally failed to maintain the property and allowed continued deterioration in order to facilitate its demolition, rather than to facilitate the restoration, rehabilitation, and preservation of the historic features of the Farmer’s Market Building.”

Today, the state plans to broaden its case and include the City of Providence as a defendant for issuing the building permit, according to Michael D. Mitchell, deputy chief of legal services for the state.

“We are going to amend the complaint and name the City of Providence [today],” Mitchell said yesterday. He would not go into details ofspecifics against the city.

Mayor David N. Cicilline said he supports the actions of his Building Department.

“The liability is on the city if action is not taken; God forbid, a life is lost or something happens, that would be the responsibility of the city.

“We don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to save the building.’ The reality is that the health and well-being of the residents of the city is the responsibility of city government. And that determination having been made, the city doesn’t really have an option. The building official is obligated to order its demolition, which he did — and I’m not going to interfere with that,” Cicilline said. 

Considering the unusual architecture of the building, it's not surprising that Carpionato wants to raze it. Yet if the Providence Fruit and Produce Warehouse bites the dust, you can say goodbye to a little more of old Rhode Island.

For years, an archiac Providence building resembling a haunted house, at the intersection of Chestnut and Elbow streets, greeted N4N when he reported to work. As fate would have it, I had a front-seat view from my perch in the Doran Building when a giant backhoe demolished the old building on Wednesday. Not even a coat of paint, curiously slapped onto the building in the last year or so, was enough to save it.

Mike Corso, formerly the in-house lawyer for Cornish Associates, a driving force in creating the state's historic tax credit, and the owner of tazza, acquired the property, known as the Pardon Clarke House, and tells me that he plans to build a three-story office building on the site. The building is actually much older than I surmised, as revealed in the following Jewelry District Association description, but Corso said it was too badly damaged to be preserved.

155 Pardon Clarke House (c. 1823):

This is a 2-story, end-gable roof, frame house with a side-hall plan built in the Federal style. The house sits on a high granite ashlar and stuccoed rubble stone foundation, with a twin flight of stone steps, with a wrought iron handrail on one flight, leading to the front door, which is flanked by three-pane sidelights framed by two pairs of narrow Doric pilasters. An elaborate bracketed hood and raised wooden paneling in the transom area beneath it were apparently added in the late nineteenth century. The house, which has a brick chimney near thc center, has a I-story and a 2-story back building, both with gable roofs. Several small jewelry firms have occupied the building since 1920. Alterations include asphalt shingles over the clapboards and new one-over-one double-hung sash windows, which apparently replace some earlier changes in the fenestration. There is a 2-story, flat-roof, brick and concrete block addition on the north side.

Here are some other recent changes in the Jewelry District, besides Brown's steady acquistion of property:

-- There's a new Starbucks down around J&W.

-- The RI office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation recently moved into the neighborhood, not long after the architectural firm of Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels.

Lu Heintz, creator of the controversial Olneyville trash cans, just relayed this news, from Steel Yard director Drake Patten, via e-mail:

The Steel Yard announced today that artist Lu Heintz’s sculptural trash cans will be installed in Olneyville, the neighborhood for which they were initially intended. The industrial arts-focused non-profit spent many months negotiating a new location for the cans after the original clients were unwilling to accept the cans due to differences between the design concept they approved and the final product. Public input helped the Steel Yard create a short list of possible locations that were considered based on criteria including public accessibility and the potential for stewardship.

 

Drake Patten, the Steel Yard’s Executive Director said, “This has been a long and often difficult process but we are extremely grateful for the support we have received from many Olneyville residents and business owners, the city’s department of Arts, Culture and Tourism and the Olneyville Housing Corporation and as we negotiated a final location for Ms. Heintz’s cans.” She also acknowledged the hard work and many hours that her staff, board and many Steel Yard artists dedicated to this process.

 

The cans will be installed on Aleppo Street, a road that runs between Riverside Park, a reclaimed brownfield, and Riverside Townhomes affordable housing for Olneyville residents. “We feel that this location provides context to Ms. Heintz’s ‘people’s history’ as well as answers her question: ’Who will right this wrong?’ It is our strong belief that in the face of multiple social and economic inequities, citizen-supported public/private partnerships can change the future of a neighborhood. We hope that by locating the cans in a place where this model is truly exemplified, Ms. Heintz’s art will serve as a constructive critique of Olneyville’s past and present as well as a hopeful nod to its future.”

-- The Providence Daily Dose holiday party, originally slated for last week, was scrapped because of the snow and has been rescheduled for tonight at Local 121.

-- The Urban Planet gathering for last week has been postponed until some time in January.

-- Frank Ferri's swearing-in has been rescheduled for 5 pm tomorrow.

-- The latest Providence Geek dinner is tomorrow, 5:30-9 pm, at AS220:

Please join us at the last get together of Providence Geeks in 2007 and celebrate Rhode Island’s future Geeks!

In the spirit of the holiday season and giving back to the community, Providence Geeks is a proud sponsor of Rhode Island’s 2008 FIRST FTC Robotics Challenge. The program provides high school students the opportunity to build working robots and test their creations in head-to-head competition.

In 2006, Rhode Island’s education, innovation, and science and technology leadership announced a plan to bring ǘber-geek Dean Kamen’s FIRST Robotics Challenge to each of Rhode Island’s 67 public high schools, charter schools, and career and technical centers. The program provides each high school a robotics kit with the necessary equipment and instructions. Rhode Island was the first state in the nation to offer a FIRST program to all public high schools. Approximately 30 high schools in Rhode Island participated in the first year alone.

The program, launched by the Business Innovation Factory, is supported by Governor Donald L. Carcieri and a coalition of education and science and technology advocates, including Tech Collective, New England Institute of Technology, the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Governor’s PK-16 Council, the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council, and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.

At Wednesday’s Geek Dinner, Tech Collective President Tim Hebert and other RI FIRST FTC team members will give an overview of the program, the kids, & the robots, and explain how Providence Geeks members can serve as volunteer mentors and referees.

Please RSVP in the comments section of this post so that we can give the good folks at AS220 an estimated headcount. And while you’re at it, subscribe to Providence Geeks’ RSS feed (see sidebar) and/or join our very-low-volume email announcement list (for the announcement list, send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin over at Gmail with your name and affiliation).

Writing in this week's Phoenix, Matt has an update on how the $50 million affordable housing bond passed by Rhode Island voters in 2006 is working out:

The Armory Revival Company may not be the first developer that comes to mind when affordable housing is mentioned, especially since the company’s participation in the Rising Sun Mills project in Olneyville has been a focal point in Providence’s ongoing gentrification debates. Yet in 2007, Armory Revival was the single biggest beneficiary of the $50 million affordable housing bond approved by Rhode Island voters in a 2006 referendum
 
Armory Revival is receiving more than $2.5 million of the first $10 million that was awarded, to develop a mill building in Tiverton with promises that one-third of the units will be affordable.
 
HousingWorksRI, a broad coalition of more than 100 organizations, pushed the housing bond in last year’s election and recently released a one-year status report detailing how the housing bond money has been spent.
 
In awarding state dollars to local developments, it cites a “targeted response to the state’s affordable housing crisis” that is “intended primarily to help people making between $30,000 and $60,000 a year to rent or buy a home in Rhode Island.”
 
The state agency charged with administering the bond money, the Housing Resources Commission (HRC), awarded $10 million for 20 developments: 10 for rental housing and 10 for home ownership. Contrary to opponents’ rhetoric before the referendum, the bond did not pull public money into the urban core, but rather it dispersed affordable housing dollars among 17 different cities and towns in its first year, with Providence receiving just eight percent of the money.
 
HRC executive director Noreen Shawcross points to two of the projects as examples of the bond’s diversity in stimulating both rural and urban development: “The development at Stillwater Mill is taking a blight in the village of Harrisville and making it come alive; it also caused the town to put in a new library and to make other exciting investments. And a different kind of neighborhood transformation is happening in Callaghan Gardens in Pawtucket, where a drug-infested and dangerous block is being transformed into affordable town homes in a mixed-income project.”
 
Furthermore, the West Lane Project on Block Island includes the installation of 11 affordable modular homes on three acres and its completion ensures that New Shoreham will reach its state-mandated goal of 10 percent affordable housing. Since only five out of the 39 communities in Rhode Island have reached this goal (Central Falls, East Providence, Newport, Providence, and Woonsocket), the bond is a potentially powerful tool for cities and towns to use in partnering with developers, utilizing state dollars, and creating innovate housing plans.

Also making the scene this week on Newsmakers is Ann Nolan, executive director of Crossroads Rhode Island, who says worsening homelessness in the state will be exacerbated by the weaking economy, the budget deficit, and the foreclosure crisis.

In contrast to those who believe most of the homeless are a permanent population, Nolan says, 80 percent of such individuals go temporarily through this phase because of financial hardship and related issues.

Meanwhile, today's ProJo has an update on the unforunate demise of the Welcome Arnold shelter.

You can find a lot of facts on homelessness from the RI Coalition for the Homeless.

AS220, the Providence arts organization, and its artistic director, Bert Crenca, are facing some very ill-founded, and in some cases juvenile, criticism in a forum over at Lots of Noise, the local music and art site.

What is the offense that has caused such concern?

It's Crenca slated participation in a panel discussion tomorrow morning, sponsored by RI Nexus and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, "on creating next-generation working environments for Rhode Island's info-tech and digital media community, moderated by Internet strategy consultant and Providence Geeks co-founder Jack Templin."

Real estate and technology experts from Portland to Philadelphia will share their thoughts on establishing spaces in urban Rhode Island that are conducive to programmers, "infopreneurs," digital artists and others. Topics will include everything from "coworking" to "fab labs." There will be Q&A and open discussion after the panel.

The thing that has really gotten the goat of some people is how this event is taking place at American Locomotive Works, 555 Valley St., a development by Baltimore-based Struever Brothers Eccles & Rouse. For its local critics, Struever Brothers -- and apparently anyone who has anything to do with the compan -- represents gentrification, selling out, and bad stuff.

Mimi, one of the posters on Lots of Noise, has indicated that she plans to attend with a tape recorder and will report back. If you want a taste of the criticism (as well as some defenses of AS220 and Crenca), visit the site.

While Struever Brothers might make a useful all-purpose foe for some, things tend to be a bit more complex in the real world.

Can reasonable people dispute the merits of Struever's local developments and the impact of gentrification? Absolutely. (I wrote about the debate about the company's growing local footprint here.)

But does Providence need fresh investment? Yes. Does the geek sector offer some hope for improving the local economy, with Rhode Island facing a gigantic budget deficit? Yes. And while developers tend to be narrowly focused on the bottom line, Struever Brothers has shown that its ambitions are more multi-faceted.

The Phoenix and N4N have made no secret of how we think AS220 is an extremely valuable presence in Providence, and how its plan to add an additional space on Washington Street -- far from being a sell-out -- is very good news.

More to the point, if positive things are going to emerge from the ongoing conflicts about development on Providence's West Side, it would help if participants focused on objectives other than just hurling rhetorical bombs.

AS220, the nonprofit arts bastion, doubled its downtown footprint with its Dreyfus Hotel project. If everything goes according to plan, AS220 will again double its presence when it pursues a project in the Washington Street property (once home to the Providence Phoenix) anchored by the former Cogens Printing operation.

Artistic director Bert Crenca says the new project, which is envisioned for a mix of residential and retail uses, is intended to help counter some of the gentrification and upscale development taking place in downtown Providence. It is hoped that individually owned quirky busineses will take up some of the retail space.

(In a related note, Dan Barbarisi reports today on the clash between some residents of the Cosmopolitan and the relocated Murphy's Deli. We've made our views known about these sorts of conflicts, which became more common as well-heeled types have moved into the Jewelry District over the last 10 or 20 years.)

AS220's anticipated new development is located next to the site of what has been planned as a Sierra Suites Hotel.

Jack Gold, executive director of the Providence Preservation Society, is leaving to take a similar job at San Francisco Architectural Heritage. An announcement is expected later today.

Gold, who came to PPS three years ago from Connecticut, tells N4N, "I'm really excited about it, but it's incredibly bittersweet for me, because it's been a great experience for me here in Providence." Gold say he wasn't planning to leave, but that he applied after learning about the opportunity in SF and that it was too good to pass up. His last day with PPS will be December 20.

The Armory District resident came to Providence after working as development director for Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven and as a corporate and foundation relations officer at Yale's environment school, among other posts.

Among his accomplishments, Gold cited the Providence Preservation Society's reengagement with neighborhood groups, acting as a citywide convener on planning issues, and advocating for the preservation of historic school buildings in Providence. "I think our profile in the community has been raised," he says.

Members of the Working Waterfront Alliance and neighborhood groups around Providence have received little satisfaction on their concerns.

Here's the take from the Waterfront Alliance blog:

Sadly, at last night’s meeting, the City Ordinance Committee voted to approve a slightly amended interim Comprehensive Plan that directly threatens Providence’s working waterfront along Allens Ave. As Providence Working Waterfront Alliance Chairman Joel Cohen notes in today’s Providence Journal article about the hearing, “We look at it as the first nail in the coffin.”

 

Rather than first consult with affected businesses through a neighborhood charrette or conduct a real economic analysis of the value of the working waterfront, the city is rushing forward with a plan that changes the working waterfront’s designation from industrial only to mixed use, and opens the door to condo-izing this critical regional economic resource.

Allowing condos or other residential options along the working waterfront will be the beginning of the end for this vibrant economic resource. Future condo owners are sure to complain about and call for the closing of adjacent industrial working waterfront companies.

Perhaps the most striking thing in Daniel Barbarisi's coverage today in the ProJo is this:

UPDATE: Lang says she has been told that the HDC voted to demolish the building.

. . . .

The West Broadway Neighborhood Association (WBNA) is fighting to save the Louttit Laundry Building in Providence -- a repeat presence on the Providence Preservation Society's annual Endangered Properties list -- from demolition.

In a letter to Glen Fontecchio, chair of the Historic District Commission, WBNA executive director Kari Lang writes:

The West Broadway Neighborhood Association (WBNAA) objects to the request to demolish the Louttit Laundry Building.

 

Since 1998, the WBNA has worked to remediate the site and to preserve the historic Louttit Laundry Building.  We have:

• Written and secured grants to the EDC for remediation

• Gotten it nominated to the National Register of Historic Places to qualify it for Tax Credit monies

• Brought Senator Chafee to the building to announce his Brownfields Remediation legislation

• Enlisted Brown students to study its reuse potential which included merging sites which the city subsequently did

• Offered to use CDBG funds that were allocated to the WBNA to replace the roof

• Had Wil Yoder complete a Structural report that attested to its structural soundess

• With Armory Revival Company jointly requested being designated developer of the site

• Attended conferences at Project for Public Spaces on Public Markets as a reuse option

• Petitioned neighbors about reuse options

• Led Andres Duany and his team to the site for which they produced a renovation plan for the City as a part of Connecting and Completing Downcity Providence (the city did not publish this project in its report)

• And more.

 

Last year, the commission voted to require that the main façade of the structure be preserved.  A year has passed and no action was taken which only causes additional deterioration to the building.  Nonetheless, we feel confident that this façade could be preserved without disturbing the remediation that needs to occur and occur as soon as possible.  We are disappointed to hear that the designated developer and the city are not making efforts to follow your recommendation.

 

We remain committed to the Louttit Laundry Building and site and along with the City and the developer, will remain involved in its clean-up, ideally preservation, and redevelopment.

The HDC was slated to hear the demolition request yesterday. I'll post an update when additional details become available.

The debate over the future of Providence's so-called Working Waterfront is due to continue Monday, when the City Council's Ordinance Committee is expected to consider the Comprehensive Plan. This area is just one of two waterfront battlegrounds, as I describe in this week's Phoenix:

Take a look at the upper mouth of Narragansett Bay from a high point on George M. Cohan Boulevard, and the area looks much as it has for years: sun-dappled days offer glistening water in proximity to the ship repair work, numerous fuel storage tanks, and other gritty industrial elements that line much of the corridor along Allens Avenue.
 
If this picture doesn’t square with the kind of pleasant recreation and other public uses sometimes associated with waterfront property, it nonetheless represents a genuine economic generator and a source of good-paying jobs.
 
Yet various factors — particularly the ongoing relocation of Interstate 195 and the sparse amount of developable land in Providence — are combining to make the city’s waterfront a high-stakes battleground. And the outcome of these skirmishes will have statewide repercussions for years to come.
 
The biggest current area of conflict is the push by the administration of Mayor David N. Cicilline to rezone for mixed use the industrial corridor along upper Allens Avenue — a move that the businesses there fear will spell their demise. Propo¬nents, on the other hand, contend that enhanced residential and commercial development in the area would represent an economic windfall for the city, as well as other public benefits.
 
Less attention has focused, meanwhile, on the relocation of I-195 to a point south of the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier, due to be completed in 2012, which will free about 20 acres of land near downtown and the Jewelry District for reuse.

While this newfound availability of land near the center of an old New England city clearly represents a significant opportunity, there are sharply clashing visions: Providence officials seem to favor a focus on private development, while neighborhood advocates contend that maximizing public access to the nearby waterfront — with parks and other community-centered space — will offer the greatest and most widespread benefits.
 
It’s no surprise that these different views are coming into conflict. Even after a downtown building boom in recent years, Providence’s tax base remains in need of serious growth. In this respect, it’s understandable that the Cicilline administration — following on the heels of the Three Cities plan floated by Buddy Cianci in the late ’90s — is trying to foster fresh economic development.

. . .

In Providence, neighborhood activists continue to fault some of the process issues surrounding the city’s planning and the state-mandated rewrite of its Comprehensive Plan, such as how the proposed Comprehensive Plan is being completed before neighborhood-based reports — which are supposed to underlie it — are incorporated into it.
. . . 

So far, these disputes have involved a relatively small number of people, flying under the radar of most Rhode Islanders, but their resolution could have a broad impact, and for a long time. And, as with any kind of significant development issue, the big question remains whether the city can get the balance right.

The thought-provoking Action Speaks! discussion series continues tonight at AS220, and I have a preview on the topic (the introduction of Prozac and the prospects it raised for freedom of the mind) here.

In light of current events, however, next week's topic -- about freedom in art and Marcel Duchamp's unveiling of a signed urinal in 1917 -- seems even more exciting.

Some would have us believe that the controversies involving the NEA and artists like Andres Serrano and Robert Mapplethrope in the late '80s and early '90s signaled the rise of more sensationalistic art.

In fact, as Duchamp's piece demonstrates, art has long pushed people's buttons.

Some favor an emphasis in art on "beauty." That gives short shrift, though, to the social value of works like Picasso's Guernica, about the German bombing of a Spanish town during the Spanish Civil War. The depiction wasn't "beautiful," but it was certainly artistic.

Closer to home, we have an ongoing censorship dispute. Yesterday, the ProJo's Dan Barbarisi had a good story about Lu Heintz's controversial trash cans, a topic that seems bound to come up during next week's Action Speaks!

UPDATE: I meant to note that the Fox Point Neighborhood Association has also registered concerns about this, particularly how the City Council will be voting on the comp plan just slightly more than three months after it put a moratorium on any non-standard development of property along soon-to-be removed sections of I-195. "Without the moratorium," Councilman Seth Yurdin said at the time, "it's likely that developers will swoop in before the process is complete, and end up frustrating the city's vision for the area."

. . . .

A public hearing of the Providence City Council tonight (6 pm, council chambers) promises to be quite lively. the subject of the hearing, Providence Tomorrow: The Comprehensive Plan, is under attack from critics who find serious fault with the city's approach to waterfront development.

Among the opponents is the Providence Working Waterfront Alliance, a new advocacy group for businesses that operate along the Allens Avenue corridor.

The ProJo has editorialized in favor of maintaining the working waterfront, and I tend to agree. Thanks to public access, Boston does a far better job than Providence in making use of the waterfront along the Charles River and parts of Boston Harbor than we do with comparable areas. While some envision more economically productive uses for the Providence waterfront, it shouldn't come at the cost of public access, and longstanding businesses could be an important part of this mix.

Meanwhile, William Touret, president of the College Hill Neighborhood Association, has articulated a thoughtful critique of the city's comprehensive plan (some of this rap, about putting the cart in front of the horse, extends back several years):

Dear Council President Mancini:

 

We urge the City Council not to approve the proposed comprehensive plan (formerly referred to as the draft interim comprehensive plan) unless and until all of the neighborhood review meetings (charrettes) have been completed. There are several principal reasons why the proposed plan should not be approved.

 

First, there is no urgency to approve the proposed plan in its present, incomplete form. The Council re-approved the prior and now current comprehensive plan, and thus the state deadline for updating the prior plan is no longer a concern. The neighborhood plans should serve as the heart of any comprehensive plan.

 

Second, if the proposed comprehensive plan were approved now, the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) would begin to implement zoning changes based upon this incomplete proposed comprehensive plan and upon the former proposed revised zoning ordinance -- the latter of which this Council declined on November 10, 2005 to consider because the comprehensive plan had not been updated. Any such zoning changes -- once implemented and to the extent that they would vest new rights in property owners -- likely could not legally be reversed in the event that later neighborhood meetings indicated that some or all of those zoning changes should not have been made. Many of those previously proposed zoning changes, which form the basis of much of the content of this proposed comprehensive plan, are unwarranted and inappropriate.

 

Third, we believe that considerable further discussion is needed otherwise with regard to the substance of this proposed comprehensive plan. The overarching theme of this proposed comprehensive plan is acceleration of development -- along the waterfront, in the neighborhoods, and in the downtown -- apparently with the short-term goal of somehow increasing the city’s general revenue. But in the city administration’s rush to increase development throughout the city, based on a series of what we see as at best unsupported and otherwise very dubious economic and demographic assumptions, the proposed comprehensive plan ignores extraordinary longer-term opportunities for creative planning that we believe are vital to Providence’s future.

 

For example, the city administration seeks to populate the waterfront with new, so-called “mixed use” buildings. In this regard, city administration employees speak of proposed waterfront “view corridors,” which is another way of saying that such new buildings would significantly interfere with the public’s view (and use) of the waterfront. But rather than selling off the waterfront’s future potential in order to obtain some additional property tax revenue from private developers, we would prefer a plan that would seek to keep and acquire as much of the waterfront as possible for use as open space for this and future generations -- as we described on page four of our May 1, 2007 letter to the City Plan Commission (copy attached). Although it may seem counterintuitive, planners appear to agree that by maximizing the waterfront’s open space, the value of the existing city tax base would thereby likely be enhanced to a far greater extent than if development of new waterfront buildings were permitted.