Wednesday, December 05, 2007

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.