A New Park to Give the Downtown a Lift

The recent discussions on the proposal for an auto-restricted zone in Kennedy Plaza have centered essentially on one idea: should this area continue to be used for cars and parking space or should it be turned over to pedestrians, with limited auto access, increased bus usage, and fewer parking spaces

Rhode Island, the Rosetta Stone of Comparisons

Unique among the states because of being the smallest of the fifty, Rhode Island thus often serves as the measure of size when talking about other places. Most recently it was Lake Champlain

Watch the Process

The reason for the 1990 census is now at hand: The Reapportionment Commission is in place, and the process has just begun. The redrawing of local state and congressional boundary lines that define districts by populations to be represented at these three levels of government is upon us, and bears close watching

Hospitality and Tourism; the Hidden Industry

At the national level it generates $416 billion in sales and employs over 6 million people, and in Rhode Island it generates$1.4 billion in sales and employs 28,000 people. Now the second largest economic activity here and throughout the nation, this \u27industry\u27 is one that many do not recognize

Bringing Buildings Back to Life

The name of the game in building use today is historic preservation, conservation and restoration. In cities all over the country major efforts are directed toward the saving of existing buildings and, in some cases, converting of them to other uses, a process called recycling or adaptive reuse

A Scheme for Using our Valuable Land Wisely

In the American experience we assume that a house has windows on all four sides and sideyards to separate our house from that of our neighbor. it wasn\u27t until I lived in England and discovered that this most common type of housing in our country was referred to as \u27detached\u27 housing in that country to differentiate it from the \u27attached\u27 housing in which they commonly live. In England the dream of a young couple is to attain a \u27semi\u27 i.e., a semidetached house, or what we call a duplex, while we in this richer country aspire to attain a detached house

Canada Teaches Some Simple Lessons

It\u27s an odd person who doesn\u27t marvel at the cities of Canada on his or her return from a visit to our neighbor to the north. Whether this be a trip to Canada\u27s largest city of Montreal or to a Providence-sized Quebec City, people speak of the cleanliness, the safety, the beauty, the good public transport and the relaxed way of living. What accounts for the livability of these urban centers? And is there something that we can learn from the Canadians that we can use in our own cities

Orlando Thrives Next to Disney World

They call it an old city--it was incorporated in 1875 with 85 residents. By 1900 the numbers had grown to 2,500, and before World War II 37,000 people were living in this agricultural center located in mid-Florida. But it really took off after the war

Let Citizens Shape the City

On November 22 in the Bishop McVinney Auditorium, approximately 225 residents of Providences assembled to suggest the means by which this city could become a better place in which to live

A Little House Downtown?

The touching story in Mark Patinkin\u27s recent column about the young couple who had a dream to buy a house in the country singles out the dilemma faced by many other couples in the home buying stage