Community-Based Research Commons^™

Weathering The Storm: Navigating Urban Ecologies Of Communication In Times Of Crisis, Austin Hestdalen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores cities as urban ecologies of communication in which crises emerge and are given significance within the dialogic relations cultivated among public actors attempting to make a living, together, within the shared historical-cultural contexts of everyday life. To describe cities as urban ecologies of communication is to describe them in terms of urban communication and its interdisciplinary foundations in the study of rhetoric, philosophy, planning, policy, architecture, sociology, geography, and media. The first chapter introduces the challenges of urban risk and crisis management within the complex ecologies of communication constituted by cities and reviews how ‘risk’ and ‘crisis’ …

Providence's Unending Quest For Cash, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The mayor of Providence has a big problem. How can he balance a budget that addresses the needs of an increasingly large number of people, yet deal with a declining tax base that is less able to pay for theses extra services?"

What's In Store For Social Security?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Health-care costs are commanding considerable attention these days. From Washing, D.C., to Providence and state capitals across the nation, the burning questions are, "How much?" and "Who pays?""

Smaller Homes May Spark Recovery, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"On the surface, it looks good: The stock market has recently broken through the 3200 level, the Federal Reserve Board has cut the discount lending rate by half over the past year to a 27-year-low of 3.5 percent, the average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage has reached an 18-year low, and the housing affordability index has reached its highest level in 17 years. So why is housing still in the doldrums?"

Land Costs Make For High-Cost Housing Starts, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Here in the Northeast, where housing prices are among the highest in the nation, it is difficult to find measures to reduce the price of housing to make it more affordable. Even with talk of an impending recession, house prices have moderated only slightly, and the real estate business finds itself in a very troubled state."

New Development Is In For A Difficult Decade, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"There is little question that during 1990s, proposed new development--whether residential, commercial or office--is going to be in for some rough going. Community aversion to development and what is perceived to be the resulting overcrowding, traffic and extra budget for schools, roads, water and sewage lines and other items pose major obstacles that developers are not encountering. It will likely worsen in the years ahead."

Who Are Nation's Poor? Census Pores Over Stats, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"A wise old Englishman once said, 'The governments are keen on gathering statistics; they collect them, add them and raise them to the nth power, but you must never forget that in the first instance they are given by the village watchman who just puts down what he damn well pleases.'"

Eight Communities Meet To Find And Foot Housing, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"When resources are provided to local cities and towns to address housing problems, the results can be both innovative and productive. This was aptly demonstrated at a recent workshop on affordable housing.

The 150 attendees who went to Newport, one of the eight cities and towns that received grants to study the problem, were there to share recommendations on how to best address the Providence metropolitan area's lack of affordable housing."

The Governor And The High Price Of Homes, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The recent well-publicized Cranston land sale that put the governor of Rhode Island in the spotlight, has raised questions about the ethics of a public figure being involved in a highly profitable real estate deal."

The Same Numbers Can Add Up To Various Sums, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It was Benjamin Disraeli, supposedly, who first used this truism: 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.' At a time of great interest in house prices and the growing field of demographics, it is incumbent on the reader to be aware of this when reading stories in these areas that are substantiated by numbers."

Energy Conservation For Cities And States, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"During this winter season the 68 percent increase in the price of fuel oil has made us painfully aware of our dependance on foreign oil."

The Most Disheartening Example Of City Decay, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It has to be seen to be believed. And yet, two days after viewing it, one wonders if it were just a terrible dream that will somehow disappear with time. Is the South Bronx, that most devastated area of New York City, really as bad as they say it is?"