Community-Based Research Commons^™

For Providence, Another Era Of Greatness?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Providence has come a long way from just 20 years ago when a visitor coming into the city by rail would find sprayed across the walls of the nearly empty Union Station such epithets as 'Providence is the pits' and 'Welcome to dead city.' And it was. I know because I lived there."

Revised Census Gives Mayors Worry And Hope, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The numbers are in. They were a surprise for the Census Bureau, the nation and the state of Rhode Island. They year 2000 22nd decennial census whose numbers were first revealed to the President by the December 31, 2000 deadline and then to the public, fooled many observers by coming in considerably higher than that previously estimated. this was true for both the nation and the state of Rhode Island."

Census Bureau Seeks Partners In Business, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"By now you should have seen the advertisements for the U.S. Census Bureau to apprise us of the forthcoming census on April 1, 2000. And there will be plenty more since the Bureau has budgeted $167 million on this push for public awareness, something it has never perviously paid to do."

U.S. Census Nears; Results To Be Questioned, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It is the largest peacetime activity of the United States government, and since its inception in 190 takes place every 10 years. It will employ, at its peak, 860,000 workers who will receive a major portion of the $4.5 billion that Congress recently appropriated for the task. And the total population will be recorded for one day, a far cry from the 18 months that were necessary for U.S. Marshals who tried to find everyone in 1790."

Retaining The Charm Of Rhode Island, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The town of Exeter in Washington County is an unusual place--it is classified as one of the few remaining rural communities in the state. With 86 percent of Rhode Island considered urban by the Census Bureau, rural designation is something special in this second most densely settled state in the union."

Preservation Society Is A National Leader, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"In the summer of 1977, I was impressed to hear of the good works performed by the Providence Preservation Society at a meeting of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, which preserves and restores historic buildings and sites of that world city."

How A Small State Fits The Big Picture, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Every once in a while it is useful to make a self-examination of who we are in order to give us some perspective on ourselves and how we fit into the bigger picture. The following is such an examination."

Which Is 2nd Safest? City Or Area?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Buried in a recent two-column story in the national Parade Magazine section of the Sunday newspapers and obscured by the advertisements that took up most of the two pages, John Tepper Marlin's headlined story, 'The Safest Places To Live,' was designed to grab one's attention. And that it did, especially if your city ranked second in the nation."

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?""

The Fortune Cookie Was Right, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It was a typical night in Room 203 at the Rhode Island State House in March. The Land Use Commission meeting was set up for 6 p.m. but the House of Representatives was still in session, so commission members from the House would be delayed. At 6?L:30, the meeting got under way."

That Precious 'Ambience', Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Colette Peters, former Rhode Island School of Design student, renowned cake baker and author of Colette's Cakes, was recently asked about her food memories of Providence. This current resident of New York said, 'Haven Brothers! We'd go to Haven Brothers for hot dogs when I was a student at RISD. It was what we could afford.'"

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?"

Keeping The Pols Honest With Regionalization, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The New England Governor's Conference will hold a meeting in Hartford on December 6 to address regional economic issues that are common to the six states located in the northeast corner of the country. During that same week, the towns of Warren and Bristol in Rhode Island will hold public sentiment for the sharing of schools in the two towns. As disparate as these two meetings appear to be, there is a commonality of purpose that marks both: regionalism."

Redistricting Law And Minority Rights, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It has been referred to as "probably the most important civil rights law on the books," and the results of that legislation are most impressive. But more importantly, the Voting Rights Act promises to have an even greater influence in the coming decade."

Watch The Process, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"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."

The Benefits Of Regionalization, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Bristol County is unusual among Rhode Island's five counties. Not only is it contiguous with a county of the same name in an adjoining state, but it also consists of only three towns--Barrington, Warren and Bristol--and is one of the smallest of the 3,141 counties in this country."

Census: To Recount Or Not To Recount?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Whether to adjust or not to adjust, that is the critical question facing the US Census Bureau in the next six weeks, when it decides if it is necessary to make some type of accommodation in the figures form the April 1, 1990, census count.

Deemed "not the best census ever" by the New York Times, the count, as detailed by an embarrassed Census Bureau, missed between four and six million of the country's residents, an undercount even greater than that of 1980. Sadly, more than one half of the undercount included blacks or Hispanics, a population that needs to …

Census Numbers May Mean Money To Cities, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It looks like we're nearly there. The results of America's most costly census have been announced and many cities and states are not happy with them. A possible adjustment of figures will likely do little to placate them."

Charting Migration And Miscalculation, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"There was cause for celebration last March 6 at the Department of Commerce building in Washington, D.C. The achievement was the recording of 250 million on the bureau's "population odometer," a device which records the population of this nation at any moment.

Based upon average births, deaths, immigration and emigration, a number is added every 14 seconds to the odometer, for a daily increase of about 6300. It was expected that the population total of 250 million would be confirmed with the results of the April 1 census. But preliminary figures indicate that the country has not yet reached this …

Now We Are Counted, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"There is an unusual clock in the Department of Commerce building in Washington. Looking like an auto's mileage odometer, it records the nation's population. Another single number is added to the total every 14 seconds. On March 6, the population odometer reached 250 million, which should be the number reported from this year's tally by the U.S. Census Bureau, the 21st decennial census in our country's history."

Cape Cod's Drive To Curb Overdevelopment, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

The mid 1980s in Rhode Island will be long remembered as a time of intensive real estate development, explosive house process and manmade growth sprawling over the countryside. These phenomena also generated a reaction in the form of environmental concerns, the NIMBY syndrome, affordable housing issues and the passage of the 1988 Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Regulation Act.

Spruce Up The Plan Reports To Gain Some Notice, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It was just a decade ago that the comprehensive plan for the city of Springfield, Mass. was published, and almost immediately, the national news media picked it up and publicized it throughout the country. What was it about this plan for the future of a middle-sized city that would generate this type of attention? After all, most cities produce similar plans, but these usually go unnoticed and unread, even in the communities for which these plans are made.

The imaginative approach used in the Springfield plan was to publish it in the Time magazine format, even to a title that …

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.'"

If Europe Can Team Up, Bristol County Can, Too, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"To regionalize or not? That may be the question facing Rhode Island's Bristol County.

It is the smallest of the five counties in the state, with its 24.9 square miles equalling only 6 percent of Providence County, the state's largest at 437 square miles. The three small towns of Barrington, Warren and Bristol that comprise this East Bay peninsula are usually given just a fleeting glance by visitors as they head south for Newport.

Right now, the three towns are faced with a decision regarding the recycling of waste, which is to take place by September. The state Solid Waste …

Head Counting That Counts, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Next April, the Census Bureau will take on the principal task for which it was created: To count each member of this nation. No small chore, considering that the number will approach one-quarter billion persons. The 21st decennial undertaking will be watched closely because the numbers will help determine where new markets might be sited, where federal dollars may flow, and a host of other conclusions that may be drawn by ascertaining the numbers and locations of people. But the results will be most closely scrutinized by politicians at all levels of government."

Financing Difficulties Stall Linkage In Providence, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"When the India Point Club luxury condominium development, scheduled to be built on the Providence waterfront, was announced in 1987, there were many local skeptics who said it was too expensive for the Providence market. After all, selling penthouse condos overlooking the dirty Providence River for over $1 million was quite ambitious--and some said impossible."

Wanted: Live-In Teachers, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland all have it--a residency requirement--and so does Providence. Having to live in the city for which you work has been deemed to be an important measure in helping to bring people back into the city, and that was the reason it was included in the 1980 Home Rule Charter."

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 Cities And Towns Look Ahead, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"What do you want your community to be? Over the next two and one-half years all communities in the state will be required to address this question, and to come up with a formal statement of what these goals and objectives are to be. And it's about time."