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Full-Text Articles in Urban Studies and Planning

Elderly Can Bring Benefits To Downtown, Chester Smolski May 1981

Elderly Can Bring Benefits To Downtown, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The elderly are becoming an increasingly influential group in our society. Recent outpourings of mail and telegrams to representatives in Washington in response to government-proposed cuts in Social Security underscored this ability to influence chance. Congressional members are listening to the growing numbers of elderly who are making their voices heard through their votes."


Immigrants Can Contribute More Than Mere Numbers, Chester Smolski Mar 1981

Immigrants Can Contribute More Than Mere Numbers, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The job advertisement might read like this: Waned -- married couple to operate a market in a neighborhood subject to arson and robbery. Hours 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, with no vacations. Must know various languages to serve customers of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Benefits include satisfaction of knowing you are meeting needs of immigrants, poor and elderly in neighborhood and, maybe, earn enough money to pay for children's education. Investment of $60,000 required."


Ri: An Exodus From The Cities, Chester Smolski Dec 1980

Ri: An Exodus From The Cities, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The numbers from the 1980 census are now starting to appear, and although some of the figures are preliminary, they still give an indication of trends. Until more detailed numbers become available in the spring, city and town totals for Rhode Island can now form the basis for some early analysis of changes over the past 10 years."


Changing Markets Require Different Style Of Houses, Chester Smolski Nov 1980

Changing Markets Require Different Style Of Houses, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It touches on the heartstrings and evokes a sense of nostalgia: the scene of father and mother sitting near the fireplace with the children playing at their feet. Here it is, the typical family at home, secure, stable, symbolic of the American way of life. But is this picture really accurate?


The Elderly: A Market Resource, Chester Smolski Nov 1980

The Elderly: A Market Resource, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The audience that came to hear the talk was distinctive. All of them were over 65, and nine out of 10 in the group of approximately 90 were women."


Providence Home Rule, Chester Smolski Oct 1980

Providence Home Rule, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The opposition bumper stickers have already appeared. In bright fluorescent colors to catch the unsuspecting eye, the message is loud and clear--'Reject Home Rule Charter.' Why should there be this opposition, and who are the people against this progressive move toward better local government?"


Suburban Sprawl Is A Tremendous Energy Waster, Chester Smolski Oct 1980

Suburban Sprawl Is A Tremendous Energy Waster, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Urban sprawl has been likened to a formless web of urban development that looks like Swiss cheese with more holes than cheese, and Gertrude Stein, in her inimitable style, once described one of these spread cities as 'There's no there there.'"


Fresh Ideas Essential For Redesigning Downtown, Chester Smolski Sep 1980

Fresh Ideas Essential For Redesigning Downtown, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Whether downtown Providence has style, grace, elegance and good taste or whether it is seedy, sleazy, schlock and second rate, there can be no question that the quality of the built enviornment should be a major consideration in all center city development. If the downtown is to prosper, than it must be made asthetically pleasing, inviting and comfortable, but who should be making these decisions on design?


Europe, Too, Feels The Auto Congestion, Chester Smolski Aug 1980

Europe, Too, Feels The Auto Congestion, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Examining cities in other countries can be most productive, especially once the euphoria of visiting these cities has worn off through repeated visits. One discovers that heavy automobile traffic, inadequate parking and polluted air are problems as common in Spanish cities as those in America, and after three visits to this country over the past 12 years, one discerns a marked deterioration in the quality of urban life resulting from the steel monster of this century--the automobile.


Key Factor To A Better City, Chester Smolski Jul 1980

Key Factor To A Better City, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The Providence Charter Commission is now moving into the homestretch. After a full nine-month period in which more than 60 meetings were held, culminating in three public hearings in late June, the nine-member commission has gone back to the drawing board to review ideas, revise where deemed appropriate, and have a completed document ready in September. Voter acceptance in November, with General Assembly validation of certain provisions in 1981, will allow home rule for the state's capital city to become fully operational in January of 1983.


Roger Williams Project-Potential Industrial Site?, Chester Smolski May 1980

Roger Williams Project-Potential Industrial Site?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"In a neighborhood analysis done in 1969, the Providence Department of Planning and Urban Development stated it succintly: "The Roger Williams public housing project contains some of the poorest quality housing in the area."


City Image Building, Chester Smolski May 1980

City Image Building, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It is only the beginning, but it is a step in the right direction. The recently announced proposal by the Mayor of Providence for the purchase of art works for city buildings and parks is a welcome sign that the city is finaly recognizing the value of an aesthetically pleasing enviornment. Called "Art in City Life," the program could funnel as much as $300,000 next year into works of art for city public spaces, much of it in the downtown area (see Citiartnews, Fall/Winter Issue, 1979-1980). This important measure deserves the full support of the arts community as well as …


Improving Commercial Streets Is Possible, Chester Smolski Apr 1980

Improving Commercial Streets Is Possible, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It was only a small gesture, but a nice one. The two park benches were placed on the sidewalk in front of a small shop on the busy Thayer Street in Providence. Somewhat of a harbinger of Spring, the brightly painted, red benches added a little color to a street coming out of the throes of a long, dreary and colorless winter season."


The Energy-Saving Cities, Chester Smolski Apr 1980

The Energy-Saving Cities, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Can Rhode Island automobile drivers survive on one and one-half gallons of gasoline a day? This is the target set by the federal government for the next quarter in its attempt to make us less dependant on foreign sources of petroleum."


A Little House Downtown?, Chester Smolski Apr 1980

A Little House Downtown?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The touching story in Mark Patinkin's 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."


Waste, Abuse Assure Changes In Section 8 Housing, Chester Smolski Dec 1979

Waste, Abuse Assure Changes In Section 8 Housing, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The series of articles and subsequent editorials on the Section 8 program that appeared in these papers have drawn several angry responses to the editor from residents of this government-assisted housing. Typical is the following: 'When something worthwhile is being done for the handicapped and elderly in Rhode Island, why do you do your best to kill it?...If the Section 8 program is hurt in any way because of your articles, you can sit back and laugh while 1,700 future applicants for housing are crying.'"


Suburban Elderly Speak Out In Providence, Chester Smolski Nov 1979

Suburban Elderly Speak Out In Providence, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The talk was designed to elicit information and reactions from the audience of elderly. And it did just that because old people do not waste words and are not reluctant to speak out, perhaps because they realize that they have little time left, so they were ready with their comments and quite willing to fill out the questionnaire."


More Tenants Would Strengthen Downtown Retailing, Chester Smolski Oct 1979

More Tenants Would Strengthen Downtown Retailing, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"One of the most obvious symptoms of our sick cities is the decline of downtown retailing. Everywhere vacant shops and empty upper floors remind us of an activity that was the mainstay of downtown vitality, and which today has increasingly shifted to the ubiquitous suburban mall, that notable merchandising technique."


Beating The Drum For Tourists: Hartford Leads By A Mile, Chester Smolski Sep 1979

Beating The Drum For Tourists: Hartford Leads By A Mile, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"This capital city of the Nutmeg state is remarkably similar to Rhode Island's capital city both in terms of historical development and present day status. Bu there is one striking difference: the ability and commitment to 'sell' itself."


Right Mix For Successful Downtown Renewal, Chester Smolski Aug 1979

Right Mix For Successful Downtown Renewal, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It is sometimes called a 'big, small town.' It has all the trappings of a large urban center: from outdoor concerts at the Civic Center to a Go-Go lounge; parking problems and traffic congestion, to a Worthinton Street where bars and prostitutes prevail; and vacant old buildings , to new, high-rise office blocks. Sheer numbers alone in this city bring visible evidence of the activities and characteristics common to the downtowns of most large American cities."


Valley View Saved For Now, But What Of The Future?, Chester Smolski Aug 1979

Valley View Saved For Now, But What Of The Future?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It is 'a remarkable demonstration that public housing, under the right circumstances and with the right kind of management, can work.' So stated a prominent urbanologist from Loyola University in describing the Valley View housing development in Providence."


Rediscovering Joys Of Walking In The City, Chester Smolski Jul 1979

Rediscovering Joys Of Walking In The City, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

""They're gonna stay in the city," is the way a major Providence developer and landowner stated it. A forecast that urbanists have been making for the past several years is now reaching fruition, and when it comes from businessman whose property investments depend on their perception of the future, there can be little question that its time has come."


Housing Rehabilitation Working In Hoboken, Chester Smolski Jun 1979

Housing Rehabilitation Working In Hoboken, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"One may not believe the argument but George Kohn, executive vice president of Applied Housing Associates, makes an interesting point. His business is housing, and he raises the question of where one should live--Manhattan or Hoboken. Why live on Manhattan's West Side, he asks, and pay $1,000 a month to wake each morning and view the flat, industrial ad boring New Jersey landscape across the Hudson? Why not live in Hoboken, at a $250 monthly rental, and view the fantastic, and only one like it in the world, Manhattan skyline to the east? Thirty cents and a 12-minute PATH subway …


Visit Radburn Where People Turn Their Backs To The Automobile, Chester Smolski Jun 1979

Visit Radburn Where People Turn Their Backs To The Automobile, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"After 50 years it is still one of America's most visited communities, yet there is little for the tourist to see or do. It consists of only 150 acres, as mall part of the municipality of Fair Lawn, with 3,000 persons living in 430 single-family houses and 196 apartments, row houses and duplexes. Except for the sizable expanses of green spaces and differently arranged houses, what is it about Radburn, located just 10 miles west of the George Washington Bridge, that makes it such a unique community?"


The Case For Residency Requirements, Chester Smolski May 1979

The Case For Residency Requirements, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The issue has been raised previously. It came up again most recently with the applicants for jobs with the Providence Fire Department. The question is, 'Should city employees be required to live in the city which employs them?'"


Housing Program That Suffers From Too Much Success, Chester Smolski May 1979

Housing Program That Suffers From Too Much Success, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"One of the strengths of this country lies in the large number of people who own and occupy their own homes. In 1970, 63 percent of Americans were classed as owner-occupiers (in Rhode Island the figure was 58 percent), and that number has grown to approximately 65 percent today."


More Inner City Jobs, Chester Smolski Mar 1979

More Inner City Jobs, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Congressman Henry S. Reuss of Wisconsin has given the answer most succinctly: "The most straightforward way to help cities is to provide jobs...From a city's standpoint, jobless citizens make no contributions to a community's revenues. But they add greatly to its costs for welfare, crime, and assorted ills."


Stimulus For R.I. Housing, Chester Smolski Mar 1979

Stimulus For R.I. Housing, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It was the single largest bond issue in the state and one of the largest in the nation. The Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation (HMFC) has sold $163 million of tax-free bonds, $142 million of which will be made available at below market interest rates to persons with annual incomes up to $30,000, to buy homes in Rhode Island. This will have a sizable impact on the local real estate market and increase housing opportunities for many prospective home buyers."


Cleaning Up The Litter, Chester Smolski Feb 1979

Cleaning Up The Litter, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The last time the Environmental Protection Agency checked the numbers, it determined that eight million tons of America's annual municipal solid waste load was in the form of bottle and can beverage containers. Much of this was picked up from highways before it eventually reached municipal landfills."


State-Supported Urban Policy Vital For Rhode Island, Chester Smolski Feb 1979

State-Supported Urban Policy Vital For Rhode Island, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"For the first time in this country's history there is now a national urban policy, a statement of objectives that need to be implemented if this nation's cities are to survive and subsequently prosper."