Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

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."

Bringing It Together, Downtown, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"They came, they saw, they discussed, they analyzed, and they made their ideas known to the populace. Now they wait for further comments from the citizenry before they provide their final written report in January."

Pawtucket Puts Planning On Tv, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"When the Rhode Island Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Regulation Act was passed by the General Assembly in 1988, the state became one of a handful of states that sought to bring order out of the chaos of development. The results of that legislation are slowly starting to emerge.

The original law stipulated that by the end of 1990, each city and town would file with the state a comprehensive plan which addressed nine elements. Subject to state approval to ensure compatibility with state goals and policies, the plans will allow communities to better deal with problems related to growth."

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 Numbers Show R.I.'S Soul, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"More numbers have been released by the government from the 1990 census on population and housing. The results tell us something of the uniqueness of this smallest state.

It is useful to determine trends from the past and the present in order to plan for the future, a common method of analysis. But it is also helpful to realize that we are part of a region and a country, and much can be learned by making comparisons between ourselves and others for the same period of time."

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 …

Surprise, Some Cities Are Alive And Well, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Those city-haters are at it again. Most recently it was Don Shoemaker, columnist at The Miami Herald, writing in these pages about the loss of population from some of our major cities, using figures recently released by the Census Bureau."

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."