Community-Based Research Commons^™

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."

Us, Northeast Housing Compared In Survey, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"One of the more interesting publications of the US Census Bureau in the annual new housing survey, which characterizes and tabulates new housing units constructed in this country. The most recent survey was done for housing built in 1987, with some data also provided for each year back to 1983."

Rhode Island Gets A 'C' In 1988 Study, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Ranking cities and states for their livability, jobs, taxes, schools and a host of other measures is becoming almost a national pastime.

Perhaps the most comprehensive ranking of cities is the Rand McNally Places Rated Almanac whose most recent edition ranked the Providence metropolitan area as 26th best of 329 evaluated in the nation. Critics have questioned the methodology used in this ranking, but cities rating highly have been quick to capitalize on it. Walking through the airport terminal in No. 1-ranked Pittsburgh, one is greeted by a large banner that proclaims the city to be the most livable in …

Housing Problems Grow More Acute For The Poor, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"One in seven people live below the poverty level in this rich country, and the result of this inexcusable condition is that housing is the principal problem for these more than 32 million people.

Nearly two of every three poor people rent their housing, and while home owners are experiencing increased equity because of increasing house values, low-income renters are having to pay higher rents with fewer dollars."

Is Owning A Home Still A Workable Expectation?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Part of the American Dream is to own and occupy one's own home, and, in this rich country, most people have attained that goal. But the concern today is that potential home owners, especially those taking this eventful step for the first time, are unable to make this dream a reality because of the high cost of housing in this part of the country. What will be the likelihood in the near future that the young potential home buyers reach this important life goal?"

Canada Teaches Some Simple Lessons, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It's an odd person who doesn't 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's 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?"

Herculean Task Ahead For R.I. Land-Study Panel, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It has an impressive title--Commission to Study the Entire Area of Land Use, Preservation, Development and Regulation. Selection of the 23 committee members was made by top governing and legislative officials--governor, lieutenant governor, State majority leader and House speaker. It has a budget of $50,000 and is supposed to submit recommendations to the General Assembly by Feb. 25--a virtual impossibility."

High Price Of Housing Has Some Unseen Costs, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Affordability is the major problem in the housing industry today, at least in this part of the country. The Northeast, now the most expensive area in the nation in which to build a house, is fine for those who are sitting in their appreciating houses, but the region is at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to attracting a pool of talented people to live and work here."

Helping Communities Determine Development, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The word uppermost in the minds of many communities these days is 'development,' a process that manifests itself on the land in the form of the built environment. Alarmed at the speed with which land is being used--and often abused--communities are being faced with touch decisions on how to cope with development, either by directing it, managing it or even stopping it."

The Cities Do Need Help, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The lead editorial in the Providence Sunday Journal of December 7, 1986 is completely off the mark and deserves to be answered. The attitude expressed by the writer conveys the specious view that because our nation's cities are not being burned down or torn apart by race riots at the present time then things are not really all that bad in our urban centers."

Looking To Suburban Malls For Lesson On Envisaged Providence Company, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"During next month, some major decisions must be made that will have long-term effects on the future health and prosperity of our capital city's central business district. One of these decisions relates to the proposed establishment of a 'Providence Company,' a management and marketing organization for the downtown, recommended in the recently completed Carr, Lynch and Levine report on downtown Development."

Enterprise Zones: Key To Renewal?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"'We must free enterprise to save America' via an 'experimental effort to improve and develop our depressed urban areas' President Ronald Reagan said in his State of the Union address."

Meet A Leader In Urban Renovation, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"This city of 35,000 residents in a small, rural county of Piedmont in north-central South Carolina has become a leader in urban innovation--innovations that have been implemented and are now starting to pay off."

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?

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.

Stevenage--Pace Setter Among "New Towns", Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The British successful "great social experiment," going on for the past generation, is now coming to an end. This culmination is to be seen here in England's first, post-war new town, located 30 miles north of London in the rolling countryside of Hertfordshire, where the Stevenage Development Corporation has formally closed shop. For all pratical purposes, the construction of this urban center has ended."

Competition For Jobs, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Where will the jobs be in the 1980s? Where are the best areas for potential economic growth in the next decade? What urban centers and states will be magnets to draw fellow Americans because of the promise of a better life? Based on a recent study, Chase Econometrics, a subsidiary of Chase Manhattan Bank, has forecast what it believes to be the answers to some of these questions."

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."

Various Alternatives To High-Interest Crunch On New Home Building, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The recent announcement by two major savings and loan mortgage lenders in California of higher home mortgage rates portends a problem already evident in the country--the inability of an increasing number of Americans to buy their own homes."

Is This What We Want For Our Small Urban State?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The big advantage of a small state is that it is comprehensible, and some might say managable. Certainly, it is easier to work with the 39 cities and towns of this state rather than the 351 cities and towns of nearby Massachusetts. And yet one wonders if this is really true."

Partnership That Can Save Downtown, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Downtown is the heart of any city. It is the most valuable land in the city, with businesses, entertainment, shops, government and transportation lines competing for space. It is this competition for space which causes buildings to rise highest above the ground, and go give the downtown the distinctive skyline which identifies a Providence, Boston and Manhattan. It is this skyline, in combonation with the architecture, building layout, and general appearence, which provides a sense of surprise and discovery to city centers, and which differentiates one city center from another."

Superlative Atlanta, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"With the passing of each year a new superlative is added: the third largest convention city; the third city in the post-war period to construct a rapid transit system; the second busiest airport in the world; the safest mass transportation system in the country; and with direct flights to London in the offing, this major commercial, industrial and financial center of the Southeast can truly claim to be a New International City. Atlanta is all of these."