Brussat’s column today. To quote our friend David Byrne: some good points, some bad points — both in the column, and at Kennedy Plaza. But I think Brussat hits the nail on the head, here:

But a bus station next to a skating rink flanked by two parks and surrounded by civic, residential and commercial buildings add up to a lot more than many American or even European civic squares offer. We mustn’t sniff at what we have. It is not too crowded. It could, of course, be better maintained. Yet perhaps it can still be improved.

Dave has a piece today, on the relative uglinesses of the new towers of Capital Center. I’m actually mildly contented by the Waterplace towers at the moment, having viewed them from the Biltmore’s 17th floor today, during the conference on “re-envisioning” Kennedy Plaza. But normally, I like to complain as much as he does:

The headquarters of GTECH Corp. was widely disliked before it was finished in October 2006. Waterplace Luxury Condominiums (the official name of the 17- and 19-story towers across Waterplace Park from GTECH) are close enough to completion for the public to judge them. It will come as no surprise that they, too, are widely disliked.

This much is indisputable. What fascinates and even surprises me — indeed, it baffles me — is that almost everyone I’ve spoken with or overheard dislikes the Waterplace towers more than GTECH.

I stand by my earlier assertions that the Waterplace towers, and the whole damn park, are going to look better after the Blue Cross building goes up (crane on site today) even if it’s not deserving of the tax break it’s getting.

The Federal Hill skyscraper got a key approval last night:

Zammiello came before the council’s Public Works Committee last night to get the OK to buy the air rights from the city for $178,000. Two weeks ago, the committee had approved his request to buy the rights to build underneath Bradford Street for $469,000.

But the air rights approval was delayed at the Jan. 29 meeting because of the opposition of Councilman Seth Yurdin, who was able to derail the proposal because of the absence of two committee members, Balbina Young and John J. Igliozzi.

Providence Preservation Society’s 5th Winter Bash

Saturday February 9, 2008
8 pm to midnight
American Locomotive Works (ALCO)
555 Valley Street

Come join the Providence Preservation Society for its 5th Annual Winter Bash! Highlighting preservation and rehabilitation of the city’s historic resources. Featuring live music by the Cusacks, creative hors d’oeuvres, and full cash bar. The attire ranges from blue jeans to ball gowns. Last year, over 1,000 people partied the night away at the Sharpe Building. This year’s event promises to be even bigger.

Tickets are only $30 per person or $100 for Patron tickets which includes a pre-bash reception.

To purchase tickets, visit www.ppsri.org or call 831-7440.

2008 Winter Bash Committee Chairs:
Oliver Bennett
Barrett Bready
Michael Sweeney

The Capitol Cove development has been pressing forward steadily over the late fall and early winter, ever since it settled with local labor activists.

I love me my skyscrapers, but it’s usually harder to get psyched about a low-rise town house project. This one’s a bit of an exception, as I think these 96 units could fill a real void in the housing market, as they’re relatively reasonably priced. And they’re notable, among Capital Center projects, for not being hideous — they’ll fit in pretty nicely along that corridor of Memorial and North Main, whose row-houses and hilliness give the stretch an almost San Fran feel, if you wanna be generous.

(It’s crazy to me that Jefferson Place/903 happened before this project, given the similar specs, and Capital Cove’s far superior location.)

Not quite shocking, given the market. (And, ahem… those concerns that the buildings might be a. little. bit. ugly.)

Only 14 of the 193 units have sold. In some respects this is bad, as it’s indicative of the fact that the market has tanked, which means less development, which means fewer jobs and less growth of the tax base and such. But insofar as we have a glut of units on the market, it means that housing costs for renters and potential buyers might relax a bit — in the bigger developments, and beyond.

I was actually pretty into some of the sketches of the project, like the one above. And I still think it looks okay from the south and west — which is the view shown in most of the sketches. But, over in the real world, the materials appear kind of shoddy and the views from the north are especially bland.

RIFuture covers two unusually positive political developments today.

• National Grid, our electrical utility, has expressed a new willingness to enter long-term agreements with suppliers of renewable energy.

• The Providence City Council’s finance committee will be taking up the Living Wage Ordinance on Thursday. (Yours truly was recently informed that he’ll be giving the presentation on the ordinance’s behalf.)

There are links galore to info about both issues at RIFuture. Also on Thursday, the Providence City Council will take up a resolution in support of the janitors at Providence College, who are organizing for a fair new contract.

Video games should be programmed in their honor:

Update: Food terminal demolition begins, plus protesters

PROVIDENCE — Carpionato Properties began demolishing the old food and produce terminal on Harris Avenue this afternoon, soon after a judge’s ruling allowing it.

But the developer was forced to halt work for a time when several men — and a man’s dogs — stood on the building to try to stop the demolition in hopes that an appeal of the ruling would be filed.

The police, arriving about 4:25 p.m. after Carpionato Properties called them, told Erik Bright, who had two dogs with him, Clay Rockefeller and others they would have to get off the building or be charged with tresspassing. They got off the building, and Carpionato has resumed demolition work.

As everybody knows, the state budget is a mess. But one glimmer of hope as the session gets underway: A ton of Reps and Senators (Dems and Repubs) have been approaching me about various posts on this blog and rifuture encouraging the vigorous development of renewable energy in Rhode Island, and suggesting that we position Rhode Island as a national leader in this arena.

The specifics could, and would need to, take a variety of forms. But as we look for a way to create jobs — and ideally jobs that fill real needs — Rhode Island is especially well positioned to exploit its long coastline and ample wind energy. (Solar, hydro, and wave power should be explored too, of course.)

As I’ve mentioned before, the first thing that we need to do is allow for net-metering — basically to let entities that put up renewables installations get paid for all the electricity they produce. (The alternative is for anything they produce above what they use to be pumped into the grid — essentially handed over to the utility — with no financial reward going to the producer.)

Deeper net metering would do away with a tremendous barrier to renewables production, and cost taxpayers NOTHING. Also crucial are a variety of targeted incentives, streamlining of permitting, and the creation of the Power Authority that died at the end of last year’s session.

(The other hopeful news is that we finally have labor advocates and environmentalists meeting to try to push a green jobs program. More on this as we move forward.)

So you can be pretty confident it ain’t great news:

Dear library advocates,

As we move toward a new year, PPL is moving toward a mass-layoff of all seven branch children’s specialists, which will have disastrous consequences for branch services and programs. Meanwhile, PPL administrators are projecting a nearly $1 million deficit for the next fiscal year, and they are suggesting drastic measures for balancing the budget.

For details about these developments, please visit the new Library Reform Group blog — at — which supplements our ongoing Library Reform Group website.

Please feel free to post comments and suggestions on our blog.

Hopefully, we can save the Children’s Specialist positions for the rest of this fiscal year and find a way to avoid the draconian cuts which the PPL trustees are likely to recommend for next year.

Patricia Raub
Chair, Library Reform Group

Hint, hint, Powers-That-Be (greater than this lowly freshman’s):

More national news today about the potential mega-wind developments in Rhode Island. If we get this much attention for talking about moving the projects forward, imagine how psyched people would be if we actually pushed them forward!

SUGAR LAND, TX–(Marketwire - December 27, 2007) - Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) — Developers are studying the addition of about 620 megawatts (MW) of new power generation for Rhode Island. This would represent an increase of about 33% from the existing 1,890 MW of available generating capacity to about 2,510 MW. All three projects would be powered by renewable energy.

As we express concern about the a budget deficit, foundering economy, and population loss, why don’t we do something awesome and exciting that’d make us a hotbed for an up-and-coming industry. For real, this time.

Ugghh… I like the Armory and all. I just don’t understand who the hell these articles are written for. (Or, I mean, with the heavy focus on property values, I guess I do.)

To write so antiseptically about a neighborhood as “heterogeneous” and “affordable” as the Armory, without a discussion of its politics, clashes of culture, and gentrification is to dehumanize it — and diminish the richness that draws so many to it.

Atlantic Mills, from Art In Ruins

I’ve gotten wind of a rumor that Olneyville Discount Furniture (green awning) which currently occupies 3,000 -4,000 square feet of Atlantic Mills may be moving to Eagle Square. Run Away Jim wrote about a Projo article that says PriceRite will be moving from it’s current location adjacent to Atlantic Mills to Eagle Square to fill the void left by Shaw’s. Which makes we wonder where the furniture store would fit in at Eagle Square unless the former Shaw’s location was going to be subdivided. It also makes me worry about what will happen at Atlantic Mills if the larger retail spots start to empty out. I’m hoping for the world’s largest Dunkin’ Donuts, which will would be literally around to corner from everything.

Dan Barbarisi has two stories in Thursday’s Projo, which capture some of the more interesting dynamics that have arisen as Providence tries to find itself, again.

There’s his take on last night’s forum on waterfront development, which I wish I’d posted about ahead of time. I certainly sympathize with the concerns expressed by the “Working Waterfront” coalition, but my conversations with various councilmembers leave me confident that they intend to do all they can to maintain existing industry on the waterfront.

And in a story he’s been working on for a while, he details the tensions between Murphy’s and the residents of the Cosmopolitan, into whose first floor the restaurant/bar moved earlier this year: (more…)

  Ian tells us Jack Gold has had enough:

Jack Gold, executive director of the Providence Preservation Society, is leaving to take a similar job at San Francisco Architectural Heritage. An announcement is expected later today.

Gold, who came to PPS three years ago from Connecticut, tells N4N, “I’m really excited about it, but it’s incredibly bittersweet for me, because it’s been a great experience for me here in Providence.” Gold say he wasn’t planning to leave, but that he applied after learning about the opportunity in SF and that it was too good to pass up. His last day with PPS will be December 20.

Stay tuned for next week’s series on fluffin’ up your resume.