An ever-wider coalition is coalescing around the effort to make sure that the parcels along the head of Narragansett Bay, which are being opened up by the highway relocation, facilitate public access to the waterfront. Head over here to sign a petition in support of those efforts.
Cities all over the world, which are blessed with ocean or bay views, have learned one principle — the greater the public’s access, the more valuable their harbor areas become. Fox Point’s shoreline at Narragansett Bay, which includes the state-owned Shooters site, offers Providence a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Adjacent to the increasingly popular attraction, India Point Park, this location could ensure that Providence would have a vibrant public waterfront — the signature of a great city.
City and state officials are now beginning to listen to the vision of an active public waterfront expressed by a legion of supporters. Now is the time, for a consensus to form — across all lines — to call for Shooters, the most critical piece of the puzzle, to be included in a public waterfront for Providence.
“Public use” for Shooters means taking advantage of the site’s deepwater port as the necessary maritime link to other modes of transportation that meet here. Through a public-private partnership, it could become Providence Gateway, a marina-based, multiple use facility that would trigger needed tax revenues for the City and State.