Ask Dr. Downtown: David Brussat
Monday, November 17, 2014
Dear Dr. Downtown: Do you feel vindicated by the popularity of the micro lofts at the Arcade in downtown Providence? – Tooting Your Horn in Touisset
Vindicated? Hardly. The news that the Arcade has rented out all of its micro lofts is no surprise to the doctor, but that hardly vindicates his longstanding support for the project. Vindication depends less on owner Evan Granoff’s ability to make a profit, vital as that may be for this landmark to remain open, than on the Arcade’s ability to recover its role as a center of activity in downtown.
Dear Dr. Downtown: Longstanding support my foot! I remember how you criticized Mr. Granoff for pursuing his dream! – Long Memory in Longmeadow
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe doctor questions the length of Long Memory’s memory. Do you remember how the few remaining tenants were run out of their shops while its owner was panting to use the Arcade as the lobby for the tallest building in the state – a project that fell through even before the Great Recession? Yes, Dr. Downtown criticized that. Do you remember how the Arcade was closed while its owner sought a single tenant? Having just one store there would have put the kibosh on its historic status as the oldest (not the first) shopping mall in America. The doctor does not apologize for browbeating that idea!
Dear Dr. Downtown: “Long Memory” may be shorter than advertised, but the Arcade always struggled financially. – Economist in Escoheag
The doctor believes that is a convenient fiction. Do you remember in the 1980s when the Arcade was a hive of commerce, filled with eateries and open late into the night? Do you remember how packed it was at lunch, with jammed tables in the corridor? Remember the comedy club Periwinkles that kept the first floor open until midnight? Remember the retail on the second floor – the book shop, the game shop, the art gallery and more? Over the years, the doctor bought many gifts at Copacetic Rudely Elegant Jewelry for his dear mother! Do you remember the restaurant Scotland Yard? Was it on the second or third floor, anyone? Yes, it was long ago.
Dear Dr. Downtown: Enough! The fact remains that business at the Arcade fell on hard times because downtown fell on hard times. Get over it. – Realist in Rumford
The doctor concedes that, but would argue that poor management played a role, way back to when the Arcade was owned by Johnson & Wales and beyond, to when it was owned by Gilbane Properties, which renovated it in the late ’70s but used a stripped design, on the advice, perhaps, of local preservationists who did not want the project to “copy the past.” The new renovation copied the stripped design instead of the Arcade’s elegant 1828 features. Similarly, poor management justified razing the Providence National Bank nearby (except for the Weybosset façade) to make way for the fawlty One Ten tower on the grounds that the bank’s oddly shaped floor plan was ill-suited to profitable use. Huh? Ill-suited perhaps to attaining the degree of profit that some moneybags nowadays consider theirs by right, but that’s a lame excuse.
Dear Dr. Downtown: Boy, you’re on a tear! Can’t you stop rehashing the distant past and get back to the present? What about parking? – Timeless in Tiverton
The doctor assumes you refer to the claim that there was not enough parking downtown for the Arcade to succeed. Another lame excuse! After decades during which great old buildings were demolished for parking, there has never been a lack of parking downtown, only a lack of parking at the front door of every destination – a “right” embedded in nostalgia for the suburbs. Except that nowadays the parking lot in the suburbs is just as likely to be on the road to the mall.
Dear Dr. Downtown: Okay! We get it! Isn’t this supposed to be an advice column? Give us some advice! – Gasping for Guidance in Galilee
The doctor believes that remembering the past is good advice. Here is an example: Today the Arcade operates under restrictions in the new fire code. To name just two, doors to eateries must be closed and tables are not permitted in the corridor. This reduces the pleasure of living, eating and shopping at the Arcade, saps its vivacity. When people walk by outside and see little going on inside, business can only suffer. Remembering the past could help rectify this dicey situation.
The state overreacted to the Station fire of 2003 in West Warwick, which was caused not by an inadequate fire code but by lax enforcement of the existing code. Arguably without adding significantly to safety, the new code puts at risk much economic activity in Rhode Island, a concern that remains unaddressed by any of the economic plans hatched recently by the state or by candidates in the election. The building code and other permitting law also create unnecessary hurdles – for business, for pleasure, for beauty, you name it.
Dr. Downtown takes second place to none in his joy at the revival of the Arcade, but in his role as giver of advice, he advises that our beloved Arcade should lead the resistance to legislative and bureaucratic malpractice.
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