EDITORIAL: Time to Hit the Reset Button on 195 Commission
Monday, October 18, 2021
The moving of I-195 in Providence was done with the best of intentions.
It was an effort that proved that the Mark Twain quote -- “Buy land, they're not making it anymore" -- is a fallacy.
Providence, in fact, made new land.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTMore than 30 acres in the middle of the city was transformed into buildable land in what was supposed to be the much-needed jump start to the Rhode Island economy.
City, states, and federal agencies worked to create this smart and strategic initiative. But, the execution has been perverted.
It was intended to be the Innovation District, full of tech and medically related companies that would create new jobs.
It would be a way for Providence to compete with Boston -- a critical opportunity to retain smart STEM grads in Rhode Island, allowing the best and brightest to earn $100,000 plus jobs for college grads who grew up in Coventry, North Providence, and Portsmouth and graduated from URI and Brown to stay and flourish in Rhode Island.
Now it is emerging into the apartment zone - a mishmash of unrelated apartment buildings, fine for the short-term creation of construction jobs, terrible for the creation of long-term, sustainable jobs. Apartment buildings simply don't employ many people.
Hopes Are Being Dashed
“The availability of this reclaimed land presents an exciting opportunity to attract new, high-quality jobs and bolster the economy of the city and the state,” said then-Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio in 2011. “This redevelopment district is a key advantage for our state. It bodes well for our ambitious goals that this collection of exceptional individuals will guide the development of this vital district.”
Now, Ruggerio, the Senate President and the project’s biggest supporter, told GoLocal last month, “Although there have been a number of significant projects in the I-195 district, I have certainly been frustrated at times over the years with the pace of development.”
“Approximately 9 acres remain available, and I continue to believe that this is a generational opportunity to attract innovative industries to our state. This opportunity has not been fully realized to this point,” said Ruggerio.
“This is an extraordinary once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our city," said Providence’s mayor at the time, David Cicilline in 2009, in an interview with the New York Times.
Architecture critic Will Morgan wrote, “Perhaps it is even time to remove most of the I-195 Commissioners and appoint members who would have the courage to follow the original remit of creating a true Providence Innovation & Design District, with incubators, start-ups, researchers, engineers, and designers."
“Instead, the glorious opportunity created by the removal of the interstate highway has so far been squandered piecemeal filling up parcels with an abundance of undistinguished apartment blocks–not to mention the prospect of an absurdly wrongheaded Fane Tower. Beds instead of brains,” Morgan adds.
We agree with Mr. Morgan.
The chair of the 195 Commission, Robert Davis, has operated with little transparency. The Boston-based lawyer appears to be taking direction from others -- and this needs to stop.
The 195 Commission is a critical body. Time to revamp, prohibit more upscale apartments, and focus on long-term, high-value job creation.
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