huron9000 t1_jchh59e wrote on March 16, 2023 at 9:24 PM

Reply to comment by lightningbolt1987 in Yoleni’s in Downtown Providence has closed by lovecraft_401

They have been saying fuck off to drivers by steadily eliminating free on-street parking for years now. It’s been a clearly visible erosion.

Perhaps this is due to the political influence of powerful parking lot owners.

Every successful downtown in history has relied upon people coming in from other places to spend money there.

Yes- more housing downtown will help; but that’s not a complete solution. Downtown Providence was vibrant in the past because it drew workers each weekday that didn’t live there:

Office workers. They worked in banks, investment companies, insurance agencies, accounting firms, any number of endeavors, but they came to work in an office in Providence, even though they didn’t live in the city.

This is what a metropolitan capital looks like. Lively, alive. Crowded. Bankers, brokers, actors, paralegals, office managers, bartenders, interns, administrators, students, retirees, all in the mix, getting lunch.

That was back in the day, 15 or 20 years ago, when Providence had a functioning financial district and a vibrant downtown.

Now it’s just students and retirees, if you’re lucky.

lightningbolt1987 t1_jchzq3o wrote on March 16, 2023 at 11:31 PM

First off: are you really so cheap that you can’t spend $4 on a parking meter? The meters don’t exist to screw over drivers, they’re there to help businesses—they don’t want people to just park all day while they go and do other things, they want the street spots to be for visitors and store patrons. No one is avoiding downtown because of meters, that’s ridiculous. Any serious urban main street has meters.

Secondly, you’re right that more workers would also help the cause but that’s not going to happen. Even before the pandemic, the trend was moving away from old school financial districts. Businesses were just as happy being in lofts in Valley as they are being downtown. Also, finance jobs generally have been declining for years, even in Boston. Work from home exacerbated the problem.

These days, more housing means more workers Most professionals work from home 2-3 days a week. So if they live downtown that means they’re going out to lunch and shopping just like office workers used to, but unlike office workers they’re also around on nights and weekends. The line between home and work is blurred so we need more homes downtown.

Finally: of course, luring people from the burbs is an important part of the equation, but that happens by being a great place. If it’s worth coming to, people from the burbs will come to Providence, even if it means paying for parking. For it to be worthwhile, however, it needs to be vibrant and walkable and fun. It doesn’t matter if parking is easy if it’s not a place where people want to go. In fact, parking is ONLY easy in places where people don’t want to be. If a place is successful then it’s inherently difficult to park because a lot of people want to be there and will be fighting for parking.