I appreciate the empathy but in these cases we cant let the perfect be the enemy of the good by waiting until everything is in place. There are diseases that deliver a fate worse than death, and its haunting when you know somebody going through it or who went through it. Theres a peace of mind in knowing that if my existence was reduced to a living hell I have a legal escape.

The issue is this is a “would” have if it would have gotten built. There didn’t seem to be a reality here where this actually got built unless we lived back in 2015 with incredibly low interest rates.

This prostration for some vanity tower from a minor out of state developer whose marketing oozes with insincerity about how much they care about RI (just enough to convince gullible politicians) is laughable. Lets get somebody in that parcel who’ll actually build something, like a 30 story mixed use complex with some offices. Maybe seek a flagship private firm to set up a branch in there. Lets get all those parking lots near it upzoned as well.

This project was a pig with lipstick being called a prize hog. The state needs a comprehensive development strategy around major employment and transit corridors, not big shiny one-offs.

Investors probably agreed. From the article:

“Fane did not elaborate on specifics about the risk factors, and a spokesperson declined to comment further. But he previously said the old design was no longer feasible because of the increased cost to build the tower, prompting him to propose the new design in December.”

Somebody probably didn’t get financing.

Hopefully the next residential building there has a better possibility of actually happening instead of stringing people along.

This headline is the biggest fucking blueball bonanza I've ever read.

"Providence approves" - Yes?

"5-story" - YES?

"1,400 unit" - YESSSS?????

"self-storage complex" - Fuck you, developer

I don’t think the GM is necessarily the issue here. The interim guy has been there for 20 years and my recollection is he’s worked his way up to that position. He knows his stuff. I mean sure, they could maybe use some higher level direction but as the article states a lot of their constraints are hiring practices, financial incentives, and increasingly rolling stock.

The whole dispatcher thing for example is a really tough tightrope because right now the MBTA can only do internal hires and would need to renegotiate its agreements with several unions to go external, while FTA would have to make sure the system for taking on external hires still requires some familiarity with the system and ops.

This gets to a real issue. Would you want to work for the MBTA as a bus driver working weekends and early mornings for 5 years just to go full time? Who wants a 14 hour dispatcher shift? Also, lets not forget that working for the MBTA is a perfect career for people into public humiliation given how many “experts” think the solution is to gut the agency.

Gas tank

In Boston, I-95 was supposed to continue running north of the I-93 interchange parallel to where the train tracks are today.

Boston won the fight to stop it, Providence lost its fight. Its crazy to think about how much worse Boston would probably be with that highway there, and how much better Providence would be if it wasnt split in half.

https://www.google.com/mymaps/viewer?mid=1PPf_ySLRhrMAk-bozIT3YXE-5wU&hl=en_US

Mixed use is how this should have been from the start. There’s no good reason why the TJ’s couldnt have been built like that. Its this issue of “better than nothing I guess” that keeps creeping up. Commercial real estate will be good for Downtown Providence, especially the tax base, but the new BankRI HQ probably won’t do much for the state on the aggregate versus say a new corp for the state. The current HQ is already in Lincoln, and I use HQ loosely because they’re actually owned by a Boston-based umbrella corp.

A good strategy would have at least been getting these RI companies out of the more outlying suburbs and into downtown. Amica, Citizens, CVS, and Hasbro are major employers that don’t generate a lot of “spillovers” in their local area.

Thats one of the things that sold it for me, that and more career growth options. If I miss Providence, I go there for $10 round trip for a day or even a weekend with friends. Come Sunday I can usually leave satisfied. Boston’s got so much you’d have to do that a lot to exhaust your options.

As you pointed out its a literal hub for so many destinations too. Living in Providence lets you live near Boston, but living in Boston lets you get to a bunch of cities sized like Providence.

Also, not gonna lie, its not that much cheaper. Its variable by the age of the units on the East Side but many of the studios and 1 beds are in a similar range, especially near transit hubs. On the aggregate its cheaper, but Im also in the camp where I felt like I needed to spend $300 a month on having a car in Providence.

After a few years in both cities I feel like I need a car to fully take advantage of living in Providence versus in “Boston” I could take transit most places pretty quickly.

I put Boston in quotes because the transit connections mean you can pretty cheaply and quickly go all over the entire region. When I wanted to go to Lincoln Woods I’d usually have to drive unless I caught the 54 bus. But, in Boston I can do a pretty cheap $30 day trip to Newburyport, Rockport, Salem, Wachusett, Hull, Quincy, etc. I actually did the Providence Ferry over the summer after taking a train in and while it was a pain in the ass to have to transfer, that was a good feather in the cap.

The fact of the matter is it’s tough to run out of stuff to do in a well connected metro area. Theres plenty of neighborhoods to explore.

I don't think they were cutting corners voluntarily honestly. Their staffing dropped like crazy. I would ritually order Tillys delivery with my family during the lockdown and in the autumn there were a few times there where somebody who seemed like they were a manager showed up in a commercial plate car with a livery to drop it off.

They were always super good about allergies and delivery speed, but it became clear they were short on delivery and kitchen staff. Them opening the chicken spot and the PVD location was probably something they'd effectively locked themselves into before COVID. It takes time to set up and open a restaurant after all.

Sometimes good businesses fail. I remember as a teenager there was one sandwich place I'd go to in Warwick who used super fresh ingredients and homemade a lot of their stuff. Pricey, but damn it was worth it. It was a mom-and-pop deal. They lasted like 2 years.

Clearly we need even more road!

This 10X. Rhode Island needs better buses. Even when the state made Commuter Rail free for the summer the ridership for the trains went up by 50% but the ridership was still around 400 people per day, a far cry from what it could have been.

For reference even the most conservative estimates from before the stations were built put them at around 1500 riders per day.

Any idea why they would run it from Quonset to Charlestown like that? It seems like a lot of effort to take the ship into the bay, then take it back out and sail it up to Boston. Ive always been under the impression these are usually transatlantic haulers.

Is there no more efficient way to do it? Theyve got rail freight.

I heard from a reliable source that receives city-wide emergency personnel alerts that as of Wednesday night BPD was organizing to counter a protest. Memphis PD basically warned all other PDs of major cities in advance.

Im curious how this goes if they dont get a reversal. To be blunt theyre a flagship firm for Rhode Island as far as notoriety goes but their headquarters is in a crap location. I wouldnt be surprised if they eventually try to get state assistance for an HQ re-siting that incidentally entails downsizing.

They’ve had issues for awhile but I don’t know if milking their IPs through Wizards is going to play out like they think it will. Theres plenty of workarounds and loopholes for official D&D products, and half the people Ive played MTG with use proxy decks or proxy the most valuable cards.

More lanes needed clearly

From an ethical standpoint I agree. I don't think a casino alone necessarily gives a state a real competitive edge. I've been to some miserable towns whose sole enterprise is an enormous towering casino and its sad. Niagara NY isn't exactly fun.

From an economic standpoint, Rhode Island's economy is so heavily dependent on tourism and the service industry that it could use anything that helps to draw more foot traffic downtown, including in the off season. It may help to complement existing strengths Providence has with its music, arts, and food scene. Accessibility is another major factor. RI's three main casinos are either closed (Newport Grand), undersized (Tiverton), or they're Twin River which is like a "local compromise" you head to instead of the larger regional attractions of Foxwoods, Mohegan, and Encore Boston Harbor. Quonset was a bit of a shame because its well poised to leverage ferry service to the Vineyard, Newport, and Providence and there was an abundance of available open parcels. They're now parking lots, solar farms, or storage areas with scattered manufacturing facilities - and GDEB and Toray provide good jobs - but again it could have been a bit more strategically used.

Trust me, I'd rather have a company like Samsonite set up offices. Hell, I'd even compromise with Hasbro moving downtown. But, they aren't. The Superman building can't even get going with a tenant thanks to its clown of an owner.

Edit: BTW most of my blame here is laid squarely at the state for not lighting a fire under the asses of communities outside of Providence, and also Providence, to upzone or engage in some more conscientious regional planning. It's a small state. It should not be this cumbersome.

Best case for this it becomes like Carnegie Tower in Portsmouth. Built and opened right before a major housing slump, high vacancy rates, takes a decade to start attracting a decent volume of tenants mostly seeking speculative ownership, no long term impact or adjustment to state/local development trajectory.

Providence is behind the ball because it hasnt developed a strong economic niche outside of being a satellite within the Boston Urban Area. A lot of its growth is the result of spillovers from Bostons strong growth and housing boom.

The tower doesnt change that dynamic to be more sustainable for RI, it just doubles down. When I-195 was moved to make way for that parcel the rationale was that the land would be used to attract new business opportunities and create an incubator for a stronger biotech niche. The 20 years of development failure since then have at best yielded 5 over 1s and a Trader Joes, or expanded/new office space for existing economic fixtures (Brown). Its better than nothing, but not good considering thats the scale of development that some suburbs achieve in their downtowns. Fane reads like a wild moonshot to try and get something to be proud of.

Rhode Islands state officials just suck at development, or perhaps they think its easy. 195 reads to me like somebody trying to emulate the aesthetics of a successful economic development strategy without understanding how to get there. Youre right that RI consistently, regularly falls behind at every turn. Quonset, Tiverton, and Newport are all cases where a casino venture could have been well executed, but that ship sailed. Hell, this parcel would have been great for a casino if Encore hadn’t been built.

In my opinion a good place to start smashing zoning and developing is Warwick and Pawtucket. Jefferson Boulevard is full of wasted potential and its a shame that its train station is basically going to waste.

I think the state did its usual of being so desperate for a quick boon they picked whoever schmoozed them enough. It reeks of something like a 38 Studios deal, where at least the studio delivered a good product but their finances were junk.

Has this tower secured financing? Because to me the shallow work list of the developer (they did a tower 10 years ago) combined with increasing interest rates would flag them as a high risk applicant for something of this scale in a city that doesnt yet have this scale.

As a city, Providence appeals a lot to people who work in Boston and want to save a bit on rent without going full suburb. A luxury tower doesn’t really mesh with that dynamic well.

Wasn’t the issue here that the city wouldn’t approve it, so the state intervened and gave the approval?

They don’t have financing secured yet I don’t think, and with rates going up and the scale of this project I think the window is closing for this thing to pencil out.