gregw
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Posts posted by gregw
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Lovely shot; good use of the vignette - did you do this in Photoshop or darkroom?
I've always admired that building. I'd been told that at one point, it belonged to Bob Burke, owner of Pot au Feu restaurant in downtown. If he did own it, evidently, he no longer does: Providence Property database.
According to the database, the building has two units: one office, one residential. The arched entry looks like a filled in porte cochere or maybe it was a vehicular entrance at one time; hard to tell. I've never had a chance to really study it because I just catch a quick glimpse of it as I'm driving into Eastside Marketplace. Definately a looker!
You can see that there was a vehicle entrance in the middle of the facade under the street number. Check out the rounded cone shaped guards at the lower part on either side. Could this have once been a firehouse? Or a carriage house for a now gone mansion possibly on the site of Whole Foods?
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Can we expect more of these 'name that location' shots? Also de we get prizes?
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You're into overhead walkways. The first is the (gorgeous copper one!) Foundry on Holden St., the second is Eagle St., and I'll give someone else a chane to say what the third one is cause I'm stumped.
Edit: I figured out where the 3rd one is but will give someone else a chance.
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sorry. not only is my family from Northern Ireland, but Orange Northern as well.
I thought that's where Bono was from?
Bono's an Irish citizen. This explains how he qualifies for a knighthood. Apparently he won't be Sir Bono.
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Pawtucket mill fire is under control [ProJo 7to7 NewsBlog]
A fire at the Standard Uniform building in Pawtucket appears to be under control and no neighboring homes or businesses have been impacted.
I saw the huge column of smoke around 8:20 this morning. It appeared all of a sudden and it was impossible to tell how far away it was. I actually called 911.
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We bought in late 98 before the market went crazy and when a house west of Hope St. was easily 100K cheaper than one east of Hope and you could not spend over 200. I used to feel envious of our neighbors who bought in the mid 90s and paid under 100 for a house! Imagine that, a nice bungalow for $85,000!
With the commercial spaces on Camp, someone who has lived off Camp St. for years and years told me that the space where Camp St. Ministries now is was once an A&P market. The other shops were all mom and pops of one sort or another. There's still a barber shop
Glad to hear the shootings are dying down. When most US cities--even NYC--are seeing increases in violent crime now, Providence seems so far to be going against the trend. Let's hope that continues.
How long have you had your house, gregw? I bought mine toward the end of '99 and it was far more of a house than I could have gotten anywhere else on the East Side. I certainly couldn't buy it now and live the same as I do now. At the time when I bought it, though, I paid what was said to be the highest price paid for a Camp Street house. And my real estate agent strongly suggested that I wouldn't want to live here. I did, though, and I do.I agree with you that we certainly could use more neighborhood-relevant retail, which is why I'm eager to see something good done with 110 Doyle and the Miko's space. I guess neither of these would add much to your end of the street, though you're just a stone's throw from Hope Village. Funny, until you mentioned them, it never really occurred to me that the police substation, Camp Street Ministries, and the MHNA building are all, in fact, former commercial spaces. I guess it's because they all serve purposes geared toward the community as it exists today -- which as you point out does say something about the community and its needs. I've always thought the roof of the 6-11 would be a great place for an open-air cafe in the summers, though -- great view!
The East Side-South Side beef, so I've been told by long-time neighbors, has its roots in old family feuds. Apart from that, I think that a lot of the gunplay that used to plague lower Pleasant Street was simply drug-related drama. With better policing and home ownership on Pleasant, drugs aren't nearly as much in the picture, so shootings have become rare.
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I live near Camp St. and like the neighborhood as well and I have also been pissed off over the years by the attitude that it's a "ghetto" to be avoided at all costs. On the other hand, it was because of that attitude, I am sure, that my wife and I were able to afford our house, which is a half block away from Camp St., although the northern end of it where it becomes more middle-class with single-family homes.
One thing that amazes me as a longtime Providence person is how integrated Camp Street and blocks to the west of it have gotten. Back in the 70s, you would pretty much only see people who were African-American. Incredibly segregated, influence of housing discrimination, red-lining, etc. Now you see a mix of African-Americans, whites, Latinos, as well as a mix of incomes.
Despite the good, the neighborhood could use more retail. The fact that most of the storefronts are occupied by a police substation and social service agencies/non-profits shows the challenges the neighorhood faces.
There is also a wave of violence between the East Side and the South Side gangs that has left several young people dead from drive-by shootings. No one even knows what started this pointless feud. On the bright side, the Providence Police are on top of it with their Gang Unit and neighborhood policing and that might help to stop it.
People are often surprised to find poverty on the East Side. But the East Side isn't monolithic. It's a bunch of different neighborhoods. Fox Point is also traditionally a working class area with pockets of poverty (Ives Street). The East Side isn't Greenwich, CT. It's more like a mini Manhattan with neighborhoods running from the Upper East Side to Harlem and the Lower East Side.
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With auto insurance you need to look not only who has the lowest premiums but also the level of customer satisfaction. You could save $50 a year and then when you have a claim you could find yourself getting nickled and dimed. This could easlily cancel out any savings and create a ton of stress. I'm pretty sure Consumer Reports does ratings for auto insurance.
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Was that the school which only allow students in through a lottery type system? The luck of the draw. I can't remember if it was an arts magnets school, or an alternative learning center. Wasen't it called something like the ALP ( Alternative Learning Program ) ?
It was School One which used to be in the building where the Complex is. I went there after being at Hope for several years. ALP, which was just shut down, used to be on Elmwood Ave near where it intersects with Reservoir.
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Can anyone confirm the following two downtown things existed and that I am not going senile?
1. A "fancy" Burger King that was known as 'Bankers Quarters', probably right around 1980, possibly close to the Civic Center.
2. A Strawberries on Union St... I know it was there but I swear that at one time the cassettes and 8-track shelves were surrounded by a wall of plexi-glass with holes in it. Your hand could fit through the hole but the cassettes could not, since I think they were sold in those long plastic anti-theft contraptions. There was a narrow conveyor belt which you would then drop your cassette choice onto. The conveyor belt carried your cassettes to the checkout.
Thanks in advance.
The Burger King that looked like an old bank was at the corner of Dorrance and Westminster where Dress Barn is now. I used to go to school on Pine Street and spent many an hour there before catching the Elmgrove Tunnel bus to go back home.
Yep, there used to be a Strawberry's in the Travelers Aid bldg that was knocked down. Bought my Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and Kurtis Blow LPs there.
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Thanks. Figures that it's a medical office building. Do you know how long it's been there? I haven't been there in over four years.
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Sure it could. Just imagine Aaron's buying the lot so they can have parking along Doyle.
I am also concerned about the building and I will be until I see a thriving business in there.
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Thanks for the trees! It wasn't hard to find interested people on my street although there are always the few who have no use for trees for whatever reason. Oh well...
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Here's a nice harbinger of spring in the dead of winter. The city forester just spray painted the locations where a bunch of new trees are going to be planted this spring on my street, including two in front of my house.
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Matt's got the flu? I'm down with a virus I picked up in my recent visit to San Francisco this week. Enough of these viruses this year!!
Question for everyone: My sister and I would like to donate some books we have to somewhere locally. I can't find any reference on the PPL pages if they accept book donations (they're very happy to take cash, though).
Does anyone know of an institution to donate books to? One that distributes them to the elderly, nursing homes, anywhere? Thanks!
- Garris
PPL definitely accepts donated books. (I donated a bunch a couple of years ago.) I would call the reference desk to schedule a drop off if you have a large number and you need a receipt for tax purposes. Alternatively, if you have a small number, you can simply put them in the return slot of the library and they will treat the books as donations.
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Unfortunately, though, I had a downright scary experience this evening that abrupted ended any photography for this visit, as I was physically assaulted by a man while photographing. This was on the riverwalk area in the Old Port/Old Montreal section right across from the History Museum, essentially their Waterplace park.
Yikes! What an awful experience. Glad to hear you're ok though.
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Why does a CVS need 73 parking spaces? And why does anything need a double drive-thru? And if you have a double drive-thru, why do you need parking at all? I'm all for a compromise that saves the station, but my Maude, how much parking do we need?! And I've been to that site, there's room for 73 parking spaces, there's probably room for 173 parking spaces.
I once read that chain stores like to have a surplus of parking spaces, more than they actually need, to give customers the sense that "parking isn't a problem."
Americans are so used to convenience that the mere idea of looking for a parking space or having to wait a minute is unacceptable.
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that's the only issue i have with it. how did manchester and worcester get their names on it, but the second largest city didn't?
I think they were already in the CSA before PVD got added. So it's kind of a legacy title. They just kept the name pretty much the same, only adding RI to the end as a kind of afterthought.
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I wasn't going to rub that in for anyone who was upset about it. But Foxboro is a perfect example of why we're a combined CSA. Norfolk County borders both Suffolk County (Boston) and Providence County. Foxboro is closer to Providence than Boston. There's one county between us and Boston, if you can't split counties then we pretty much have to be in the same CSA as Boston.
I have no problem being in the Boston CSA. As a native RI'er I don't feel any loss of identity about it. I'm just pissed at the feds for omitting the name Providence from the official title of the new CSA-- called Boston-Worcester-Manchester. Must be a conspiracy with Trader Joe's to slight Providence. Hopefully that will change!
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Foxboro is in Norfolk County which is Boston's MSA.
Yes, but Boston's MSA is now in Providence's CSA.
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Let's keep in prospective the reason why the neighbors who live in the depot area don't want to see the project completed. Currently these residents live in conditions rife with drugs, prostitution, and gang activity. Should the Depot project be completed, property values in the neighborhood would sharply increase. The multi-unit buildings that are currently rat and roach infested on Montgomery St. will be converted to condominiums, the old victorian style houses on Nickerson St. would be scooped up by developers and rebuilt and sold to young middle class yuppies who commute to and from Boston. Not only would the drugs, crime and prostitution be pushed out of this area, so would the current residents of the Barton St. area. Affordable housing is at a minimum now. These people know that these improvements will not benefit them.
I definitely sympathize with the people who have to live right near this property. I can't blame them if they see a CVS as their best option particualrly since the developer has smartly reached out to them. If I lived in the Barton St area, I would also be concerned that if the property was taken by ED it might just sit there for years pending funding and further reviews. I wouldn't blame anyone for opposing it for this reason or for the concern that if built it might lead to dramatic gentrification.
On the other hand, I can see it in the city's best interest to get the depot back since this could potentially stimulate the economy and, as the saying goes lift all boats. Defintely a cunundrum.
I think that people's sympathies for the residents are not helped when they are branded as insensitive elitists who don't even care about children.
And the immediate residents of the depot probably aren't too wowed by a lot of fancy art gallery types who lecture them about Beaux-Arts style, Pawtucket being a new economy hub (pretty alienating if you work in a factory of which they are still a good number). There needs to be compromise and one person last night who set the right tone was the youngish guy from the neighborhood who seemed pretty sympathetic to the CVS plan but reasonable and willing to listen. My 2 cents.
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My last comment about the woman at the meeting. Maybe I should not have used the term nutjob, but this is the same woman who angrily berated the audience and accused them of only caring about buildings and not caring about people, and then said "shame on you," which I think was way out of line and off base. Just because someone comes from a low-income background (which we're all assuming she is, perhaps erroneously) doesn't mean that they should be held to a lower standard of behavior and reason.
If that makes me elitist, so be it.
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Regardless, I am a little upset at gregw's portrayal of the neighborhood woman as a nutjob. Rather than being a nutjob, let's say that English is probably her second language, and that she had to know that she was going to be a very lonely voice in a room full of people from outside of her neighborhood. Characterizing a person like that as a "nutjob" is just elitist crap, and it saddens me that everyone else on this board has just kind of let it go. If you can't understand that her position is extremely important and that her concerns are extremely likely to reflect the concerns of the people most affected by this decision, then I doubt that you have any more conscience or empathy than Seelbinder or CVS. You just happen to be on the other side of the issue.
Calling someone a nutjob has nothing to do with elitism. A nutjob has nothing to do with income level or education and has zilch to do with language.
The woman's comments about the train station providing a dangerous environment seemed totally divorced from reality. She also radiated immense hostility toward people in the room which was totally uncalled for.
Were you even listening to what she had to say?
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What is their plan to save the station?
They claim to believe the developer who says he's interested in having a T stop as part of the redevelopment of the site. The same developer who is apparently numbering all the bricks for future reassembly.
But as someone said last night the train component is the cabouse rather than the engine of his plan and, as many speakers point out, Pawtucket will probably not be able to get any federal funds for rail there because of the damage done to a historic structure.
. Enough of these viruses this year!!
What are they building there?
in Providence Projects and Construction
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Just went by the former Downcity Diner location. The ground is all level. Looks like surface parking.