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Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
3,793 posts, read 2,696,474 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pvdjames
I'm going to chime in on this. The house tour is a HUGE success and draws something like 800-1000 visitors at each event. Obviously there are a lot of people with an appreciation for our area and the beautiful historic Victorians in the areas.
Yes. During the first one I went to, I was amazed at how many people attended.
It's also worth noting just how successful the West Broadway Neighborhood Association is, as evidenced by the house tour and many other activities. They appear to be well organized and progressive. Other neighborhoods in the city should emulate them.
Yes. During the first one I went to, I was amazed at how many people attended.
It's also worth noting just how successful the West Broadway Neighborhood Association is, as evidenced by the house tour and many other activities. They appear to be well organized and progressive. Other neighborhoods in the city should emulate them.
It is quite lovely.
Great architecture reflects, and perhaps even defines, who we are as a society, what we value, how we bring praise and glory to where we live. I could never survive in those HOA prisons, those plats, those subdivisions so common outside of the Northeast.
Last edited by CaseyB; 12-10-2015 at 05:48 AM..
Reason: off topic
Originally Posted by massnative71 It has HARDLY reversed. Slumlords continue to exist, even in the Armory...
Quote:
Originally Posted by QuilterChick Then you oughta' buy as much available rehab-trendy property over there as you can, pay full price so you don't get left out. People will flock to the Armory district, you will be famous. Maybe even build a nice Tower on West Broadway.
Yes, bad areas are always bad, slums always slums shall be, restored homes turn around to become run-down tenements again....
Exactly what people were saying about Davis Sq, Somerville or Bunker Hill, or East Cambridge in the 1980s. Let alone the South End. Yeah, those suckers who got in on the restoration wave and bought into a Tremont St. brownstone sure lost their shirt on the deal, eh? If only they'd stuck with a nice ranch house out towards 495 somewhere....
Providence is obviously not Boston and I'm usually one of the first to note that, sure. But sweeping statements that basically say cities never revitalize ignore a lot of real world counterexamples.
^ Wisdom, like taste, cannot be bought like a cheap tract house in some anonymous architectural "development" or "subdivision" that surely are the new slums and ghettos of America. To spend a career peddling cheap trinkets like a Mexican pauper on a dusty border town road seems like a rather unfulfilling (and probably not particularly profitable) way to waste one's life.
No one of note desires to live like that -- unless, of course, they want to be among their "own kind." That's the "good news" side of the penny for the rest of us.
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
3,793 posts, read 2,696,474 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neguy99
Yes, bad areas are always bad, slums always slums shall be, restored homes turn around to become run-down tenements again....
Exactly what people were saying about Davis Sq, Somerville or Bunker Hill, or East Cambridge in the 1980s. Let alone the South End. Yeah, those suckers who got in on the restoration wave and bought into a Tremont St. brownstone sure lost their shirt on the deal, eh? If only they'd stuck with a nice ranch house out towards 495 somewhere....
Providence is obviously not Boston and I'm usually one of the first to note that, sure. But sweeping statements that basically say cities never revitalize ignore a lot of real world counterexamples.
No doubt. It's no secret, at least in recent memory, that Providence lags Boston economically.
When it comes to the re-development of neighborhoods, in some cases that has been a blessing. A lot of beautiful Victorian architecture in Providence didn't get "remuddled" the way it would have had it been in greater Boston. To address a success story noted elsewhere in this thread about extant structures that are older still, it's widely observed that the time delay Providence tends to exhibit in its economy w.r.t. Boston inadvertently protected much of ancient Benefit Street.
It's both the aforementioned fiscal issue as well as a reverence for our great architecture and history that has led to the preservation of these residential gems. That's true for vast tracts of the rest of the city (well, vast tracts might be a bit of hyperbole to describe an area of any city in our nation's smallest state, but you get my drift). Again, the exquisite craftsmanship of many houses on the west side is something special. If they hold a house tour on the west side next year, I recommend checking it out.
When it comes to the re-development of neighborhoods, in some cases that has been a blessing. A lot of beautiful Victorian architecture in Providence didn't get "remuddled" the way it would have had it been in greater Boston. To address a success story noted elsewhere in this thread about extant structures that are older still, it's widely observed that the time delay Providence tends to exhibit in its economy w.r.t. Boston inadvertently protected much of ancient Benefit Street.
Other local examples of this phenomenon: Downcity stayed largely intact during the urban-renewal craze of the 1950s because the city couldn't afford to demolish it; and Newport, once one of America's biggest cities, is so well-preserved today because its economy collapsed after the War of 1812.
Exactly what people were saying about Davis Sq, Somerville or Bunker Hill, or East Cambridge in the 1980s. Let alone the South End.
Even the East Side of Providence. My mother was mugged right on our front porch in 1983. I remember there being boarded up houses on Summit Avenue that were eventually saved by Project SWAP.
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
3,793 posts, read 2,696,474 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mp775
Even the East Side of Providence. My mother was mugged right on our front porch in 1983. I remember there being boarded up houses on Summit Avenue that were eventually saved by Project SWAP.
It's a completely different place now, isn't? At one point I was looking at housing on the East Side, in Summit, and Mt. Hope. In the process I conferred with acquaintances who are old Rhode Islanders. When discussing the east side, they made a point to question which side of Hope, complete with stories of how it used to be, because the way it was in 1983 has long since crystallized in their minds.
Quote:
Originally Posted by neguy99
Yes, bad areas are always bad, slums always slums shall be, restored homes turn around to become run-down tenements again....
Exactly what people were saying about Davis Sq, Somerville or Bunker Hill, or East Cambridge in the 1980s. Let alone the South End. Yeah, those suckers who got in on the restoration wave and bought into a Tremont St. brownstone sure lost their shirt on the deal, eh? If only they'd stuck with a nice ranch house out towards 495 somewhere....
A friend who bought in Davis Square in the 80s once described to me how difficult it was to get a loan for their house in Somerville back then. The whole area was redlined by the banks; in order to purchase the property, they pooled savings with friends.
It's well established that the fall of cities occurred through the rise of the automobile and especially the interstate highway system, which facilitated white flight and a divestiture from the cities. This was exacerbated by redlining, among other factors. That of course is an oversimplification but it will do for here.
Racial attitudes, and policies which enforced them, have changed and continued to do so. Add in a predilection for craftsmanship, for stunning old houses, and you have some of the essential ingredients. Economy is of course a factor as well. But if the West Broadway house tours are any indication, our economy is buoyant enough even in the bad times of 3-5 years ago to continue the revival.
Some* older folks might not see it, but young people do.
*Some, not all!
Last edited by ormari; 12-10-2015 at 06:21 AM..
Reason: mistyped info
I've heard stories about what Davis used to be like; I mostly know it from the 1990s, before it was "hot" but after it was on its way up. The arrival of the Red Line in 1985 must have been a key catalyst. One of my dad's coworkers went to Harvard b-school in the 70s and was horrified to hear I was living in Somerville -- "Davis Sq? Do you want to get stabbed?!?".
>Some* older folks might not see it, but young people do.
I guess if you grew up at the right time, post WW2, city decay - suburban rise might seem just the way of the world. I see that in my own family. I grew up in an upper-middle class early 1960s suburb, what are now called 'mid-century' ranch houses. The city is actually proposing it as a historic district since it's one of the nicer developments of that era, quite a few architect-desgined homes vs generic spec (maybe Dean Estates as a local analog?).
Now that area has had the worst house price performance in the city over the last 20 years, the high school has gone from above average, to above average only in free lunches and gang fights. The neighborhood is now very racially diverse, many of the houses are now rentals. Meanwhile the deep inner city small bungalow where my grandparents lived when my dad was born is now worth about twice what his 3,000 sq ft suburban ranch is worth, even though in 1980 that inner city house was little more than its scrap lumber value. The new residents of that neighborhood are basically all high income white professionals (though there is still a smattering of old-time poor, minority residents who haven't sold and moved out yet).
My dad just will not accept this. I can show him RE listings, news articles, etc., and he will not believe it -- insists it's just not true. He actually drive through the old 'hood a while back, and came away feeling vindicated: the lawns were not perfect. He's right, the new young professionals tend not to obsess about putting-green grass, many have even replaced the small lawns with drought-tolerant native shrubs or wildflowers or even herb gardens, all of which my dad characterized as "overgrown with weeds". "I don't care what any listings say, NO ONE will pay $750,000 for a house without a green lawn!"
Quote:
It's well established that the fall of cities occurred through the rise of the automobile and especially the interstate highway system, which facilitated white flight and a divestiture from the cities. This was exacerbated by redlining, among other factors. That of course is an oversimplification but it will do for here.
Very true. Don't discount environmental laws and de-industrialization too. Air quality in the sense of unpleasant stuff like smoke, foul odors, and eye-watering ozone were still a problem in many inner neighborhoods even into the 70s. Also much more noise, more littering, etc. It's just much more pleasant in the middle of cities than it was 40 years ago. (though PVD is pathetically far behind the west coast on people picking up a 'littering is bad' attitude)
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