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Old 04-13-2019, 06:23 AM
 
23,211 posts, read 18,366,504 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rranger View Post
Apponaug is like a colonial/Victorian New England village, complete with an old mill complex, that has been bulldozed to build 1950s - 1990s shopping plazas. Like pretty much the rest of Warwick, minus the .000001% that is Pawtuxet Village (the smaller part of it, BTW) and - to a certain extent - Old Buttonwoods and parts of Warwick Neck, the city is the product of 75 years of realtor/developer-based development with zero interest in coherent, people-focused communities. In the vast majority of Warwick neighborhoods, I dare you to find sidewalks, for example.

To add insult to injury, the entire close-to-100k city surrounds an airport. Most cities/towns have a downtown or town center at their heart; Warwick has a runway Warwick should be encased in amber as one the absolute worst examples of mid 20th-century US suburban development. At the very least, urban design/urban planning students should be forced to visit it as an object lesson of what NOT to do.

Hope this helps.
Sorry to hear of your traumatic experience growing up in Warwick, and glad that you found your peace in Roxbury. I'm sure somebody else has/will find their peace in Apponaug.
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Old 04-13-2019, 06:57 AM
 
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Originally Posted by massnative71 View Post
Sorry to hear of your traumatic experience growing up in Warwick, and glad that you found your peace in Roxbury. I'm sure somebody else has/will find their peace in Apponaug.
I thought it was a thoughtful & intelligent description of the poor planning issues impacting Warwick. I guess I wasn't following the thread close enough to understand where the snark about Roxbury came from.
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Old 04-13-2019, 07:42 AM
 
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Originally Posted by independent man View Post
I thought it was a thoughtful & intelligent description of the poor planning issues impacting Warwick. I guess I wasn't following the thread close enough to understand where the snark about Roxbury came from.

That poster has a long history of bitterness towards his home town, and the degree that it clouds his objectivity is quite noticeable to anybody who has been on this forum for a while. But if one wants to nitpick about "urban planning", I agree that it was a pretty descriptive post. Some people place a high value on that stuff. Is it helpful to the OP, or does it really expand to distinguish Apponaug or Warwick from any other similar place to an outsider (in the big picture of things)? I'd say not so much to that. I'm sure the OP is aware there is an airport there (for example), that's not hard to look up. The part about Roxbury was totally sincere, I'm truly happy that he found his happiness there. Point is, I'm sure many could look past Apponaug and Warwick's flaws and find their own piece of heaven, just as he did with Roxbury.
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Old 04-13-2019, 07:50 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by massnative71 View Post
That poster has a long history of bitterness towards his home town, and the degree that it clouds his objectivity is quite noticeable to anybody who has been on this forum for a while. But if one wants to nitpick about "urban planning", I agree that it was a pretty descriptive post. Some people place a high value on that stuff. Is it helpful to the OP, or does it really expand to distinguish Apponaug or Warwick from any other similar place to an outsider (in the big picture of things)? I'd say not so much to that. I'm sure the OP is aware there is an airport there (for example), that's not hard to look up. The part about Roxbury was totally sincere, I'm truly happy that he found his happiness there. Point is, I'm sure many could look past Apponaug and Warwick's flaws and find their own piece of heaven, just as he did with Roxbury.
You make some good points. It's important to note how lack of good planning can negatively impact living in a community. I didn't know that the poster had actually moved to Roxbury, MA which I know nothing about.
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Old 04-13-2019, 08:08 AM
 
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Originally Posted by independent man View Post
You make some good points. It's important to note how lack of good planning can negatively impact living in a community. I didn't know that the poster had actually moved to Roxbury, MA which I know nothing about.
True. I think most of New England suffers from poor planning (or lack thereof), or it was "planned" for a different era. While the history part might be interesting to some, I think a newcomer especially puts more emphasis on present living conditions and in relation to other communities. That said, Warwick imo is too crowded and run down looking in parts (for a "bedroom community"). It doesn't hold much appeal to me, but it works for many. Apponaug seems OK. Again, I don't like the part of it being in the middle of high traffic "crossroads" but it's also not "cut off" from everything the way much of Warwick is.
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Old 04-13-2019, 09:50 AM
 
7,939 posts, read 4,602,130 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by massnative71 View Post
True. I think most of New England suffers from poor planning (or lack thereof), or it was "planned" for a different era. While the history part might be interesting to some, I think a newcomer especially puts more emphasis on present living conditions and in relation to other communities. That said, Warwick imo is too crowded and run down looking in parts (for a "bedroom community"). It doesn't hold much appeal to me, but it works for many. Apponaug seems OK. Again, I don't like the part of it being in the middle of high traffic "crossroads" but it's also not "cut off" from everything the way much of Warwick is.
Crawling into & out of parts of Warwick can be a big challenge. I think much of the "rundown" look to the city is because of the unfortunate time a lot of it was developed. Late 60s - Early 80s. The cheapest of construction took place in the 70s. Most of those tract houses were never meant to last more than 30-40 years. And, they look like it today.
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Old 04-13-2019, 11:29 AM
 
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Originally Posted by Hollytree View Post
Would that they would ever make a positive comment. They only swoop down to be critical and usually nasty- witness all the infighting currently going on in virtually every RI thread.
I have plenty of positive thoughts about RI … trust me. I don't have many positive thoughts about Warwick, trust me on that as well. I give honest, unbiased information about RI - a place that I know intimately. Hollytree, I'm sorry that I can't affirm your endless Pollyanna perspectives on RI, where everything is sunshine, flowers and rainbows.

I love the idea that, because I live 50 miles away - that's 50, not 500, I can't possibly know what's going on in RI. Outside of an ever-growing Hispanic population in Providence County, the state is fundamentally the same as it was when I left (sadly). RI is static, static, static, and that is the root cause of its problems. No growth, no change, pretty much the same year-in, year-out.

The only other clear trend, outside of the one noted above, is the demise of RI as a separate cultural entity from Eastern MA. And, that truly makes me sad. RI is more and more becoming like NH, a commuting hub to greater Boston for those who can't afford to live closer to the city.
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Old 04-13-2019, 12:03 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rranger View Post
I have plenty of positive thoughts about RI … trust me. I don't have many positive thoughts about Warwick, trust me on that as well. I give honest, unbiased information about RI - a place that I know intimately. Hollytree, I'm sorry that I can't affirm your endless Pollyanna perspectives on RI, where everything is sunshine, flowers and rainbows.

I love the idea that, because I live 50 miles away - that's 50, not 500, I can't possibly know what's going on in RI. Outside of an ever-growing Hispanic population in Providence County, the state is fundamentally the same as it was when I left (sadly). RI is static, static, static, and that is the root cause of its problems. No growth, no change, pretty much the same year-in, year-out.

The only other clear trend, outside of the one noted above, is the demise of RI as a separate cultural entity from Eastern MA. And, that truly makes me sad. RI is more and more becoming like NH, a commuting hub to greater Boston for those who can't afford to live closer to the city.
You somehow have managed to keep those positive thoughts you have about Rhody well hidden here.

Make no mistake, you are correct saying Rhode Island is insular & static. There is a resistance to any flush of new ideas. We don't attract risk takers. And, when someone from the outside comes in to take a risk, many locals are suspicious and the natural tendency is to circle the wagons to protect an exaggerated, and sometimes imaginary, heightened sense of place. A self-satisfaction, that would seem to most outsiders to be mediocrity, wins most days. Regardless, I love this beautiful state, but still don't entirely understand it.
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Old 04-13-2019, 03:43 PM
 
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
3,623 posts, read 2,621,831 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rranger View Post
I give honest, unbiased information about RI - a place that I know intimately.


Quote:
Originally Posted by rranger View Post
The only other clear trend, outside of the one noted above, is the demise of RI as a separate cultural entity from Eastern MA. And, that truly makes me sad. RI is more and more becoming like NH, a commuting hub to greater Boston for those who can't afford to live closer to the city.
RI is still a distinct cultural entity from eastern MA, in spite of your claims to the contrary. It's true that northern RI has a lot of commuters to greater Boston, but I think that's been the case for decades.

As for your characterization of those who left Boston for RI... your arrows are sharp but miss the target. Many of us who came to Rhode Island from the urban Boston area did so not because we could not "afford" the rent, but because, among other reasons, 1. we wanted to transition from being renters to owners, without fear of having a massive, untenable mortgage when the next recession comes, 2. wanted to be able to get more house for the money, 3. wanted an urban neighborhood without a huge housing-expense outlay, freeing up funds for other financial goals, 4. didn't want to settle for Boston suburbs. 5. didn't want roommates. To claim it is merely an issue of "affordability" is a rather narrow view. It's not about just hanging on, it's about having the liberty of cash that isn't earmarked for housing, in order to travel, to dine out at nice restaurants in the city, etc. You may still call that affordability, but each of us makes choices with our dollars, unless we spend such that we have no choices as so many do in Boston.

Real estate dollars go much farther in inner Providence than they do in in inner Boston. You might prefer Roxbury, or Dorchester, to any of the inner Providence neighborhoods, but I don't. I looked in Roxbury and Dorchester, and considered buying there, but I felt then and still feel that Providence is a better value, and yes, safer.
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Old 04-13-2019, 06:24 PM
 
Location: Amelia Island
4,839 posts, read 6,003,079 times
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While we don't live in RI anymore as I have mentioned we do spend a good bit of time back in the state each year as our family and friends still reside in the state.

That being said we visit in Warwick a lot when we are home and Cowesett, Love Lane and the Diamond Hill Road areas while older are still nice areas. The Governor Francis area also seems to be doing well. The Greenwood area is still nice especially those not bordering Post Road. The airport area keeps expanding and devouring homes.

Warwick also encompasses the Pottowomut area that is really nice but getting expensive as those little cottages are getting snapped up and torn down or remodeled.

I would personally move back to Warwick as there are certain areas that are still nice.
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