Greater City Providence

News & Notes

Some photos of RI (and New Bedford) in the ’30s and ’40s [WPRI | Ted Nesi]

Ted digs up some photos from Depression era Providence and New Bedford, including this one of Kennedy Plaza before it was Kennedy Plaza:


Photo from The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division


A Home Is a Lousy Investment [The Wall Street Journal]

At the risk of heaping more misery on the struggling residential property market, an analysis of home-price and ownership data for the last 30 years in California-the Golden State with notoriously golden property prices-indicates that the average single family house has never been a particularly stellar investment.

In a society increasingly concerned with providing for retirement security and housing affordability, this finding has large implications. It means that we have put excessive emphasis on owner-occupied housing for social objectives, mistakenly relied on homebuilding for economic stimulus, and fostered misconceptions about homeownership and financial independence. We’ve diverted capital from more productive investments and misallocated scarce public resources.


Top ten most crowded islands in the world [Gadling]


Fietsen Van Amsterdam – Bikes of Amsterdam [Preservation Institute Blog]

Photos of the wide-array of bikes on the streets of Amsterdam; includes an ice cream vending bike and a mobile beer bar.


Boxer: Two-Year Transpo Bill Will Save 600,000 Jobs [Streetsblog]

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, says a transportation reauthorization bill needs to be passed soon in order to avoid the loss of 600,000 jobs in the construction and transit industries. She issued a call to action this morning, pushing for a new bill before the current extension of SAFETEA-LU expires on September 30.

Greater City Providence

Promoting the smart urban growth of the Greater Providence region.

1 comment

  • Dear the Wall St. Journal,

    A home is a place where you enjoy your life and watch your children grow up. It returns a value that cannot be calculated in monetary terms. Are you unable to recognize this simple fact? (Yes, you are, in fact, incapable of understanding any non-monetary value whatsoever.)

    PS. You suck.

    kthanxbai.

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