Executive Summary - Rhode Island's Future and its Cities

From Woonsocket's proud industrial heritage to Newport's magnificent maritime history - and everywhere in between - Rhode Island's urban centers have enriched the entire state for more than three hundred years. Generations of Rhode Islanders have lived and worked together in city centers energized by the comings and goings of commuters and workers, and in neighborhoods that resonate with the sights and sounds and scents of Rhode Island's cultural diversity. While the Ocean State is famous for its beaches and other natural resources, a significant portion of the state's population and economic and social activity has always been concentrated in the greater metropolitan areas.

All Rhode Islanders - whether they still live in the cities or are among those who moved out to the suburbs after the second World War - share a common urban heritage. Likewise, the future of Rhode Island is inextricably linked with the destiny of its cities. And now, in the late twentieth century, we find ourselves at a turning point.

Our cities remain centers of activity and commerce, ringing with the music of many languages and offering a host of new economic, cultural, and entertainment experiences. But they also struggle with challenges not very different from those faced by urban centers nationwide - social issues, crime, deteriorating housing, eroding infrastructure, and high property tax rates. While those problems are felt most acutely by city residents, their effects do not stop at the city limits; the challenges of the Ocean State's cities are shared by all taxpayers in Rhode Island.

In order to begin to address the challenges facing Rhode Island's cities, representatives from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors came together nearly two years ago to form the Urban Strategy Project. The group's work is described in brief in this document and in detail in its comprehensive report, Strengthening Cities: A Report of the Urban Strategy Project. The report offers a multi-year strategy for enhancing the competitiveness and livability of Rhode Island's cities, and suggests a series of tangible first steps toward strengthening the state's urban communities.

The work of the Urban Strategy Project, funded in part by a grant from The Rhode Island Foundation, is intended to serve as a launching point for dialogue among people all over Rhode Island who care about the future of Rhode Island and its cities.

Identifying Rhode Island's Urban Communities

The Urban Strategy Project's first step in developing its plan was to answer a fundamental question: what is "urban" in Rhode Island?

According to the 1990 US Census, Rhode Island is the second most urban in the nation. In small, densely populated Rhode Island, cities, suburbs, and rural areas are separated in some places only by a few miles of road. Consequently, the identification of those areas of the state which are properly classified as "urban" is more difficult here than in larger states with urban centers located in an otherwise largely agricultural hinterland.

For the purposes of the Urban Strategy Project's work, Rhode Island's "urban" communities were identified according to a specific set of criteria including population density and stability; mixed housing types; ethnic diversity; urban land use; and economic activity.

Ten Rhode Island communities met at least three of the criteria and are considered "urban" by the Urban Strategy Project:

• Central Falls
• Cranston
• East Providence
• Newport
• North Providence
• Pawtucket
• Providence
• Warwick
• West Warwick
• Woonsocket

Identifying Needs and Characteristics of Urban Communities

Rhode Island's urban communities often serve as hubs of government activity, health care, higher education, and the "fun economy" - restaurants, theaters, museums, and other cultural and recreational destinations. Our cities are also centers of commerce - hosting many of the state's major employers - and below their skylines are some of the state's most unique and beautiful architectural assets. These communities contribute to the economic and cultural wealth of their surrounding communities and to all of Rhode Island.

However, like most cities across the United States, Rhode Island's urban communities also face their share of challenges. Concentrations of economic, social, and cultural activity - so vital to the life of Rhode Island's cities' landscapes and its general well being - also drive issues that negatively impact the quality of life in city neighborhoods. As Rhode Island's cities age, they are experiencing deteriorating infrastructure, higher crime rates, poor housing conditions, and high effective property tax rates. Although urban municipalities differ in specific ways, they uniformly lack the fiscal capacity to address basic educational and municipal needs.

Meeting the Challenges of Urban Communities

In order to begin to meet the needs of Rhode Island's cities and greater metropolitan areas, the Urban Strategy Project mobilized task forces charged with developing meaningful strategies designed to address issues related to housing, education, public safety, job creation, land use, infrastructure, and social services. The task forces identified opportunities to build on successful programs already in place and to target new investments critical to the state and its urban communities.

The work of the task forces crystallized in Strengthening Cities: A Report of the Urban Strategy Project. This document, published in January 1998, is intended to serve as the beginning of a robust dialogue about the future of the Ocean State's cities and neighborhoods - a dialogue which must take place if Rhode Island is to reach its full potential. The report offers five strategies, each of which incorporates a series of more specific recommendations:

Coordinate state and local policies and programs. Encouraging cooperation between government and the nonprofit and private sectors in order to target scarce resources. Areas of focus should include development and land use policies, urban capital and transportation planning, education, social services, and public safety.

Build strong neighborhoods. Enhancing home ownership opportunities and cultivating the middle class by providing safe neighborhoods and quality schools and public services. These goals can be accomplished by enhancing community leadership, improving public safety initiatives, creating positive after-school experiences for children and teens, establishing lead abatement and other housing programs, and keeping vacant lots clean and safe.

Improve urban fiscal competitiveness and infrastructure. Maximizing opportunities for economic growth and removing economic barriers through enhancing and maintaining urban assets, such as roads, bridges, and public works, and by alleviating property tax burdens through expansion of the Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILOT) program and other state aid programs.

Develop access to opportunities. Providing individuals and families with the tools they need to become self-sufficient by enhancing early child care and education opportunities and at-risk student services, and by creating a continuum of social services, career training programs, and other key programs.

Create job opportunities. Developing and maintaining a competitive business climate that will encourage business development and create meaningful employment. Resources should target initiatives that develop existing small business' capacity, link the welfare-to-work agenda to job development, and enhance public transportation to job opportunities.

Next Steps

The challenges facing Rhode Island's cities did not develop overnight, nor will they be solved immediately. In its report Strengthening Cities, - the Urban Strategy Project proposes a multi-year agenda designed to enhance Rhode Island's urban centers over time. If those efforts are to be successful, they must be carefully conceived and executed by all who have a stake in the future of Rhode Island. They must be reviewed regularly for effectiveness. And they must be sustained - along with the public dialogue about the future of Rhode Island's cities.

In addition to offering a vision for the future and supporting ongoing initiatives that target urban communities, Strengthening Cities presents a series of clear recommendations for programs and initiatives which can be established in fiscal year 1999 for nearly immediate impact. Those recommendations are presented on the following table.