Answering that question is my academic charge, more or less, for the next six weeks. Creating arts districts and cool downtowns, populated by hipsters, yuppies and yipsters, is approached almost systematically these days by planners and politicians, as though there were specific conditions that make them, if not a formula. Of course, there's nothing systematic about it. Cool comes and it goes. Once most people think something is cool, it probably isn't any longer. Or not.
Providence, R.I., certainly puts this to the test. Even on a rainy afternoon yesterday, its downtown was lovely, with great 19th-century and prewar architecture, attractive narrow streets, nice State House grounds and a mall that actually knits itself into the urban street grid and surroundings. (After that, though, the mall's charm is obviously debatable.) RISD produces hundreds of artists, architects and designers every year and has a new museum designed by Rafael Moneo. The noise scene has produced Les Savy Fav, Lightning Bolt and others. Oh, and there's Brown University, a few other quality colleges, and several big employers.
On the other hand, there's the unemployment rate -- 13.4 percent now and almost always higher than those of the country and Massachusetts. Then there's the high poverty rate, the flat population of about 170,000 people and a general sense, as one city planner told us, of a mismatch between unskilled labor and the 21st-century economy. Oh, and the city is trying to institutionalize the cool thing, re-nicknaming Providence "The Creative Capital." Naturally, the planning department is following the mayor's lead and trying to capture those people too.
In the 21st century, shouldn't Providence be able to distinguish itself from Boston, New York, Philadelphia and D.C.? So why does it sometimes seem to be part of metro Boston? Do great buildings and cheaper rent win out, or does being closer to where other cool people and scenes already are? Are 170,000 people, many of whom aren't cool, enough to create traction or does your scene become too small of an island? When so many of the students from your two premier universities come from out of state, they're probably going to leave the state when they graduate. But do so many have to go? Why would a twenty-something stay? Should a city base its relaunch on twenty-somethings? The 21st century is hard.
I'm most curious to see which states are the ones that import college graduates. What are they doing and do they really deserve the gigantic gift?
Update: This is post number 200. Cool.
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