Test Site for What Grows On in Rhode Island!

As has been widely reported, I-95 will this week have the beginning of some intense work to remove overpasses. Downtown sections of the road will be closed to traffic during overnight hours. This will mostly be taking place the last two weeks of this month and the first week of February.

The first closures will take place overnight from 11 pm to 5 am this Thursday the 22nd. The construction area is between Exit 21 (Atwells Avenue/Broadway) and Exit 19 (Eddy Street). If this impact you, then I’d strongly recommend taking a look at the RIDOT website to review detours.

Photo from the RIDOT website

The blunt and effective Robert Lutz of General Motors, an executive who inspires both love (he’s a product genius and calls things as he sees them) and hate (he bluntly calls things as he sees them, even when unpopular, as when he ridiculed the idea of global warming), again seems to be suggesting what many analysts have been recommending for years - that a gas tax would be good for US automakers.

As gas prices have dropped, Americans have again rapidly forgotten about $4 per gallon gas and automotive fuel economy. Hybrid sales, for example, are down more than 50%, far more than the overall market drop of about 30%. The automakers, scolded just weeks ago by a Congress who said Detroit was out of step in not having enough fuel efficient vehicles, has rushed such products to market and is now getting killed in sales for having too many of them.

Lutz, understandably frustrated, uttered what had to be two of the best quotes of last week to the NY Times, essentially calling for a gas tax by not calling for one:

“Far be it for me to be the first auto executive to call for a gas tax… But right now, it’s like fighting obesity by requiring clothing manufacturers to make nothing but small sizes… Every six months we get called stupid for having the wrong products.”

Photo from Wired.com

Photo © e_pics from Flickr

e_pics submitted some not so old but drastically changed streetscape photos to our Flickr Group. View more of e_pics Flickr photos here.

If you’d like us to feature your Providence photos please submit them to our group on Flickr.

As has been widely reported, Team Obama is on their way to the inauguration via rail in what we all can hope will be symbolic of a greater mass transit push in the years ahead. One national newscast even described Joseph Biden as the “nation’s most famous, frequent Amtrak rider.”

While, for the purpose of message, I would have loved to see the Obamas take something more akin to an Acela than the throwback, heritage railcar they appropriated, I think we’ll all take what we can get…

Photo from the NY Daily News website

T.F. Green Intermodal Facility Rendering

T.F. Green Intermodal Facility Rendering

If you haven’t been to the airport lately, you may not realize that the Intermodal Facility at the airport is actually well underway. The project includes a new rail station across Post Road from the airport. The station is currently set to serve MBTA commuter rail trains between the airport and Providence & Boston. Also at the station will be rental car facilities relocated from the airport, a parking garage for the rental fleets and commuter rail passengers, a RIPTA bus station and room for interstate buses. All of this will be connected to the airport terminal with a 1,250 foot skybridge with moving sidewalks over Post Road.

This reader submitted photo (from mid-December) shows the path of the skywalk from the terminal across the parking lots toward Post Road:

MBTA commuter rail service from T.F. Green is scheduled to begin in late 2010. Initially, 8 of the 15 round trips per day that currently serve Providence will be extended south to Warwick.

See more progress photos below the jump:

Reader submitted photos from early-January 2009 show construction of the piers which will hold up the skybridge outside the airport terminal:

There’s a lot of head-scratching and finger pointing about schools being closed yesterday (and some today). There was a forecast for 2-4 inches of snow yesterday, but the storm ended up sailing south of us, with just a few flakes falling in the Providence area (the Cape on the other hand got up to half a foot of snow).

I’m not here to second guess the administrators, they had a forecast for extreme cold and moderate snowfall and did what they thought was right. Imagine the finger pointing if we did have 4 or more inches of snow in addition to the extreme cold yesterday and schools were open.

But one thing in the above report from Channel 12 did make me wonder. Part way into the report, Walt Buteau outlines, with a graphic, what criteria goes into school cancellations due to cold. Those criteria are if the forecast is for single digit temperatures or less, length of wait at the bus stop (if it is too cold, they don’t want kids waiting for the bus and getting frostbite), and are the sidewalks clear.

So here’s my question, taking point three into account, shouldn’t school have been cancelled since December 19th and still cancelled now? Because, the sidewalks aren’t clear in many areas.

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According to the Projo Blog the building at 380 Westminster St has been sold to UrbanAmerica LP, of New York.

The Projo article doesn’t mention if the current tenants (the IRS, bankruptcy court, Navy and Army recruiters office) are staying or being forced out. If the building is no longer going to be used for Federal offices, it raises some interesting questions.

So who is this buyer of such a prominent building? A quick Google search for UrbanAmerica LP brought me to their website, and from their site:

UrbanAmerica is a registered investment advisor with a distinctive vision for and specialized expertise in urban center real estate investment nationwide. The firm delivers value-added returns to investors, while also stimulating economic impact in its investment locales.

UrbanAmerica identifies, enhances and captures value by:

• Maintaining a dynamic proprietary pipeline. Extensive industry, political and non-profit relationships keep UrbanAmerica abreast of high-potential opportunities.
• Bringing an institutional owner/operator mindset and Class A development capacity to its markets, where traditionally these are lacking.
• Partnering with national retailers to help execute their urban strategy.
• Executing replicable growth strategies on behalf of leading institutional investors, including pension funds, banks, and insurance companies.

Further poking around on their website, I see they have a few examples of buildings they have purchased and what modifications they’ve made. Overall, it looks like they have a history of updating the buildings as needed, getting big tenants to occupy at least a portion of the space, and mixing the use to fill the remaining space.

I don’t know anything about the company beyond what they have on their website, but to speculate, if they can use some of their strength on the Westminster St building, that might extend the Westminster Renaissance further towards Empire St.

This particular building is set back from the street a bit, and the frontage is raised a few steps from the sidewalk creating a shadowy corridor. This dissuades pedestrians from walking along side the building, and generally might encourage you to ignore it all together. However, if a significant retail tenant occupied the first floor, added some signage and window displays, and encouraged pedestrians to actually approach the building, I see this as a potential win for Westminster and Providence.

Since this building houses multiple Federal offices, it’s unclear if the buildings appearance is due to necessary security concerns. If the current occupants are going to stay, and the new owners intend on adding retail, is there a way to mix a retail space with secure office space?

What do you think? Can we have first floor retail and secure federal offices above, or is that pushing mixed use too far?

The Boston Globe reports today about Boston’s high-tech approach to enforcing snow removal laws.

Code inspectors have taken to the streets this winter with a new weapon, palm-size computers with touch screens that snap photographs of treacherous patches of ice, snow, and slush. Thumbnail images are stamped on tickets and printed instantly with a wireless 32-ounce printer slung over an officer’s shoulder like a purse.

Officials hope the immediacy of the photographs will act as a deterrent, reducing the number of slick sidewalks that twist ankles, flare tempers, and force some pedestrians to walk in the street, which can be dangerous. When property owners find a green envelope for a code violation stuffed under their doors, they are staring at evidence they will have to explain if they plan to appeal.

Read that second paragraph again. Officials hope this will reduce the number of slick sidewalks, injuries, and people forced to walk in the street. Not a crazy ranting blogger hopes, Officials hope. The government in Boston actually sees this is an issue that needs to be addressed. Who knew a city could be run like that?

Photo REUTERS/Brendan McDermid from Boston.com

Wow! Everyone made it out safe!

Reports indicate that the plane hit a flock of birds (NTSB will not confirm that ahead of an investigation), disabling it’s engines. The pilot was able to make a controlled landing in the Hudson River and everyone on board was able to escape with only minor injuries reported. Just amazing, someone get that pilot a medal!

I lived in NYC and was in Manhattan on September 11th and every time I hear something bad like this happen in the city, I panic a little. What a relief to know that this event has proved to not be a tragedy.

Related
Updates from the New York Times
Video coverage from MSNBC

Photo by bjepson on Flickr

Let’s get this new year kicked off right. Join us for the first Geek Dinner of 2009.

Providence-based Treanor Brothers Animation is one of the world’s leading 3d animation boutiques for the online and video game industries. Recent projects include the Speed Racer video game and an online environment for the movie Iron Man. At next week’s Geek Dinner, Todd Treanor, Paul Treanor, and Paul DiPierro will give an overview of their studio and show off some of their tools, techniques, and recent work. In the meantime, check out their 2007 reel.

Get Details and RSVP here

Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 5:30pm–9:00pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)