I barely remember when there used to be Tim Hortons in east providence, it’s probably been over 15 years since they left RI…. Unfortunately timmies couldn’t coexist with the almighty reign of Dunkin

Was anyone else traumatized by the Pawtucket building #19 that was located on the abandoned Narragansett horse track grandstand? That place creeped me the fuck out when I was little, the smell still haunts me…

Ollie's actually predates building #19 despite the close similarities, I think they are a Pennsylvania company. Ollie's bought a bunch of former building #19 locations in MA and named them "Ollie's @ Building #19" to pay homage to the former retailer, which is neat. Ollie's is a virtually identical business model to Ocean State Job Lot but more expensive IMO.

https://youtu.be/bnKIVX968PQ this video summarizes mixed use zoning in pretty well if it helps

This is not fewer homes, it’s mixing homes and commercial… it makes amenities more accessible for the residents too. I’m also referring to a maximized return in terms of land used, not investor returns

Your putting housing and commercial in the same area… your effectively increasing housing and reducing car dependency while also promoting commercial business. Putting multiple housing units on top of a base level commercial space greatly increases return on the space… it’s a win-win situation

Mixed use zoning is basically what you see in most dense cities or in most of Europe, it means having commercial and residential in the same building or vicinity. Mixed-use is regarded as smart/efficient land use and is more economically stimulating as opposed to the separate residential-commercial zoning divide you typically see in American suburbs. Most of the US still upholds antiquated zoning ordinances that only allow either purely residential or commercial for a single parcel, even though there’s no laws that prohibit changing zones to mixed-use

Lol Newport Ave is a total beast onto itself and the town is letting it sink further and further, it’s a dangerous stroad that’s overstayed it’s welcome. All the atrociously dilapidated/abandoned strip malls and structures along there should have been razed years ago and rezoned for better (and denser) mixed land usage with affordable housing

39 affordable units out of 392 total units, no proposed transit connections, and no mixed-use zoning... RI urbanism at its finest.

Little Compton is incredibly divided, on one hand you have the wealthy young out-of-staters and on the other you have the long-time resident retiree boomers, there’s literally nothing in between. It’s a classic story of the older residences getting mad at the yuppies moving in, and unfortunately it fuels more radical political outbursts such as this. Sadly it’ll probably only get worse here on out…

Technically South Coast Rail will not be “truly” complete till 2030 since they still have to connect the Fall River/new bedford line from stoughton through Taunton, Raynham, and Easton. Until that is done, the south coast lines have to routed from middleboro which will undoubtedly be an operational nightmare for the MBTA

The TF Green station should have been electrified to accommodate Amtrak from the start, it was a massive oversight. TF green could also benefit from a frequent air-shuttle train between union and Warwick to actually facilitate ridership by rail between the airport and Providence, this could be accomplished with short EMU sets.

MassDOT does not own the track bed past the Fall River-Tiverton border which creates an issue for reactivating the line. A new Sakonnet rail bridge would need to be constructed as well to connect the Fall River line to the Newport secondary

From what I understand, they originally considered using the former Pawtucket Central Falls station site; however, the curvature of the NEC below the station could not accommodate modern standards for 800ft long platforms

The only way the station could be saved is either subsidizing more services (such as Amtrak and/or forming a dedicated RI regional rail authority) or rezoning the area around the station for dense mixed-use development to actually promote the station as an actual destination for transit riders. Amtrak cannot use Wickford Junction since the siding is isolated from the NEC and is also unelectrified. The rezoning of the area around the station would be nearly impossible considering the NIMBY factor. Either way, it would take a long time and a lot of money to make the station viable.

Apartments are only one facet of transit-oriented development, dense mixed-use zoning in the vicinity of transit stations is also needed. Transit centers do not work when they are solely constructed to complement cars

Restoring passenger rail between Providence and Worcester (potentially to even Worcester) via the P&W line would also be lucrative. The only time RI DOT ever considered forming a passenger rail authority is when it unsubsidized MBTA providence service in the 70s; the state wanted its own regional trains which would have gone as far as Bristol via the former Providence, Warren, and Bristol line (that line is now the east bay bike path)

RI must expand and transform its transit, it’s ridiculous that for being the densest state it completely lacks its own regional rail, water taxis, or even an LRT. RI has huge potential for all these modes of transit but it refuses to consider or subsidize them

It makes way too much sense for RI to create its own passenger rail authority, especially if it were a service similar to the Lake Shore Limited or the MN New Haven Lines in Connecticut. Unfortunately, RI DOT only prioritizes highway infrastructure and buses, it refuses to do anything else. This extends to the fact that it scrapped a fully funded Providence LRT plan in 2015 since they only wanted to do buses (granted the LRT plan was quite flawed, but the project should not have been canceled). Sooner or later RI will realize it cannot lean on the MBTA for regional services, however, it will take a LOT of political pressure for RI to even consider rail.

I personally think Wickford Junction serves as a good case study for transit non-development; rather, the "build it and they will come" mentality for transit stations does not work if there are no conditions for building dense, mixed-use transit-oriented development surrounding transit centers (this applies to adequate zoning conditions as well). Additionally, Wickford Junction originally opened with no intermodal connections to RIPTA (which is insane) and contained a hilariously large parking garage that has never been full once. Ultimately, the station was not designed by transit planners- it was designed by clueless politicians who wanted to cut the ribbon for a big capital project. Fortunately, the new Pawtucket-Central Falls station seems to be getting a lot right that Wickford Junction got completely wrong. I think a Wickford MBTA station could have worked if the station structure itself was scaled back along with better direction from a transit-oriented perspective.

Your missing the point… the owners are completely responsible for why nothing has been done with it in the first place- they sat on the property for over a decade and never started development (by extension the town of Barrington failed to do anything about it). The original plan was to use the mansion and the land surrounding the former Barrington college campus structures for housing. The adaptive reuse of historic structures is nothing new and is done all the time, and would be the optimal solution for Belton.

For those who want further context- ShineHarmony LLC (the current owners of Belton) has broken many promises regarding the preservation and rehabilitation of the mansion. Unfortunately, the estate does not have protections against demolition by private owners even though it's on the NRHP; this is mainly due to the fact the mansion does not currently reside in a designated historic district. Please spread the word about Belton Court, it's going to take a lot of people to ensure Rhode Island does not lose this seldom-known historic treasure!