Providence has been selected as one of 15 communities to receive the federal designation as a Strategic Planning City, making it eligible for $3 million in funding to rebuild urban neighborhoods.
The award was announced last week at a White House ceremony in which 15 cities were notified they would receive grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in earning the designation of Urban Empowerment Zone communities. Such a designation carries with it a windfall of $100 million.
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Fifteen additional applicants, including Providence, were deemed “outstanding” by HUD and were designated as Strategic Planning Cities. The Clinton Administration will recommend $3 million in HUD funds for each of the cities in the fiscal year 2000 budget.
While Providence officials had held out hope at earning an Empowerment Zone designation, they were nonetheless gratified to beat out more than a hundred cities in earning the $3 million in federal funding.
Representatives of about 1,500 cities across the country requested applications for the Empowerment Zone grant competition.
The purpose of the federal program is to boost economic opportunity by creating jobs, increasing small business development and spurring private reinvestment. The cities targeted by the program will typically have high rates of poverty – but also high rates of potential.
The Providence Plan, a non-profit agency with offices on Pine Street in downtown Providence, along with the city’s Department of Planning and Development, spearheaded the campaign to win the $100 million grant. In 1994, Providence was designated a federal Enterprise Community, bringing in $3 million in federal dollars that funded 10 projects.
U.S. Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy praised the efforts of all of those involved in preparing the city’s application, particularly Patrick McGuigan, executive director of The Providence Plan, the administration of Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr., and Fred Lippitt, chairman of the Providence Empowerment Zone Advisory Committee.
”The competition was incredibly stiff, with about 150 cities vying for this designation throughout the country,” Kennedy said. “It is a tribute to Providence that it finished among the 30 applicants deemed worthy of funding.”
Kennedy said that he would personally work to make sure the federal dollars for the program remain intact.
