An under-the-radar issue in Providence’s mayoral race with major implications for the city in the coming years is the future of its working waterfront.
A once-a-decade review of the city’s Comprehensive Plan for development began this spring. A revised plan must be adopted by the City Council in 2025. Community activists see a chance to clean up the Allens Avenue area along the Providence River now zoned for maritime and industrial uses.
While activists and some city officials have mostly targeted high-profile scrapyards and other perceived polluters for removal, none of the mayoral candidates has offered a real plan for how the city should handle industrial development on the waterfront.
As this week’s cover story reports, mayoral candidate Brett Smiley envisions renewable energy companies replacing unsightly salt piles and scrapyards.
Another candidate, City Councilwoman Nirva LaFortune, sides with those who would like an infusion of mixed-use development and affordable housing. But she rightly cautions that such dramatic changes would be both costly and irreversible.
Can a working waterfront be both livable and an economic driver? It’s a question the next mayor and other city leaders will need to have an answer and plan for sooner than they may realize.
Term-limited Mayor Jorge O. Elorza would like to see public health conditions improved along the working waterfront. But he cautions against disrupting the growing offshore wind presence within ProvPort Inc. – which may be the only thing all sides at this point can agree on.