A tunnel and strip-joint strip in Providence's Atlantis

On Kennedy Plaza, Providence City Hall, built in 1978

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

Rhode Island officials propose to have a tunnel for buses built under Kennedy Plaza, in downtown Providence, to reduce vehicular (and human?) density in the plaza area and better connect it with Burnside Park. We need to study the engineering plans for this but it seems that it would be very expensive to construct such a tunnel in such an area, which is virtually at sea level.

To take some of the vehicular pressure off the plaza why not create a secondary bus hub in the Route 195 relocation area? This would be within walking distance of Kennedy Plaza, and perhaps small buses could be used in a shuttle service between the hubs, or perhaps electric trolleys.

Kennedy Plaza has the bones to be one of America’s most beautiful squares – not quite up to the glory of Boston’s Copley Square, but impressive. Creating a nearby transit hub would makes its improvement easier to achieve, and would be a lot cheaper than a tunnel.

Having said that, I’d add that while police activity could be stepped up to stop rowdy and worse behavior among a few of those using buses at Kennedy Plaza, the environment is not as problematical as has been presented. And there is a police station there.

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Dylan Conley, chairman of the Providence Board of Licenses, has suggested creating a 24/7 entertainment district in the form of a strip of bars and nightclubs on gritty Allens Avenue. The idea is to draw away and concentrate some of the establishments now dispersed around downtown Providence. Their sometimes raffish activities can antagonize neighbors, scare tourists, lure some folks looking for trouble, and distress citizens worried about the reputation of Rhode Island’s capital.\

A hoped-for benefit of Mr. Conley’s idea would be creating a larger source of sales- and property-tax revenue from this sector by promoting the new district as a sort of Bourbon Street, New Orleans, attraction. However, by intensifying Providence’s (exaggerated) reputation as a sleazy and unsafe place, such a district might have the opposite effect in the long term by scaring away more respectable and conventional -- and affluent -- businesses and individuals. As for New Orleans as a model: It’s infamous for the high crime rate in its entertainment strips.

And you can imagine the number of drunk drivers that such an Allens Avenue entertainment district would put on Route 95. Few customers there would want to just drink one glass of heart-healthy red wine….

Is this really the sort of industry Providence wants to expand? And Allens Avenue, for all its grittiness, is along the water. Surely there are classier ways to take better advantage of that than creating what would probably become a new Mecca for many dubious people. Before, of course, global warming puts Allens Avenue underwater.