Transforming Providence

Countless American cities saw their economies hollowed out and devastated by deindustrialization and losses of major sources of industrial employment during the second half of the Twentieth Century. Decades later, many are still struggling to recover.

One post-industrial city that hasn’t continued to languish is Providence, Rhode Island, which has succeeded in making itself an increasingly appealing place to live, work and visit. Providence’s transformation didn’t come about by chance. Rather, it came about as a direct result of a series of local planning processes and plans, as well as strategic decisions and policy choices aimed at reviving the city’s downtown core and improving the livability of the city’s neighborhoods. By identifying and carefully describing the approaches, decisions and actions that propelled Providence’s turnaround, Gene Bunnell’s Transforming Providence provides lessons and insights citizens, local officials and business leaders elsewhere can apply to achieve positive transformations in their own cities.