Working in―and thus spending time in―Central Falls is interesting. I'd had no direct experience of the city until very recently. I knew that it was physically very small, even by Rhode Island standards. It's also had a reputation as a hellish slum town. Some sincerely try to promote civic pride there as well.
To me it just looks the way a city should. Dense with a lot of small businesses. It seems to have kept its flavor even as some parts of Providence haven't.
To me it just looks the way a city should. Dense with a lot of small businesses. It seems to have kept its flavor even as some parts of Providence haven't.
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You make Central Falls sound a pretty decent place overall. I know what you mean about a city losing its essential flavor as that's something we've witnessed frequently these past years.
Portland was beginning to pass on its previous building height limits before we left.
Halifax had long lost much of its former working port and fishery businesses when we arrived, but had retained much of its historic look and the small merchants who'd been there for years. In the two years before we left many of the older buildings were being demolished to be replaced by high rise constructions and largely empty office and rental spaces.
Victoria has been constantly expanding up and out since we got here. The really nice things about the city are the natural parts - the climate, the landscape (and sea), the flora, and the wildlife. Yesterday, besides the usual crows and seagulls we saw a hummingbird, a great blue heron, and an eagle.
Yeah, I wouldn't go overboard in romanticizing the place, but it looks and feels like itself still. To me this is important.
The phrase "largely empty office and rental spaces" does more than ring a bell with me. Around the providence River there are lots of new and newish buildings. Some are basically all window, and you can look through these capacious windows from the street and see that there's nothing in there.
Things like landscape and wildlife are good to have nearby, whether you're raising a family or just like to appreciate them. They're also more vulnerable than we'd like to admit. If the city is helping to preserve them that's a selling point in itself.
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