Zoning for Dollars

by Floating Deer Head Sunday January 25, 2009

It’s old news that Cranston is basically financially bankrupt. Apparently now the city is creatively bankrupt, too.

There’s an opportunity for you guys to do something great with a piece of property that abuts the Pawtuxet River off of Warwick Avenue on the land currently occupied by Warwick Nurseries. Property along a river begs for usage that embraces the river. Most cities will kill for an opportunity like this to come along – to allow for a project that can benefit from the beauty of the river. Any city would be overjoyed to get place for trails, a place for riverside views, a place canoe or kayak launches, a place to listen to the gentle rushing of the water. But Cranston? Cranston’s answer is, “Let’s build a Stop & Shop there!” That’s right. A Stop & Shop.

It’s hard to even formulate the number of ways that this proposal is wrong. First of all, there really shouldn’t be a development of this nature along a river. There should be a wide buffer between the encroaching sprawl of Warwick Avenue and the river banks. But if I need to be telling you this, then you are miles away from understanding the treasure that the Pawtuxet River corridor could really be.

And when it’s built, the new Stop & Shop will blanket the river with trash. It just will. How do I know this? Hundreds of volunteers have worked countless hours maintaining the trails along the Pawtuxet, and their dedication to the preservation of the river corridor has gone mostly unnoticed. Every season these volunteers cart away mountains of trash generated by Shaw’s that collects in the underbrush, in the trees, and in the river itself. It’s sad to think of the amount of garbage once Stop & Shop is built.

Here’s a golden opportunity for Cranston to do something spectacular along the river. Something that can earn the city some money, but more importantly, set Cranston apart from Anyplace, USA.

But if the answer is Stop & Shop, I’m just embarrassed. Embarrassed for the City Council, embarrassed for the Cranston Planning Department. Just embarrassed.

[where: 02910]

Comment

1. Floating Deer Head,
   It’s nice to see you and Josh are back among us in cyberspace!

   — Rachel McNally · Jan 25, 04:43 PM · #

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