About Providence

Providence is movin' on up on Money's list of places to live
The magazine names the city the best place to live in the East. Could the mall have have tipped the scales?

By D. MORGAN McVICAR
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE —

That little smudge on the way to Cape Cod, as another financial publication once derided Providence, is now the best place in the East to live, Money says in its December issue. That constitutes a startling about-face from the magazine's stance in 1997, when it ranked Providence 240th among the 300 largest U.S. metropolitan areas.

Just three years ago, even New Haven, Worcester and Bridgeport were considered a cut above Providence.

So what changed?

"In the past several years, Providence has experienced a remarkable rebirth," reporters Nick Pachetti and Alan Mirabella write in the December issue, "making it one of the country's best places to live for young urban professionals.

"Over $740 million was spent to replace empty, dust-covered lots and run-down, dilapidated buildings with new parks, plazas and roads. Providence has restored riverbanks, moved railroad tracks underground and rerouted rivers to better connect downtown or 'downcity' with the younger East Side neighborhood."

The magazine, which has about 2 million subscribers, lauds the city's new mall, relatively cheap home prices, the lack of congestion, low crime rate, theaters, restaurants and colleges.

Of course, Providence had all of those things, save the mall, three years ago.

Money named Portland, Ore., the best place to live in the country. Chicago was selected as the best Midwestern city, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill as the best Southern city and Salt Lake City as the best Western city.

One might by now expect the residents of Providence to be blasé about the latest accolades, coming as they do in the wake of positive reviews in dozens of national, regional and local publications.

But the mayor of the ugly duckling-turned swan, Vincent A. Cianci Jr., never tires of compliments.

"Readership is like 4 million," Cianci said of Money. "It puts us in a very, very favorable light everywhere to anyone who reads that magazine. It helps build our own self-esteem and helps people around the country wake up to what's here."

Take a tour of Providence via selected Web sites at:
http://projo.com/news/provlinks.htm