01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 19, 2003

The Journal has a bad habit of mocking Providence citizens and elected officials who dare to insist on a voice in development projects in our city's residential neighborhoods. According to The Journal, we are naive dreamers or nefarious demagogues, dangerously meddling in delicate business matters too complex for mere citizens or city councilors to comprehend.

But it's The Journal that doesn't get it, as shown by the nuanced pro-development argument Andrew Cortes and Stan Cameron, of Providence WORKS!, make for a better deal on the Rising Sun Mills project, in Olneyville ("Seeking Fairness for Olneyville," Commentary, Oct. 10).

Unlike The Journal, citizens' groups such as Providence WORKS! and my own neighborhood's Summit Neighborhood Association -- among many others -- are looking closely at the public return on public investment in tax exemptions, tax incentives and other pubic concessions to private developers. Smart developers now work with neighborhood groups up front, to create win-win projects.

If The Journal were smart, it, too, would drop the knee-jerk hostility to neighborhood organizations and join us in paying serious attention to the details of development.

JONATHAN W. HOWARD

Providence

The writer is a board member of the Summit Neighborhood Association.