Providence, RI is the newest addition in my book/brain of cities that I love.

Here are a couple photos I snapped in Providence this morning.

Take a look and notice the intense urbanism – the flower beds, bikes and bike racks, the narrow streets and dense historic buildings.. Its wonderful!

Providence has seen their entire downtown come back full swing over 12 years due to the rehab of its downtown historic commercial/retail buildings into mixed use and mixed income apartments/lofts and local retail stores.
Today at 10am, there were tons of people buying books, eating brunch and hanging out. A bocce court and giant white video screen sit on the only vacant lot along Westminster street and are used daily by locals – something that could be easily done here in Buffalo!

Another neat fact: Andres Duany, the famous new urbanism gentleman from Cuba, actually held charettes for the city when it was going through its redesign. I heard it cost a lot… Maybe Buffalo can bring him on for one or two charettes for the green code?!

Go Providence!

More to come!