Changing Central Falls… for Whom?

Yesterday brought another article (Zachary Malinowski in the Providence Journal) about the “innovative ideas” finding purchase with the “very young government” (as in officials’ ages) of Central Falls.  This time, it’s a “Comprehensive Master Plan” developed by students at the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University.

RISD landscape architecture professor Elizabeth Dean Hermann says the administration of Central Falls is mainly “learning through doing” and is very open to the suggestions of college students.  That should make one wonder what sort of urban area young folks at high-end colleges would design.

What’s their point of reference?  The people who actually live in Central Falls — with their own cultural habits, their own living circumstances, and their own income levels?  Or is the redesign going to be based on things that college students and some other young adults who find themselves in control of a city would think are cool?

I’ve wondered this before.  What I find interesting in this latest episode is that it comes with artists’ sketches.  Notice anything about the folks enjoying the “beautification” of Central Falls.

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