Talk:Providence, Rhode Island

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Providence, Rhode Island has had a peer review by Wikipedia editors which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.

To-do list for Providence, Rhode Island:	edit · history · watch · refresh
Expand Cityscape x Neighborhoods (but also under demographics?)x Education x Economy x Major industrial players Government x Add something on crime (could also include information on the Providence mob) References

---

A state capitol photo is available for license; contact the photographer via email. 18.26.0.18 05:52, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I can and will be taking some pictures of Providence soon-ish (within the next month). I'll make them available free of charge once they're done. gomer43 - February 24, 2005

---

Should there be a section on the revitalization in recent years? The page could also use a list of movies shot or set in providence.

Contents 1 Peer review 2 Hurricane barrier 3 Images 4 Confusing racial makeup 5 New images 6 Bank of America building 7 Waterplace Park pictures 8 A rather bold edit to cityscape 9 history section too long 10 poverty-stricken Providence

[edit] Peer review

It seems to me that an article on Providence that doesn't at least touch on its history with the Mob is woefully incomplete -- or is my perspective skewed from growing up in an Italian family? :-) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by SarekOfVulcan (talk • contribs).

• In that case, could you be able to add it and note the source so that I could work with it further? Right now, it seems that no one else is working on the article except for me :-( Pentawing 06:07, 10 November 2005 (UTC)
  • I don't know if I have enough knowledge of the subject to do it. This looks like a decent article, though: http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/providence_mob/2.html--SarekOfVulcan 07:46, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

• Note: The website is at http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/providence_mob/1.html Pentawing 22:20, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

I have written a History of Providence, and put it on the internet as two Adobe Acrobat documents. When I attempted to put links to it on the Wikipedia page, they were immediately deleted by your peer editor, citing rules and regulations. However, the full-length history which I have authored is objective, researched from primary sources, and relevant, and links to it do belong on this page. Because of its length, it is in two parts:

-- The city of Providence in colonial times, from the Kouroo Contexture: http://www.kouroo.info/RI/ColonialProvidence.pdf

-- The city of Providence, Rhode Island under the federal union, from the Kouroo Contexture: http://www.kouroo.info/RI/ProvidenceRI.pdf

Austin Meredith, "Stack of the Artist of Kouroo" Project

Articles that aren't peer-reviewed in general won't be linked to or cited because they constitute original research; however, since you have many sources in these, it would be very useful to write some of these things into the History of Providence page with proper primary citation.--Loodog 02:32, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hurricane barrier

My recollection is that Providence was subjected to several hurricane-induced floods before its hurricane barrier went up. I also seem to recall someting about the barrier being of engineering significane - first of its kind, or largest of its kind, or something, though I could be wrong on this. Adding something about the barrier might be worthwhile. Badger151 20:09, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

I was told today by an engineer, in reference to a Pro Jo article about the vulnerability to hurricanes, that the system of levees or barriers here is exactly the same type used in New Orleans, and that the same thing would happen here. I tried to convince him that intelligent people like us can't be doomed to make the same mistakes, despite the seemingly daunting opposition and collusion of government and media, but I'm not really convinced myself. Even this article seems like it was taken off the copy for a tourist brochure.

The major difference between Providence and New Orleans is that Providence is above sea level. Even if the Hurricane Barrier failed, we couldn't be nearly as bad off.66.240.10.170 23:08, 20 February 2006 (UTC)loodog

[edit] Images

I would like to put up renderings of the what the completed construction in DownCity Providence will look like. What is the policy on which pictures I can use.

• First, you must have a login account (from what I know, people contributing anonymously through an IP address are forbidden from uploading files). Second, the image you upload must be of your own creation (this places such images under GFDL, which is preferred). Otherwise, you must state that the image is indeed copyrighted and what its source is (images that are untagged and unsourced images are immediately marked for deletion). Hope this helps. Pentawing^Talk 20:05, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
  • Would it matter if I got permission from the creator to use it? 66.240.10.170 00:51, 21 February 2006 (UTC)loodog
  • Are there any rules prohibiting my using a screen shot from Family Guy featuring the Providence skyline in the "Culture" section? 66.240.10.170 23:06, 20 February 2006 (UTC)loodog
    • I'll address the above two inquiries - refer to Wikipedia:Image use policy and Wikipedia:Image copyright tags. The information is all there. Pentawing^Talk 07:59, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Confusing racial makeup

"The racial makeup of the city was 54.53% Caucasian, 14.54% African American, 1.14% Native American, 6.01% Asian, 0.16% Pacific Islander, 17.55% from other races, and 6.08% from two or more races. 30.03% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race."

I don't know what to make of that last statistic.

• Assumption 1: white, black, native american, asian, pacific islander, other races, and two or more races are mutually exclusive categories, since, if we made a person both black and white, (s)he'd be put into the "multiple races" category.

• Assumption 2: hispanic/latino is a racial classification

Operating on these two assumptions, any person being hispanic/latino must come from "other races" or "two or more races", except this only allows 17.55 + 6.08 = 23.64% of the population to be hispanic/latino.

And we can't get the other 6% from the other categories, since that would put them in the "two or more races" group.

Whatever this statistic is supposed to mean, it needs to be reworded.Loodog 21:34, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

The demographics information were placed there by a bot (automated script). Hence, this wording has appeared in every other U.S. municipality article. If you can find a better way of rewording it without completely destroying the section, go ahead. Pentawing^Talk 03:17, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

The issue appears to be your second assumption. The United States Census Bureau does not consider Hispanic/Latino to be a race. See Race (United States Census). —MementoVivere (talk • contribs) 05:03, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New images

I was in Providence and took a number of new pictures, a few appear on this page. Anyone not liking the layout feel free to play around with the format, as I am a terrible novice in "wikicode".Loodog 23:47, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

I think we need another shot of downtown, but one that includes the textron building, that whole side should be shown.

Done, see economy section.--Loodog 03:57, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

We definitly need that shot of downtown with the textron side of the high rise buildings... I have some if someone will post them for me... let me know.. my username is BlueFitted.

Yeah, I just don't know how to contact users on this thing.Loodog 20:14, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bank of America building

After adding the bit of trivia about the "Bank of America" building being known as the Superman building, I released there's a lot about this particular building that is largely superfluous information in an article about Providence. I'd like to split off the Bank of America building info into its own article. Does anyone have (or is aware of) an image we can use for this purpose?Loodog 20:17, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Look at the Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org) under "Providence, Rhode Island". There are two pictures that are of use. Pentawing^Talk 23:46, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

DoneLoodog 03:57, 6 June 2006 (UTC).

[edit] Waterplace Park pictures

There are currently two different pictures of Waterplace Park in the article:

The first is in the "Geography and climate" section and the second is in that section's "Climate" subsection. Why two, and why in that section of the article? DMacks 17:14, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

My problem with the first was that it was too small, you really can't see anything. I uploaded another pic, but couldn't really justify removing the first from the page. As for the location in the article, damned if I know. I believe they were both either originally in "Cityscape" or "Culture".Loodog 04:00, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A rather bold edit to cityscape

I've made a large edit to the cityscape section, one that I think gives a better impression of the Providence cityscape. Discuss any objections here: --Loodog 17:17, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] history section too long

As much as I hate to concede it, the history section is obviously too long. How about taking current projects and splitting them off into a separate page?--Loodog 20:34, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. The usual method is to move the current version into its own sub-article and leave a summarized version within the main city article. Pentawing^Talk 00:12, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] poverty-stricken Providence

Someone has changed this:

"The city is located in Providence County and is the second-largest city in New England. Providence is nicknamed the "Beehive of Industry" and, since the 1990s, "The Renaissance City," which is a dubious and sometimes tongue-in-cheek claim given that Providence has one of the highest percentages of people living in poverty of any city in the United States. In fact, Providence is one of the "10 poorest cities in the country" - sharing company with Brownsville and Laredo, TX, New Orleans, LA, AClarke, GA, Hartford, CT, Newark, NJ, Syracuse, NY, San Bernardino, CA and Miami, FL [1]. Providence also has a very high crime rate and many run-down neighborhoods."

I've reverted much of it for the following reasons:

• I looked at the other cities mentioned, only one has this piece of information (that it's one of ten poorest cities) in the introduction, and with the exception of Miami the others don't mention poverty at all except in the standard demographics section. However, I considered it fair game to leave in a quick note to contrast the word "Renaissance", since "Renaissance" is up front in the intro too.

Yes, I agree the contrast is important and it is an interesting factoid distinguishing Providence from other cities. User 71.235.84.59

• Mentioning that it's poor and then spending an extra sentence to write that it is one of the ten poorest is redundant.

• Offer me documentation saying that Providence has a high crime rate and I'll believe it. Single digit murders a year hardly qualifies. Run-down neighborhoods would need citation to say, though even the article on Miami has no note of it.

--Loodog 18:05, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Also, user 71.235.84.59 was the one who put this piece of information in the Syracuse article anyway.--Loodog 18:13, 19 August 2006 (UTC)