Despite sidewalk restoration and clean-up efforts launched last year on Thayer Street, local business owners disagree about whether these improvements represent real progress in making the street a better place to do business.
The University and the city of Providence financed the $800,000 Thayer Street Improvement Project, which funded new street signs, trash receptacles and decorative crosswalks last year.
The Thayer Street District Management Authority - a coalition of the area's commercial property owners, including Brown - will continue to manage the street's upkeep, said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president.
Six months after construction began last September, business owners are offering mixed responses to the improvement project's results.
Kenneth Dulgarian, director of the DMA and owner of several buildings on Thayer Street, including Avon Cinema, said given the difficulty rallying support around contributing cash for improvements, the project was a success.
"Overall, I'm very pleased. It takes a little time to turn a cruise ship around," he said.
But some business owners feel that the improvement project promised more than it delivered.
"I thought it was over-packaged and over-presented," said Al Read, owner of Nice Slice. "It looked like general maintenance that was passed off as improvements."
Others had hoped for greater infrastructural improvements as part of the project.
"As far as I'm concerned, what should have been done was bury the utilities, widen the sidewalks and address parking for the Thayer Street business community," said Ed Bishop '54, who participates on the DMA board of directors as a member of the public and insures several businesses on Thayer Street. Such improvements, he estimated, would have cost around $2.5 million.
Dulgarian suggested that big projects like constructing a parking garage or widening the sidewalks could still be part of the DMA's future plans, but he emphasized that improvement is a step-by-step process.
"There are different phases as to how something progresses. We've just articulated one phase," Dulgarian said, adding that the DMA has hired architectural consultants to advise the organization on how it can be creative in its improvements.
The DMA set aside $10,000 of its 2007 budget for professional parking consultation.
Abigail Rider, Brown's director of real estate and administrative services, said such larger capital improvements were "financially not possible." The goal of the project, she said, is to make the area - already a commercial success - a little nicer.
Some parts of the project have not been completed. Trees will be planted and planter boxes will be installed in the spring, and unfinished decorative crosswalks will be completed when daytime temperatures are warm enough - 75 degrees, Bishop said - to make impressions in the street.
Thayer Street property owners also contribute money toward improvements to Thayer Street through the DMA. Approved by the City Council in January 2006, the DMA is authorized to levy a tax of up to 5 percent on the district's commercial properties in order to finance utility maintenance, infrastructure development and landscaping on Thayer Street.
In addition to the commercial property taxes, the University donated about a quarter of the DMA's $80,000 budget last year, Rider said. That budget, she said, is mostly spent on sanitation, graffiti removal and street washing.
"We're not trying to make Thayer Street Rodeo Drive," said Rider, who added that basic steps like improving facades and planning events could go a long way toward sprucing up the area.
"I think the board of the (DMA) is hoping that the merchants will kind of wake up, because some self-help is a good thing too," Rider said.
Some business owners are pleased with what they call a cleaner Thayer Street, while others seem quick to criticize the efforts of the DMA.
"I won't be part of it because there's nothing that gets done," said Chooky DeBeaulieu, owner of the fabric and gift boutique Yang's.
In addition to overseeing the upkeep of Thayer Street, the DMA is an important link between the business community and the University, Spies said.
"We thought of the district management authority not just as a way to get particular things done but to have a regular dialogue with the property owners and the merchants on Thayer Street," he said.
A concern voiced by owners of Thayer Street businesses is that the DMA's additional property tax has been handed down to them by landlords in the form of higher rent.
"The small guy can't afford it," DeBeaulieu said, adding that she has considered closing her business as her rent has increased. She said the old, collegiate character of Thayer Street is fading because only corporate franchises can afford to rent property in the area.
A similar organization of commercial property owners in downtown Providence banded together two years ago. The Downtown Improvement District has funded a full-time staff of 20 yellow-clad street workers - who make up "clean" and "safety" teams - to patrol an 81-square-block area.
"We're fortunate to have quite a concentration of valuable buildings," said Frank LaTorre, director of public space for the downtown district. Concentrated wealth, he said, is key to raising enough revenue to make things happen.
LaTorre said he lobbies frequently on behalf of the district in order to raise extra money from the city. Johnson & Wales University also contributes to the Downtown Improvement District, he added.
"The nonprofits don't have to pay in, and yet ironically they're our largest rate-payer because they saw the good of this," LaTorre said.
The University has no plans for another capital contribution on the same scale as its $400,000 donation last year, Spies said, but he added that such considerations are not out of the question.
As for the functionality of the DMA in addressing Thayer Street's needs, Spies said he hopes that early difficulties won't hinder its ability to get things done in the future.
"I hope people won't rush to judgment and say that it can't work just because it isn't working as well as they'd like right now," he said.
Bishop, who is developing plans to build a 125-room hotel on Brook and Meeting streets, said despite business owners' frustration, the DMA is a good thing.
"I think they have - oh, let's say, lots of challenges," he said.
