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RandomChurn t1_iuqvob2 wrote

Reply to comment by brick1972 in Why was Route 95 sited where it is in Providence? by HistoricalDocument11

Thank you for this comprehensive reply: so interesting! I didn't grow up here so my knowledge about both RI and Providence is woefully lacking. This bit:

> Providence was still a large city in the US (in 1950 it was the same population as Miami for instance)

is totally new to me. Was Providence once much bigger / densely populated, or is it that it stopped growing at the rate that other comparably-sized cities did?

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brick1972 t1_iuqzd2d wrote

The density definitely got lower. Providence metro has increased population while Providence city limits has gone down. That said even the metro hasn't grown at anywhere near the rates of cities in the south and west.

On my phone so it's annoying to share links but you can look on macro trends and other places to see what I mean. Bear in mind most data lacks granularity since the census is every ten years.

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RandomChurn t1_iurreic wrote

>That said even the metro hasn't grown at anywhere near the rates of cities in the south and west.

Ah yes. I grew up in MA. And that applies to all of the Northeast pretty much, right? There was a flight to the south and west when manufacturing became much cheaper there (before most of it then moved out of the US altogether). Like mens shirts and all knitwear -- they used to be made in New England and first moved to the sunbelt before going offshore.

(And of course, nearly all of RI's jewelry manufacturing, which I think went from here straight to China/SE Asia 😣)

Again, much appreciate these insights 🤝

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sandsonik t1_iut6tx0 wrote

It was much bigger. Providence's population was 253k in 1940. Post WWII, there was a huge move towards the suburbs. By 1980, Providence population was only 156k. It has grown slowly since then, but is still not up to where it was 100 years ago.

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