Perpetuating the Providence Renaissance

By Anthony Flint, April 16, 2025

Providence, Rhode Island is a unique story—a “second city” in the orbit of significantly larger Boston to the north, but punching above its weight as a desirable place to live and work. With a population of nearly 200,000 people, it’s the third largest city in New England after Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, and was once home to extensive manufacturing and mills—a classic smaller legacy city, making its way in a postindustrial world.

Key city-building strategies have driven revitalization over the last 30-plus years. Providence became known for embracing New Urbanism, historic preservation, and adaptive reuse in its traditional downtown, and for culinary, cultural, and arts innovations like WaterFire, a festival of lanterns along three downtown rivers. The Congress for the New Urbanism is returning to Providence in June of this year for its annual summit.

At this juncture in the remarkable narrative, after dismantling highways and daylighting rivers and paying attention to urban design, the Renaissance City is now grappling with concerns about affordability, failing schools, crumbling infrastructure, and lingering pockets of post-manufacturing blight

All of that is the scenario for Brett P. Smiley—once chief of staff for former Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo—who was elected the 39th mayor of Providence in 2022. In this latest episode of the Land Matters podcast, and as part of the continuing series Mayor’s Desk—interviews with local leaders tackling global problems—Smiley talks about the challenges of keeping up the city’s revitalization momentum while addressing stubborn disparities.

“We’ve come a long way, and while there’s many of these kinds of postindustrial cities that continue to struggle, Providence is on an entirely different trajectory,” Smiley says. “Through the pandemic, a lot of people moved to Providence—primarily from the major population centers of New York and Boston, but from really around the country—where you saw people still wanting urban amenities, still wanting arts and culture and diversity, walkability, but with a little bit less work than it is to live in Manhattan or Brooklyn, certainly less expensive than living in those places or in Boston.”

While welcoming the influx, he says, “We’ve not kept pace with building, and as a result, housing prices are skyrocketing. That was in fact one of our competitive points in that we were less expensive. In the decade ahead, we’ve got a lot of work to do to bring down the cost of housing. What we have is a supply shortage and the solution to that is to build more.”

Also in the interview, Smiley reflects on his contrarian views on bike lanes, how to better support night-shift workers with improved transit and other services, housing as an economic development strategy to attract and retain major employers, and his experiences engaging with constituents.

He also shares his thoughts on how to balance public input with policy leadership; he was quoted earlier this year as saying, “There are times when public leaders need to say, ‘Pencils down, we’ve heard enough. This is what we’re doing.’”

Smiley came into office promising to prioritize public safety, education, affordable housing, and climate resilience, relying on “strategic investments and data-driven solutions.” Before being elected mayor, he was head of the Rhode Island Department of Administration and chief operating officer of Providence. Smiley graduated from DePaul University with a degree in finance and an MBA. He resides on the East Side with his husband, Jim DeRentis, their dog, and their two cats.

A version of this interview is available in print and online in Land Lines magazine, as the latest installment in the Mayor’s Desk series.

Listen to the show here or subscribe to Land Matters on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Further Reading

From Plan to Place: Providence’s Downtown Renaissance | Placemaking Journal

Our city is a wonderful place, and yet it has its challenges | The Providence Journal

Smiley sees no ‘good options’ as he prepares taxpayers for rate hike | WPRI

How Four Cities Are Advancing Affordable Housing Despite NIMBYs | Smart Cities Dive

Providence, Rhode Island, Set to Become First City on East Coast to Ban New Gas Stations | Washington Examiner

Finding His Faith Community: Mayor of Providence Brett Smiley converts to Judaism | The Boston Globe

Anthony Flint is a senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, host of the Land Matters podcast, and a contributing editor of Land Lines.