Size Matters

I just returned from a trip to New York City, an experience that is always equal parts invigorating and overwhelming. On the one hand, it’s great to be in a city where there is always something happening. On the other hand, being in a city where everything is always happening can discourage as easily as it excites.

As much as we like to fancy ourselves a cosmopolitan place that can hold its own with any city – and to a large extent that’s true; Providence is quite good at punching above its weight class – a few days in New York can be a harsh reminder that in many ways, size matters. When we speak of size, the important measurement is population, not land area. North Dakota’s largest city, Fargo, boasts more than twice the land area of Providence, but can only muster about 60% of our population. Where would you rather live?

Even in comparison to cities that are bigger on both counts, Providence holds its own. Jacksonville, Florida has a population more than four-and-a-half times the size of ours, and its roughly 875 square miles dwarf our 20. But you don’t see the birthplace of Lynyrd Skynyrd ranking among Travel + Leisure magazine’s “America’s Favorite Cities,” a survey in which the Renaissance City routinely comes out ahead of much larger competition.

A visit to New York, however, can be humbling even for our city’s biggest booster. Obviously, sizing up our little corner of New England against the country’s largest city is hardly a fair comparison, but it can make the limitations of a small population painfully obvious. While Providence may have all the bases covered when it comes to the joys of urban living, we’ll never match the depth and breadth of a big city. Sure, I can get Vietnamese food delivered to my house, but in Manhatan I could have Vietnamese food delivered by 30 different places, several of which would deliver until 4am and bring pot. The sheer scope of the place opens up a world of possibilities that would be unfathomable (and, more importantly, unsustainable) in Providence.

Drawing on a smaller population makes it more difficult to generate the critical mass of people necessary to sustain an ambitious restaurant concept, a big festival, a cutting-edge arts institution or even just a Vietnamese joint that delivers late. It can also foster mediocrity. For example, there isn’t an Indonesian restaurant in Providence, but if there was, it wouldn’t even need to be that good to survive. When you’re the only game in town, there’s no incentive to raise the stakes. However, in New York you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a restaurant concept that hasn’t been done 100 times, so you better bring you’re A-game if you’re going to make it.

This is not to get discouraged or to say that we’re doomed by our small size, but rather to keep in mind the benefits of a larger city. Rhode Island’s shrinking population is a source of concern, and with the 2010 census Providence dropped below Worcester to become New England’s third largest city. While we can never expect to size up to New York, or even Boston, neither can we sit back and watch our city continue to shrink. A growing Providence is a healthy Providence – but still, it beats the hell out of Jacksonville.