The Providence WetSox

The first thing that popped into my head when I heard that there were plans to move the Pawsox to downtown Providence near the river was, “Didn’t anybody check out that CRMC/URI flood map?”

And apparently nobody did. I’ve seen articles in the paper. I’ve even tweeted reporters. Nobody’s asking the question, “Is this stadium going to be built on stilts?”

Here’s my mock-up of the location of the stadium cobbled together from the rough info we’ve received, plus an overlay of the flood zone maps.

This map assumes sea level rises and storm surges. It doesn’t have potential hurricane or the 100 year flood levels.

So, here’s the pitch question…

“What are the new Sox owner’s plans to deal with or mitigate flooding during and after construction of a proposed stadium?”

Disclosures: I love baseball. I love Providence. I like the Pawsox. I don’t like public subsidies of businesses that will make millions and return little in the way of revenue and long-term growth/momentum to a city. Oh, and I’m not a GIS mapper…