Is creating New England’s leading scrap shipping facility on Allens Avenue the best use of Providence’s waterfront?

By PBN Staff

When Sims Metal Management Ltd. announced that it was buying Promet Marine Services Corp. Ltd. and using its deep water births and 9 acres of land to create the New England base of its growing metal recycling business, proponents of Providence’s working waterfront saw it as validation.

It now seems unlikely that any use other than industrial will take place on the city’s Allens Avenue waterfront, ending what had been dreams of multiple mayors going back to Buddy Cianci.

But is a major scrap facility, no matter how many well-paying blue collar jobs it brings, the kind of business that should be such a major part of Providence’s connection to Narragansett Bay?