Enjoy summer while you can. Happy Friday, and thanks for stopping by. As always, your tips and comments remain welcome via idonnis (at) ripr (dot) org, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
1. Does Rhode Island need another economic report? In some ways, things haven’t changed much since the state was vexed by corruption, job losses, and crumbling infrastructure as it headed into the Great Recession. Yet the national recovery has dropped RI out of the national unemployment leaders, and Governor Gina Raimondo is winning some plaudits for a more hands-on governing approach. Having more data isn’t a bad thing in itself, and Raimondo’s move was foreshadowed by how she brought the Brookings Institution’s Bruce Katz to speak here in 2013. Brookings plans to develop a series of economic-strategy recommendations by December or January, as well as a longer report, while also examining the highest and best use for the land made available by the relocation of I-195. Brookings’ Mark Muro, a former Boston Globe reporter, points to Tennessee and even Massachusetts as places that have replaced previous economic doldrums with new prosperity. “I think these turnarounds can occur, and you have some tremendous assets in the universities and some other strong assets across the state,” he said in an interview. “I think there’s a lot of potential.” Some might say that potential has never been Rhode Island’s problem. Yet although critics disagree with the approach, Raimondo’s tenure remains an important test case on the extent to which a motivated leader can move Rhode Island past its longstanding economic woes.
2. Tuesday’s nearly four-hour City Council meeting in Cranston offered compelling political theater, even if there was generally more heat than light. Mayor Allan Fung‘s critics and opponents, including Democratic mayoral challenger Michael Sepe, savored the opportunity to skewer Fung. There were references by various residents and local politicos to Richard Nixon, ISIS, and Gordon Fox. Fung supporters defended the mayor (see #8), and the three-term Republican leader mostly stuck with the points he used with reporters a week earlier: yes, mistakes were made, Fung said, but he acted in taxpayers’ interests. Councilor Steven Stycos, one of the two councilors whose wards were hit during Ticketgate, steadily asked the most public-minded questions — and he remained unsatisfied by Fung’s answers. Moving forward, the mayor continues to point to how the Cranston PD is under new leadership. Yet a series of lawsuits spawned by the city’s recent woes are unfolding, offering a reminder of that chapter in Cranston history, not to mention more bills for taxpayers.
3. The Wall Street Journal this week dubbed Wesley Edens “the New King of Subprime Lending,” pointing to how Edens turned $124 million into $3.5 billion. If Edens doesn’t strike you as a household name, you’re not alone. But his firm, Fortress Investment Group, owns New Media Investment Group/GateHouse Media, which last year bought the Providence Journal. GateHouse continues to gobble up papers across the US, growing the critical mass of its advertising markets, even while absorbing cuts at its new acquisitions. Not surprisingly, Providence Newspaper Guild President John Hill would prefer to see GateHouse make a greater journalistic investment in entities such as the ProJo. It’s a relevant point, since the paper no longer has regular municipal coverage in communities, like East Providence, Johnston, and Pawtucket, that seemingly form a core part of the Journal’s audience. The WSJ story on Eden notes how he “has climbed Grand Teton and the Matterhorn, [and] planned to climb Mount McKinley, North America’s highest mountain, this summer until he broke his arm in a competitive horse-jumping event.” For Rhode Islanders who care about the civic role played by a vigorous statewide newspaper, strengthening the ProJo would make a welcome addition to that challenging to-do list.
4. Don’t miss RI Public Radio healthcare reporter Kristin Gourlay‘s ongoing series on the troubled state Department of Children, Youth and Families. Kristin has focused on everything from the challenge in recruiting foster families and the long reach of abuse and neglect to the high caseloads and high stakes facing DCYF caseworkers.
5. State Rep. Carlos Tobon (D-Pawtucket) expressed the view of many supporters of keeping the PawSox at McCoy Stadium, during an appearance on this week’s RIPR Bonus Q+A: “They have a name. They’re called the Pawtucket Red Sox. That’s why they are. That’s where they belong. That’s where they should stay.” (Certainly, if many one-time partisans of the Dodgers had their way, the team would still be in Brooklyn.) It’s true, too, that the PawSox’ initial ask was audacious enough to provoke skepticism. Yet the details of the next iteration of an agreement for a Providence ballpark remain unknown for now. It’s understandable that a Pawtucket lawmaker needs to take a stance reflecting hometown views. Yet until a deal emerges, trying to pin down most lawmakers on where they stand is a fool’s errand.
6. Central Falls Mayor James Diossa is celebrating his 30th birthday Friday evening with a combined party/fundraiser at La Casona restaurant on Broad Street. Central Falls and its youthful leader have come a fair way since Diossa first won election in 2012. Moody’s has twice upgraded the city’s bond rating in the last two years, city government more closely resemble the citizens of CF, and the city is being cited as an example, albeit not without pain along the way, of a post-bankruptcy success (see item #11 for more on that.)
7. Adventures in Crowd-Sourcing, Pt I: Ken Block said Watchdog RI has reached its crowd-funding goal of about $1,600 in less than three days and will likely request documents next week to do a study on overtime spending in the Providence Fire Department. In other news, Block is about to launch a new business with partner, Rick Schad, selling a made-in-the-US belt with a detachable divot-repair tool for golfers. We also had to ask Block about the controversy involving Mayor Fung; Block said during his first televised debate with Fung last year, he said the problems in the Cranston Police Department showed Fung was unqualified to be governor. “That statement stands more strongly now than then,” Block said.
8. Does everything come back to #Deflategate? Cranston resident Joseph Gabriele raised the reference while defending Mayor Fung — with the most colorful speech of the evening — during Tuesday’s Cranston City Council meeting. Key excerpt: “What kind of show is this tonight? I’m half-expecting Ted Wells, so-called disinterested third-party from the NFL, to come out from behind this bench with his full-of-holes 180-page Deflategate report in one hand and your full-of-holes 180-page report, Ticketgate report, in the other. As your star witness, that’s how much credence I and many others here put to all these allegations. The fact of the matter is Mayor Fung is our leader, our quarterback, and has led Cranston to being a great city again, despite — no respect intended — the persistent challenges and negativity from some of the envious Colts- and Ravens-like leaders I see before me. [Tom] Brady trounced the Colts in the second half of that game and was the MVP of the Super Bowl, cementing his reputation as the best quarterback ever. So too will the real facts come out one day and cement Allan Fung and his reputation as one of the state’s fairest, most successful leaders in state history. This circus tonight will not and should not erase those accomplishments or stop that incredible progress. I implore members of this council to close the tent to this circus and get back to the issues we elected you to be ringmasters for instead. We have our own Super Bowl to win as a city, one city. Thank you.” Fung supporters applauded. A female Fung critic called out, “A quarterback in the Pony League!”
9. Adventures in Crowd-Sourcing, Pt II: Lawerence Lessig is familiar to local supporters of campaign finance reform for his critique of how money influences American politics. Lessig announced this week his intention to crowd-source his way to a presidential run; he calls the status quo of campaign finance an obstacle to reforming a rigged system. Old friend David S. Bernstein, a former Rhode Islander, weighed in with an epic tweet stream, calling Lessig’s critique overly broad and his focus on a single-issue campaign misplaced.
10. As the Washington Post reports, two Army women have made it to final phase of an exhausting training course in the Florida swamps: “If they pass, they will become the first Ranger-qualified women in the history of the U.S. military and will be celebrated at an Aug. 21 graduation ceremony at Fort Benning, Ga., that is expected to draw not only family and friends, but hundreds of other well-wishers and media from across the country.” US Senator Jack Reed, thought to be the only former Ranger in the chamber, supports the inclusion of women in the Rangers, provided they meet the required physical standards, according to spokesman Chip Unruh.
11. Speaking of Mayor Diossa, Central Falls is help up in a new Pew Charitable Trusts’ report as doing a lot better post-municipal bankruptcy than Vallejo, California, where “failure to confront core financial problems could haunt post-bankruptcy Vallejo.” By contrast, “In March 2014, less than two years after Central Falls emerged from bankruptcy, city officials reported a budget surplus for fiscal 2013. To carry out the city’s six-year recovery plan, Rhode Island returned control of daily operations to elected municipal officials while retaining oversight of city finances. The bankruptcy court maintains the authority to intervene to enforce or change the recovery plan if the judge believes the city is mismanaging its finances.”
12. Before Jack Sommer of East Greenwich was arrested this week in an episode involving smashing a window of a vehicle owned by a homeless woman, he was the head of the New Leaders Project, a group established in 2010 with the intention of supporting what he called pro-jobs candidates. In 2012, the NLP upset the RI GOP by endorsing Democrats Joseph Shekarchi (who won) and Mark Schwager (who lost) over Republican opponents. The group’s web site is currently under maintenance and its Twitter account is defunct. (Correction: An earlier version of the post mistakenly reported that Jeffrey Deckman, a former GOP executive director, had been affiliated with the New Leaders Project; he was not. TGIF regrets the error.)
13. Apropos the Washington County Fair, the granddaddy of them all was the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, etched in stunning detail in Erik Larson’s The Devil in The White City. Many famous people had some role in the Chicago fair, from Annie Oakley and Frederick Law Olmsted to Clarence Darrow and Theodore Dreiser, not to mention Charles McKim (a founder of the firm that designed our Statehouse) and a devious serial killer. It was also marked by the debut of such innovations as Cracker Jack and the Ferris Wheel. To bring things into the present, David Brussat shares word of how Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio will, after a long delay, be bringing The Devil in The White City to the big screen.
14. Check out the Warwick-based ATOM Media Group’s pitch for the state’s tourism-promotion business.
15. Some noteworthy articles for summer reading: “Has Tinder Really Sparked a Dating Apocalypse?” …. “How Donald Trump Abandoned His Father’s Middle-Class Housing Empire for Luxury Building” ,,,, “The Heartbreaking Farewell” to Sports Illustrated’s archives …. “That’s Not Funny! Today’s College Students Can’t Seem to Take a Joke“
16. Congressional Quarterly/Roll Call was kind enough to ask me to be Rhode Island contributor for its latest look at the five top issues in each of the 50 States. The report will be published Monday, although you can sign up for it now.
17. Westerly-born fitness guru Tony Horton (of P90X fame) is slated to return there August 22 for a free “massive” public workout to benefit the United Theatre. Busy guy that he is, Horton is also slated to lead a boot camp-style workout September 3 at DC’s National Press Club.
This post has been updated.
