Footloose has come to Middletown High School. Educators there banned a sexually explicit kind of dancing called grinding and at the homecoming dance Saturday night students protested causing the principal to cancel the dance and send the students home early. Amazing! I promise you the students did much worse than grinding once they were unchaperoned outside of the dance than they did while at the dance.
I say let ‘em dance, and have a big long talk with them about how to treat potential sex partners with honor and respect. That said, get ready for a culture war over this one. Middletown Patch has a great story on what happened, with some really fascinating comments from the local parents.
It seems we aren’t the only members of the media who thinks the Doherty campaign is falling short of uncommon integrity. ProJo columnist Ed Fitzpatrick takes Doherty to task for manipulating Cicilline’s career as a defense attorney in a robocall writing, “the GOP robocall hits below the belt, and it calls for someone to state the obvious: Defense lawyers play an essential role in our criminal justice system and the sins of the client are not visited upon the attorney.” Scott MacKay, of RIPR, lambasts Doherty for getting facts wrong on Simpson-Bowles politics and for the paper tiger Democrats for Doherty, which looks more like a PC Friar alumni group than a political powerhouse.
While Doherty has more money, as Ted Nesi reports, it seems the rest of the media has concluded that – amazingly – Cicilline has the truth on his. The two debate live at PPAC tonight, 7 p.m.
Want to know how to fix Rhode Island’s economy? Sink every resource we can into the I-195 redevelopment project. There is no city or state in the country that wouldn’t love the opportunity to re-develop its cultural and commercial center.
Treasurer Gina Raimondo’s financial literacy program to help Rhode Islanders better manage their money (or lack thereof) is a fantastic idea, and we’re thrilled she is working with the Capital Good Fund. Financial literacy is one of the huge natural advantages the haves enjoy and the have-nots often do not.
Rhode Island is exporting progressives!! Cynthia Dill is a progressive Democrat, who grew up in Barrington, hoping to win the Maine Senate seat formerly occupied by moderate Republican Olympia Snow.
Dan Barry has the best beat in America. If you aren’t, you should read his multi-part profile on a small town in Ohio.
“There is no city or state in the country that wouldn’t love the opportunity to re-develop its cultural and commercial center.”
Well, unless there are oil tanks, a hazardous waste processor, an asphalt plant, and strip clubs there. Then those have to stay.
There’s nothing magically more economically stimulating about the 195 land than the many more acres of vacant and under used land downtown and in Capital Center that has existed far longer than the 195 parcels. We need to maintain a City-wide approach to development and not think that the 195 land is some sort of magic bullet to our economic problems, it is not, it is just more vacant land.
You’re saying contiguous parcels aren’t more of interest to developers and therefore more economically stimulating than parcels spread out all over the city? What about waterfront property? No difference there than property along say the 95 viaduct? Come on.
There’s only 2 or 3 195 parcels that are of any remarkable size that is any different than land that is currently vacant or under-utilized in the rest of the city. And aside from the Shooters site, there is not any waterfront land available as a result of the 195 removal. Meanwhile, in Capital Center we have the Citizens Building parking lots abutting the riverwalk.
As for the 95 viaduct, surely you know highway access is a big plus in the eyes of many developers.
I thought the riverfront area around the proposed pedestrian bridge was considered part of the 195 land, no? You’re right though, the Citizens parking lot is a waste. Of course I was also thinking of Allens north of Thurbers (the new ANT district?) with it’s proximity to the hospitals. But, hey, I guess we just love scrapyards!
The land directly against the river is set to be parks. And Allens Ave. is not part of the 195 project.
Yes, but you’re implying here that parks can’t be tied to economic development. Not sure how well received that will be on a progressive blog. I’m also aware the Allens Ave isn’t part of this. That’s why I’ve been advocating for a scrapyard for the East Side Shooters location. Clearly the best option.
btw those parcels look pretty contiguous to me. They’re certainly closer to Alpert Medical School and JWU than most…
Rhode Island Interstate 195 Relocation Surplus Land: Redevelopment and Marketing Analysis
The streetgrid is being rebuilt and there will be smaller parcels created as a result.
www.gcpvd.org/images/other/ridot_westside.pdf
^ That plan is slightly out of date, but gives the general idea.
Of the resulting parcels, many already have buildings on portions of them. There’s really precious few large parcels as a result, and most of them have existing analogues throughout the rest of the city which to date, have failed to be developed. There’s nothing particularly special about the 195 parcels that make them more developable. The biggest thing in their favor may be the state’s eagerness to unload them, thought there are many conditions attached to their sale which may make them less attractive.
As for parks as a tool of economic growth, sure they are, they are important to a vibrant functioning city, but their placement precludes development directly on the waterfront. There are plenty of parcels around Davol Square, the South Street Power Station, and in Capital Center that to date remain undeveloped.
Indeed they are close to J&W and J&W has an option to develop two of them adjacent to their campus and has expressed interest in a third. Brown is keeping its plans close to the vest, but they already own a lot of land/buildings in the Jewelry District south of the 195 land and are very likely to want to pick up a parcel or two within the 195 land. The state however does not have to expend many or any resources to make J&W and Brown interested, they already are, they just have to sell off the land.
I’m not saying the state should not put any resources towards the development of the 195 land, but we need to remember there is a whole city to market, the excitement about the 195 land is overblown. It is good to have surplus land to develop our economy, population, and tax base, but we need an economic climate to make that happen. The surplus of land already available in the Downtown makes me think we haven’t done that yet. The 195 land won’t magically develop itself if the conditions that have kept the rest of the city from developing more intensely remain.
Kudos to Ed Fitzpatrick! Even though we have seen an erosion of Constitutional protections that has escalated since Richard Nixon was elected on a law and order platform, we still have a Constitution. Obviously, the “law man” and the party he represents have little regard for the sixth amendment, among others. I think Fitzpatrick has stood up for right against wrong in this particular instance rather than a person or a particular party. It is true most Democrats have picked up on the Republican party’s disregard for inconvenient parts of the Constitution since the onset of the “war on drugs” and then using 9/11 as an even “better” excuse but here it is clear Doherty and the Republicans are making the case that “All” as in “In ***all*** criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy . . . the assistance of counsel for his defence.” can be selectively applied. Can we please elect someone who will uphold the Constitution rather than give assistance to those who would further turn this country into a worse police state than it has become?