He’s a lifelong unionized worker, has gone to PawSox games for the last four decades, and knows cities intimately as a former telephone worker. Dan Murphy also went to every Listening Tour stop last summer when owner Larry Lucchino was trying to get a new stadium built by the taxpayers in Providence as one of the leaders of the grassroots resistance, vociferous in his rejection of the proposed deal then and now still opposed to public funding for renovations of private buildings, be it McCoy Stadium or the Superman building in downtown Providence.

Recently the pre-bid press conference was held at McCoy Stadium for “proposals from qualified firms to prepare a master plan study (the “Study”) of the McCoy Stadium facility and surrounding area located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The intent of the Study is to develop a master plan for significant repairs, upgrades, system replacements and/or improvements to McCoy Stadium and the surrounding area. The State of Rhode Island has regularly financed capital improvements to McCoy Stadium.” This comes more than a year after the late Jim Skeffington and Lucchino told the public a study had already been done and found that renovations for McCoy were too costly.

At a moment when bankruptcy is being floated in regards to the capital city, school buildings are in abject shambles, the birthing unit of a Pawtucket hospital is due to be closed, and unemployment and under-employment still high, Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien and state leaders are seriously considering this in two different instances. Murphy has read through the bid solicitation document for the PawSox and remains unimpressed.

“You can’t buy it with capitalism and pay for it with socialism, it doesn’t work that way,” he said. “If the state owns a piece of it and it looks like a good deal, then it’s worth considering. Other than that, no. To make rich people richer? No way! Neither one of those facilities is life-essential, like a hospital or a police-fire station combination or something to that effect. This is just a stadium and its just a building and they’re not going to make anyone any richer except for the people who own them.”

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Is there any indication that Lucchino has any interest in keeping the team in Pawtucket for at least the next 25 years? “Oh God no. They’re shopping around, they’re holding their cards close to the vest. I think this whole song and dance they’re doing now with they’re supposedly rebuilding the trust and all that crap? They’re not looking to do that. They’re looking at the fans that go to a certain amount of games every year, and you can count on them like clockwork, they’re not bothering with them, just like they didn’t bother with us last year. They assume we’ll keep coming and if we don’t we’ll be replaced with the new hipster-type fans.”

Murphy’s years of going to the PawSox games have helped him learn about the neighborhood surrounding McCoy intimately. “I think their only investment in the community surrounding McCoy Stadium would be to level it and to build it into something that they want. That’s about it. If you recall when we were putting up with those dog-and-pony shows last summer, [team president Charles] Steinberg never really had anything good to say about the neighborhood around McCoy, he saw that as a negative, almost like it was a ghetto or a slum or something. It’s a lot of three-decker houses that were very well-kept and that’s a very clean neighborhood. Walk around it sometime! It’s a very clean neighborhood. But that whole neighborhood is going to get the kiss of death if Lucchino and his boys get their way.”

What is Lucchino like in comparison to late owner Ben Mondor? “Ben Mondor brought almost like a warmth, a trust, a friendship, a guy that you would sit down with and have a beer, even though his social and financial stature is way different than your own. He was a good guy. That’s the way he was looked at and people supported what he wanted to do because he never wanted to bring that stadium above the people who went there. He wanted to keep the team in Pawtucket, he wanted to keep the games being played there, he wanted to stay in that stadium if at all possible. He was your typical Rhode Islander, even though I believe he was from Canada originally,” he says.

“Lucchino, his history has been just build a stadium and flip it or rebuild a stadium and flip it. He’s not a baseball man, he’s a businessman and the same thing with his whole crew with him, his yes-men.”

“I don’t think they are above moving [the team] right when [construction] is starting to happen. It’s strictly business.”

Every year Annie welcomes the new roster of the Bulls. And through the course of the season gives the ballplayers her full-hearted devotion, affection, the finer points of the game and, in some cases, her body. Sarandon immortalized the nickname for her place in the pantheon, “Baseball Annie,” in a wonderful way. All Annie asked from the Bull players in return every year was respect and loving kindness. At the end of the year, it was all good-bye hugs and kisses, and no regrets to the boys of summer, with a new group due in for the same warm embrace in the spring.

At McCoy Stadium, it has never really been about the constantly changing players on the field, but the warmth, family atmosphere and affordable prices that allow folks to get more than their money’s worth. And if that is the future Jim Rice or Fred Lynn or Wade Boggs out there, it is a bonus that will be realized down the road with a boastful, “I saw him when he was at Pawtucket!”

Pawtucket Red Sox fans have become our own version of Baseball Annie, currently at a rift between the adoration of the PawSox in our hearts, and their ill-considered moment of straying from the emotional commitment of their loyal lovers. This was the much-vilified attempt by the new owners of the PawSox to abandon their age-old home of McCoy Stadium in the heart of The Bucket to more glamorous riverside digs in Providence. It left all the Little Rhody Baseball Annies stunned, hurt and more than a little pissed off.

Fortunately, that pie-in-the-sky attempt to drop Baseball Annie in favor of a more upscale relationship in the Capital City blew up in the team’s face. For a number of appallingly obvious reasons, the plan to relocate went down faster than Jeb Bush’s presidential hopes.

Time to make nice

Fortunately, the two new members of the front office management team, President Dr. Charles Steinberg and Sr. V.P./General Manager Dan Rea, seem to understand the Baseball Annie love affair the public has with their franchise. They inherited the mess from last year’s aborted move, which cost the club a big hit in attendance, and after a worthwhile chat with them, seem to fully understand the unspoken dynamic between team and fans.

Even more pleasingly, Vice Chairman Mike Tamburro, he of the perpetual smile and good humor, is still on hand from the legendary troika of he, late owner Ben Mondor, and top executive Lou Schwechheimer, who turned a moribund franchise into one that such New England lifestyle mags as Yankee magazine would recommend as a must-see Biggest Little attraction. And Dr. Steinberg so strongly relies upon Tamburro’s intimate knowledge of the needs and desires to succeed that he adamantly makes the point that he has moved himself into Tamburro’s office to make sure the acquired wisdom can rub off. Even to the point of pledging that he and Rea will be with Tamburro out in the parking lot greeting fans arriving for the game, even if they draw the slightly shocked and bemused reaction Tamburro is used to; most fans not realizing they have been given a personal thank you and warm welcome from the team’s top dog, who is more comfortable on the macadam than in a luxury box.

Steinberg and Rea both emphasize that the PawSox are here to stay in McCoy on a multi-year lease. This is almost a necessity if they want to woo their Annies back, and not seen to be looking over their devoted’s shoulder for yet another field of greener grass. They are making the critical financial commitment to the franchise with subtle improvements all around the 74-year old ballpark, the exception being the large banner atop a building outside the center field fence that shouts outs “Welcome to Pawtucket.” For residents of the city and essentially all Rhode Islanders, that is as good as sending two dozen red roses to their affronted lovers.

Unless my bullshit detector is badly damaged, I believe Steinberg, with Rea nodding in assent, when he says that the word for what they are trying to accomplish to bring their sweethearts back is simply, “Class. Doing things right and treating people well. It’s a two-way street.” And it is a road he, Rea and Tamburro are planning to take to win back the Baseball Annies.

Lover come back, all is forgiven. But don’t you ever, ever do that again. (Please.)

On The Ball And Off The Wall is an occasional sports column by Chip Young, a Rhode Island journalist who was a sportswriter and broadcaster for 25 years. Best known as Phillipe, of Phillipe and Jorge’s Cool, Cool World, Young was also an All-America soccer player in college, and he is in the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame. He has attended PawSox games since before the Mondor rehabilitation of the franchise, and once threw out the first pitch. He still has that ceremonial ball.

The tolls issue is not a case of supporting infrastructure projects or tax policy, or even an attempt at solving our problem of crumbling bridges and roads. Everyone agrees that Rhode Island’s roads and bridges are in need of repair. The tolls issue is really a case of trust in our elected leaders and the way the State of Rhode Island operates.

One fact becomes plain to anyone that has observed Rhode Island politics for more than 5 minutes: Rhode Island does not have a truly representative democracy. Legislators often vote against the wishes of their constituents. State leadership, and in particular Speaker Mattiello, force legislators to vote for bad legislation over and over again because legislators fear losing legislative grants, powerful committee positions and or having their own legislation quashed by the Speaker. In fact, three legislators have lost their committee positions because they voted against the tolls.

I also believe that it is fair to assume that house members that voted against the tolls will lose legislative grants and not have their critical legislation voted on. The reality is that legislation is controlled by Speaker Mattiello and his influence over the votes of legislators (via legislative grants, committee positions and other things) can not be denied.

I do not feel bad about my opposition to the tolls legislation because I am an adult with an opinion and a position on this very important matter. To be clear, I find this notion of social or group conformity tied to the label “progressive” to be pretty immature. I do get why legislators felt they had to vote yes on the tolls legislation. However, voters in my district are against the tolls, without a doubt. It isn’t even close. I would have voted no on the tolls and I would have forced a very serious debate about it.

As a resident of Pawtucket, I am reminded daily of the importance and significance of public works and infrastructure projects. Everyday, I walk my daughter to school, and beneath my feet are sidewalks made by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. When I go to Slater Park I can see a beautiful man-made pond with small bridges and a gazebo which is frequented by wedding photographers that was built by the WPA. In fact, the Pawtucket city hall was built by the Works Progress Administration. So, residents in Pawtucket are more than aware of the significance and success of public works projects, but that does not change the fact that we are against the tolls scheme.

To sum it up, this is not a progressive issue, or liberal issue, or a conservative issue. This is a trust issue. I understand that some legislators are upset with me for my position, just as they were upset about my position on the PawSox, but that does not change my position at all.

ONLY ON 10: @NBC10_Joe talks with PawSox owner Larry Lucchino about rebuilding fan trust. Watch NBC 10 News at 5:30. pic.twitter.com/lfRneFHMMN

— NBC 10 WJAR (@NBC10) February 17, 2016

What the discerning viewer could grasp at from the interview, and which Kayata would not vocalize, is the true nature of Lucchino’s plan. Here are the highlights, picked apart for all their meaning.

“This franchise was a jewel franchise for a long time. It has fallen on harder times in recent years.”

Uh, excuse me Mr. Lucchino, that is kind of a stretch. After Ben Mondor died, the team did struggle because his widow was not tuned to business acumen. But as soon as you and the late James Skeffington showed up with haughty expectations of not just moving the team but expecting Rhode Islanders to finance the move to Providence (something Kayata left out conveniently), the fans left in droves. Could it possibly be that you chased them away?

“We just want to recapture that glory, reignite that fan base, (and) galvanize the business community because that’s what was special.”

As reported earlier, this is asking for a subsidy from the state and the business community so to gentrify the poor community out of their homes near the ballpark. Lucchino smudged history in regards to his discussion of the attempt to move the Red Sox out of Fenway when he got involved with the Boston franchise years ago, trying to make it sound like that was all his decision, saying “It took us a couple of years to answer that [relocation] question in respect to Fenway Park.” It was not, a large contingent of Bostonians got up in arms and raised a huge SAVE FENWAY campaign that made it impossible for him to do as he had in Baltimore and San Diego and flip the team at profit a few years afterwards, leaving the taxpayers on the hook for projects that benefited only his bank account.

“We sat down with Mayor (Donald) Grebien here in Pawtucket and are working on a study of McCoy to see what kind of facility we have and what it needs to play an important role in the years ahead and we are focused on getting the fan base back to the ballpark”.

So does that mean that tax monies are being paid to fund this study? Why do you need another study when, this time last year, James Skeffington was telling people that a study had shown repairing McCoy was too costly? What could it possibly need considering the fact that McCoy and the PawSox are cited by many as an exemplary franchise?

Will the team remain in Rhode Island after the end of the current McCoy lease in 2020?

“I don’t know. That’s an impossible question to answer right now.”

In a word, no, unless of course they are given plenty of free money at the expense of the taxpayers and disenfranchise a slew of people who pay a higher percent of their income to taxes than Lucchino and company do.

It seems like Gina Raimondo is not the only vulture capitalist here for the long term. When William Carlos Williams wrote an Introduction to Allen Ginsberg’s classic poem Howl, he said in closing a brilliant line that fits these circumstances perfectly:

“Hold back the edges of your gowns, Ladies, we are going through hell.”

While the neighborhoods surrounding McCoy are not glamorous, they are authentic places and these are the types of stadiums that helped baseball grow into being the sport it is today. Baseball grew to the chosen American pastime in the neighborhoods across America, just like Pawtucket. Our Textile Mill Leagues here in Blackstone Valley provided a work diversion, and entertainment with their baseball teams and that helped the professional teams grow. From these neighborhood fields Rhode Island sent players like Nap LaJoie to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The roots of great baseball came from McCoy. These roots are what we need to build upon at McCoy.

The announcement of the move was not well received. The community was outraged, upset and created an organized resistance to the team moving. Rallies were held and the fans spoke up and out. Pawtucket’s Mayor, Don Grebien, took on the “up-hill battle” of fighting to keep the team in Pawtucket. The team’s effort to move has drastically changed. For the near future, the team is staying.

Last week, at a lunch at McCoy’s Clubhouse, Pawtucket Red Sox Chairman Larry Lucchino, Team President Dr. Charles Steinberg and General Manager Dan Rea addressed the community in a way that went beyond professional. It was heartfelt, meaningful and seemed to impact positively everyone in the room.   The late owner Ben Mondor and then President Mike Tamburro, now vice chairman, built the team with an amazing spirit that was not just corporate – it was heartfelt and community-driven. We have that spirit back at McCoy Stadium.

Our hearts were broken when the new owners fought so hard to leave Pawtucket. The community was not without blame. We could have done more to help create the “Destination Ballpark” they seek and deserve. It can be done in Pawtucket. We have time on our side and work to do. Economic Feasibility and Design Site Feasibility studies have to be completed.

The new team leadership, and the administrative support they have assembled, is working hard to regain the trust, friendship and support developed by the late Ben Mondor.

The community needs to support the work of our Pawtucket city officials and the new Pawtucket Red Sox ownership, if we are to keep the Pawtucket Red Sox at McCoy. Let’s begin to grow back the attendance, the business support and the high community morale the team gave us. Go Pawtucket Red Sox! Welcome to Pawtucket and Rhode Island Mr. Lucchino! This will be a great year.

McCoy Stadium has been adjacent to a large swathe of African, Latino, and low-income white renters who live in multi-family housing units for some time. Now Lucchino is courting the business community around the stadium and encouraging them to buy up the properties so to contribute to an “urban renewal” effort that no one asked for or needed until Lucchino came to town.

Gentrification, called a “benign ethnic cleansing” by writer John Strausbaugh, has been going on for several years in Pawtucket. Unless artists and white LGBTQQI people are conscientious and mindful of their impact on a community, these demographics can oftentimes find themselves as the foot-soldiers of the Caucasian invasion Lucchino and Grebien now wish to throw into overdrive with a sports stadium.

It bears mentioning that sports projects, such as the 1996 Atlanta Olympics or the repeated Super Bowls in New Orleans, have contributed to the gentrification of those historic cities of color. It also bears mentioning that Lucchino was recently seen in the entourage of Hillary Clinton at a Boston stop on the campaign trail before the the New Hampshire primaries. Mrs. Clinton and the policies of her husband are considered much to blame for the gentrification of the past two decades, particularly in regards to the anti-poor “Welfare reform” and “tough on crime” legislation that included housing regulations. When I talked with Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report this past summer, he emphasized that capital is eager to reclaim the metropolis and return the communities of color to a pre-World War II status quo, dispersed and marginalized politically and socially in the hinterlands as they were before the Great Migration was shifted into overdrive by the wartime economy under FDR.

At this point, the situation is divided into a rather unfortunate either/or situation. PawSox fans either have to say goodbye to their beloved team, something I get the impression many can handle considering the behavior of Lucchino and company, or they can get behind a renovation project, totally financed by the taxpayers, that will turn McCoy into a bulldozer of communities of color that probably will be far too expensive for these fans to attend anyways. Unless Lucchino comes out in the next few weeks with a plan to create community land trusts for these housing units or, alternatively, Grebien institutes a series of rent control policies, we are looking down the barrel of a very ugly rifle whose shot sounds eerily like Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

First was a letter co-signed by Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien and PawSox chairman/owner Larry Lucchino. In half-repentant tones that would only be considered genuine by the naive or gullible, the two make the first thrust at what has been long-expected, namely, a taxpayer-subsidized “renovation” of McCoy Stadium that is totally unwarranted and undeserved, particularly considering that the building was just given a makeover some years ago. Invoking a baseless notion of “competitive advantages” given other teams in the minor leagues by “newer facilities”, they are starting the opening round of a public fleecing.

If baseball players are so disadvantaged by sub-standard facilities, why are there so many players from Central and South America playing in the major leagues? Every year the boys of spring include among them a sizable number of talented players who grow up in poverty, played in sub-standard settings, and were successfully scouted by Americans with alluring promises of glory. Of course when they arrive on our shores, they discover that the minor leagues pay a pittance of a salary and that their fantasies of glory may indeed be just that, but such are the empty promises of men like Lucchino. That Mayor Grebien would play ball with such a fleecing shows perhaps his constituents should think wisely about who gets their vote next November, particularly in light of how Lucchino is in the business of professional gentrification.

The other bit of news is equally laughable. It would seem that the Cardi Corporation and the Department of Transportation are in a bit of a public tiff over the deterioration of the ‘I-Way’ bridge that redirected traffic on Interstate 195 several years ago. After a car crashed into a guard rail several years ago, it was revealed that the structure failed to meet Federal Highway Administration requirements. Cardi is now expecting the state (read: taxpayers) to reimburse them for the construction of a new guardrail.

As irony would have it, I have had a source for some years who was intimately involved in the construction of the highway as a unionized construction worker and inspector. This source indicated that, from start to finish, there was a host of corrupt practices to be seen in the creation of the structure, from the fabrication of the skeleton beams in out of state to the pouring of the cement. The I-Way, as is the case with almost every public construction project in Rhode Island, was a magnet for buffoonish corruption of every kind. When it was revealed several years ago that there was a state office operating in the upper floors of a gentleman’s club, it was barely mentioned that the office was located in that venue because it was just adjacent to the I-Way and Cardi’s offices on Allens Avenue. Cardi knew very well that they were cutting corners when they built that bridge and they did so anyway because of the bizarre inter-relations between the construction business, the asphalt/concrete industry, and various political and criminal families that have always had your transportation safety solely at heart.

This is a no-brainer. Larry Lucchino and the Cardi Corporation do not deserve any public monies. Lucchino made a bad business decision by getting into a seamy deal with the late James Skeffington, who thought his connections to the Democratic Party machine made this an automatic venture capitalist success. The Cardi Corporation should have just built their bridge properly. Meanwhile, as two corporate bodies with deep pockets come begging for a bail-out, Providence and the wider state is in a severe economic situation. Our schools are crumbling, the impoverished are left to beg, and the social safety net is a joke in comparison with the rest of the world.

There were no arrests, no protests, no pepper spray and, most importantly, no violence at Tolman High School on Friday. But after a series of surreal events at the Pawtucket high school – that began with a fight between a police officer and students on Wednesday and culminated on Thursday with police pepper spraying a student protest and arresting eight people – life didn’t quite get back to normal either.

Some 300 students were absent to start the day. There was an extra police officer inside, two police cars outside and two extra administrators on hand. Additionally, the school was in a state of what Superintendent Patti DiCesno called “shelter in place.”

“Students got to go to class, they got to go to lunch like normal,” she said. “But if they had to leave the room,” they needed an adult escort. This measure, DiCesno said, was actually unrelated to the events that played out on Thursday. “We were concerned … there’s other situations that have nothing to do with this that are going on with another city. There was chatter on twitter last night, it was kind of one city versus another city.”

This, plus yesterday’s events, left the entire Tolman community understandably apprehensive about the school day. “I think when they first came in this morning they were a little on edge,” she said of the students. About the teachers, she said, “Until we had our 7:30 meeting, I think they too were a little in shock and nervous. I think you could almost feel their relief after that half hour meeting.”

The students, too, relaxed, DiCesno said. “As the day went on when they got into a routine. By the end of the second period they felt like it was okay.” Even the number of absences dropped to about 100 by 9:15, with 20 being more normal.

• Tolman students report disturbing police behavior
• Nonviolence street workers keep peace in Pawtucket

Ten students met with her and Mayor Don Grebien at City Hall in the morning, which DiCesno said was very productive.

“Students were allowed to speak about all of their concerns, why they were afraid, what they were upset about and what they thought needed to be changed,” she said. “We’re hoping that this core group of kids can now be the voice of concern for students and for their safety and what they feel is the violation of their rights.”

There will be a “student-driven” assembly on Monday for the entire student body to ask the ten students about their meeting with the mayor. DiCesno said she hopes the group that met with the mayor joins forces with the existing Young Voices group at Tolman.

“If we can get these kids to join together then they can self advocate within their own building,” she said. “So what I would like to see them do is bring school policy to the school committee.”

DiCesno says the school is taking extra care to ensure that the students “feel like they are being heard.”

“We’re also going to provide time in school day for our street workers to work with the kids … to peacefully protest,” she said. “How to do this with a true message instead of chaos so there is a sense they are being heard.”

For Friday’s school day, she said, “we wanted two extra administrators, not more police presence, because we wanted people who could say you need to talk about this, let’s bring them over here because we have a little room set up.”

She didn’t comment on the incident, but said the officer involved was not unpopular with the students. He has been at Tolman for a year and a half and there have been no other incidents. “Even some of the students who may be angry about the incident will tell me in the same conversation ‘but I really like him.'”

She defended the concept of school resource officers, saying, “There are many more pluses in having a relationship with an SRO, but that determination will be made once the investigation is over and once the police department does it’s investigation.”

But she added, “Everything is on the table in that the kids are going to have a say … and I think as time goes by the students will get a little less uncomfortable and intense and they will be able to make good decisions about their school, about what they need and want. Right now we need to get them to feel safe and trust us that we are going to listen to them.”

There has been great talk of late centered around the protests against the stadium. I want to offer a few ideas here about the strategy being offered in Providence by those who are adamant that the parcel of land remain designated as an open space green park.

First, it is important to begin with where this park idea comes from. Section 42-64.14-5 of H 5994- AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC PROPERTY AND WORKS, the law passed in 2011, reads:

However, parcels P2 and P4, as delineated on that certain plan of land captioned “Improvements to Interstate Route 195, Providence, Rhode Island, Proposed Development Parcel Plans 1 through 10, Scale: 1”=20’, May 2010, Bryant Associates, Inc., Engineers-Surveyors-Construction Managers, Lincoln, RI, Maguire Group, Inc., Architects/Engineers/Planners, Providence, RI,” shall be developed and continued to be used as parks or park supporting activity provided, however, that the city of Providence shall not be responsible for the upkeep of the parks unless a memorandum of understanding is entered into between the commission or the state and the city of Providence that grants full funding to the city for that purpose.

To that extent, the taxpayers have already funded landscape architects who have been developing plans for the future park, as seen in this slideshow.

But besides this issue is one that will determine the future development of the rest of the I-195 land. The stadium proposal is throwing a major monkey wrench into the drafting of a master permit by Department of Environmental Management, the Coastal Resources Management Council, and the Narragansett Bay Commission “that would shorten the time it takes for developers to build on former Route 195 land,” as Kate Bramson of the ProJo reported on May 2. The open park is intended to also include a stormwater mitigation mechanism that would shorten building permit wait times significantly. Bramson’s piece had a few lines worth repeating, including a quote from Quonset Development Corporation’s managing director Steven King:

“In Rhode Island, time is a killer,” King said. “When you get bogged down, your business seeks the path of least resistance.”

Bramson went on to explain that, if the stadium were to be built, it could trigger a domino-like reaction where the various agencies involved would have to revise their portions of the master permit and perhaps lead to further delays in development of the land. This is something that could end up being a real threat to construction jobs in Providence because these three agencies are not known for being anything but stringent. One of the alternatives would include underground construction in a part of Providence already well-known for traffic jams or using another parcel of land as a park where a building could have been. When I recently asked Syd McKenna, co-host of the PawSox listening tour, about this issue, she shrugged and said they intend the stadium to have a grass field, ergo no worries. But that is not exactly the same thing, the underground foundation of the stadium could end up failing to meet the mitigation requirements.

Another point I would encourage the Providence opposition to focus their energies on is making the team publicize the terms of the deal. Right now, the owners are trying to push the idea of a contract that would be ‘revenue neutral’, but I am unsure if that is just Rhode Island-ese for tax breaks, subsidies, and public funding. The simple message should be four words, ‘Show Us The Deal‘. While I respect the efforts of the people in Providence, I am skeptical about sending a petition to City Council based on the Providence Home Rule Charter Section 209 because when this strategy was used last so to raise the minimum wage, the General Assembly voided it by passing a law to bar municipalities from doing so, something they have done multiple times before. If the City Council or State House were to void the petition, that would be a tremendously disenchanting. But by engaging in a PR blitz calling for nothing more or less radical than transparency and no tax breaks, subsidies, and public financing, there is a further chance for success. And incidentally, the financing is the meta-issue that will resolve all the others by default. The park, the master permit, and the host of other peripheral concerns will take care of themselves if the PawSox do not get the financing they want, it is as simple as that. Having attended most of the Listening Tour stops, I can report that the speakers are doing very well at adapting to answer the tiny concerns, such as now including the claim that the ownership will build an adjacent green park so to appease those focused solely on that topic, but they consistently stonewall when asked to disclose the terms of the deal they want. Every decent attorney knows that kind of silence is the sign of a weak spot, so continuing to agitate on that point will continue to frustrate the owners.

These parcels have the potential to generate both years of joy at no cost for the general public and also revenues for the city when organizations reserve space for events. By contrast, a ‘revenue neutral’ stadium would cost money to attend and would send all event monies to the PawSox owners. Just last night, it was announced that Larry Lucchino, principal owner of the PawSox, is leaving his post at Fenway to devote more time to championing the stadium’s construction. This makes clear to me that, while they are probably getting desperate, this is not the end of anything, we have merely entered the eye of the hurricane.

The potential move of the Pawtucket Red Sox to downtown Providence has caused heated debate between the public and the General Assembly since the idea was first floated earlier this year. On Thursday, opponents of the move rallied outside of the State House to express their passionate disapproval for the move.

Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien shared his own memories of McCoy Stadium at the rally, saying that he knows that he’s not the only one with such an emotional attachment.

“Like many of you, the first baseball game I ever attended was at McCoy. As a kid, I used to go to McCoy with my parents and grandparents to enjoy the games and see the future Red Sox greats before they were household names,” he said.

“I am certain all of you have similar experiences and traditions that you hold dearly as well. The memories and traditions formed at McCoy are things we all cherish. Memories we fear Rhode Island’s kids may never get to experience for themselves.”

Grebien continued to speak about the stadium’s previous ownership under Ben Mondor, and how Mondor was dedicated to the Pawtucket community as well as the team. The new ownership does not hold such sentiment.

“The new ownership has a very different business model, one that some could say is totally contrary to what exists there now. It lacks the vision, compassion, and commitment to the core principles that have made the franchise so successful,” Grebien said.

After his speech, Grebien added that the citizens of Pawtucket have not been involved in any of the business decisions the new owners have made. Residents have not even been made privy to the feasibility study that was reportedly conducted to determine the condition of McCoy.

“What we’re trying to understand, and what we’ve asked for from the ownership, is a feasibility study that they’ve done to give us an idea. How bad is it? If it’s bad, show us it’s bad,” he said.

Grebien is not the only one who feels this way, though. Sam Bell, the Rhode Island State Coordinator for the Progressive Democrats of America, has his own reasons opposing the PawSox becoming the ProvSox.

“There’s so many issues,” he began. “It starts with the basic principles of the public planning. Taking away a public park, flooding the area with surface parking, clogging out businesses, creating massive amounts of noise that disrupts the residents who live there.”

According to Bell, most people who he has spoken with who live or work around the vacant I-195 lands, which is where the new stadium would be built, do not want it there. The request for public money to help fund the project is also wrong in Bell’s eyes.

“It’s the public’s money. The amount they’re asking for is grotesque,” he said. “The amount they are asking for here is obscene to a degree that we often don’t even see.”

“I actually think it’s bad for Providence, to move it into that location, which is going to be a park, and it would hurt Pawtucket to leave it. One of the great things about this is that there’s so many issues and people come at it with so many different perspectives, but everyone agrees, we have to stop this deal,” Bell added.

Economic development has been one of the biggest talking points in support of a new stadium. Sharon Steele, a board member of the Jewelry District Association, finds that exact reason is why everyone should be fighting against a stadium. If a stadium were to be built, it would only bring minimum wage jobs, rather than small businesses that could directly benefit the community. Steele also mentioned that the park would help to draw in business more so than a stadium.

“Parkland is a hugely important center place for appropriate development,” she said. “Whether you look at Central Park, or you look at all the other magnificent parks across the country, and the I-195 land was specifically made for economic development, and a stadium simply does not fulfill that specific requirement.”

With both the House of Representatives and the Senate in recess until September, it’s hard to say what the fate of the PawSox will be. Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello has given his support for the move, but he has also said that he will not go against what the public ultimately wants. Unless something major happens between now and September, the public seems to believe that the PawSox should stay right at home, in Pawtucket.