Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - November 15, 2019

HOT

New Design for College Hill's Proposed Hotel

GoLocal this week secured the renderings of the redesign of the proposed new hotel for College Hill and the design is dramatically different — with a smaller footprint, on-street dining, balconies, and a mansard roof.

The design is a dramatic change from the initial proposal that received strong opposition from neighbors and GoLocal’s architectural critic Will Morgan.

See images here

The new design will be submitted to the College Hill Neighborhood Association and the Providence Preservation Society for review.

The proposal by Ohio-based Smart Hotels is for a 126 room boutique hotel on the corner of Angell and Brook Streets. The original design was for 130 rooms.

Smart Hotels has developed projects across the country in college towns.  Presently, Smart Hotels and its partners have developed similar projects near the University of Chicago, Oberlin College, Duke University. Rollins College, Swarthmore College, Vassar College, and Emory University.

“Our hotels are different. They are not large meeting spaces or for conferences. They are built in a pedestrian context with an emphasis on personal service,” said  Ed Small, President of Smart Hotels in an interview with GoLocal in early October.

“We want to have a neighborhood hotel and be a great fit for the area,” said Small. He stressed his commitment to preservation and outlined numerous professional efforts.

HOT

Nearly 50 Years of Neighborhood Investments

In 1970, West Elmwood Housing was an organization that provided homeownership opportunities in the West Elmwood neighborhood.

In 1980, the West End Foundation, a small resident-led community organization run by volunteers was working together in the West End to address vacant lots and abandoned properties.  For the people living in the area, it was about preserving and improving their neighborhood.

In a time with overwhelming disinvestment, residents came together to invest in their community and those who lived and worked in it. Residents organized to create a Neighborhood Crime Watch, advocated for trash pickups and resources for residents to become homeowners.  At the end of the 1980s, these two organizations came together to become the West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation (WEHDC).

In just 50 years, WEHDC has become "a dynamic 501c(3) nonprofit organization with the mission of promoting the development of healthy, sustainable communities through housing services to help individuals and neighborhoods meet their affordable housing needs in the West End neighborhood and other parts of Providence and Rhode Island."

HOT

Low Unemployment Numbers

"The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for October was 3.6 percent, unchanged from September, the Department of Labor and Training announced Thursday. Over the year, the unemployment rate is down four-tenths of a percentage point from the October 2018 rate of 4.0 percent," according to the Department of Labor and Training.
 

HOT

Public Service

Nancy Beattie, Congressman Jim Langevin’s Director of Constituent Services received one of the top awards in New England for public service.

Beattie received the “Congressman John Joseph Moakley Award for Exemplary Public Service,” which is presented by the Greater Boston Federal Executive Board

The recognition is awarded to a congressional staff member of the New England congressional delegation that exemplifies excellence in public service.

“Nancy Beattie has been an invaluable part of my team since 1995 when I served as Rhode Island’s Secretary of State. For the past 25 years, she has helped me successfully serve my constituents,” said Congressman Langevin. “Nancy treats every constituent with respect, and she always works hard on their behalf. There is no one more deserving of the Congressman John Joseph Moakley Award for Exemplary Public Service.”

“Joe Moakley once said that behind every good politician is an even better staff. Nancy Beattie certainly proves this to be true every day,” said Paul Jacobsen, Chair of the Greater Boston Federal Executive Board. “We were pleased to honor her with this award in his name. She embodies everything that it is all about.”

Beattie first began working for Langevin when he was Rhode Island’s Secretary of State. Since Langevin was first sworn in as the U.S. Representative for Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District in 2001, Beattie has served as his Director of Constituent Services, overseeing all casework and constituent outreach operations in Langevin’s Warwick office.

HOT

Celtics

They have the best record in the NBA. Not bad for a team who lost their best player in free agency and has been hit hard by injuries. 

They have not played the toughest teams in the West yet, but the Green are 9-1.

HOT

Al Forno

The Wall Street Journal has a feature this week on Al Forno titled, "How Grilled Pizza Became a Thing."

IN THE MID-1980s, the sort of people who might identify as foodies (then a newly minted term) got wind of an Italian restaurant called Al Forno that had opened a few years prior in Providence, R.I. “We wanted to recreate what eating in Italy felt like,” said chef-owner Johanne Killeen. She and her late husband and co-chef, George Germon, admired the simplicity, elegance and seasonality of regional-Italian cooking. “But we did it in our style,” she said.

Their grilled pizza became a signature. “We didn’t have a wood-burning oven in the beginning, so George said, ‘Why not grill?’ ” Ms. Killeen explained. “The interaction between the dough, fire and smoke is so magical.” Her first Slow Food Fast recipe, streamlined for home cooks, calls for baking the pizza in the oven. But the seasonal toppings—squash, Gorgonzola and chestnut honey—are pure Al Forno.

READ THE REST HERE

HOT

URI Visionary

University of Rhode Island Vice President for Research and Economic Development Peter Snyder appeared on GoLocal LIVE with GoLocal CEO Josh Fenton, where he talked to how external investments at the university translate into economic development for the state. 

"Huge things have been happening at URI, whether it’s been in bio, with the new engineering center, and massive — I mean literally hundreds of millions of dollars  -- of infrastructure that now litter the campus," said Snyder. 

Snyder, a distinguished professor and neuroscience researcher, prominent health systems manager and member of the University’s Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, was named to the position of vice president for Research and Economic Development and professor of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Science in 2018. 

HOT

Gotta Love This Guy

Jeopardy! contestant -- and Brown University student Dhruv Gaur -- might have lost Final Jeopardy, but won hearts around the world when he answered the last question Monday night.

During the sixth day of the Tournament of Champions, Gaur wagered $1,995 of his $2,000 in Final Jeopardy on the following question.

"In the title of a groundbreaking 1890 exposé of poverty in New York City slums, these 3 words follow ‘How the.’”

Host Alex Trebek, who has been battling cancer, read Guar's answer out loud -- and was met with a personal message of support.

“What is, ‘We love you, Alex!'” Trebek read, his voice wavering. “Oh, that’s very kind.”

The correct answer was, "What is how the other half lives."

NOT

Two of the largest newspaper groups have merged and it creates the largest newspaper company in the history of America. Shareholders of the two companies approved the deal on Thursday.

The merger between GateHouse -- who owns the Providence Journal and Worcester Telegram and 150 other daily papers and Gannett, the company that owns USA Today -- will create a company with 263 daily media organizations across 47 states.

The merged company will operate under the Gannett name going forward -- but will be managed by the GateHouse management team led by Mike Reed. 

The deal between the two shrinking newspaper companies is dependent on “synergies of $275 - $300 million” — synergies meaning staff reductions.

Financing the deal is Apollo Global Management - led by Leon Black — a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Apollo is providing $1.79 billion in financing on a 5-year short-term note at 11.5% interest.

Many media experts have questioned the financial viability of the deal. “No one believes the numbers,” said billionaire investor Leon Cooperman on an earnings conference call on October 31.

In Providence, Rhode Island — the Providence Journal’s newsroom has shrunk over the past ten years from 150 to just 15 reporters today.

The circulation has declined from about 200,000 two decades ago to just 30,000 plus and is now just 3 percent of the state’s population.

Newspaper advertising spending is expected to continue to decline -- down 17.9% according to E-Marketer. Both companies are unprofitable during a period in which media spending is dramatically increasing.

GateHouse stock had lost more than 50% of its stock value in the past 12 months. “The deal is bad for journalists, it’s bad for readers and it’s bad for the future of local journalism,” said NewsGuild-CWA's Bernie Lunzer, “Local papers will likely vanish, jobs will be slashed, and reporting will suffer.”

The Providence Journal will have its 3rd owner in 5 years. Worcester Telegram has its 5th owner in 6 years. “Neither company has digital chops that have you jumping out of your seat,” said media analyst Doug Arthur of Huber Research to WaPo.

The final closing is expected on November 19, 2019.

NOT

Tuition Increases for Some, Free Tuition for Others

So much could be written about bad public policy.

The Rhode Island Board of Education voted this week to raise the price of tuition at URI, RIC and for some at CCRI.

Yup, CCRI where many go tuition-free.

Please someone please explain how this could ever be. Anyone?

NOT

Hazardous Waste

A new study identifies the Centredale Manor Restoration Project as the 12th most hazardously contaminated site in the United States.

The business website 24/7 Wall Street “reviewed the 23 Superfund sites determined to be the most hazardous, based on the site’s assigned Hazardous Ranking System (HRS) score determined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Any score higher than 28.5 is deemed a serious enough hazard by the EPA to merit Superfund spending.”

The cost of cleaning up the Centredale Manor site in North Providence is already projected to exceed $100 million.

Officials from President Donald Trump's EPA in Boston and Rhode Island local officials held a “celebration” press conference in September, to tout what they said was progress on the cleanup at the site. 

"We celebrated the fact that federal and state regulators, along with help and push from our local municipal and environmental group partners, successfully reached an agreement with Black & Decker on a final remedy that maintains all of the protections and actions in EPA’s cleanup decision,” said EPA Region I spokesman Dave Deegan told GoLocal in an email.

The so-called Black and Decker agreement had been reached a year earlier.

NOT

WeWorks Don't Work

The third-quarter performance for WeWorks was horrific.

The founder/CEO was forced out. The company's pre-IPO has come crashing down from $47 billion to just $8 billion.

"Office-space startup WeWork lost $1.25 billion in the third quarter as expenses far outpaced revenue growth, draining the company’s cash ahead of a bailout by SoftBank Group Corp. last month," reports the WSJ.

"The report of the heavy dose of red ink compares with WeWork’s prior record loss of $638 million, posted in the second quarter, and is more than double the $497 million loss reported in same year-earlier period," WSJ found.

The shared office space company has seen its valuation drop.