Restaurateur Warns 195 Commission is Killing RI’s Existing Businesses
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
As the year draws to a close the prize for worst government action of the year (perhaps the decade) goes to the I-195 Commission for their decision to help destroy the Providence restaurant community.
Their latest debacle is the proposal for a 4,000 square feet, $2.8 million building named the Innovation District Park Food & Beverage Pavilion. (See GoLocal 12/19)
It will take tax money, generated in part by restaurants, to open new restaurants to compete with them.
No industry has been more devastated by COVID than our beloved restaurants. No industry has contributed more to Rhode Island’s global reputation for hospitality. No restaurant should ever have to compete against the state-subsidized competition.
Instead of helping those entrepreneurs who put it all on the line fighting for survival, the I-195 Commission is working hard to make it even more difficult for Providence’s restaurants.
No doubt they are salivating at the thought of big out-of-state chains with credit leases, lots of capital, and plans to bury the local independents.
Providence already has one the highest number of restaurants seats per capita of any city in the nation. That means even before the pandemic it was one of the most difficult places to try to succeed.
The I-195 Commission falls under the preview of the Secretary of Commerce Stephan Pryor who has been mulling a run for State Treasurer he should consider this the end of his campaign. He is supposed to protect and grow businesses - not use state money to shutter them.
The restaurant community also deserves the resignation of Providence Planning Director Bonnie Nickerson who is the city’s liaison on the Commission. She should have defended the city’s cherished restaurant community but instead, let this folly pass.
It is not as if the location, at the west end of the pedestrian bridge, is in the center of a food desert. Some of the best watering holes and finest restaurants are literally yards away offering every kind of food and drink.
Geoffs offers the best sandwiches anywhere, there is vegetarian at Plant City, the Hot Club is a short stroll. There are already dozens of restaurants, bars and carry out - there is a clam shack, sushi, tacos, pizza, pastry, coffee, bars, and more within a short walk
If anything the area is oversaturated with restaurants which should have been clear to the Commission’s restaurant advisors who are utterly incompetent and should refund their fees.
If this act of insanity is not rescinded immediately then we have found the new slogan for Rhode Island license plates - “Kick ‘Em When They’re Down”.
It’s time to defund the I-195 Commission, fire the people who came up with this foolhardy idea, and appoint new members who understand the fundamentals of our beleaguered city.
The restaurants of Providence, their employees, and devoted patrons deserve far better than this tone-deaf assault and insult to an industry that is already struggling mightily against impossible odds.
Robert I. Burke is the owner of the award-winning Pot au Feu restaurant and the founder of the Independence Trail.
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