The RI “Cheat Sheet”—Obese Children, RI’s ROI on Tax Dollars and Should We Be Like Amsterdam
Monday, April 01, 2019
Welcome to this week’s edition of the RI Cheat Sheet.
The weekly feature focuses on important and interesting numbers, data, and high-value factoids that impact Rhode Island and the economy.
1) Rhode Island kids are getting more and more obese
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAccording to a new study by Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, “The prevalence of obesity is rising in the U.S. and in Rhode Island with one in five children considered obese....childhood overweight and obesity is a serious problem that puts children at risk for poor health."
Some of the findings:
- Rhode Island boys have higher rates of obesity than girls in every age group and among all races and ethnicities except for non-Hispanic Black girls who have slightly higher rates of obesity than non-Hispanic Black boys
- Overweight and obesity start as early as age two. Twenty-six percent of Rhode Island children ages two to four are overweight or obese. 38% of children between ages five and 17 are either overweight or obese.
- Rhode Island, Hispanic children have the highest rates of overweight and obesity at 17% overweight and 28% obese. Thirty percent of Hispanic boys are obese.
- Communities with the highest obesity rates — Central Falls and Little Compton
"Children and adolescents who are overweight or obese are at immediate and/or long-term risk of many health problems, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, joint problems, sleep apnea, and other acute and chronic health problems," says KIDS COUNT.
2) Amazon Jobs Promise
The promise for Amazon coming to Fall River was 1,500 jobs when the city gave the massive Seattle-based corporation a slew of incentives to locate a warehouse distribution center. According to Boston Business Journal, the jobs reached more than 1,300 jobs in December of 2017, but now have dropped to 951 just a year later.
Economic development riches from out of state corporations do not always meet the promises -- see Foxconn in Wisconsin and General Electric in Boston.
3) Should Providence be more like Amsterdam?
In Amsterdam, there are far more bicycles than cars and they are cutting more parking spaces.
According to the most recent figures, the 850,000 residents (442,693 households) of Amsterdam together own 847,000 bicycles. That represents 1.91 bicycles per household. 78% of people 12 years and older own at least one bike.
“Amsterdam transit commissioner Sharon Dijksma announced Thursday that starting this summer, the city plans to reduce the number of people permitted to park in the city core by around 1,500 per year. These people already require a permit to access a specific space (and the cost for that permit will also rise), and so by reducing these permits steadily in number, the city will also remove up to 11,200 parking spaces from its streets by the end of 2025,” writes City/Lab.
Should Providence “encourage” more biking and alternatives by reducing parking spaces?
4)Are Rhode Islanders Getting a Bang for Their Tax Buck?
“Different states have dramatically different tax burdens. This begs the question of whether people in high-tax states receive superior government services. Likewise, are low-tax states more efficient or do they receive low-quality services? In short, where do taxpayers get the most and least bang for their buck?” Writes a new report.
The study found that Rhode Islander’s “return on investment” for the tax dollars is the 12th best in the country. RI ranks 15th best overall, according to WalletHub.
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