Pawtucket’s Painful Mass Exodus

Pawtucket’s Painful Mass Exodus

In less than a decade, the City of Pawtucket has been hit with a mass exodus of its most important community assets.

Monday’s announcement that Hasbro's world headquarters will be relocating to Boston was just the latest in a near-endless series of departures or failures of nearly every core element of Pawtucket.

There were chinks earlier. Apex, the community’s retail hub, was the everything department store that offered sporting goods, appliances, and most everything. That store, and the most visible structure in the city, began its closure and cutbacks in 2001.

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The Major Hit

On January 1, 2018, Memorial Hospital — the focal point of Pawtucket — closed. Between full-time and part-time employees, nearly 2,000 were out of work.

The building in the center of the city is now a blight. The main building is covered in graffiti.

A report issued in February of 2020, which has been lost in time because the next month, COVID-19 hit Rhode Island, found that the closure of the Memorial Hospital (MHRI) was not only an adverse economic hit for Pawtucket, but also undermined the region’s healthcare system.

The report found that the closure of MHRI "removed a 'nucleus' of health care services for communities with high healthcare need. Although inpatient utilization had declined over the years, residents continued to use emergency services, hospital outpatient services, and ancillary services located on the MHRI campus."

And, "The closure of MHRI emergency department reduced access to primary care services for the service area population and demonstrated the need for enhanced primary care within the service area."

But that was just one of the gut punches Pawtucket has taken.

 

 

The Soul of the Community — PawSox Leave

The most high-profile departure was the loss of the Pawtucket Red Sox. The team, the Triple A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, had been where Rhode Islanders went to see future stars for decades. You could buy tickets for a family of four, eat hot dogs and ice cream out of a mini-batting helmet for about $50, and see Jim Rice or Fred Lynn.

Virtually every homegrown Red Sox star came to Boston via Pawtucket.

But corporate greed, failed state and local leadership, and Massachusetts leaders who took advantage of the opportunity led to the PawSox becoming the WooSox. Rhode Island floundered, and Massachusetts lured away the team.

 

More Losses, Little Response

There has been more. The talented Game Theatre, which began in Pawtucket, upped and left for Warwick and shinny rehabbed the theater house. Even Pawtucket City Hall is in decay, needing tens of millions to rehab the structure due to a lack of maintenance spending. Many of the city's functions have been moved out of the building.

The city’s victories have been few. There is a new train station and a new minor league soccer stadium. Both are underwritten with public funds. Pawtucket poured tens of millions into the privately owned stadium, and Rhode Island taxpayers are on the hook for more than $140 million in bond payments.

Mayor Donald Grebien, who has struggled to stop the exodus, did not respond to questions this week about the departures.

On Monday, he issued a statement that said in part, "We are deeply disappointed that after more than 100 years of success here in Pawtucket, Hasbro has decided to move its corporate headquarters to Boston. While this decision was ultimately beyond our control, it is disheartening to see a company so deeply rooted in our community choose to turn its back on that history. This is a painful reality for the people of Pawtucket, who stood by Hasbro for over a century. We also empathize with the employees of Hasbro whose lives will be forever impacted by this decision."