Whitcomb: Depends What You Mean by ‘Worst’; Worcester Stadium Inflation; Transit Turnaround?
Monday, January 20, 2020
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
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And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
-- “The Snow Man,’’ by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), Hartford-based lawyer, insurance executive and Pulitzer Price-winning Modernist poet.
“{Celebrities} live in a world in which no one disagrees with them.”
-- William Goldman (1931-2018, novelist, playwright and novelist)
I loved Ricky Gervais’s hilarious takedown of Hollywood at the Golden Globes awards.
Ranking-mania
WalletHub’s rankings of the “best’’ and “worst’’ states in which to retire put Rhode Island as the third worst, with Kentucky the worst and New Mexico second worst, and the three “best” as Florida, New Hampshire, and Colorado. (So the rankings can’t be said to be biased for warm states.) Massachusetts was put at 14th best and Connecticut at 33rd.
Such lists are fun but even the choice of metrics for establishing rankings is itself subjective. To paraphrase Tolstoy, each individual and each family is happy or unhappy in its own way.
“John Tworog,’’ in the comments section below GoLocal’s article on the rankings, had some interesting observations:
“Balderdash! Quality of life-like beauty is in the eye of the beholder! RI can compete with any state in that category! RI has a four season moderate climate. It is poised to get better with global warming. It's not too cold unlike the northern states and not too hot, unlike the southern states. The thing is RI is a small state. But that is just lines on a map. We are really residents of the state of Southern New England. Boston is a lot closer to us than residents in other states are to their big cities. Apples and oranges!’’
--But from “Jane Blythe’’:
“Those are the reasons I had to leave R.I. --- it could be THE best state, but because of corruption and other factors, it has sunk so low. Just could be the ideal place, in so many ways --- its small size, its friendliness, its sense of pride, the proximity to Boston --- but the leaders have ruined it. Sad....’’
Of course, hating the state’s leaders (a common emotion soon after they’re elected) doesn’t address the flaws of those responsible for electing them, either through voting or failing to vote – the oh-so-put-upon citizenry.
As usual, the majority of comments on such articles are negative, with the traditional denunciations of the state for its taxes, history of corruption and other pathologies, real or imagined. I think that a lot of this negativity can be explained by the Ocean State’s history of class and ethnic animosity and how its intimacy has fueled too many insider deals. “I know a guy,’’ etc. – not that other states are unfamiliar with such things….
The names of many complainants after such stories are familiar, which reminds me that many Rhode Islanders who constantly complain about the place could easily afford to move but stay put. It’s as if they fear losing the satisfaction and indeed pleasure from complaining about the tight little place while they’re in it. The thrill would be gone if they lived year-round in, say, the bland land of palmetto-shaded strip malls and gated communities (albeit with energetic alligators in the golf course water hazards).
Anyway, these are the sort of typical remarks:
-- From “Justice ONeil:” (identified on Facebook as a dog!)
“Only surprise there is it's not #50”
-- From “Scott J. Grzych’’
“The good news is that the taxes are so high, I'll never be able to retire.’’
Ah, those rankings! Forbes ranks Rhode Island 20th for “quality of life,’’ whatever that may mean.
To read the WalletHub rankings, please hit this link.
To read the GoLocal article on the report, please hit this link:
No Votes
Maybe the Ocean State would have better politics and government if more Rhode Islanders showed less fatalism and bestirred themselves to vote, or even run for office. Consider that the United States Elections Project ranked Rhode Island as having the worst voter turnout in New England in the 2016 election, at 59.7 percent. Massachusetts was at 68.3 percent; Connecticut at 64.9 percent; Vermont at 64.8 percent; New Hampshire at 72.5 percent, and Maine at 72.9 percent.
Hit this link to see United States Elections Project site:
And Send the Bill to…
Publicly funded projects such as that in and around the Worcester Red Sox’s pending Polar Park Stadium, involving a taxpayer commitment of $132 million, up $9.4 million from the previous estimate, tend to create metastasizing tax breaks. Consider that Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus now wants additional tax breaks for private developers in the Woosox district, in this latest case for a 15-year tax break for a building near the ballpark’s left field and for a residential building, and a 10-year tax break for an office, labs and retail complex.
Maybe these projects will indirectly create long-term tax-revenue streams for the city in the form of more economic development and new property-tax revenue nearby -- and maybe not. Depends a lot on how the economic cycle goes in this new decade. In any case, taxpayers should remember that the taxes the developers aren’t paying other taxpayers will have to offset.
All this is part of the vision for a total of $125 million in private development next to Polar Park.
Stadium-construction projects usually turn out well for rich team owners and associated developers, but generally not – at least economically -- for the general taxpaying public. That isn’t to say that having a baseball team in town won’t make plenty of people feel better, at least for a while, especially if the team wins more than it loses and spawns stars that head for the Major Leagues.
For more information, please hit these links:
Time for a New Deal
But public projects can be immensely useful and profitable for the general public. Consider the bridges, roads, tunnels schools, post offices, parks, etc., built in the New Deal – a lot of them still serving the public. They were, in general, very well built. But America’s public infrastructure has been falling apart for decades, damaging our quality of life and making America less economically competitive. When he was running for president, Trump promised to start rebuilding our infrastructure. Instead, he pushed for big tax cuts for the rich.
A presidential candidate who can credibly promise to lead that rebuilding, with many well-paying jobs included, would have a very strong issue in this year’s election.
While public-transit ridership has generally fallen since 2014, a turnaround may be in the offing. Factors in the ridership decline have included ride-sharing, cheap gasoline and transit delays caused by poor maintenance and aging equipment.
The American Public Transportation Association reports that ridership rose 2.2 percent in 2019’s third quarter from the year-earlier period, the second quarter in a row with an increase, and the first two consecutive quarters with an increase since the end of 2014, when ridership hit a 50-year peak before starting to decline. This includes a 5.46 percent rise for heavy rail (i.e., Amtrak), 4.38 percent increase for commuter rail, and a 0.59 percent rise for all bus systems.
But the growth was mostly attributed to increases in New York City and Washington, D.C, the metros with the first and third, respectively, highest percentages of transit riders (Jersey City, N.J., is ranked second.) In the past couple of years, they have taken actions that should be useful examples for other systems. These include better track maintenance in metro D.C. and signal upgrades, drain clearing and better management of employees in New York. In other words, the basics!
Of course, a national New Deal-like emphasis on improving infrastructure would help a lot too.
To read more, please hit these links:
Flager's Railroad
I’ve been researching the creation and expansion of the Florida East Coast Railway and its associated hotels, resorts, agribusiness, and other industries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries under the vastly visionary mogul Henry M. Flagler, whose fortune came from being a partner of John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil.
As Flagler extended the railroad down the coast, eventually (crazily) reaching Key West, he built all sorts of public or quasi-public infrastructure with his own money – train stations (of course), roads, schools, hospitals, parks, churches, etc. He did this because he believed that they were necessary for the economic, social and civic development of what was then a poor and thinly settled state – a development that ultimately would turn out to be very profitable. He thought that creating what he called “America’s Riviera’’ would do great good by raising many people out of poverty and making warm winter weather available to the northerners -- at first the new, Gilded Age rich but then the growing middle class, too
The Gold in ‘Nonprofits’
Could an executive have been found who could have run Bryant University as well as its competent and charming but astronomically highly paid ($6.2 million in 2017) president, Ron Machtley, at half his compensation? Probably! But clearly Bryant’s board, composed mostly of rich people itself (who must, as the trustees, give or get lots of money for the school, or get off the board) has been besotted with this charming man. And paying the CEO, even of a “nonprofit,’’ ever more gargantuan amounts, reflects our winner-take-all (or a lot!) economy and the myth of the superman CEO.
And then there’s Bryant’s first lady, Kati Machtley, who was paid $85,581 for running the institution’s one-day Women’s Summit, which must mean it was a world-historical event!
Mr. Machtley was the nation’s highest-paid college or university president in 2017, followed by John Bowen, Johnson & Wales’ now-retired leader, at $5.3 million, that year. Generous place, Rhode Island, although students and low-paid adjunct professors might prefer that a few of those dollars had drifted down to them in the form of more financial aid and/or lower tuitions and higher pay.
Put Green Energy Somewhere
The continuing controversy over Central Maine Power’s plan for a $1 billion transmission line, much of it through the North Woods, from Quebec’s massive hydroelectric operations to Massachusetts customers bespeaks the usual sort of “don’t tax me, don’t tax thee, tax the man behind the tree’’.
In addition to some business and labor unions, a bunch of former state environmental officials and activists have lauded the project because it is “clean energy.’’ Other enviros, including the Sierra Club, not very convincingly complain that it would hurt the vast Maine forests. Actually, the environmental impact of this project, which, besides providing green energy, would also make New England less dependent on fluctuations in the global gas and oil market, and thus more economically secure, would be minor once it’s built though construction can be messy.
The Portland Press Herald reported: “Mainers for Clean Energy Jobs – which comprises individuals, businesses, labor unions and trade associations backing the proposal to link hydroelectric power generated in Canada with customers in Massachusetts – announced on Monday a statement of support from a group that includes former commissioners of the Maine Department of Conservation, two former executive directors of the Natural Resources Council of Maine and a former president of the Maine Audubon Society.’’
Dot Kelly is co-chair of the energy team of the Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club. She has alleged that regulators haven’t addressed alternatives to the project, but it’s been under discussion for months -- since New Hampshire rejected a somewhat similar project. (The Granite State route apparently raised more serious and complex scenic/aesthetic (the White Mountains), economic and social issues than apply in the Pine Tree State.) Ms. Kelly, in the Press Herald account, seemed to tout the idea of burying the entire line, but Central Maine Power asserts that would raise the cost of the project to $1.6 billion from $950 million.
So reduce fossil-fuel burning – somewhere….
To read more, please hit this link:
Healthy Maine
In other Mainiacal news, it was good to read that Parade magazine has named Portland one of the seven healthiest urban areas in America. Their headline is “Live Here and Live to 100’’. The magazine cited the city’s excellent health care, dramatic peninsular location, bustling and walkable waterfront, famous food sector and strong cultural (including a dense art scene) and educational resources for older people. The, er, rigorous climate didn’t seem to get in the way – much. I’d add its healthy political and civic culture.
An unusual thing about Portland is that it has a real working waterfront – fishing boats, ferries, cruise ships, pleasure boats, etc., that manages to be tourist-friendly too. Lessons for other New England coastal cities.
Very Public Art
I love this sort of project!
Killingworth, Conn., sculptor Renee Rhodes wants to create two 30-foot-tall bronze statues of female figures, one on the Groton side and the other on the New London side of the Thames River. Some readers may have seen her very popular life-size bronze sculpture of Athena in downtown New London.
I hope that her Thames project happens. Such creations tend to cheer the traveling public and arouse local pride.
Tough Taiwanese
Kudos to the plucky Taiwanese for ignoring threats from China and re-electing President Tsai Ing-wen while maintaining the majority of her Democratic Progressive Party in the nation’s parliament. She and her party have been firm advocates of defending Taiwan’s status as an independent and democratic nation, even as China warns it might eventually invade. As for Beijing’s promises that incorporating Taiwan via a “one-nation, two-systems’’ approach would work out just fine, a look at what’s happened in Hong Kong squelches that hope.
Now why would the Taiwanese not want to live in a police/surveillance state….?
June in January
“I feel so gay in a melancholy way that it might as well be spring,’
-- From the 1945 song “It Might as Well Be Spring,’’ by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II
-- Ah “gay,’’ another kidnapped word.
Speaking of climate, it was fun to walk around outside last weekend as temperatures topped 70 and see people looking happily dazed by the weather. Two days of spring fever. But dangerous for the plants?
“The morning seemed thrown like a gleaming bridge of light over his mixed affairs.”
-- John Cheever, in “The Country Husband’’
The older I get, the more important light is to me.
Royal Families Unleashed
Of course, things are always rigged for the rich and well-connected –why complain that rocks are hard! -- but since the Second Gilded Age started back in the ‘80s we set new levels of goodies for the privileged. Consider Hunter Biden’s stretch of getting paid $50,000 a month for sitting on the board of a Ukrainian gas company although he knew little about that industry. Then we have Chelsea Clinton, the only child of Bill and Hillary, pulling in $9 million in salary and stock since 2011 for sitting on the board of the Internet investment company IAC/InterActive Corp., which happens to be controlled by mogul Barry Diller, a pal of the Clintons.
Still, that’s bush league compared to the Trump Family’s profiteering off Daddy’s occupation of the Oval Office and steering vast sums of foreign and U.S. government money to Trump resorts and hotels. The Constitution’s Emoluments Clause? What’s that?!
And now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have decided they want to make a killing, er be “financially independent,’’ and withdraw from many of their tedious public duties as Royals. Are Sussex sweatshirts coming up? Too tacky! Think luggage. There’s a push on to get them to move to Rhode Island. Maybe a shingle-style mansion near Taylor Swift’s pile on Watch Hill?
Clicking and Clanging
Dr. Ed Iannuccilli’s recent – and, as usual, delightful -- GoLocal essay – on trolleys many years ago on Atwells Avenue, the main drag of Providence’s Little Italy – Federal Hill – brought back my memories of the clicking, clanging, dinging and screeching of trolleys (aka streetcars) in Boston when I was young. The noise evoked mystery and excitement.
To read his essay, please hit this link:
For a beautiful and delightfully corny musical take on trolleys, watch below.
Those old sounds, such as the mournful sound of a train whistle far away! I remember sitting on the back porch on Aug. 8, 1968, and hearing Richard Nixon’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination. (For much of the speech, he sounded almost like a liberal; a very different party then!)
The line I most remember from the very well written and delivered speech is:
“He hears the train go by at night and he dreams of far away places where he'd like to go.’’
He’s talking about himself as a young boy growing up in a poor family in Southern California. In the end, of course, Nixon’s demons brought him down. But on Aug. 8, 1968, then, as now, in a harshly divided nation, he sounded inspirational.
Building Character
Howard A. Husock’s new book, Who Killed Civil Society? The Rise of Big Government and Decline of Bourgeois Norms, is a deeply researched, history-rich and clearly written discussion of the crucial role that nongovernmental organizations have played and can still play in developing “bourgeois’’ habits of self-discipline, delayed gratification, reliability, good manners and personal responsibility that can help people stay off public assistance and contribute to society. Of course, we need government safety nets to shield the underprivileged from the sometimes brutal vagaries of the market and other factors often out of their control but we also need the sort of character-formation programs that are best left to civil society.
Year of the Monkey
Patti Smith’s latest memoir, Year of the Monkey, which revisits 2016, mixes reality and dreams in sometimes brilliantly poetic descriptions of her wanderings and encounters that year (such as with her friend the now deceased playwright/actor Sam Shepard), during which she faces mortality and the strangeness of life at every turn. The 73-year-old singer/songwriter, poet and memoirist can often be a thrilling writer who won’t remind you of anyone else. The book’s main weakness is her obsession late in the book with the menace of Donald Trump, which interrupts her surreal stream.
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