Every Friday, GoLocalProv takes a look at who is rising and who is falling in Rhode Island politics, business, culture, and sports.
Now, we are expanding the list, the political perspectives, and we are going to a GoLocal team approach while encouraging readers to suggest nominees for who is "HOT" and who is "NOT."
Email GoLocal by midday on Thursday about anyone you think should be tapped as "HOT" or "NOT." Email us HERE.
An official groundbreaking ceremony took place at the Steel Yard in Providence for its new "Super Studio" at the nonprofit industrial arts center on Thursday.
Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza was joined by Steel Yard Executive Director Howie Sneider and Board Treasurer Frank Previti and City Council President Sabina Matos, along with TRAC Builders and Kite Architects.
The Steel Yard is a 3.8-acre campus and studio, located in Providence’s Industrial Valley, with professional workspace allowing for community access to equipment for welding, blacksmithing, jewelry, ceramics, and the foundry arts.
According to the Steel Yard, the renovations will allow it to be open year round, heated, ventilated, restored and more accessible.
The New England Aquarium and SeaAhead, Inc. which was founded last year by Mark Huang, have announced that the organizations are partnering to support the creation and growth of start-ups with scalable solutions that enhance sustainability and ocean conservation.
The two "believe that significant global impact can now be achieved by supporting new bluetech ventures."
According to the announcement, "The New England Aquarium and SeaAhead are initiating their partnership by launching a new Venture Fellows-in-Residence program. This grant program will seek to catalyze new business creation by providing non-dilutive ‘first capital’ to entrepreneurs with a new ocean-related innovation that will have a strong impact on sustainability."
Huang, who lives in Providence served as head of Economic Development, was probably too thoughtful and creative for this city's government.
Simply a sweet gesture. The cast of the most talked about TV show in the world stopped what they were doing and made a video for a dying woman in Rhode Island.
Healthy, trend-setting and inspired by her Colombian heritage, Sandra Giraldo’s Enjoyful Foods has already launched four products and is now expanding with a new commercial kitchen in Pawtucket — all in just two-plus years.
Her cacao-based chocolate products are healthy, admittedly delicious and free of preservatives, thickeners, artificial flavors, soy, gluten and fillers.
She joined GoLocalProv’s CEO Josh Fenton on Business Monday to discuss the inspiration of her product and the expansion with help from Commerce RI and the Center for Women & Enterprise (CWE).
For Giraldo, she sees the key to success as smart and planned growth both at retail -- small shops and grocers -- as well as with food services.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released updates to its budget projections on Thursday. The numbers are simply scary.
Under current law, CBO projects debt will rise from 78 percent of the economy today to 92 percent by 2029. Under CBO’s Alternative Fiscal Scenario, which assumes the continuation of current policies, debt would reach 105 percent of the economy by 2029. The report projects that trillion-dollar deficits will emerge in 2022 under current law and by next year under the Alternative Fiscal Scenario.
The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
How many more dire warnings will it take before our leaders address the nation’s dismal fiscal picture? Rather than addressing the rapid growth of health and retirement costs, the last Congress cut taxes and increased spending by a combined $2.4 trillion. Now we’re talking about $2 trillion more of spending, and as much as $2 trillion on top of that for infrastructure, with virtually no word of how we will pay for them. At some point, the fiscal recklessness has to stop.
The City of Providence’s pension fund — the largest municipal plan in the state of Rhode Island — is in ”Critical” status. Providence is underfunded by more than $1.356 billion. And, the majority of municipal plans across the state are also designated as critically underfunded, a total of twenty other municipal pension plans.
Critical funding status is defined by Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner as pension funds that are forty percent underfunded.
The Providence pension plan is only funded at 26.3 percent, with more than 2,800 active members in the plan and 3,200 retirees.
Most concerning is that the situation — the unfunded liability — got worse in the past year for the pension plans across the state. The combined unfunded liability increased from $2.4 billion in Magaziner’s 2018 report to $2.5 billion in this year’s report.
Rhode Island gas prices have risen 53 cents over the last two months.
This comes after prices rose 13 cents this week, according to AAA Northeast.
“Compared to the beginning of the year, motorists have definitely felt an increasing squeeze on their wallets at the pump. These increases mean Americans are having to work more to afford to fill up their gas tanks. AAA found that, nationally, Americans must work 22 percent longer than at the start of the year to buy one gallon of unleaded gasoline - that’s 7.3 minutes compared to 5.76 minutes in January,” said Lloyd Albert, AAA Northeast Senior Vice President of Public and Government Affairs.
A recent study published by WalletHub ranks Providence as the worst city in the United States for Hispanic entrepreneurs.
Providence was also ranked dead last in 2017.
“Expect the Hispanic and Latino community’s contributions to the U.S. economy to be nothing short of monumental in the coming decades. Not only is this demographic expected to make up a more than 25% of the U.S. population by 2050 — translating into large buying power — this group is also creating businesses at 15 times the national rate, according to one report,” writes WalletHub.
By comparison, Warwick ranks 75th best for Hispanic entrepreneurs.
Providence’s Rankings
181st - Hispanic Business Friendliness
180th - Hispanic Purchasing Power
