NewportPatch

Government, Local Connections

April 26, 2012

A bill that would rename a portion of Fort Adams Drive after former Newport Mayor Robert J. McKenna was passed in the Senate today – April 26, 2012.

The Rhode Island Senate today passed legislation sponsored by President of the Senate M. Teresa Paiva Weed to rename a portion of Fort Adams Drive in Newport after Newport Mayor Robert J. McKenna, who passed away on January 15.

A member of the Fort Adams Trust, McKenna was deeply involved in his hometown community of Newport. He served as the city’s Mayor from 1988 to 1994. He was a State Representative from 1969 to 1973, and a State Senator from 1974 to 1985.Click here for more.

WPRI.com

Eyewitness News

February 9, 2012 at 6:00 am by Ted Nesi

Is Providence biting the hands that feed its residents?

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and his aides certainly don’t see it that way. But the seven tax-exempt institutions they’re targeting for a bigger contribution to Providence’s budget employ one in five workers there, making each of them one of its main employers, city documents show.

To read the rest of this story in its entirety, click here.

Please join AICU Rhode Island, RIBGHE and Cutler & Company for the

Dormcubator 2011 End-of-Session Graduation

Celebration & Student Presentations

Thursday, July 28, 2011

6:00 – 8:30 p.m.

The Yena Presentation Center

Johnson & Wales University – Library Building

(corner of Dorrance & Webosset Streets)

111 Dorrance Street, Providence RI  02903

Dormcubator 2011 is a student engagement pilot program, which was born out of the bRIdge project, an AICU Rhode Island-led economic development initiative aimed at knowledge retention and attraction by better-connecting academics, business and community.  The overarching goal of bRIdge is to change the narrative for college students to one that identifies Providence, and Rhode Island, as a viable post-graduate destination for the 80,000+ students who attend colleges and universities in our state annually.

Designed with the idea that summer is a great opportunity to highlight Rhode Island to students, the six-week, live/work/learn Dormcubator 2011 was created for entrepreneurial-minded students from RI’s 10 colleges and universities.  Upon program graduation, these students will become bRIdge ambassadors for Rhode Island and its capital city.

Please join us for this celebration at which the 11 students who participated in the program will deliver presentations on their experiences and their perceptions of Rhode Island before and after participating in the program.

Dormcubator 2011 is a pilot program of the bRIdge initiative led by AICU Rhode Island with support from the RIBGHE, Cutler & Company, Hope Street Media, and Betaspring and hosted by Johnson & Wales University.

Funding was made possible and provided by the Innovation Providence Implementation Council (IPIC) of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce (GPCC), the Greater Providence Chamber Foundation, The Rhode Island Foundation, and the Providence Economic Development Partnership.

Please RSVP by July 27, 2011

Patricia Mulcahey

pmulcahey@aicuri.org

(401) 272-8270

From the June 21, 2011 edition

By Paul Grimaldi and Kate Bramson

Journal Staff Writers

PROVIDENCE — A pair of Maryland health-care executives were impressed Monday with efforts to rebuild the city’s old jewelry manufacturing district into a hive of technology company enterprises.

The two officials, Mark L. Wasserman and James L. Hughes, were in Providence to learn about efforts to capitalize on the relocation of Route 195, which is opening up a 35-acre swath of land through the heart of Providence. The pair met first with representatives of the state Economic Development Corporation before embarking on a nearly two-hour walking tour of the Jewelry District with Governor Chafee and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras.

Read the original Providence Journal article in its entirety:

http://www.projo.com/news/content/KNOWLEDGE_TOUR_06-21-11_JLOON60_v20.47719.html

HealthCanal.com
Credit: Mike Cohea/Brown University

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — New parents sometimes seem like they have a thousand questions about what will affect their babies’ health for the rest of their lives. In Providence County as part of a huge national study, 1,000 babies will help provide the answers.

Read original story in its entirety at 

http://www.healthcanal.com/child-health/16984-Officials-hail-research-effort-solve-childhood-health-mysteries.html

T

Salve volunteers have pitched in to help cultivate the United Methodist Church Community Gardens in Middletown, which helps provide fresh produce to soup kitchens and flowers to nursing homes.

Read original Middletown Patch article in its entirety:

http://middletown.patch.com/articles/salve-students-help-aquidneck-islands-community-gardens-flourish-for-good-cause

PROVIDENCE — When we think of landscapes, we usually think of gardens and rivers, of lakes, forests, and mountains. We don’t normally think of abandoned factories.

Click here to read original article in its entirety at boston.com.

RISD among top-25, Brown University and Johnson and Wales University named to Honor Roll

In an announcement at the close of the 15th annual conference of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) the report “Saviors of Our Cities: A Survey of Best College and University Civic Partnerships” presented by Dr. Evan S. Dobelle, President of Westfield State College singled out three Providence institutions as “Best Neighbors”.

Read the announcement

Read the report

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island may be facing tough economic times, but the state’s real estate assets hold promise for future development, a business consultant told the governor and his advisers Wednesday.

“I know your present is a challenge, but we’re going to look to your future,” John M. Rhodes, senior principal at the Florida-based Moran, Stahl and Boyer, said to Governor Carcieri during a meeting with the state Economic Policy Council.

Rhodes, a business relocation expert, spoke at the meeting in the offices of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation about an assessment he is conducting of developable land in the state.

Work on the “Statewide Strategic Plan for Commercial and Industrial Site Development” started in May and, according to a spokeswoman for the EDC, will culminate in a final report within two months. EDC interim executive director J. Michael Saul said the report will include six to eight recommendations that could be implemented relatively quickly.

Rhodes is basing the study on meetings with state and local planners, business leaders at companies like Amgen and Fidelity, small-business owners, chambers of commerce and real estate developers.

On Wednesday, he discussed in general some of the issues facing Rhode Island as it tries to position itself to recover from a recession that has hit all sectors of the state economy.

Surprisingly, he said, despite the gloom surrounding manufacturing, the industry has held up better than expected. Although the state has lost 20,000 manufacturing jobs in the past seven years, total revenues in the sector have increased, according to figures presented by Rhodes.

The state has seen more jobs since 2001 in biotech production and medical equipment fabrication.

“Manufacturing is not dead,” Rhodes said. “I think manufacturing will come back.”

He cautioned that the knowledge economy, widely believed to hold the most promise for growth in Rhode Island, will be a challenge to develop. Although the state has prestigious research institutions, including Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, connecting academics doing cutting-edge work with investors can be difficult. It will take more than a few years before there will be any sort of surge in research jobs, he said.

Paul J. Choquette Jr., chairman of Gilbane and a member of the Economic Policy Council, asked how Rhode Island compares to its neighbors in terms of operating costs. Rhodes told him that business taxes are generally higher than Massachusetts and Connecticut and that energy costs, though competitive, are still high.

As it stands, he said, Rhode Island still has enough to offer to compete regionally, including a very good transportation system, but it probably cannot compete globally.

“You need to go in another direction,” he said.

Read the original article

PROVIDENCE – Money magazine has declared Providence to be one of the 25 best places to retire in the United States.

Money’s editors ranked the city at No. 17 on a list released yesterday of 25 top localities for retirees. The only other places in the Northeast to make the list were Philadelphia (No. 10) and Bangor, Maine (No. 23).

The magazine’s editors seemed particularly taken with what they described as the “thriving restaurant scene in this New England city,” which they attributed in part to the presence Johnson & Wales University.

“It’s easy to work up an appetite enjoying the historic sites or taking in the arts at a variety of venues throughout the city,” Money wrote, singling out the Rhode Island School of Design’s Museum of Art for praise. The publication also highlighted Roger Williams Park.

Topping the magazine’s list were Port Charlotte, Fla.; Palm Springs, Calif.; Traverse City, Mich.; Pinehurst, N.C.; and Surprise, Ariz.

It marks the second time Money has singled out local cities and towns for praise in recent months. In July, the magazine ranked Easton, Mass., at 37th, Scituate at 69th and nearby Glocester at 73rd on its annual list of the 100 best places to live in the U.S.

However, the rigor of Money’s research may be up for debate. Miami New Times pointed out that the magazine’s statistics are for the city of Miami, “while its copy extolls the virtues of the city of Miami Beach.”