Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - April 2, 2021

HOT

Gene Blair

50 years at Twin Oaks is very much hot. 

There is longevity and then there is Gene-style longevity. Gene Blair has been making lunches and dinners special for half a century at the iconic Rhode Island restaurant.

RI Hospitality Association President Dale Venturini snapped the pic -- and shared with GoLocal the reaction. 

"For the last several weeks, my team and I have been receiving dozens and dozens of calls from restaurants needing help. They can't get employees back to work. Gene has made a career in the industry," Venturini told GoLocal. "He is an inspiration."

"I grabbed a marker and wrote on the placemat....and have found out by the number of likes, shares and comments on Facebook how much he is loved," she added. 

Photo: Courtesy of Dale Venturini 
 

HOT

Sabina Matos

From immigrant to Lt. Governor -- Sabina Matos is the quintessential American success story. 

The Providence City Council President now has a bright future in politics and hopefully, will help lead the Rhode Island recovery out of the pandemic. 

HOT

Slater Mill

It's official. One of Rhode Island and America's most important landmarks is now part of the National Park Service. 

The birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, Slater Mill is a site of national significance where visitors can come to contemplate the many ways in which not just the region but the whole world changed as a result of Pawtucket's place in the country's history. 

“We are honored to become the stewards of this incredibly important National Historic Landmark," said Park Superintendent Eric Breitkreutz this week. “We look forward to working with our partners, the Old Slater Mill Association and the City of Pawtucket, to continue the public interpretation of this seminal historic site on the banks of the Blackstone River.”  

HOT

Alan Chille and PPAC

The team at the Providence Performing Arts Center has not wasted the downtime during the pandemic.

PPAC this week unveiled its newly restored facade at the historic theater -- and expects to have some "big announcements" by mid-April regarding its plans for having shows again in the near future. 

PPAC Vice President Alan Chille told GoLocal the plans to restore the theater's 2,300 terra cotta stones began back in 2016, and that one of the few silver linings of the pandemic was that work could be done on the theater without inconveniencing patrons. 

"How it all started, the stones were beginning to crack, and some small pieces fell to the ground," said Chille. "In 2016 we realized we needed to hire a manufacturer to make this type of terra cotta stone. It took us a while to get one -- a company in California."

Read more here. 

HOT

Michael S. Van Leesten Memorial Bridge

It is all in the name.

The Providence Pedestrian was officially named in honor of Michael Van Leesten in 2020.

The civil rights activist, businessman, and community leader passed away in 2019.

Almost immediately after his death, a movement began to name the new bridge after Van Leesten who had impacted so many in Providence and across Rhode Island.

On Wednesday, his daughter Jill Van Leesten was on-site to watch the installation of the lettering.

Kurt Maley is the craftsman working on the installation.

HOT

401Gives and RI's Community Support 

The initiative founded in 2020 by the United Way to support the non-profit community -- which was only beginning to feel the brunt of the pandemic -- has turned into a movement in its second year. 

In year one, $1.3 million was raised. This year, more than $2 million was raised and they were still counting late Thursday night.

Kudos to all who stepped up to support those organizations, large and small, that are working to help those most in need. 

HOT

2 Make the List

Both Providence and Newport were tapped in “The 30 Most Charming Small Cities in the USA” by Travelmag.com. 

Joining the ranks were Ann Arbor, Annapolis, Napa, and Saratoga Springs.

Pound for pound, we're pretty charming, apparently. 

NOT

Can't Fire the Players

The Celtics have lots of talent. No excuses.

The team simply does not respond to Brad Stevens anymore.  

Please stop the pain. Fire Stevens.

NOT

Expensive and Painful Cyber Attacks

Right now it is Brown University -- in the past, it has been small towns in RI and hospital groups.

The cyberattack has forced the school to shut some systems down — in an event that Brown is calling an “utmost priority.” 

Jack Wrenn, a fifth-year doctoral candidate, said that official information was still “frustratingly scant” as of Wednesday night. 

Wrenn provided a timeline as to what he understood transpired, and when the university community was notified. 

“Systems appear to have gone down at 7:19 a.m. [on Tuesday],” said Wrenn. “At 7:24 a.m., Computing & Information Services (CIS) announced that they were 'experiencing a major outage of services running in the Brown datacenter.'"

“At [around] 11 a.m., ‘Oscar,’ Brown's supercomputing cluster, was announced to be offline. For a little while, WiFi wasn't working (apparently because the authentication servers were down), too,” said Wrenn. “At 2:57 p.m., Brown's CIO/CTO Bill Thirsk [posted a letter to the community]."

“Brown's listservs are down, so a lot of the usual communication channels are unusable. Many Brown websites are down, so many students are unable to access essential course materials,” said Wrenn on Wednesday night. “A lot of work has ground to a halt.”

NOT

Providence Schools Are Terrible

It is a national embarrassment.

It has gone on for decades.

It needs to end now.

There is no more time.