Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not - Dec. 4
Russell J. Moore, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™
Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not - Dec. 4
Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not - Dec. 4, 2015
HOT
Luis Aponte
The Providence City Council President clearly gets it. There are four properties before the city council seeking extensions to their tax stabilization agreements (Monohassett Mill, Pearl Street, Rising Sun Mills, and 100 Fountain Street). Critics point out that that everyone should pay full taxes, but the sticker shock to the tenants that would be created by the expiration of these agreements would create more foreclosures and blights at these four properties. That's the opposite of what we need in our capital city. It's good to see Aponte is supportive of making sure that doesn't happen.
HOT
Providence Fire Department
Even if you side with Mayor Jorge Elorza's over his restructuring of the platoon system in the fire department in an attempt to save taxpayer's money, you still have to appreciate the hard work done by the men and women in uniform. Their hard work was most recently exemplified by their quick work last Sunday to save the Textron Building, which caught fire. It's just one high profile example of the superb work done on a daily basis by the fire department.
HOT
Michael Correia
The Providence Councilman has had enough of the annoying graffiti in our capital city. Correia has stepped forward and offered a $1,000 bounty or reward for any tip that leads to arrest and prosecution of a gratti tagger that is hitting the area he represents. Good for him, as we can all agree that this vandalism has to stop.
HOT
Modern Diner
Pawtucket's legendary and iconic diner received a shout out from The Food Network's Top 5 Restaurant's show. The show highlighted the restaurant's Custard French Toast as a specialty dish. The dish originated fifteen years ago when owner Nick Demou made too much vanilla pudding, so he thinned it down and served it as custard on French toast made from thick-cut Texas toast. Just thinking about it makes me want to stop in and have some!
HOT
The Gordon School CyborGators
The team from East Providence won first place in the state's FIRST LEGO League State Qualifying Tournament on Saturday, November 21st. As part of the competition, the students invented solutions to help reduce trash and create their own Lego Mindstorms robot to accomplish trash themed "missions" on a playing field.
HOT
Bob Driscoll
Life is good for the Providence College Athletic Director. The Providence College Men's Basketball team is back in the top 25 rankings after a strong showing in the Wooden Legacy Tournament on the west coast. And the defending NCAA National Champion Men's Hockey team is currently undefeated and looking every bit like a threat to repeat.
HOT
Mount Hope Cowboys, Pee Wee Football Team
In other good local youth news, the Mount Hope Cowboys Pee Wee Football team will compete in the Pop Warner National Championship being held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Disney World from December 5 th - 12 th. To help them get there, you can donate at the team's GoFundMe Page.
HOT
Brian Newberry
The Minority Leader this week questioned the purpose of Governor Raimondo's educational Funding Formula Group (accusing the Governor of living in a "tone deaf bubble") -- and why Republican legislators were glaringly absent.
“I was immediately struck by the lack of Republican legislative appointments to this important high profile endeavor despite the Governor’s ability to squeeze four Democratic legislators onto the 29 member committee," said Newberry, who then looked into it after its announcement. “First they ignored it. Then the stonewalling began."
"This is bizarre behavior with only two explanations. Minority representation provides transparency so the whole operation may be a sham with an ulterior motive. If so, current members ought to be resentful that their time is being wasted and their good names are being unwittingly used to provide cover for something. The other explanation is that the Governor lives in a tone deaf bubble with no care for public perception and this is another in a long line of missteps such as hiding the ball on her truck toll plan, fighting common sense public records requests and generally trying to prevent public scrutiny of her actions."
NOT
Gina Raimondo
Another organization comes forward charging the Governor and her administration with lacking transparency. Christopher Maxwell, the president of the Rhode Island Trucking Association, said that numerous requests to the administration have been ignored. Maxwell is spearheading an effort to thwart the Governor's toll plan. The Governor needs to start taking transparency much more than she has, because it's apparent that it's not just the media griping about the administration's opaqueness.
NOT
Tony Lepore
Providence's former "Dancing Cop" used a poor choice of words on Facebook when he described his frustration at being uninvited to perform his dancing and directing traffic routine in East Providence, saying "People are making an impression of me that isn't true...you people of color out there know this also." Look, Lepore is a nice guy, but it's become clear that he needs to be more sensitive when speaking.
NOT
Olivia Culpo
You might be wondering how is it possible that the former Miss Rhode Island, Miss USA, and Miss Universe could find herself on the "not hot" list? Well, Culpo, according to multiple reports, broke off her relationship with former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback Tim Tebow over his abstinence vow. (Tebow is a devout Christian.) But Culpo knew about Tebow's beliefs before she began dating him (or, at least she should have known given how public he's been about those beliefs). That is not hot.
NOT
RIDE:
The Rhode Island Department of Education was forced to revise and update the results of the PARCC Test that's currently being used in Rhode Island to evaluate students. After a GoLocal investigation revealed several inconsistencies in the departments data, RIDE found that some students were inaccurately coded, causing the scores to be reported higher than they should've been.
NOT
Gun Violence
Another week goes by, and America is victim of another mass shooting--this time in San Bernadino California, where 14 were killed and at least 17 were wounded. It's time for America to get real and enact some common sense gun control reforms. No, they won't prevent every instance of gun violence, but something needs to be done to curtail these occurrences.
NOT
Projo Building
The Providence Journal's home offices, which was sold by the paper last year to Providence developer Buff Chace’s Cornish Associates and Boston-based Nordbloom for $3.3 million, is currently valued by the city appraiser's office at $10,409,400. The new owners want the building valued at the actual sale price. Did the new owner's make a savy purchase, or are Providence's commercial properties appraised at much higher prices than they're worth? If it's the latter, that's a bad sign for the capital city, and the state as a whole.
