Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - July 29, 2022
Analysis
Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - July 29, 2022
This week's list includes the legacies of Lila, Joni, Navyn, and Anne.
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."
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Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - July 29, 2022
HOT
Lila Mahoney - Mother of Governor's Bay Day
Back in 1989, Lila Mahoney, a staffer for then-Governor Ed DiPrete, came up with the idea to establish Bay Day, a celebration of Narragansett Bay.
On Wednesday, Governor Dan McKee signed the annual executive order.
The yearly event includes free parking at all Rhode Island state surf beaches on July 31 and recreational saltwater fishing without having to purchase a saltwater fishing license on Friday, July 29, through Sunday, July 31.
Also, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) will waive the roundtrip fare on all service to South County beaches on the Route 66 (URI/Galilee) Express Beach Bus. Route 66 (URI/Galilee) provides weekend-only express service from Central Falls, Cranston, North Providence, Pawtucket, Providence, and Woonsocket to Salty Brine, Roger Wheeler (Sand Hill Cove), and Scarborough State Beaches. Service to the beach will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
“Governor’s Bay Day is one of the summer’s best traditions and a chance for Rhode Islanders to get out and enjoy our beautiful state surf beaches at no cost,” said McKee. “We’re also lucky to live in a place with some of the best fishing anywhere. I invite experienced anglers to consider taking a beginner out and helping them cast their first line in Narragansett Bay this weekend.”
Kudos to Mahoney.
HOT
Joni Mitchell
One of the hottest legends of all time --
Mitchell's return to the Newport Folk Festival wowed the nation.
HOT
Reminder of Nature's Power
Summer is reaching its peak in Rhode Island — and one local photographer caught it in all its glory this week.
Block Island-based photographer Steve Miller captured an amazing photo of a breached whale off of New Shoreham on Saturday.
“Quite the day of whale and dolphin watching off the island today,” said Miller of his snap.
“It was fun,” Miller told GoLocal. “We first spotted two Humpbacks breaching simultaneously, and when we got up closer they kept it up.”
Miller added that he also spotted a mother and calf pair that were Finbacks.
HOT
A Notable "Summer Home" Hits the Market
Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty has listed 8 Manatuck Avenue to market. This seaside estate is known as “Sandcastle” and is a once-in-a-lifetime offering in the village of Watch Hill.
The property is listed at $32,500,000 and presented by Raymond Mott, Broker/Co-Owner, and Donna Simmons, Sales Associate, both of Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty.
Currently, the most expensive home for sale in Rhode Island, the c.1930 home, was owned by the Catholic Church for decades and has been elaborately renovated by the current owners. Featuring meticulously finished handcrafted woodwork, the interiors have been tastefully decorated in a classic Newport style.
With ocean views from nearly every room, the main house has four bedrooms, three full, and two half bathrooms.
HOT
Joe Manchin
Make no mistake about it.
The Senator from West Virginia reaffirmed himself as the most powerful person in American politics.
HOT
RI Recovering
Rhode Island’s job market has improved, with four major industry sectors having regained all jobs lost during the pandemic, according to the Rhode Island Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Briefing for the second quarter of 2022, released Thursday by the Center for Global and Regional Economic Studies at Bryant University and the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC).
“While there are now 3,000 more employed Rhode Islanders than there were before the pandemic, we still have 9,300 fewer Rhode Island-based jobs and have recovered jobs lost during the pandemic more slowly than the U.S.,” said RIPEC President and CEO Michael DiBiase.
“Despite positive trends in the jobs data, the state’s recovery from the pandemic continues to be uneven,” he added.
Last week, Governor Dan Mckee praised the June employment numbers. Unemployment fell to a 46-year low of 2.7%.
HOT
Newport
Just two years ago, Newport's economy was on the brink of collapse.
The tourism industry slowed to a halt, crippled by the pandemic.
Now, just 24 months later, Newport's festivals and tennis tournaments, and this week the city hosted Lord Julian Fellowes, who was promoting the next season of the Gilded Age being filmed on location.
Oh, and the global Ocean Race is returning. See next HOT.
HOT
Global Ocean Race Kicks Off and Rhode Island Is America’s Host
The Ocean Race -- which is described as the toughest test of a team in sport and sailing's greatest round-the-world challenge -- is going to start in just six months.
In 2023, the race makes its only North American stopover in Newport -- and is a big boost to Rhode Island.
The event has a wide-ranging economic and tourism impact on the community. Organizers released a detailed economic impact report that showed that the 2015 stopover generated an estimated $47.7 million for Rhode Island's economy. The race came to Newport again in 2018.
Both events were huge draws for visitors, with over 137,000 people in the race village in 2015 and over 100,000 visitors in 2018, which was dampened slightly due to some rainy weather.
On Friday, GoLocal had the opportunity to go aboard the Newport-based 11th Hour Racing Team's 60-foot IMOCA ‘Mālama’ -- skippered by Rhode Island native Charlie Enright.
HOT
Winners of the 2022 McNulty Prize: Navyn Salem and Edesia
Each year the John P. McNulty Prize is awarded to breakthrough leaders who are addressing the foremost social, economic, and environmental challenges of our time.
Selected by an international jury, each winner receives $150,000 and support to amplify their efforts.
RI's Navyen Salem and Edesia were awarded this year for their work to increase the resiliency of the world's emergency food system, addressing severe acute malnutrition for 17 million children from 60 countries.
As part of the prize, the McNulty Team sent a film crew to Sierra Leone to help shine a light on the opportunity and the responsibility to end malnutrition.
NOT
Anti-Semitism Lives in Tiverton
The Atlantic Sports Bar and Restaurant in Tiverton apologized for anti-Semitic content posted on its Facebook page -- which has now been taken down due to intense backlash at their action.
The business had shared a meme that had a photo of Holocaust victim Anne Frank along with copy that said, “It’s hotter than an oven out there…and I should know.”
Frank was killed at age 15 at the hands of Nazi Germany after being sent to the Auschwitz then Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.
Statement by Business
On Monday afternoon, the Atlantic shared the following -- thanking its "supporters."
The team here at The Atlantic wants to issue its sincerest apologies for a deeply insensitive post shared by our account on 7/22.
The post was poorly thought out and we realize that it was incredibly inappropriate and does not reflect our values as members of our community.
There is no excuse for the sharing of this post, and there is nothing we can do to rectify it, all we can do now is offer our deepest apology to those who were rightfully hurt by our actions.
The Atlantic Restaurant prides itself on being a tolerant, inclusive and safe space for all people. We love and respect all of our incredible customers and members of our larger community, irrespective of their religion, race, creed, sexuality or gender identity. Moving forward we will be vigilant in vetting all social media posts to ensure that nothing like the events of this past week ever happen again.
We appreciate the outpouring of support, as well as the outpouring of rightful criticism, this will certainly be a teachable moment for our team.
Thank you again for allowing us to serve our community, doing what we love - we hope that with time we can regain the trust of those who we've hurt and move forward, as a better, stronger and more sensitive organization.
NOT
Rhode Island Now Ranks Last in U.S. for New Home Construction
A new report ranks Rhode Island last in the U.S. for new home construction per capita.
The study finds that Rhode Island issued just 1.27 permits per 1,000 residents in 2021.
Massachusetts issued 2.82 permits per 1,000 residents.
According to the June report of the RI Association of Realtors, the median price of a single-family home in Rhode Island is $430,000. In the Boston-metro area the price of a single-family home has hit $900,000.
In contrast, Utah issued 11.94 permits per 1,000 people.
National Trend
The study on the state of New Residential Construction in America looked at data from the U.S. Census Bureau on new building permits from 1986 - 2021.
“The five hottest housing markets are Utah, Idaho, Florida, South Carolina, and Colorado. The five slowest were Rhode Island, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, and West Virginia,” states the study.
Nationally, the number of permits to build new homes increased during COVID and has increased every year since 2009, although the number of new permits remains lower than it was before the Great Recession.
From 1986 to 2007, the U.S. averaged 5.6 new residential building permits per 1,000. Then, a massive decline of 73%, a drop off in 2009 — to just 1.9 building permits per 1,000.
Shift from Single Family to Multi-Family
The study also reported that nationally, there is a significant shift from single-family building permits to multifamily permits. At its height in 1992, 83% of permits were for single-family homes. Today, that percentage has fallen to 64%.
In RI, 74% of building permits are issued to single-family homes. That is the 16th highest in the country. In Massachusetts, just 36% of the permits are for single-family homes.
The analysis was developed by BHP using national statistics and state-by-state data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
NOT
A Confusing Economic Picture
The United States is now technically in a recession, after two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
On Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022, according to the "advance" estimate released.
In the first quarter, real GDP decreased 1.6 percent.
Officially, it is up to the National Bureau of Economic Research to declare are recession — which the group of economists has not yet done.
“Two back-to-back quarters of negative growth are a common rule of thumb that a recession is underway, but the group evaluates a range of indicators to determine whether a recession is occurring — including the labor market, which remains solid,” reports Axios.
"On the Right Path" Says Biden
President Joe Biden weighed in on Thursday — and did not make mention of a recession.
"Coming off of last year’s historic economic growth – and regaining all the private sector jobs lost during the pandemic crisis – it’s no surprise that the economy is slowing down as the Federal Reserve acts to bring down inflation," Biden said in a statement Thursday. "But even as we face historic global challenges, we are on the right path and we will come through this transition stronger and more secure."
Biden pointed to the job market, saying it "remains historically strong, with unemployment at 3.6% and more than 1 million jobs created in the second quarter alone."
"Consumer spending is continuing to grow," Biden said.
