First, let's make clear that the Pawtucket Red Sox are leaving Rhode Island if the team doesn't move to the former Interstate 195 land along the Providence River in the Capital City. So with Pawtucket's loss already a sunk and unknowable cost, let's concentrate on the future.
It was clear even during her campaign for office that Gov. Gina M. Raimondo was going to take a more activist approach to redeveloping the former I-195 land.
She also has been clear that for it to be developed in a rapid time frame, catalytic investments need to be made.
Brown University already has stepped up when it became the key to making the nearby South Street Landing project happen. But as people demand greater justification for the presumed $2 million per year payment by the state to the PawSox once the stadium is built – as revealed last week by the team when it unveiled its plans for the ballpark – perhaps we should look at South Street Landing for guidance.
Does the money that the state's two nursing schools are going to pay for their part of that project count as a subsidy for the private developer making the project happen? Seems like tortured logic.
Similarly, one must ask, why is the state payment that leverages an estimated $85 million private investment – for a facility that will no doubt brighten downtown Providence and the state in general – being viewed as corporate welfare?
The governor has said that she and her staff will analyze the deal before coming to a conclusion about how to respond. That is how it should be. Until that is done, let's ratchet down the rhetoric. •