“We — the state police, the attorney general, US Attorney Lincoln Almond and
many other public officials — are cleaning up the scandals and mess we inherited.”
— Gov. Edward DiPrete. May, 1986
“It really was a great year until about mid-September. Then it turned into a disaster” –John Convery, a portfolio manager at Rhode Island Hospital Trust National Bank, talking about the stock market crash of 1987. December, 1987
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“It’s more difficult to be a good winner than a good loser, I know. I’ve been a good loser twice.” –Governor-elect Bruce Sundlun. November 1990
“This state is not helped by all the various shenanigans that go on with its politicians in the smaller towns. The state is hurt by its reputation and it needs to clean up its act if it really wants to change the climate and get people relocating here.” — Seth Rudnick, head of CytoTherapeutics. June, 1992
“The entire system failed and I was part of that system.” — State Banking Superintendent Edward D. Pare, Jr. at the RISDIC Commission hearings. June, 1992
“I’m looking for something to hang my hat on to indicate there is strength in the Rhode Island economy and I just can’t seem to find it.” — William B. Sweeney, a professor of economics at Bryant College. December, 1994
“I think the economy was very good to high-tech companies during 1994. A lot of our customers appear to be spending more.” — David Dayton, president of Cadre Technologies. February, 1995
“I think the governor is looking for a way out. He campaigned vigorously against the project. And as long as it doesn’t take much time -he can save face.” — Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, explaining how he doesn’t think Governor Lincoln Almond wants Providence Place built. March, 1995
“Arizona has an aquaculture program 10 times as large as Rhode Island’s. Why are people in the desert producing more seafood than the so-called Ocean State?” — Bob Burke, owner of Providence’s Pot au Feu restaurant, discussing the difficulty in buying seafood locally. June, 1995
“Secretaries’ responsibilities will be different, but whether it’s 1820 or the year 2020, the position of the secretary will always be vital to business.” — Rick Stroud of the National Association for Administrative Professionals. Comments on the impact of computers on secretarial staff. September, 1998
“The trick is how to succeed economically without losing your soul. How do you improve the economic base while improving your quality of life.”–Kip Bergstrom, executive director Economic Policy Corporation, talks about developing an economic vision for the state which retains the state’s high quality of life. July, 1999
“One gentleman told me they like to hire URI graduates, because the MIT graduates — they only rent for a short period of time. They put all this money into training. And then they’re out of here to Texas or California. More Rhode Island students want to invest in the state. They want to see businesses succeed in Rhode Island.” — Winifred E. Brownell, Dean of URI College of Arts and Sciences, talks about the appeal that URI graduates have to business July, 1999
“Aesthetically, people have now heard about downtown Providence. If they haven’t been here, they are talking about coming here to see it. There was a time when I would tell people I was from Rhode Island, and they would say, ‘Do you get into the city much.?’ And I’d have to say, ‘No, not Long Island .'”– Stephen A. Cardi II, vice president Cardi Construction. December, 1998
“My impression is that the real risk is with the smaller businesses that have not taken this seriously — who have decided to wait and see what is broken before fixing it.”– Peter Lacouture, a partner in the Providence law office Nixon Peabody, LLC. Lacouture has been working with clients for the past year, preparing them for the potential Y2K crisis December, 1999
“Our future is driven regionally. We can’t understand Rhode Island’s possibilities
without understanding the region.” — Kip Bergstrom, director RI Economic Policy
Council, urging the need for regional analyses to find out where Rhode Island
fits in the regional economy. December, 1999
“Many intelligent people park their brains at the door when it comes to thinking about money and health care.”– Dr. Alan Sager, PhD, professor of health services at Boston University School of Public Health commenting on how hospital mergers sometimes don’t work, in particular Lifespan and Care New England. August, 2000
“I do worry about the future of the United States. Can a great nation preserve its influence if it manufactures nothing and simply sends messages quickly and consists of retail stores. I would be very worried about that.”– Joseph R. Weisberger, retiring chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, comments on the state of the nation and its future in an interview. September, 2000
“The state of Rhode Island has to learn that manufacturing isn’t dead. It’s just a much more modern concept.”– Joseph Cannon, owner of CAS America, whose core business is based on the rectangular shaped box which his company uses to custom build cabinets and cases for the computer, medical and day care industries. November, 2000
“We’re not looking for things to happen. We’re making them happen. Last year we did a lot of the hard work — the farming. Now we see a lot of the sprouts coming up — dividends that are going to pay us for years and years. When you farm, you eat for a long time.”– RItech President Jeff Deckman. February, 2001
