PROVIDENCE – Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee put his new priorities for the R.I. Economic Development Corporation on display Monday, stressing the need for the agency to focus on building existing assets such as Warwick Station Redevelopment District near T.F. Green Airport and assisting Main Street businesses in the state’s urban communities.
In Chafee’s first meeting as chairman of the EDC, the board of directors received an update on the Warwick station district, a 70-acre redevelopment project between the airport and the nearby rail lines that Chafee championed when he was Warwick’s mayor in the 1990s and later as U.S. senator.
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Projects such as the Warwick district – where the Interlink connects the airport to a newly opened commuter rail stop – and the relocation of Interstate 195 already have received funding from the federal government and are under way or complete, Chafee said.
“I don’t have to sit here and say that’s what I want to do,” he said. “It’s done.”
Also, EDC Executive Director Keith W. Stokes outlined plans to realign EDC operations to provide business development services to small business in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket and West Warwick.
The plan included establishing a new position of director of small business services and assigning an EDC staff member as an “urban small business account executive.”
The agency also would seek to work closely with each urban community. Chafee said he wanted the EDC to be able to respond to calls for assistance from small business, even for relatively small issues such as graffiti and potholes.
“It’s important for [urban small businesses] to know they have a partner not only in technological aspects but in the nitty-gritty as well,” Chafee said.
Afterward, Stokes said the emphasis on small businesses in the state’s urban core wasn’t so much a change of direction with the new Chafee administration, but an “acceleration” of plans that were already in the works.
The initiative garnered praise from Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien and Woonsocket Mayor Leo Fontaine, all of whom attended Monday’s EDC meeting.
“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Stokes said. “We’re simply coordinating.”
Several times during Monday’s meeting, Chafee stressed the need for the agency to focus its efforts, citing Alfred J. Verrecchia, the former EDC vice chairman who helped write a scathing review of the agency in 2009, calling it “a basket of frogs.”
Chafee accepted Verrecchia’s resignation earlier this month, even though Verrecchia made it clear he was only giving the new governor a chance to make his own appointments and was “more than willing” to continue to serve.
That wasn’t the only change at the meeting Monday.
David Gilden, managing partner at the Providence law firm Partridge Snow & Hahn LLP, started his transition to becoming the EDC’s lead legal counsel.
Gilden took a seat at the board table Monday next to Robert Stolzman, who has served as the EDC’s counsel and secretary for nearly two decades. Gilden, who has worked with the agency on special projects for seven years, will step into the lead counsel role now.
Stolzman said he will continue to work on some EDC legal matters, but on a limited basis.
More foolish and outright harmful social engineering from Chafee. The leading criteria for using RI’s very limited resources to aid small businesses should not be that they are minority owned. It should be based on whether they show the greatest prospects for success and job creation. The EDC should not be wasting our money on so-called “social justice.” It should be making businesslike decisions for the good of all residents not dabbling in left-wing causes. And Chafee should pull his head out of the 60s and support what works not what doesn’t work but makes him feel good.
There are lots of small businesses in the city that aren’t “minority owned,” so it benefits a lot of people. That is to say nothing of your obvious racism, not that you’d ever admit it.
Um, Gov. Chafee, whether I like it or not you’re the governor of the whole state and not the cities north of East Greenwich. We need economic development, too. What abouit Quonset?
It’s getting so tiring listening to victim riddled white trash complain about phoney “social engineering.” Obviously, these are the folks that are, thankfuly, being left behind.
I have not heard or read anything about Gov. Chafee’s plans for economic development to lead me to believe that they were focused on minority-owned businesses. Some people – I guess those that don’t live in the cities because they are uncomfortable with diversity – appear to believe that only poor minorities live here. As a former resident of Providence – and Elmwood – for 20 years, I can assure those of you think that way that (1) some of us white folks (and non-white folks who can afford to live wherever we want to) actually appreciate diverse urban communities and all that they offer – culturally, socially, food-wise, etc etc etc; and (2) there are many successful minority- and non-minority owned small businesses in our cities. Even on Broad Street in Providence. Imagine that!
On another note, national magazines like Inc. and Fast Company have been touting the POTENTIAL and proven impact of small businesses on the economy for several months now. Their message is that it is SMALL BUSINESSES that will lead us out of the recession far faster – and stronger (with better paying jobs) than corporations.
Finally, FYI, according to SBA definitions- “small business” is defined as one that has revenues of over $1M/year. “Micro-businesses” are those that have revenue of less than $1M/year. There are many successful small businesses that fall into the “micro” category, and always will — but they provide stable jobs for many people.