Downtown losing two stores

PROVIDENCE — Within days of the announcement that Hit or Miss stores was closing
all six of its Rhode Island outlets, including the one on Weybossett Street, downtown
got more bad news, this time from the president of the Downtown Merchants Association.
Paul Brooks, the merchants’ president who has operated Chasen’s, a gift shop on
Dorrance Street for the last 10 years, blasted city officials and business people
for permitting the condition of the city’s core to deteriorate. Brooks is quoted
in the Providence Journal as saying, “If the burghers of Providence want downtown
to survive they had better get out of their offices and work at it.” Brooks praised
Mayor Vincent Cianci Jr. for doing “some remarkable things” in reviving the city,
but added, “there is a problem when you can walk up Westminster Street and buy
drugs with your pizza.” Mayor Cianci is quoted by the Journal in response as saying
crime and drugs have not been a significant problem downtown. Brooks said his
store will close by May when its lease is up. Hit or Miss was bought last year
by a Turkish conglomerate, but filed for bankruptcy in November.