A business plan for the bay
Having previously expressed support for a shipping port at Quonset Point – one that would strengthen our economy by infusing it with hundreds, maybe thousands of jobs – we are pleased that plans for such a development are proceeding and that the proper environmental impact studies are being undertaken.
We suspect that in this modern age, a viable container port can be built – and that it can be sensitive to the environment surrounding it. If that is not the case, better we find out soon and get on with getting the best we can out of a former Navy base that remains an unpolished jewel for our economy.
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The very issue of a shipping port at Quonset Point – the volatility of that issue – reminds us that once again the state may be ignoring an even bigger picture. In this case, that bigger picture is the development of an overall economic/environmental plan for our most valued resource – Narragansett Bay.
With all the talk of what to do at Quonset Point, we wonder if planners are adequately addressing the needs of the fishermen of Galilee, the boat builders along the East Bay, the marina operators along our coastlines, the recreational boaters, and the quahoggers that are found in nearly every part of Narragansett Bay.
We wonder about the push for public transportation – in the form of ferry service – along the bay. While we applaud the efforts of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, we wonder if such service is part of a master plan for the bay..
Like any business, Rhode Island needs to establish a business plan for Narragansett Bay.
Gary Sasse, executive director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, shared a similar sentiment last week.
“There is the question as to how things fit together,” said Sasse. “It is important that a business plan be put together and that the pieces fit together right.”
And with continuing talk of a port at Quonset, we suspect that the time is now to undertake and complete a plan that addresses all of the economic, environmental and recreational concerns surrounding possibly our most cherished resource.
Manufacturing?
Last week a biotechnology company had its grand opening in Lincoln. This week a financial services firm will open in Providence.
In Exeter they’re talking about developing a technology park where the old Ladd School used to be, and dot coms and technology related companies are beginning to fill the offices at Davol Square in Providence.
But from Andover, Mass., comes some interesting news. The owners (Brickstone Realty) of the building that houses CMGI, Lucent Technologies and 3M Corp. are looking for a buyer, hoping to cash in as the dot coms try to adjust to a market that is making it tougher for them to raise additional money. Bloomberg News reports that some of these Internet start-ups, the ones that soared on the Nasdaq not that long ago, are suffering from falling stock prices (the Nasdaq index down 5.6 percent this year), and to some extent slowing or stalling expansion plans. CMGI stock, for instance, has dropped some 74 percent this year alone.
Economists across our state agree that our economy is shifting from a manufacturing base to a service-oriented economy – from the financial services and technology companies to tourism. But when the transition is complete, we suspect, manufacturing will remain a significant part of our economy. One in five or six Rhode Island employees has a job in manufacturing, and many more are in related fields.
It would be easy for us to be caught up in the frenzy of this technological revolution – and we should be – but not without assuring that we still find a significant place for our manufacturing sector. It is hard to imagine a Rhode Island economy – or in fact one in this country – that fails to produce any product of any significance.
Chief Justice Joseph R. Weisberger of the state Supreme Court raises an interesting concern in this week’s interview (on page four). He remembers that when he was growing up “Rhode Island hummed from one end to the other” with the sounds of manufacturing plants. Many have disappeared, in what he suggests is a “national phenomenon.”
“I do worry about the future of the United States,” he says. “Can a great nation preserve its influence if it manufactures nothing, and simply sends messages quickly by e-mail, and consists of retail stores?”
