Open space bond would help support private investment

To the Editor:
Your editorial on the Open Space/ Recreation Bond (“Ballot Question No. 4: Vote to Reject,” Oct. 18, 2010) gets the underlying principle right: you support “a judicious public investment” to improve the tourist attraction and public resource at Fort Adams in Newport.
Unfortunately, you misrepresent the purpose of the $14.7 million bond as being “to keep public land in Warwick and Providence from being privately developed.” A principal purpose of the bond is to prevent unwise private residential development, which would severely restrict public use of Rocky Point and India Point (the former Shooters nightclub). As two Providence city consultants have pointed out, waterfront residences often end up “privatizing” public space, as has happened in Vancouver and elsewhere.
The bond is an effort not to stymie private investment altogether, but to encourage smart private investment under careful public stewardship. Full public use of these strategic waterfront parcels is critical to enhancing Rhode Islanders’ enjoyment of our greatest natural resource, Narragansett Bay, and further developing our $7 billion tourism industry, which provides 50,000 jobs.
Both the state and the many citizen groups supporting this bond envision public-private partnerships that would develop vibrant waterfront destinations at Rocky Point and India Point, with attractions like public marinas with excursion boats and ferries, restaurants, retail marketplaces, and event spaces for festivals, concerts, produce and seafood markets, and private gatherings.
Such development would generate the “much-needed revenue” your editorial calls for, in the form of long-term leases of state property to private businesses and increased income, payroll, inventory, and meals and beverage taxes. Residential development, on the other hand, can result in a net loss of revenue because providing community services such as sewers, streets, police and fire protection, and schools often costs more than residential property taxes bring in, according to 100 studies conducted in 21 states, including in four Rhode Island towns.
Your editorial also incorrectly states that “the citizens of the state have already paid for the Shooters site once.” In fact, when the state bought the site for the Interstate 195 relocation project, federal highway dollars paid 90 percent of the purchase price. Funds raised by the bond for the site would also be used for highway projects in Rhode Island, providing in effect a “double dividend” for improving our transportation system, which you recognize as crucial in endorsing this year’s transportation bond, Question No. 3.
The state’s major parks – such as Colt, Goddard and Roger Williams – are already filled to capacity on most summer weekends. What will they be like in 50 or 100 years if we don’t take advantage of this bond’s once-in-a-lifetime chance to enhance public use of the bay? And at minimal cost: the total bond, including interest, of $25 million over 20 years comes to $2 per year, per Rhode Island taxpayer – the cost of one candy bar a year!
George Shuster Jr
Co-Founder, Rocky Point Foundation
David Riley
Co-Chair, Head of the Bay Gateway