Some random thoughts…
• When it was announced this spring that the College Hill Bookstore on Thayer Street would soon be closing its doors, I’m sure most people figured that competition from giant retailers like Borders and Barnes & Noble had become too much for the independent store. That may in fact be a big part of the story, but I suspect there is another factor at play – and it’s a sad one. People aren’t reading anymore.
The National Endowment for the Arts has released a survey based on information from a Census report published in 2002. The findings include the fact that less than one-half of Americans over age 18 now read novels, short stories, plays or poetry. Among other findings, the survey points out that the pace at which the nation is losing readers is picking up speed.
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With summer already half over, now would be a good time to check with your
kids to see if they’ve made any progress on their summer reading. And it would
be an even better time to start a book yourself – and let them see you spending
some time with it at home.
• And to think, those television reality shows keep scoring
high ratings.
• From what I have seen – and heard – our state beaches
have never looked better. DEM deserves credit for a job well done getting them
ready for this summer.
• This would not be a good week to have a meeting in Boston.
• President Bush’s loyalty to Vice President Cheney is
admirable. But the difference in the poll numbers when you replace Cheney with
U.S. Sen. John McCain, Secretary of State Colin Powell or former New York Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani suggest that this issue isn’t going away anytime soon.
• I attended a conference of business newspaper folks in Chicago last weekend. During one of the sessions, editors from two different papers mentioned that they had been covering the loss of manufacturing jobs in their respective markets and the ongoing push of the “New Economy.” Both mentioned work done by Richard Florida, the Heinz professor of regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon University, who made such a big splash in Providence a few years ago.
I remember covering a Rhode Island Technology Council dinner at the Providence Marriott in February of 2001. Florida was the keynote speaker and he talked about an economy “driven by people, not companies … this new economy is more like Hollywood than IBM. People go from project to project. It’s no longer about working for a single company.”
At the time, I remember thinking that Providence was destined to welcome hundreds
of young professionals – folks who would fill new apartments downtown and jump-start
the arts scene. Well, it’s been three years. And I just don’t get the sense
that the “New Economy” has created the number of jobs that some people expected
it would. It strikes me that maybe we shouldn’t be too quick to give up on the
old economy.
• Speaking of Chicago, the city just opened a beautiful outdoor amphitheater called Millennium Park overlooking massive skyscrapers on one side and Lake Michigan on the other. It includes a skating rink, additional performance areas, lots of public art and gardens. It’s a beautiful development (with a price tag of about $450 million, it should be).
The weekend I was there was its grand opening and tens of thousands of people
turned out to enjoy the music and an assortment of other performances. I understand
that Providence is on a much smaller scale, but it seems to me there are just
too many Saturdays and Sundays when there isn’t enough going on outside in downtown
Providence, whether it be at Waterplace, Station Park or the Fleet Skating Center.
The events need to be free – and they need to be well publicized. That’s how
you get people – especially families – to visit any downtown, including Providence.
• A commercial real estate professional I speak to on occasion is convinced the split-tax proposal being championed by Providence Mayor David Cicilline and other city officials is going to be bad news for the city – making a difficult situation even more difficult.
It’s going to make it even more difficult to attract viable businesses, he
said. “These buildings are hard to rent,” he added. He is also quick to point
out that the state now rents many properties downtown for office space. Without
those publicly subsidized tenants, one can reasonably conclude that the vacancy
rate in the city would soar.
• One last thing about downtown. Whatever happened to
that proposal a couple years ago to light up Downcity storefronts and buildings?
Seems like a good idea that hasn’t gotten anywhere.
• On a lighter note … the other day I overheard a husband and wife talking near the seafood counter at Super Stop & Shop as they decided whether to buy something. She said to him: “But that’s the thing about fish … it smells like fish.”
