It should come as no surprise that the most telling quotes from the pages of the Providence Business News in 1999 related to the health care crisis that has so gripped the state, and the rising health insurance premiums that have come as a result. Newsmakers have also had plenty to say about arts and entertainment, the economy, environment, education, federal budget cuts, politics, urban affairs and much more.
“I think there is a little bit of a misnomer that competition is good. That would typically be an accepted statement. I’m not sure this is the case with health care. If you take a look at all the redundant activities that have to take place in Rhode Island today, the lobbying efforts, the computer efforts, the subscriber services, advertising and so forth. Everybody is doing that. Imagine if all those redundancies were to go away. There would be huge savings from that alone.” — Ronald A. Battista, president, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, responding to a question about whether he thought the health care market was saturated.
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“I can’t figure out how to get a hold of the octopus -what tentacle to grab onto.” — Gerry Meyer, executive director, East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce, who is grappling with the problem of a stunning increase in the cost of his family health care plan from Blue Cross & Blue Shield.
“I think the system is in a death spiralI think the competitive model has failed.” — Ted Almon, president, Claflin Corp., confronting the rising costs of health care for his company and his employees.
“Somebody tell me what’s wrong with what we’re doing because we seem to be doing a heck of a lot more with a heck of a lot less.” — Mark S. Deion, small business consultant, comments on the budget pressures that have reduced the staff at the Providence office of the Small Business Administration from 27 to 17 in 10 years while loans the office has guaranteed have increased from $6 million to $110 million.
“I’m looking at having the streets swept more often. I just think it would be a huge improvement in Providence if Broad Street and Elmwood Avenue could have smooth paving – a huge difference. I don’t know what’s going on with those things. I think that there is noise pollution in South Providence that needs to be addressed, and the quality of life suffers from a lack of aesthetics. You want to step outside your house and take a walk, you want to see things that look nice.”– Casby Harrison, III, who recently opened a law firm on Broad Street, asked what the city or state should be doing to improve its inner-city neighborhoods.
“No one is ever going to accuse Rhode Island of being a job-creating machine.” — Len Lardaro, URI economics professor, who sees signs of a slowing business growth in the state and diminishing demand for Rhode Island workers in Connecticut and Massachusetts to whose economies he sees Rhode Island inextricably linked.
“I’ve never kissed a Republican before.” — Phyllis Tennian, president of the Providence Teachers Union, responds to the news that Gov. Lincoln Almond is advocating elimination of the residency requirement for teachers in the Providence and Pawtucket school system and endorses the concept of full-day kindergartens.
“I feel very stron-gly that every child in this district, all 26,000 of them, are like my own children. I want for them what I want for my own children, nothing less than that. I am going to work to make sure they all succeed.” — Diana Lam, superintendent of Providence public schools.
“We are trying to develop an economy and jobs that give people an opportunity. There has to be a reasonable incentive to motivate people – no matter who you are. The rising tide has to lift all the boats.”– State Sen. William V. Irons, D-Dist. 39, asked to comment on a proposed increase in the state’s minimum wage, after stating that he has yet to decide what his position will be.
“We get lip service and no money.” — State Sen. Catherine E. Graziano of Providence co-chairperson of the state’s Commission on Pay Equity. She has introduced a bill in the Senate again this year that is designed to provide the money to equalize pay scales for men and women in state government.
“Every business in the world has a stupid number” — an offer so good “you would have to be stupid to refuse.” — John Maguire, president of Back Bay Broadcasters, Inc., an independent company, responding to question about whether the company would agree to be purchased by one of the large chains.
“(Trinity) is not just a building. It’s not just a play factory. There is a set of principles here that I get to inheritthe most important thing, there is a tradition I’m inheriting. That’s what the great European theaters have It is understood that they’re not supposed to reinvent themselves when somebody comes out of Yale with their new MFA and says, now guess what I’m going to do.” — Oskar Eustis, artistic director of Trinity Repertory, describes what Trinity Rep. means to him.
“We don’t wait for them to argue. We have to move faster than a legislature is designed to move.” — Jonathan Fain, president of Teknor Apex, responding to whether he thinks the General Assembly needs to support Rhode Island’s manufacturers.
“We’re a mutual savings bank and we don’t have to answer to stockholders. We do what we do and we do it well, and we don’t want to change the recipe.”-Robert O. Pare, president, chairman, and chief executive officer of the Centreville Bank, commenting on his bank’s low-key approach.
“Since that day my great-grandfather decided to stop listening to conventional wisdom and start listening to the customers.” – Jim Nordstrom, vice president of Nordstrom department store which opened last week at Providence Place, tells the story of his great-grandfather’s reaction to a big Swedish woman who came into his first small store in Seattle. He was unable to supply her with shoes that fit because he had been persuaded not to stock outsize shoes or clothing. He lost a customer that day and, as a result, he changed his and his store’s approach to customers.
