Loose Change

Change can be disagreeable yet seems inevitable. Mentioned how in minuscule Rhode Island it can easily be hastened, though seldom results in advisable improvements. With a third casino in Tiverton to join Lincoln and Newport, more discretionary cash will be siphoned away from sensible spending upon clothing, durable goods and other products for which state was once famous. Only 1,477 manufacturers persist, who employ 41,600 workers at a decent annual per capita compensation of $67,500, roughly $18K or 27% more than other non-farm businesses. You’d think elected officials would want to expand that number by whatever means. Service and tourism industry cannot sustain unless core industries remain to add value and produce profits. Ignorance and stupidity doom residents who lack good sense to settle elsewhere.


Labann insists, "Diversity is humanity's great survival mechanism." But what of demographics? Minorities carry that label because each collectively constitute a small percentage of total population. Which you choose to belong to will always be a personal decision, and shouldn’t be swayed by how people you meet pigeonhole you by place of birth, outward appearance, or previous reputation. Labann doesn't even identify with bicyclists met, since most were conservative sybarites, road hogs, or weekend sportifs, not courteous commuters or jejune activists, quite unlike rest of world who are grateful for not having to walk to expand horizons. But does every conference need minority members in numbers reflecting their community percentage? Some only claim to speak for everyone who might be affected by a decision or policy.

But having representatives weigh in on what would affect their communities does instill fairness and trust, unless participants happen to particularly suspect anyone who's not a clone of themselves. After all, wariness has been ingrained in tribes who lived in inbred villages for millennia before transportation across wilderness to separate settlements wasn't so life threatening. Once bicycles appeared and delivered affordable transportation, gene pool resumed expansion, and ideas of inalienable freedom and rights bloomed.

Diversity between hunter/warrior males and gathering/nesting females worked well since time immemorially. Specialization based upon physique makes logical sense. Yet high risk stalking seem to be compensated more than stalwart repeating upon which society survives. “Equal pay for equal work despite gender,” only sounds politically correct yet carries sexist labels into a new context. Gender and race blindness ought to precede hiring decisions and law enforcement. Women are equally capable of committing crimes, too. Female felons seem fewer, but is that because of male bias?

Once one minority gains recognition, congress cannot exclude another, for example, workers 55+ years old, against whom companies routinely discriminate. Successful corporations acknowledge an elder’s wealth of experience. But age alone doesn't guarantee good judgment, as current POTUS demonstrates. Expect all to do what they assume is in their best interest. Despite, a few always feel compelled to do what's right rather than follow a promised garden path never fulfilled.

What you can’t trust is spam email. Internet offers all sorts of opportunities for scam assail that undermines official websites and real notifications. Some users totally lack confidence in computer transactions of any type. Relaying undisputed facts or saying what’s on your mind either in person or via blog entail enormous peril. Unless completely disconnected and turned off, cell phones expose users to cyberstalking, data theft, robot-calling, and secret listening tantamount to unenforced crime, since it can originate from any rogue nation on any continent. Privacy has no chance in an overcrowded world with cameras everywhere and cards recording every transaction.

There’s no going backward. Past is immutable. Making any state great requires buy-in from every citizen derived by offering opportunities for all, reasonable accommodation for the afflicted, and simple respect for residents and visitors. Prisons are already full with those who think otherwise. What bad policy puts beggars on highway exits and high traffic intersections? How can anyone act as if this is normal and tolerable? Might as well say, “Give up. Grant billionaires license to do whatever they want. Let losers die and rest suffer consequences of resigning to status quo.” The insane homeless are just another unrepresented minority, after all. And business primarily means small business, which state policies crush.

The change America needs is incorruptible representatives of every stripe serving in office and you acting responsibly to vote them in, such as getting to know them personally by working on campaigns, or tuning in instead of pulling a lever like a puppet. Informed whistleblowers create scandals that hopefully purge candidate pool. Unfortunately in Rhode Island, citizens’ will in referenda means nothing, since whatever decision they didn’t expect to lose is simply sidestepped, and worst incompetents run for office hand picked by ruling party. Democracy can lead to embarrassing results, diversity inconsistencies. Elections have been reduced to an expensive farce for which you pay big bucks, not loose change.

The business of governance is too important to be left to career politicians and inbred imbeciles. Business regulation, child education, criminal incarceration, environmental protection, home security, revenue collection, road renewal, safe water, sanitation, and waste disposal are all complex necessities beyond an individual's ability to deliver. Community needs a diverse team, not divisive leaders acting unilaterally. Better get busy making sure that happens.

Ride Rode Ridden

Relatively flat and ridiculously puny Rhode Island may well be the nation’s epicenter of bicycling culture. In decent weather within a work shift you can ride a bike from Watch Hill to Woonsocket Hill, which represents state’s longest cross. Besides genesis of Labann’s Bike&Chain: The Ultimate Guide to Bicycling Culture, denizens of Providence’s art and music scene routinely haunt its West End by bike. League of American Bicyclists (originally Wheelmen) was founded in Newport, nowadays tourism central; some of The 400 began Good Road Movement to advocate road improvement, long before cars were common, and denied membership to non-whites. The City by the Sea was once a prefect venue for public bicycling on neatly paved streets before distracted gawkers in busses and cars invaded. It still hosts local shop and reliable purveyor Ten Speed Spokes should you opt to spin out to Brenton Point.

Population density increases death statistics. After monitoring carefully for over a decade, must caution that one bicyclist dies on average every 2 years among Rhode Island’s 5 counties, particularly within a new season and these 2 cities. Despite national trends, all but one were adults, not teens.

In September of 2007, 41 year old real estate developer Frank Cabral of Oakland Beach, while recreational cycling in the wide breakdown lane alongside US-1 in Charlestown, was struck dead instantly by a Mercedes SUV. Driver excused herself with sun in her eye after politely swerving onto road edge to answer a cell phone while continuing at speed. “Couldn’t be helped,” so no charges were filed. Since incident occurred in an obscure spot where few would notice, a ghost bike was deployed for a year in Frank’s hometown honor at Hoxie 4 Corners [shown], a persistent impediment to bicyclists defying Federal Code of Regulations, then displayed with reverence at Procycle 2009, a curated art show in which bicycling was depicted by 75 works in every medium, first of its kind in New England attended by thousands.

This senseless example of privileged contempt for mankind did inspire unprecedented legislation aimed at protecting vulnerable road users. Frank’s Law, largely unknown but named after Cabral, demands that motorists only pass bicyclists and pedestrians when they can maintain a distance of more than 3 feet, or pay a $75 fine. However, no arrests or tickets have been reported in the decade since bill was passed. Motorists rather pay insurance companies to assume liability for any fatality. Frank’s was the only demise to occur in Washington County, popular with cyclists given reduced traffic count, served by NBX and Stedman’s shops.

Rhode Island's unenforceable Hand's Free Cell Phone Provision takes effect next month. Hard to stay safe bicycling or walking while motorists, bored by driving, can't resist talking, texting, and worse behaviors when they're supposed to be obeying laws to continue slinging around tons of legal steel. By taking a license motorists agree to put other road users above own convenience. Drivers are obliged to let pass, stop for, and watch out for bicyclists and pedestrians, not pass them unless they can do so without coming within a meter, a yardstick. Self driving vehicles represent a worrisome development; in March of 2018 a prototype Uber taxi killed a Tempe bicyclist after failing to recognize her as a human.

In January of 2008, 21 year old Amanda Lynn Benge lost her promising vivacity near the Providence Art Club on Thomas Street between Benefit and North Main. A winter ride down a steep hill could explain it, but cause was never disclosed. Imagine she was a college hill student, but whoever knows didn’t have anything to say on incident’s 10th anniversary. People rather forget and seldom discuss such tragedies. Makes it hard for public to celebrate vibrant lives of victims slain, mostly commemorated by local Dash and Legend shops, Providence Bicycle, and RI Bicycling Coalition.

In May of 2009, 66 year old Victor Rodrigues Porter of Providence’s West End was found near intersection of Cranston Street and Niantic Avenue by police, who heard his anguished cries after being struck by a hit-and-run driver. He did not survive his injuries. This cold case crime, within blocks of Cranston Police HQ and Washington Secondary Bike Path, remains under investigation, though will probably stay so forever. Nearby Olneyville’s Red Shed educates youngsters to bike safe, repair own, and steer clear of mortal despair.

Nevertheless, in November of 2010, 13 year old North Smithfield Middle School student Scott Wright, while in crosswalk at the intersection of RI-5 and RI-102, was mowed down by a minivan. Those who commented in driver’s defense speciously say damage to side of her vehicle and lack of police arrest prove she was blameless. Might made her right. Only juvenile to join Providence County’s list of sacrificed cyclists in this century, Wright must’ve been wrong. With a sigh, Blackstone and Circuit bike shops serve cities north of Providence.

With no reports in Bristol, state’s smallest county, focus shifts to Aquidneck Island. In March of 2012, 42 year old submariner systems engineer Michael Strickland went down on Purgatory Road near Tuckerman, in Middletown. He planned to return home to Perth, Australia, after completing his defense industry contract. Details again were sketchy: assumption of bicyclist’s error, blinded by setting sun, and so on, stupid excuses heard all too often.

Later, in October, 64 year old retired naval officer then capitol city dentist Elliot Kaminitz was struck on Memorial Drive near Old Beach Road in Newport. He’ll be missed by his bereaved family and entire community in which he was very active. Family established a ghost bike as a further memorial, which still can be seen; most don’t survive long. Residents typically resent such reminders to be kind and share public thoroughfares responsibly.

Update: Somehow overlooked sad story of able seaman, Middletown grandfather, and Naval electronic technician Art Weekley, who died of injuries sustained after colliding with a deer charging across Ocean Drive near Goose Neck Cove at 7:15 AM on June 9th, 2014. Art had been an avid cyclist since 1990. A ghost bike has been installed in his honor and for service to his country. Figures that Newport would account for more than its share, with distracted tourists, heavy traffic, and narrow streets.

Kent Country account for last two. In July of 2015, political aide to both governor and senator Chafee, 64 year old Charles Hawkins of North Providence, was vetoed down on Bald Hill Road (RI-2) just North of College Street by a 4 decade old Datsun. Ironically, avid cyclist Hawkins advised on energy and transportation approaches, which probably included peddling pedaling. “Charlie was unique and special," Lincoln Chafee emailed to NBC 10 News. Reports suggest he was returning from beach in late afternoon, walking his bike in gore area to cross 4 lanes of incessant high speed traffic, wanting to reach bike path just blocks away in direction he was headed. Have personally witnessed pedestrians and wheelchair users struggling without crosswalks and sent letters in protest to state officials prior to accident. Who’s really to blame?

In June of 2017, 36 year old Christopher Ziobrowski of Chepacet, while attempting to switch lanes, collided with a white Nissan SUV at Coventry’s 2400 Block of Nooseneck Hill Road (RI-3), then succumbed to injuries days later. Can’t find much more to relay about this eager light snuffed out way too soon.

All appear to have been wearing helmets; so much for protection they allegedly afford. Feel-good laws that both affected folks and law enforcers forget negligibly increase safety. The fastest way would be if more drivers licenses were denied, revoked or suspended, and traffic laws were enforced, which even police admit aren't 90% of the time. Had officials heeded activists and reacted accordingly, would some of these deaths have been avoided? Actually, eight bicyclist fatalities in 2 decades represents relatively few versus hundreds of motorists who die every year on Rhode Island roads. Bordering Massachusetts, denigrated for its dangerous drivers, buried thirty-three bicyclists since 2015.

Fear and inconvenience are why so few adults ride bikes. There's far more to fear from motoring, unsafe in countless ways and horribly inconvenient. You must annually work on average 4.5 months to clear $9,000 needed to drive. You're rewarded by abusive traffic, big deficits, crumbling bridges, no parking, poor health, and stress. Motor collisions are the nation’s 3rd leading cause of death, more than gun violence and infectious diseases combined. Nationwide, NHTSA notes as many motoring fatalities (~40,000) each year as bicycling has seen in total since The Civil War when first bicycles appeared.

As America’s smallest state, why isn’t RI leading in road design? Why are we only 29th in bike friendliness? Why steal shoulders for cramped lanes that cause more accidents? Why install controls that don’t work for cyclists? Highways and railroads cut off routes and don’t post signs to guide cyclists around, although they’re supposed to. Bad intersections, bridge bans, and brutal traffic create detours and intimidate riders. RI's cyclonet has been an unsafe afterthought since automotive expansion during 1970's. Motorists wouldn't stand for this. Bicyclists shouldn’t either!

Your sense of safety will never compel official decisions; distance, hazards, hills and ice persist for which cyclists must prepare. Nonprofits will capitalize on your feeling exposed to criminal behaviors and crushing vehicles. Yet you’ll always be safer cycling than driving.

When states make it difficult or impossible to bike or walk, they illegally restrict those who’d choose to. State Chapter 31-19 grants bicyclists access to all bridges and roads, and, where impractical, mandates parallel accommodations. Illegally, 25% of RI’s roadnet is either bike unfriendly or clearly dangerous. Every road 24’ or wider must either facilitate cycling or factor in a nearby bikeway or bikeable road. They can’t just construct bridges and highways restricted only to motoring. This also implies zoning codes that deny malls and stores permission to locate on busy roads if they neglect bike access from adjacent neighborhoods. Planners need to reconsider; complete compliance involves less than 5% of roadnet and usually only after repaving segments and repainting stripes, which must be done anyway. Costs little, yet cures many problems.


USDOT spends $250,000 on automotive transportation for every $1 on bikes. RIDOT diverts dollars so visitors can zoom though state at the expense of resident safety. State is suffering a billion dollar deficit with unsustainable road construction a main drain. Better bike infrastructure would address this waste. Bikeways return their investment 20:1. Separate street lanes make a statement: Bicycles belong. Make it safer, as FHWA demands, and more might bike than drive, since an average trip either way is only 3.5 miles, <30 minutes for even the slowest cyclist.

Once the worst place to ride a bike in a hundred mile radius, Providence has made numerous updates over the last decade. Public embarrassment and relentless advocacy played a part, plus electing a mayor who rides. Striped lanes were added during each road redevelopment. But they don’t make up for bikenet losses in Newport and Warwick. New $100 million Apponaug Circulator exemplifies federal code neglect by further limiting both bicycle and pedestrian access.

Traffic code is for regulating deadly momentum of cars, not bikes, originated specifically to protect those on bike and foot. Driving is a privilege to be earned and kept. A license obligates driver to obey laws and share roads. Impatience is the main reason air conditioned, comfortably seated motorists can’t wait and deprive others. Under numerous restrictions, motorists sought road dominance. In 1920 they coined fake term jaywalking to counter real complaints of joyriding. The following year Providence Boy Scouts, deluded by automotive lobbies, summoned jaywalkers to a school for careless pedestrians for reeducation. Be angry with traffic planners for negligence, not cyclists, other motorists, and pedestrians, who consequently happen to be in your way.

Bicycling or walking is an inalienable right, one of basic mobility. You’re entitled to: Go outside, improve health, reduce carbon footprint, ride anywhere public roads go, and skip motoring altogether. Bicyclists are not obliged to stay in gutters or on sidewalks, may legally assume lane and cross anywhere, and supposed to ride in travel lanes. Shoulders are what allow them to ease over and let cars pass. Despite slower pace, they do not have to give up lane, rather proceed unimpeded.

But freedoms aren’t free. You have to act responsibly and fight to keep them. Open your eyes! Don't be marginalized! Speak up; otherwise, officials sworn to serve you have no idea things stink. A Statewide Bicycling System will only happen if you demand it. Attend Transportation Advisory Committee and town meetings. Tell them, "Adapt roadsides, build bikeways, paint bike lanes... NOW." With cost of driving higher than minimum wages can afford, why have politicians forsaken the poor? Next election, vote velorution! Until then, bike and be seen.

Update: Ethan Simpson, 21 years old, was mowed down by an SUV at Arrowhead and Willet Avenues in East Providence in August, 2017. Mary Wilk, 22 years old, died after overtaken on Rt. 1 near Jerry Brown Farm Road in South Kingstown in July, 2016. Assailants were both women. No charges were filed.

History vs. Unreality

Little of what you hear and only some of what you see describe facts. Neatly kept facades hide hazardous conditions and toxic repercussions. Don’t buy hype or drink politicized Kool-aid, either. You’d be surprised how fiercely neighbors swear by their delusions.

Commercial radio that dominates airwaves here have a weak counterpart in liberal nonprofit stations heard by few. To cater to advertisers who get their own way, talk hosts beat you with verbal cudgels every day. Those who heed their call are likeminded control freaks or pathetic downtrodden geeks. Radio, once admired as Theater of the Mind, has descended into pure agitprop for criminal, ignorant, illiterate, and lazy listeners and enable fake Fox television news. Cheery optimists disappeared following demise of Walter “Salty” Brine, whose very name suited the Ocean State like none other. Yet his fatherly advice to, “Brush your teeth and say your prayers,” didn't prove enough to protect Rhode Islanders from conservative lunacy and crass greed. But to this bilious blog do any heed? The only parties who ever listen to cranks are crooks inside with plenty to hide who fear honesty.

Networks provide no room for moderate opinion. Columnists kowtow to syndicate’s dominion. One expects but seldom gets objective reports based upon corroborated evidence and eyewitness testimony. Insurance premiums and specious suits killed journalism just as it did medicine and recreation. A Coventry Historical Cemetery lies on a middle class side street at state's geopolitical center. Lawyers padlocked Rocky Point Amusement Park; politicians converted it into a dog walk. Only media left to expose what is going on or went down are anonymous or independent bloggers. Denizens, contemptuous and distrustful of facts, seem eager and gullible for self serving myths and sensationalized infotainment. No amount of scandal, not even a prison sentence for in-office malfeasance, keeps convicts from running again and securing a sizable segment of votes. Misguided to believe the good old days can be embodied in an individual. Fear of change impedes progress. They say alone you move quickly, but together everyone advances steadily, or declines irrevocably. Survival’s chief nemesis will forever be stupidity.

Nevertheless, appears Exodus Rhode has ended. Real estate values have risen thereby creating a seller’s market. Perhaps lowly Little Rhody appeals to losers elsewhere, who figure they can compete better for what jobs remain among demented and illiterate than educated and sane opposition throughout region. Psychologists consider "going rogue" an avoidant behavior and sociopathic indicator.

Law enforcement here is lax at best, mainly focused on revenue producing traffic violations, more eager to issue a ticket than a teach a lesson. Even then countless violations get overlooked. They never stop pickup or stake truck drivers who don’t cover loads with tarps then bestrew roads with debris and cause accidents. See belching smoke, broken windshields, no inspection stickers, outmoded plates indicating car isn't registered, parts hanging off, and vehicles whose drivers endanger others. Safer stopping law abiders desperately trying to navigate bolloxed street layouts than legally armed criminals who’ve just ransacked your home.

Fleet conditions reflect road neglect. Federal earmarks and state matches go into huge projects with enormous overruns, political kickbacks, and probable graft, which largely ignore routine maintenance. Unless you drive a military tank or swank rover, whatever you rely upon will be beaten all over. Talk about sending a dysfunctional message to visitors and voters.

Seated officials cancelled entitled pension plans, diverted cash into doomed hedge funds to indulge coconspirators, and quietly padlocked payback in personal campaign chests. How else can you run for higher office and satisfy power lust? Politicians only know how to cut dirty deals, not manage effectively. Most taxpayers seem unaware, but some endorse deck thereby stacked in their own favor. Progressives and reformers have no chance running against a rotten Democratic and Republican core. Too easy to pull one lever: This conditioned reflex among moonbats, nimble navigators, and wingnuts takes no effort whatever.

You'd think against all these indictable disgraces populace and press would have an acute sense of humor and irony. Just the opposite, they've been ground into grit by granite wheels, as if bagged and tagged at Kenyon Grist Mill nestled into a nondescript corner of old Usquepaug, where they began operating in earnest in 1696. Jibes and quips just aren't funny anymore when a killer clown occupies White House. Loathe to institutionalize aggressive madmen, nation instead elevated one to monarch akin to a syphilitic king from The Dark Ages. Modern medicine and nutrition should have cured more cases of dementia. Instead a so-called war on drugs was lost with entire nation victimized by latino gang lords and old money billionaires. As a result, you can now get tourista (TD, or T_D, The Donald) without passport travel.

Forbes listed world’s biggest corporations. On top were American and Chinese banks. Finance parasites produce nothing, thereby impoverishing consumers and public. Only value adding business - farming, manufacturing, mining - churn wealth in better than a 2:1 ratio. Which of these industries could Rhode Island best exploit? Soil may be played out and taxes prohibit, but a break could be given to leave fields fallow for 5 years or till in compost repeatedly to restore. Growing and harvesting trees could be encouraged. Aquaculture might pay provided need to clean up bay does succeed some day. If not for brutal state policies and high utility fees, industries such as these might return. Inventory taxes could be eliminated and nonsense regulations relaxed, lessons policymakers should be persuaded to learn.

Not a good candidate for solar power with too few bright days, water and wind might mitigate costs of manufacturing here. Water power from 13 rivers once made state the richest per capita. One mill still runs on hydroelectric power. Empty factories and unused sites zoned for industry abound. Given paucity of material left in ground, could grant tax exemptions to active mining operations; little is currently being made off gravel, lime and sand. Anyway, such deals generally benefit millionaires and seldom evenly distribute wealth.

Banking, finance, insurance and retail only seem cleaner and safer, but profits go elsewhere. Employees do pay income taxes that state desperately needs, although poverty they cause kills more people than anything else. Likewise, holding and warehousing operations could be expanded given empty lots, existing infrastructure, and protected locations on seacoast, though that wouldn’t answer issue of massive unemployment. Economists promote logic of making durable goods where they will be used, which minimizes shipping costs. While this cuts cash influx from interstate commerce and overseas export, it despoils environment less and reduces end user costs, so competes with internet sales.

State could sponsor retail stores that sell locally made products, especially at or near transportation hubs. Suspect that would be few at first, since so many products have already been off-shored. But artwork, cloth, cordage, jewelry, knitwear, rugs and whatnot still made suggest discount outlets at airport, downtown, Newport, and next to interstate. Retail stores and supermarkets do carry such products, but don’t emphasize.

Unlike New York City, where too many films and television series have been shot to list, Rhode Island has a decent track record for attracting production crews. Lately, The Polka King starring Jack Black (School of Rock) joins hundreds who’ve brought fiction to life and life to film here (location set shown, reverted back to rentable space). What does it take to draw attention and investment? Luckily, previously mentioned gardens, parks, Rosecliff Mansion of The Great Gatsby and True Lies fame (shown on top), and significant architecture have been maintained and preserved, reasons to list and make sure they continue to exist, not get closed or sold to balance budgets. But old assents to mold and rot when you do not preserve stone ended, wood framed antiques, outlays which forever climb as materials and skills decline. These days most tradesmen only know how to slam up some sheet stock from a box store, then invoice at doctor or lawyer rates.

Besides several 17th Century structures still standing, Rhode Island has many surviving historical reminders, to mention a smattering: Benefit Street augmented and preserved from 18th Century in Providence, Block Island Lights, Breton Point and Tower Hill towers, Fort Adams, Flying Horses at nation’s oldest carousel in Watch Hill, Gilbert Stuart’s colonial Grist Mill in Saunderstown, Gray’s General in Little Compton (nation’s oldest still in operation), Great Road in Lincoln, native meeting places, Newport Mansions, noteworthy bronzes of Providence and Newport, Old Stone Mill (c. 13th Century), precolonial Brown&Hopkins store in Chepacet, Quonset Point home of SeaBees, Slater Mill (where American industry was founded), Smith’s Castle, Stillhouse Cove in Cranston (HMS Gasppe was burnt, the first act of Revolutionary War patriots), White Horse Tavern in Newport harbor (America’s oldest public house), and Wickford’s rune rocks (from before recorded time). You can get a sense of existing at any time in continent’s past right up to present within an hour’s drive, if that floats your boat.

Plentiful ideas have no value until attempted, then face prejudiced resistance. People who have it good consider evolution intolerable. Yet change and taxes are inevitable. Whatever you think possible crashes into automatic denial, layer upon layer of impossible obstacles, and zero scrutiny, that is, unless you’re elected to highest office, which then renders plans merely improbable. When you let markets decide, buyers choose cheapest, patients quaff poison, voters elect sociopaths, and you pay for it in ginormous premiums and humongous taxes.

When citizens condone a history of political villainy, guess who gets stuck holding the bag. Investors look elsewhere. Tourists take detours. Townsfolk relocate. Those who sunk roots unwilling to cut losses inherit billions in costs and debts. Why should America absolve Rhode Island from desperate national trends against which local leadership can do nothing? No IRS outpost or naval base will make any difference. Neither would a wholesale switch to GOP convince conservative feds to decide favorably. Hasn't happened since The 16th Century.