Where Do You Stand?

Rhode Islanders abide, even enjoy, fascinatingly unique geographical names scattered across their tiny state, many bastardized from what they were once called by indigenous peoples: Narragansetts (Pawtuxet South to Point Judith), Niantics (Point Judith to Weekapaug), Nipmucs (Pawtucket toward northwest and Weekapaug westward into CT), Pequots (western RI border into CT), Sakonnets (Little Compton), Sauks ('yellow mud" people of Quonochontaug), Toskeyonke ("bridge/ford" people along shores of Pocasset River), Wampanoags (East Bay to Cape Cod), and whoever time seems to have so forgotten you can't find any mention on internet.

Traditionally costumed Narragansett woman attending a recent South County festival  (click on pictures to enlarge)

Indigenous place names were based on natural, physical, topological, and useful criteria observed in their annual migrations inland in summer with staple corn grown in protected fields, then to shore in winter with shellfish being an important but perishable part of diet protected from spoilage by cold. Shell nacre was worked into decorative beads, wampum, valued for trade.

In response to anemic articles one encounters, below are listed all of the most persistent and recognizable examples, each with its current name, how now pronounced, location in state, and "what it signified". Click link for enhanced details, lost labels, and variable spellings from Dr. Francis Joseph O'Brien, Jr. of Rhode Island USGenWeb Project.

Acoaxet [ah COKE sit] over Little Compton border in Wesport “at a fishing promontory beside fields and small pines”

Agawan [AG ah wahn] in East Providence, a "low place overflowed by water" where they beached canoes

Annaquatucket [an nah kwah TUCK it] in North Kingstown south of Wickford “at the end of a river”

Annawomscutt [an nah WOMS cut] Creek in Barrington “at the rock summit” or “ruler’s hill”

Apponaug [AP poh nog] village in Warwick “where he roasts oysters (shellfish)”

Aquidneck [uh KWID neck] including Middletown, Newport and Portsmouth, “a place on an island”

Antushantuck [AN tush AN tuck] Neck in Cranston, “a well forested place near oxbow in river”, now a necropolis with St. Anne’s and Pocasset Cemeteries

Ashaway [ASH ah way] in Hopkington, “land in the middle (between)”

Canonchet [cuh NON chet] in Narraganset, “place he (Canonicus) oversees/protects/rules”

Chepacet [cha PACH it] hamlet in Glocester, from an anecdote about a lost “devil’s purse”

Chepiwanoxet [chep eh WAN ox it] Island in East Greenwich, “a small separate place” possibly harboring spirits of the departed

Chibacoweda [chee bah co WEE dah] or Prudence Island, a “small place separated by a passage”

Chipuxet [chee PUCKS it] in South Kingstown, at “turning place where the stream divides”

Chisawannock [chee sah WAHN nock] Island in Bristol, “a principle fishing place”

Chopmist [CHOP mist] Hill in Scituate, from Chapomeset, still a “crossroads”

Cocumcussoc [caw cawms KWIS sick] Brook, now Stony Brook, in North Kingstown, "where there are small sharpening stones”; once an early 17th Century trading post, then a slave plantation, the likes of James Varnum and Nathaniel Greene turned Smith's Castle into a revolutionary camp within a hidden cove. Name persists as an undeveloped state park.

Conanicut [ko NAN eh kut] Island, now Jamestown, named for Narraganset Sachem Canonicus

Conimicut [kon NIM i cut] Point and village in Warwick, named for Canonicus’ granddaughter Quinimikit

Cooneymus [KOO neh mis] Cove on Block Island, a “long gravelly reef”

Cowesett [koh WEE set] in West Warwick, a “groves of pines"

Escoheag [ES koh hog] in West Greenwich, “at head of three rivers”

Hummocks [HUM mocks] in Portsmouth, an “enclosed area where fishing occurs”

Kickemuit [kick eh MEW it] in Warren, “where there’s a large spring”

Louisquissett [loo is KWIS set] or Loquassuck [lo KWAS sick] in Smithfield near lime quarries “where they meet” and suspect loquaciously discuss

Mashapaug [MASH ah pog] in Providence, a “large pond”

Massasoit [mass ah SOY it] Spring in East Providence, named for Wampanoag Sachem Wasamegin, who settlers called Massasoit, shown below encountering sanctimonious English Puritans

Matunuck [muh TOON nick] in Charlestown, an “observation hill”

Meshanticut [meh SHAN ti cut] Pond in Cranston, which still has “large trees beside brook”

Metacomet [met ah KOM et] Brook in East Providence “related to Massasoit’s clan”; Metacom, aka King Philip

Miantonomi [MY an toh NOH mee] Hill, etc. on Aquidneck, named for Sachem “who wages war”

Misquamicut [mis KWAHM eh cut] Beach in Westerly, “where salmon are”

Moosup [MOO sup] River in Foster, named for Narraganset sachem Maussup “Little Bird”, aka Pessicus

Moshassuck [moh SHASH uck] River in Providence, “a great marshy meadow” where they hunted moose

Nanaquaket [na na QUACK ut] Cove or Point in Tiverton, “where swamp dries up”

Napatree [NAP ah tree] Point in Westerly, once a "treed neck", but now a sand dune after past hurricanes 

Narragansett [neh ruh GAN set] Bay, People, and Town “where the river narrows”; and down Ocean Drive to end of Hazard Avenue there is Indian Rock, as depicted by A.T. Bricher, oil on canvas (1871). Indian is what settlers called natives because they thought their exploration landed them in Asia, unaware there was an intervening Western Hemisphere with two whole continents, homes to several more advanced civilizations than theirs.

Natick [NAY tick] in West Warwick, “home uphill”

Nausauket [NAW saw kit] in Warwick, “between outlets” to Greenwich Bay

Nayatt [NIGH at] in Barrington “at the point”

Neutaconkanut [NEW tah KON kuh nut] Hill in Providence “at the scant boundary” where land treaty negotiated with Roger Williams originally ended

Niantic [nigh AN tic] Avenue in Providence and Point Judith in Narraganset, a “point of land at the tidal estuary”

Ninigret [NIN eh gret] Park in Charlestown, named for a Niantic sachem

Nooseneck [NOOSE neck] Hill in West Greenwich, where there’s a “beaver pond”

Occupessuatuxet [OX cue pess uh ah TUCKS it] in Warwick “at a small cove on tidewater”, whence Hoxie

Papasquash [PA pa squash] Peninsula in Bristol, possibly "broken rocks", not "papoose squaw"

Pascoag [PASS ko] hamlet in Burrillville “where the river branches”

Paucatuck [PAW kah tuck] in Westerly “a divided stream”

Pawtucket [puh TUCK it] “place of waterfall”

Pawtuxet [puh TUCKS it] at border of Cranston and Warwick, “at a little falls”; applies to entire river inland with two branches to headwaters in Coventry and Scituate

Pesquamscot [pes KWAMS kit] Pond in Richmond, aka Worden's Pond, state's largest natural lake, where “a boulder is split”

Pettaquamscutt [pet tah KWAMS kit] Meeting Place in South Kingstown “at the round rock”; also by proximity applied to what's now Narrow River

Pocasset [poh CASS it] River in Cranston "where the stream widens"

Ponaganset [pon ah GAN sit] Reservoir in Foster at a "waiting place on the shore"

Potowomut [pot uh WAHM ut] in Warwick, a "long meadow where trading occurs"

Quidnessett [kwid NESS sit] in North Kingstown “at a small island”

Quidnick [KWID nick] in Coventry “at hill’s end”

Quonochontaug [KWAN uh kon tog] in Charlestown an “extended deserted place beside two adjacent long ponds”

Quonset [KWAN sit] Point in North Kingstown at “a long place by a shallow cove”

Sachuest [SAT choo est] in Middletown “at the little hill near the great hill” between which is Paradise Valley, a geological and naturalist mecca for late 18th Century impressionist painters, including George Bellows, Paradise Point, oil on canvas (1919), likely inspired by an area at northeast corner of Gardiner Pond along Hanging Rock Road. This plein air painting intentionally draws your eye to Sachuest Point barely seen to left on horizon.

Sakonnet [sah KON nit] Point in Little Compton with a “rocky outlet”; also people who resided there and river that flows south past there

Sapowet [sah POW it] Marsh in Tiverton, literally “wet mire”, now a bird sanctuary

Saugatucket [saw gah TUCK it] River in South Kingstown “at the outlet of the tidal river”

Scituate [SIT yoo it] Town “at the cold brook or springs”

Seekonk [SEE konk] estuary to Providence River “where black geese are”

Shannock [SHAN nock] Village in Richmond where “salmon fishing” is good

Shawomet [SHAW oh meht], now Warwick Neck, where there's a “spring on a tongue of land”, also applied by early settlers to a spit in Northern Portsmouth

Shickasheen [SHICK ah sheen] Brook in West Kingston providing a “great water spring”

Shumunkanuck [shoe mun KAH nuck] Hill in Charlestown, a “high refuge”

Suckatunkanuck [suck ah TUNK kah nuk] Hill in Johnston, once wooded with “dark colored rocks at summit”

Sneech [SNEECH] Pond in Cumberland with “rocks alongside or at outlet”

Sockanosset [SOCK ah noh set] Crossroad at a “dark colored small place” in Cranston; once a slate mine

Sowams [soh WAHMS] in Barrington, “land to the south”

Sqauntum [SKWAHN tum] Point in East Providence, “gateway to an angry god"”

Succotash [SUK koh tash] Point and Road in South Kingstown associated with “corn kernel pulp”, an important foodstuff

Tautog [tah TOG] Cove in Charlestown “where there are fish”; also applied to actual species of fish

Tiogue [TIE ohg] in Coventry, a “pond at low land”

Tippecanset [tip peh CAN sit] Pond in Exeter, a “small place at the great clearing”

Tockwotton [TOCK wot ton] Shore in East Providence at a “steep climb resembling a pounding mortar”

Tommaquaug [TOM ah kWAh] Brook in Hopkington, where "they who cut" butcher beavers

Touisset [too WEE set] a quiet corner of Warren where you “ford a stream”

Tunk [TUNK] Hill in South Scituate, is “wooded”

Usquepaug [US kah pog] on river at border of Richmond and South Kingstown “at the end of pond”

Wamponaug [WAHM poh nog] Trail in East Providence, after "People of the First Light (Dawn, East)" who greeted European settlers beside their Sachem Massasoit shown (1620), with deserved reservations but dutiful generosity. Ancestors of these pandemic infected pilgrims given unconditional refuge are now among the most vocal anti-immigrationists.

Wanskuk [WANS kuk] in North Providence at a “steep spot”

Wanamoisett [wah nah MOY sit] in East Providence, once “a good place to fish”

Watchaug [WATCH og] Pond in Charlestown "at hill country"

Watchemoket [watch uh MAH ket] Pond in East Providence “where there’s a great spring”

Weekapaug [WEEK ah pog] at Charlestown and Westerly, a “dividing line” between Niantic and Nipmuc tribes

Wesquage [WESS kwage] Pond at Bonnet Shores in Narragansett, a "cove where clay pots are made", now a wildlife refuge

Westconnaug [WEST con og] Reservoir near Clayville in Foster at “a long place”

Weybosset [way BAH set] Street in downtown Providence; “half way gets narrow”, as at a bridge

Wickaboxet [WICK ah box it] in West Greenwich "at the end of a small pond"

Wincheck [WIN check] Pond at Rockville in Hopkinton, "a pleasant place"

Winnapaug [WIN nah pog] in Westerly, a “good pond”

Woonasquatucket [woo NAH skwa TUCK it] River flows from Smithfield into Providence River “at head of the tidal river”

Woonsocket [woon SOCK it] city at a “steep spot with two rivers”

Wyoming [why OH ming] in Richmond; “large prairie” name much later imported from Delaware language, so not native

Yawgoog [YAWH goo] in Hopkinton on “one side of pond”

Rhode Island founder Roger Williams, exiled from congregation and outnumbered by locals, naturally became interested in Narraganset (Algonquian) language, so he codified A Key Into the Language of America (1643) from oral phonetic into originally written. His healthy respect helped preserve many old place names that gave food hints and useful facts; property ownership was not their priority. Ones that stuck refer to bays, brooks, coves, lakes, parks, ponds, rivers, roads, and whatever nobody owns. If they could build on it, upstart settlers would've tagged it meaninglessly and taken for themselves. English and French brazenly or ignorantly overwrote majority with port towns names from old world for no sensible reason or used own surnames to claim property. Ego, insecurity, or sociopathy obviously played a role. Nobody can go back and stop them from despoiling environment and violating treaties, but you can today organize resistance, stay vigilant, and stop tyrants before they destroy democracy, ruin rule of law, and strip rights from you.

Despots through history renamed places (i.e., Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, or Tsaritsyn to Stalingrad) to confuse, cower and dominate citizens. Williams also wrote extensively on the misuse of executive and governmental powers. The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience (1644) was a source for First Amendment of the United States Constitution guaranteeing free speech, though currently under shocking attack through restrictive executive orders with specious lawsuits brought against investigative journalists, media outlets, news reporters, private colleges, and whoever challenges their ruthless campaign to seize authoritarian rule. You stand at an inflection point where the worst of history tries to repeat itself.

John Wilderming of the National Gallery noted, "At the center of all its contrasts the Rhode Island landscape has been abidingly benevolent... making us feel that little separates the real from the ideal... How could it be otherwise in a state which has place names like Prudence, Patience, Providence, Hope, and Paradise [respectively, bay islands, capitol city, hamlet in Scituate, and valley on south shore of Middletown]?" Elite residents have fought for decades to limit or remove detrimental core industries, thus impoverishing factory workers and other laborers. Lack of housing and jobs suits multigenerational multimillionaires just fine, not their problem, since they prefer untended fields and wild woods separating them from hungry humans and neglected needy.

Old Playbook

Having lost a Nineteenth Century major league franchise, Providence Grays (debuted first black professional baseball player, featured Babe Ruth, won first ever inter-league championship by beating Boston Red Stockings and New York Metropolitans, wound up as the Washington Senators), this field of garden dreams and plantation schemes has been in decline ever since. Rhode Island was a premier destination through the 19th Century. Newport is still rated around 10th in USA. Providence once had clubs, corporate headquarters, department stores, fountains, gardens, hotels, parks, remarkable bronzes, restaurants, sports venues, and theaters worth seeing, State once successfully mixed business with pleasure and sustained nation’s highest per capita income. What went wrong?

If tourism is your principal industry, better be extremely conscious of attractions you present and how to keep them pristine and safe. Never going to rival Disney World, planet’s #1 tourist trap, even if you're cooler year round. Disney has air conditioning everywhere, an army of gardeners who primp plantings overnight, battalion of technicians who maintain buildings and rides, and cohorts of alligator wranglers. Here, casinos ravaged discretionary cash, factories failed, navy pulled out, robber barons caused recessions, series of hurricanes devastated resorts, and string of obtuse officials undermined reputation. No building or housing standards are enforced, except those that collect fees for permits. So little was done to promote tourism, visiting suggests slumming. Fiscal health means diverse enterprise, and state has done its best to eliminate farming, manufacturing, and mining, the 3 core industries upon which all others depend. Where do eco-sensitives think food and smart phones come from? Virtual world is a conduit, not a source. Coal, gemstone, and gold mines ran out, yet heavy metal sediment could still be recovered. Some small produce farms, orchards and ranches defy punitive property taxes to hang on, though manufacturing has been scaled back even further after centuries of toxic effluent left untreated. But at least Rhode Island isn't involved in the death dealing enterprises of tobacco cultivation or weapons manufacture, like state to its west.

Governance may enhance or ravage a place. No matter how much corporations or individuals invest, when elected administrators or robotic bureaucrats create and enforce untenable policies, nobody thrives. Seems somewhere along the line our winning playbook was mislaid or went obsolete; losing strategies have been repeated ever since, a merry-go-round for aliens and rogues, not citizens and taxpayers, spinning continually downward. Takes insanity to repeat same behaviors that caused self harm and dug a grave for what was once so vital. New administrations must be repeatedly retrained on how to serve public, even though democracy is ancient. Hopefuls ought to pass tests in civics and history before they're allowed to run as candidates, followed by drug and mental health screens. Already, a representative hooked on opioids had to resign, and string of sociopathic politicians were disgraced for malfeasance. One representative pleaded desperately because he was on the verge of raising $50,000... for what, he never disclosed. Not like taxpayers weren't already paying him hundreds of thousands in salary. Just betrays his contempt for constituent and temerity of entitlement.

In Athens 2,500 years ago, citizens were conscripted to serve as legislators. Any who didn’t vote or voted ignorantly was deemed ἰδιώτης, idiot. Parasite, παράσιτος, was reserved for those who didn’t act in public’s best interests, instead filled themselves piggishly alongside society's hard working contributors. Legislature has forever seemed loaded with both. Casts doubt on old truism, “That government is best that governs least.” They get reelected again and again, and serve no interests except to stuff own pockets. The business of government is far too important to leave to idiots or parasites. If enough Athenians gouged offender’s name on an ostraka, a shard of pottery, and handed in, accused would be banished from city for 10 years, “ostracized”.

From this millennia old model of democracy, society retains right to recall representatives, but it’s a lot harder now, no longer just a few thousand votes of no confidence. Impeachment costs almost as much as one scoundrel can steal with impunity. Imagine trying to impeach tag teams trying to outdo each other? So many crooked officials have been caught, hardly anyone notices anymore. None have served a 10 year sentence. You can hardly blame those who do for being angry and occupying demonstrations after generations have passed without equitable resolutions.

Instead of ensuring maximum advantage for majority, what have Rhode Island's leaders done? To rebut a new round of state sponsored ads asking people to put up and shut up, only dialogue works to expose problems that require solutions and prioritize them as to extent of detriment. Better talk than terrorism; in other states fed up populace has lately acted out their frustrations. If you can't stand negativity, why not invite a positive response by doing what's right for entire community? Say what you really think. Examine failed policies, neither naming names nor spinning excuses. These plays they've applied and ploys still tried only aggrandized individuals, possessions and pride. Who did they think they were fooling?

• Appointed bad candidates to important roles, such as cabinet members and other highly visible positions, who show no interest or knowledge of Rhode Island customs or populace, so straight away looked shabby. For decades they allowed a fiasco at DCYF. Wouldn't attracting talent based on merit make more sense?
• Built landfill within miles of Scituate reservoir, state's main water supply. Didn't carry forward on Big River expansion or promote gasification or other measures to reduce waste. Cancer rates are high, usually linked to water supply. Home recycling is allegedly being dumped instead of sorted. If small countries such as Switzerland manage 100% recycling and zero land filling, why can't visitor-hungry Rhode Island?
• Caused banking crisis by withdrawing hundreds of millions from a few credit unions, which collapsed them all, devastated small businesses statewide, and fortified biggest banks, probably its sole purpose. Skip ahead a decade: Biggest banks, CDOs, subprime mortgages, and Wall Street aggression diverted trillions from middle class nationwide and drove millions of families out of homes. From 2006 to 2010, recession begun by dopey Dubya slammed all Americans. Only a fool or liar would deny this severely impacted situation locally.
• Cut aid to cities and towns to make up for state shortfalls, so property owners’ tax bills increase to cover losses and services are cut, another zero sum shell game.
• Despite recently expanded rail and road infrastructure, railroads don’t visit warehouses near seaports. Closest state comes to a shipping hub are cars unloaded into Quonset lots, coal dumped into train cars from ships stopping at Providence Pier, gas and oil pumped into tanks lining banks, and smugglers running dope up Mount Hope and Narragansett Bays, though all are intermittent and tentative.
• Destroyed reputation through criminality and scandals. Plunder Dome continues as an ongoing capitol hill farce, a theater of the absurd under a big marble dome.
• Drove out smelly or ugly enterprises, even if they didn’t pollute and instead employed residents, when it can be controlled with zoning codes on plenty of empty industrial sites. What’s the alternative, welfare? Already can’t afford yet have country’s fewest TANF families, about 6,700, and highest unemployed rate, arguably 35%. Congress approved $20 million to expand Port of Providence, yet Save the Bay argues it's just to exonerate a toxic site owner. Without a line item veto, any sketchy rider can be sneaked into a bill.
• Enable panhandlers. Why are there so many? Elsewhere, beggars are restricted to avoidable precincts. Conversely, prosecute talented buskers, hawkers, musicians and performers who enliven urban dead zones. Listen to local ACLU, who have historically been on the wrong side of every argument - against majority's liberties and rights - for a half century. In fact, heed every loud blockhead and crackpot instead of major demographies.
• Force dangerous industries into residential and rural areas, probably land owned by friends and relatives of legislators, and thereby multiply ill will. Half empty industrial sites already exist for this, yet seldom get considered, though eminent domain could be applied. Then sell electricity or products outside state with no benefit to local community.
• Give sweetheart deals to billionaires, cable monopoly, corporations, and realtors every time critics fall asleep. Few journalists who still investigate do bidding of old money and university boards. Not to say that a convention center or sports venue wouldn’t attract improvements and create minimum wage jobs, but when will they address essential issues, like free parking, living wages, low cost housing, and public transportation, without which no city can thrive. Who here can afford games and shows?
• Let politicians align with party most likely to win, so no voter is ever really represented. We had a Republican governor run for nomination as a Democrat president. Huh? Party platforms and priorities mean nothing anymore.
• Make excuses about road jurisdiction, who’s stuck with responsibility. Named roads belong to city or town, numbered roads to state, except interstates, which feds control and fund. All are crumbling potholed disasters owned by a public who can’t afford them anyway.
• Permit persistent joblessness statewide. For a population of 1.05 million, only 514,000 positions are offered. So many have given up looking for work within state, has begun to resemble a freegan squat. census shows a decade long exodus of 150,000, and 20% employed daily and paying taxes in neighboring states. Recipients trapped in aid arrangements don't dare leave.
• Prescribe pills to criminally insane without behavioral therapy, and set them loose on public to repeat malicious conduct. About 9,000 individuals are hospitalized annually for mental and substance disorders. Note related panhandling comment; to deny begging is to expose this perverse turnstile. All should not be indefinitely locked up, just use more discretion in profound and violent cases. Already know that drugs and poverty cause mental disease, yet they’ve cut funding for interdiction and intervention, increased wealth inequality, legalized drugs, and misappropriate taxes. Each makes situation worse, but together bring total bedlam.
• Privatize economic development at high cost for a net loss, scandalous and shameless. Look to "eds and meds" for leadership. Colleges, hospitals, medical startups, and nonprofits disappoint, evade taxes, and glean; can see why like minded governors lean on them.
• Raise no new revenue. Distrustful residents suspect they'll misappropriate any new resource, such as bridge or road tolls. Yet all New England states, except sparsely populated Vermont, have tolls on interstates earmarked for infrastructure upkeep. Whoever registers vehicles here could be given transponders that permit free passes through booths. At least 25% of traffic comes from out of state, so residents pay road costs and outsiders pass for free. A Hopkington plaza could consolidate collection and eliminate existing bridge toll mainly targetting Rhode Islanders.
• Spend billions on enormous highway projects to the exclusion of basic road maintenance. Lots of cash means quite a bit can invisibly be diverted. Zooms out of state travelers through; never invites them in. Feds probably prefer, so they don't have to witness urban blight they caused. State favors because it brings in federal funding, fills campaign chests, and forestalls bankruptcy.
• Tolerate crime, gangs, graffiti, lapses in minimum housing standards, mounting homicides, neighborhoods left to decay, overfull prisons, recidivism, and vermin infestation. "What do you expect us to do?" is they perennial response. If you repaint immediately and roust loiterers, doped up vandals get dispirited, give up, go elsewhere. To address, courts could issue more community service along with fines, or state create more minimum wage jobs for cleanup and maintenance.
• Train an army of workers for tourism, which, unlike Caribbean or Florida, means only 6 months of work each year for them. Among key reasons corporations don't headquarter here are high cost of utilities with an ineffective PUC, lack of qualified chemists, engineers, and researchers, poor business climate, and state inventory taxes. Hospitality can't be your only opportunity; must have many reasons for visitors to book hotel rooms.
• Transplanted foreign nationals with no interest in citizenship to ensure elections or federal funding, then turned a blind eye to ensuing bedlam. Entirely different from becoming a place where people want to emigrate due to opportunities, then can’t complain that new citizens have outcompeted you for your job.
• Treat political office like a stepping stone to selfish ambitions elsewhere, even hire PR teams at taxpayer expense to promote self on national stage, so forever leave everything in worse condition.
• Turn municipal workers (fire, police, teachers) into beggars by cutting promised pensions and forcing continual renegotiation of contracts. Some cities operate for years without contracts, no way to retain best and brightest, but sure to minimize public safety.
• Wrangled every failure into another fee paid by middle class, so decimated middle and increased gap between poor and rich. Repeated bond referenda have dug debt so deep, $12 billion, revenue mainly goes to paying interest. Every citizen owes about $12,000, and repays constantly in terms of services not performed for taxes paid.

All this is just a fraction of what they figure they got away with, not to mention what else. Can't deny widespread discontent. No wonder knee-jerk reactions to government proposals are vehemently reject and vow to fight. "Not in my back yard!" Change isn't always bad, may sometimes mean improvement; stagnation spells doom. Trust must first be built through deeds, not words. Every constituent has been conned so many times circumstance demands consistent decorous performance from governance. Do the job for which you were elected, community servant, not supreme monarch. Citizen apathy, resentment and stupidity compound nightmare: hit-and-run scofflaws, hostile waitresses, neighbors who don't know each other, rude bus drivers who don't run on schedule or stop for those they might dislike. Not just those elected, everyone together needs to restore balance and seek partnerships. But parochial attitudes pervade outlying districts; yokels who'd rather see cities go bankrupt also vote against burgeoning local businesses, such as a century-old seaside inn, as if they had any say on what neighbors do with own property. Some are so privileged they don't need opportunities, expect to deny others a livelihood, and presume to exclude everyone else from their overgrown hideaways. Puts in doubt any chance for economic stability or responsible governance.

To thrive you must strive for balance. All news is not bad. Magazines rate beaches among top in nation. Roads do get repaved, though approaches haven't always been sensible, like first addressing main streets and park roads, and generating more revenue to cover instead of borrowing. Garden City has flourished on private investment. Proves that adapting to whatever economy throws at you has a magnetic effect on retail customers, who could make purchases online instead. Other successes despite above snafus include:

• Bike paths, despite ridiculous expense of reengineering and refurbishing abandoned rights-of-way designed to handle burly train tonnage for dainty bicyclist poundage amounting to $1 million per mile, have attracted eco-tourists, complied with federal laws, enabled funding influx, provided 70 miles of commute corridors for poor workers, and yielded an estimated 20:1 return, to date, $1.3 billion. Compare to $10 million per mile for simple highways, or $500 million per mile for I-way and Viaduct Projects, which will last 5 times shorter before replacement 10 years hence. Maintaining entire bike net since inception, except for repairing engineering mistakes in erosion control and safety improvements, has been 50 times less than constructing 1 mile of highway, though they spent $25 million on a hard-to-access linear park parallel to Washington Bridge when repairing Bold-India-Point-to-Point Bridge for a small fraction would have sufficed.
• Entrepreneurs, micro-startups, and small businesses like diners, dives and shops, which have been state's flimsy mainstay, employ biggest percentage of workers, though tax paid municipal and state positions expend more revenue than they generate yet forget to inspect eateries, supposedly state's biggest draw after beaches, on any regular schedule endangering patrons. Kudos to joints that source from local aquaculture, farms, and ranches.
• Historic preservation enhances ambience and maintains links to illustrious past. Costs are mostly paid by owners voluntarily adhering to standards.
• Intermodal connections, while jeered by know-nothings and naysayers, are proven improvements. Airports from which you can hop on a shuttle or train, ferries that visit many bay ports, rail terminals, and smooth roads bring in big revenue as long as they directly connect with each other.
• Waterfire, which annually raises its own $2 million budget, imports $70 million in total spending from around nation and world. None of this would have been possible without Cianci fighting public opposition and spending millions to relocate confluence of Moshassuck and Woonasquatucket into Providence River. The denigrated, late mayor honorarily and personally ignited very first Waterfire held ever since. Return on this investment already exceeds $1.7 billion.

What can be concluded? Modest investment of taxes with federal matches applied toward beautify, health, practical and safety improvements increase commerce and tourism. But quality of life more directly tracks availability of housing, jobs and transportation. You can promote a delightful facade, but won't play complete game without underlying strength. You can't legislate every problem away, or rely on politicians to act fairly. The ultimate blame lies with everyone who thinks one's only responsibility is to vote. Careful study, community awareness, crime reportage, evaluating performance, keeping up property, knowing issues, and paying taxes all come before voting. Foremost, more must give a damn what happens and whether state has any future, which is why you so seldom see such outspoken tirades as this regarding Rhode Island, possibly too small to warrant attention.

Wages of Sin

Several Rhode Island cities and towns entered into or face bankruptcy: Central Falls, Coventry, East Providence, Johnston, Narragansett, Newport, Providence, and West Warwick. Distressed municipalities result from all sorts of reasons, but usually it comes down to either malfeasance or mismanagement. Seems no reason for this cancer not to spread throughout, since state has suspended municipal aid. It’s too easy to divert money from the treasury into pockets when times are good. Mayors or overseers often overestimate future revenues and promise too much to workforce in retirement entitlements. A less understood reason lies in an insufficiency of scale. If you give breaks to businesses for locating or staying within your borders, it restricts residential taxes you could assess and shrinks footprint for other investments. Foremost, people must somehow be able to secure gainful employment, which explains these acts of desperation.

Empty mills can be filled with artist lofts, entrepreneurial startups, or residential apartments instead of given away to subsidiaries of big businesses who employ ever fewer workers locally. Abandoned or neglected properties contributing nothing also waste resources when they burn or collapse. Centuries of oil dripping from machines make mills tinderboxes with massive remediation necessity. Holding companies interminably dodge responsibilities and taxes. Knocking them down could solve several problems at once. As long as they aren’t toxic brownfields, sell the land for revenue producing construction.

Taxpayers and voters who absorb all the costs figure they have something to say about such fiascos. They can complain all they want, but it won’t do anything. The next mayor will inherit intractable obligations forged over decades. Better state arrests, incarcerates and seizes assets of miscreant bureaucrats formerly entrenched, but that, though possible, hardly ever happens. Better voters recall seated officials before holes get too deep, but that’s even more unlikely. Lasting solutions require foresight and intelligence, attributes forever in short supply. Progress is only possible when unsophisticated people work very hard on personal dreams in a cooperative society. Modernity is littered with educated slackers and greedy loners reacting to a dystopian plight. The medical adage of "do no harm but neglect no need" applies to every relationship, especially leadership.

In you can believe generalities and rankings, Forbes lists Rhode Island as the 8th worst place to make a living despite top 10 for livability. Sure, if you’ve got deep pockets and never need to work, buy a capitol city townhouse and lounge around aimlessly. Employers here sustain less than half of Rhode Island's residents. A disproportionate number of jobs are minimum wage and part time. One in six is illiterate in any language. About the same percentage has already retired. About 15% work in neighboring states. Economic development, though paid millions to a private organization in recent decades, has mostly been neglected for a half century. Despite efforts to improve Providence, most of Little Rhody decayed and shrank, in particular Pawtucket, West Warwick and Woonsocket. Census in 2010 revealed a 10% exodus with people leaving for opportunities elsewhere.

Shortly after land was granted to Roger Williams to establish these so-called plantations, his associate William Coddington, revered for founding Portsmouth then Newport, tried to sell it back to Massachusetts Bay Colony. Maybe Coddington was onto something. When a state is too small to exist on its own, annexing it cures many ills at once. Importantly, it sweeps away bad governance and patronage jobs. For what seems forever, state has been state’s biggest employer. Those currently holding elected office will speak eloquently for independence and pride of place, yet won’t ever deliver on promises for an unemployment percentage below 35%. Laughably,they boast it's below 6% based on new UI claims from thousands who exhausted eligibility. Furthermore, they entice unskilled immigrants and newcomers with benefits by taking them away from long time residents who established them through blood and sweat. Handouts and privileges cost someone, usually those hanging on by their fingernails.

Centuries before mills dotted adjacent villages, each a small fiefdom run by Anthonys, Browns, Knights, Slaters, Spragues, and such ambitious capitalists. Hardscrabble farmers and hungry immigrants flocked to mills for the promise of survival for which they traded backbreaking labor during 7-day workweeks. But geopolitical catastrophes, including Civil War and WWI, shuffled places where work could be done profitably. Unprepared to remake themselves to meet changing needs, owners closed shops. Well healed already, what did they care? Their patriarchal attitudes toward workers also led to devastating strikes, which further bolstered competition elsewhere. This remains one of the biggest risks facing business developers. It’s not that needs don’t exist for which manufacturers provide answers. It’s that getting humans to interact is fraught with abject failures and inappropriate responses. But it's sinful not to try. History proves that populations are best sustained by agriculture, manufacturing and mining. RI's decline is directly linked to destroying these 3 core industries that create all wealth and embracing "clean" finance institutions (banking, insurance) which contribute no profits and only count proceeds. One might argue Rhode Island lost resolve to sustain profitable enterprise long ago: factories relocated overseas, farms became golf courses and tract developments, and mines were emptied.

Today you can't visit any village without dozens of empty storefronts and fading FOR SALE signs. Antique retailers, bike recyclers, and dingy diners (folks still need to eat) are about all that's left. The wages of sin are distrust, reluctance, suffering, and this vicious downward spiral. Burnt so many times by business and governance, citizens find it nearly impossible to get enthusiastic and rally loyally. This is when dictators and theocrats appear and seize power. Conservative and religious hate has become planet's greatest threat. You never know just how bad things can get until you stop caring for equality and freedom. The sleep of reason produces monsters.

Hue and Cry

By history and reputation Rhode Island should display and revere certain colors: Black, brown, gold, gray, green, red and silver.

Blackstone River flowed firsts and startups for which state is still famous. Black bears are spotted occasionally on outskirts. Not even getting into 1st RI Regiment of Revolutionary War Blacks, first state to abolish slavery, nor the triangle trade of Africans and blackstrap molasses upon which state was founded. Black always represented primordial ooze, current color of Mosshasuck, Pawtuxet, and Woonsasquatucket Rivers, the ink of polluted tattoos that trace livelihoods through local veins.

Brown University is indubitably Ivy League down to its green twining vines, but James, John, Joseph, Moses and Nicholas all made indelible marks on district culture. You could once list Brown & Sharpe among nation's biggest manufacturers; its former brown brick edifice glowers across I-95 from local blush limestone statehouse. Besides, much of state's industrial past left a legacy of EPA brownfields, while agricultural remnants are literally fields of brown muck for much of the year. Lush verdancy only describes the scores of faux and toxic golf courses. Brown recluse spiders and brown snakes might require a visit to Jane Brown Hospital. Mercy L. Brown will always be the favorite reputed resident vampire. Archives indicate 5,487,000 records of Browns in Rhode Island alone. Nationwide, it's the 4th most common name; of the other top 100 surnames, only Gray and White are also colors.

Tolkien twisted an old adage, "All that is gold does not glitter. Not all who wander are lost." Yet Rhody’s Independent Man has been gilt and stands rigid atop capitol dome. Indeed, from Durfee Hill to Foster Center they find and mine deposits in pyrite and quartz. Costume adornments sparkle of phony glitter, though limited fine jewelry is also made. More businesses here deal in than fabricate from precious metals, though aluminum, copper and steel scrap are mostly collected. Bathed in brackish fog, bundles and heaps of riparian iron noticeably oxidize into shades of black and brown. Despite empty hotel rooms and hospitality investments, rust never sleeps here. Out-of-state workers do; 15% of residents work in CT and MA, since state’s alleged Economic Development made so few opportunities unemployment resembles levels of The Great Depression.

Greene Homestead Spell Hall is on National Register of Historic Sites, one of many colonial houses across state.

A section of SW Coventry is named for Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene. Although born in Potowomut, he's more associated with Savannah, Georgia. Second in Command to Commander-in-Chief George Washington, Greene enlisted as a private and rapidly rose through ranks on his avid bookishness, innate wit, and savage aggression. Hero of the Southern Campaign, Greene practiced tactics that secured an American victory, though you hardly ever hear his name mentioned other than as one of many localities that bear his misspelt and nondescript surname. Rather, denizens raised verdigris bronzes of Burnside, President Lincoln’s most inept Civil War general, and several other notables to celebrate immigrant nationalities. Local airport PVD was later named after native son and US Senator Theodore Francis Green.

Rhode Island Reds were not only a hockey team, it’s also the name of state’s official bird, an embarrassing breed of chicken that lays brown eggs. Though many localities for some odd reason fondly recall British fiefdoms, colonists settled for hundreds of names given by indigenous red race: Apponaug (where you roast oysters), Aquidneck (on an island), Ashaway, Connimicut, Cowesett (pine place), Kickamuit, Louisquisset (meeting place), Meshanticut (many tall trees), Narragansett (narrow river), Niantic, Occupessuatuxet (whence Hoxie), Pascoag (river divide), Pawcatuck (open stream), Pawtucket (water falls), Pawtuxet (little falls), Quonset (long place), Sakonnet (rocky outlet), Shannock (salmon fishing), Usquepaug (end of pond), Wampanoag, Weekapaug (head of pond), Weybosset, Woonasquatucket, Woonsocket (steep descent), Yawgoog (fire pond). Despite suburban myth, rhododendrons (means "rose tree") are neither named for Little Rhody nor native to New England, but they do reliably bring shades from magenta to rose every spring, since they thrive in acid soil, as did asters, goldenrod, Joe-Pye weed, violets, witch hazel, and worthy precolonial flora. Cumberlandite, state's official rock, contains reddish iron ore. Plentiful swamp maples turn vivid red each autumn.

Famous smithies have become scarce, so silver has no cache anymore. State's flag features an anchor, blue banner of hope, and gold stars on a white field with yellow fringe that hark back to Cromwell and King Charles II, nothing for which state now stands. Anchorages are few; navy is gone; quahogs were ignored. If you wave a pristine flag through state's polluted air or water, it will stain as slate gray as surrounding ocean. So little sun shines here, solar power isn't as viable as in Arizona and Vitamin D deficiency is pandemic. Folks look forward to snow because it brightens outlook. You'd think photovoltaic panels could repurpose fanged farmland that no longer produces. White supposedly stands for purity, not besmirched corruption or tarnished complexity, as inappropriate as a whore in a bridal gown. Blue is for sky, unseen most of the time. “Blue sky” connote corporations that pay big dividends, not something you're ever likely to see here. But “the blues” do describe depression and seasonal affective disorder, so that might fit a bit. Yellow is a curious color, craven yet driven, so one to approve.

State's flag ought to be a brown and gray herringbone field with black veins and green or red edges trimmed in gold leaf, and yellow lettering, thereby admixing artificial with natural. Any rainbow expectations have always been crushed by old time elite, who still cling to privileges bestowed by monarchs. Yeah, things were simpler then; one died or lived upon an inbred idiot’s whims, never had to compete among thousands of other candidates, set up shops to exploit and tax impudently. Unless enough residents take up the “hue and cry” against, all are judged just as much to blame as in old English law.

Brick & Mortar

Are ruins romantic? Rhode Island is grossly littered with empty mills and famous failures. Reminded of great/late 38 Studios, which lasted as long as a newbie warrior in a Halo or World of Warcraft tournament, shouldn’t some sense be made out of collateral carnage among such market economy debacles? Or has the very idea of a company of coworkers working cooperatively become obsolete in an entrepreneurial/narcissistic era plagued by continuous upheaval?

This state had numerous clothing, dye, fabric and thread mills, 29 on Blackstone River alone, but spread across state in Ashaway, Centerville, Central Falls (11 closures in decade between 1997 and 2007), Cranston, Crompton, Cumberland, Lincoln, Olneyville, North Providence, Pawtucket, Providence, West Warwick, and Woonsocket. Many closed because of Civil War Reconstruction in the South, which relocated them below the Mason-Dixon Line nearer to fields where cotton was sourced. Brings into question, "Who won?" because it was a net loss for the North in jobs and lives. Another such exodus occurred during The Great Depression in the 1930's. Costume jewelry manufacturers once employed 16,000 residents, now only 7,000. Downtown retail stores fell to suburban malls. These migrations cost Rhode Island 500,000 jobs and decimated all of New England. More recently, mills nationwide were shipped to China or Mexico, where they promptly ran into counterproductive snafus. Ambitions will never be satisfied paying minimum to dedicated servants. The lure of slave labor seldom entails educated or qualified help. Meanwhile, existing buildings are left to rot or were refurbished as artist lofts or elderly tenements, though many are known fire traps or structurally unsound. Buildings may remain, but those who worked there tend to be forgotten.

Cannot enumerate every office for finance, law, or medicine that went under, just trying to identify instances where hundreds of jobs vanished. Small businesses surely come and go; only 5% last 5 years. Reasons vary, though most fit into categories of botching client fulfillments, consolidating after mergers, failing to compete, not adapting to change, offshoring for cheaper labor, or pissing off employees so badly they start unions and strike you into defeat. Sometimes business owners or principle shareholders figure they had enough, relocate to take deals that other states offer, sell out, or shut doors. High cost of electricity and gas puts a damper on local development. Rhode Island, with highest corporate tax rate in nation, ended its historic preservation tax credit, which deters from investing in piles of crumbling mud.

Seems Americans can no longer stomach the drudgery and stench of manufacture, but for someone such jobs remain sources of steady income by adding value, thereby growing through investing capital and time, whereas services don’t, so inevitably fizzle. However, many of their gains came from poor practices that merely transferred wealth by dumping wastes or raping environment, leaving costly aftermaths to taxpayers. Developers got a $200,000 government grant to clean up decades of dry cleaning chemicals before they raised historic Louttit Laundry altogether, which remains a vacant lot near Hoyle Square. In the long run, some factories, particularly refineries or utilities, aren’t worth having around no matter how many they employ.

Given voluminous cancer causing wastes industry spews, perhaps poverty appeals after all. Rhode Island harbors 2,488 (1,800 of them proven contaminated) former landfills, leaking underground storage tanks, toxic release sites, water dischargers, and whatnot including 200 EPA Superfund sites. One of the biggest harms is heavy metal sediments in Narragansett Bay, too difficult to remediate even though precious gold and silver constitute a high percentage. Heard of jewelry shops being profitably dismantled so floor boards could be cremated to recover a century worth of gold filings.

Several millionaires, formerly industrialists themselves, maneuvered most polluters out. The few who remained contributed heavily to politicians to avoid enforcement and legislation. With miles of shoreline, you’d think shipping and warehousing would be more popular, though a sustainable strategy is to fabricate where you sell. College dilettantes turn up their noses at smelly shoreline operations and try endlessly to eliminate them; they neither care nor realize that means no positions for graduates, no longer their problem once diplomas are dispensed. Rhode Island might be a great place for startups, but don’t even think about upscaling or regulators will arrive unannounced to drive you out or extract a pound of flesh.

Without spending much time, here's a short list with intentions to supplement with future input:
A&P Supermarket, various locations
Adams Drug Stores, various locations
Alcoa, Cumberland
Allen Cotton Mill, Smithfield
Almacs Supermarket, various locations
Alrose Chemical, Cranston
American Ball Company, Providence
American/Bailey Wringer Company, Woonsocket
American Emery Wheel Works, Richmond Square, Providence
American Screw Company, Providence
American Ship Windlass Company, Providence
American Tourister (formerly Warren Manufacturing), Warren
Amperex Electronic Corporation, Slaterville, North Smithfield
Armington & Sims Steam Engines, Hoyle Square, Providence
Atlantic Mills, Olneyville, Providence
Atlantic Rayon (Thurston Saw), Providence
Atlantic Tubing & Rubber, Cranston
Ballou, Johnson & Nichols, Providence
Barstow Stove, Jewelry District, Providence
Bercen Chemical (moved to Livingston Parish, LA), Cranston and Providence
Blue Coal, Olneyville, Providence
Bulova Watch, Bucklin Park, Providence
Bourne Cotton Mill, Tiverton
Box and Lumber, Providence
Brownell & Field, Providence
Brown&Sharpe, Providence, then North Kingstown (11,000 employees at WWII peak)
Buttonwood Industrial, Miner Rubber, Bristol
Caldor Department Store, Warwick
Carpenter Mill, Providence
Casual Corners Stores, various locations
Ceco Radio Tubes, Providence
Cherry&Webb Department Store, Providence
Ciba Geigy, Cranston
C.J. Fox, Providence
Clark Cotton Mill, Shannock, Richmond
Colibri Jewelry and (cigarette) Lighters, Providence
Combination Ladder, Providence
Corliss Engine, Providence
Coro, Providence
Cranston General (Osteopath) Hospital, Cranston
Cranston Print Works at Randall Pond
Davol Rubber Works, Providence
David Square Mall, Providence
D.M. Watkins, Providence
Eaton Aerospace, Warwick
Elmwood Sensors (purchased by Honeywell, 1000 employees), Cranston
Federated Lithograph, South Providence
Filenes Department Store, Warwick Mall
First National Supermarket, various locations
Forestdale Cotton Mill, North Smithfield
G-Fox Stores, Warwick
General Electric Providence Base Works (light bulbs), Eagle Park
GE Monowatt, Cranston line, Providence
Gladdings Department Store, Providence
Gorham Silver, Columbus Square, Providence
Grandberg Brothers Wallpaper, Providence
Greystone Worsted Mill, North Providence
Grinnell General Fire Extinguisher, Providence
Hadley Watch Bracelet, Providence
Hall & Lyon Department Store, Providence
Hamilton & Hamilton Jewelry, Providence
Hamilton Woolen Mill, North Kingstown
Hanley Brewing Company & Hanley-Hoye Distributing, Providence
Hedison Manufacturing, Providence, then Lincoln
Hope Mill, Scituate
Ideal Jewelry, Cranston
Lying-In Hospital, Providence
Hotels such as Colonial Hilton, Cranston
IGT (Gtech), Coventry
James C. Goff Mortar and Plaster, Providence
J. B. Barnaby Clothiers, Providence
Jencks Paper Box, Providence
Jordan Marsh Department Store, Warwick Mall
Kendall Soap, Providence
Lafayette Woolen Mill, North Kingstown
Leesona (formerly Universal Winding Company; now based in North Carolina), Warwick
Leviton (fomer Elizabeth Mill), Hillsgrove, Warwick
Lipitt Mill, West Warwick
Louttit (What Cheer) Laundry, Providence
Lymansville Worsted Mill, North Providence
Midland Mall Stores, Warwick
Miller Box, Warwick
NABsys Genome, Providence
Narragansett Brewery, Cranston
Narragansett Grey Iron Foundry, Smithfield
National Rubber, Bristol
National Worsted Mill (now Rising Sun), Olneyville, Providence
Newport Steam Factory
Nicholson File, Providence
O'Bannon Imitation Leather Mill, Barrington
On Semiconductor (formerly Amperex in Cranston, then Cherry Semiconductor on South County Trail in East Greenwich)
Osram Sylvania, Central Falls
Outlet Department Store, Providence
Peace Dale Manufacturing, South Kingstown
Perry Mill, Newport
Philmont Worsted Mill, Woonsocket
Pontiac (Fruit of the Loom) Mills, Warwick
Providence Belting Company
Providence Brewing Company
Providence Machine, waterfront, Providence
Providence Tool
Half a thousand restaurants that closed., collectively
Rhode Island Lace Works, West Barrington
Rhode Island Locomotive Works, Providence
Rhode Island Malleable Iron Works, Hillsgrove, Warwick
Royal Mill, West Warwick
Sayles Bleacheries, Saylesville
Seaconnet Coal Company, Providence
Shepard Department Store, Providence
Silver Springs Bleaching and Dyeing, Providence
Slater Mill (Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution), Pawtucket
Slater Cotton Mill, Pawtucket
Stanley Bostitch, North Kingstown
Theodore W. Foster & Brother Company Silversmiths, Providence
Tilden Thurber Stores, downtown Providence and Midland Mall, Warwick 38 Studios, Providence
Transcom Electronics, Portsmouth
Union Wadding, Pawtucket
Uniroyal, Providence
US Mill Supply, Providence
Valley Worsted Mill, Eagle Square, Providence
Vandell Jewelry, Providence
Vesta Knitting Mills, Providence
Walsh-Kaiser Shipyard, Fields Point, Providence (14,000 WWII employees)
Wamponaug Mall Stores, East Providence
Waukesha Bearing, West Greenwich
WJ Braitsch & Company Canes, Providence
Woolworth's Department Stores, Cranston & Providence
Woonsocket (Alice Mills) Rubber Company
Woonsocket Machine & Press Company

Feel free to comment with other examples of factories and industries that slipped away.