Twice Rode Nice Roads

Since it's called "riding" should share a few favorite Rhode Island roads. Totally subjective, scenic vistas are limited in a fairly flat state unless you enjoy bay views and beach waves, of which there are plenty. Rare high points do provide overlooks, none more impressive than from Newport Pell Bridge on a clear, still morning. East Side of Providence has Prospect Park where a statue of Roger Williams glowers over city below. Chapel View in Cranston and Stone Hill in Johnston offer glimpses of faraway downcity skyline. So you’re fairly warned, “riding” can also imply deriding, as in running down moronic foibles and petty pretenses in a diminutive state with so few claims to fame.

Some stretches attract better by season. From January through early April dangers from icy or narrow roads exist. But you may still be tempted by midday spins past foggy coves, frozen ponds, or snow covered fields. Winter quiet can be eerie or peaceful depending upon what surrounds. Naked landscapes look completely different than when draped in leaves. Birches akimbo and stark with white bark stand apart from gloomy pines huddled in lines and shamed maples and oaks with tanned cloaks scattered underfoot.

From late April through June, you can reliably plan to be where displays and events occur, such as historic reenactments, orchards in bloom, or renowned parades worth seeing once. Annual highlights include Gaspee Day Parade and the Memorial Day commemoration of armed service at Exeter's Veterans Cemetery festooned with thousands of American flags. Midway through May, URI’s East Farm on North Road has 200 blossoming crabapple trees and hosts visitors at a small merchant fair.

Shade eases your passage on sweltering July and August afternoons, although so do ocean breezes if you can tolerate thick traffic. About the best way to observe nation's oldest 4th of July parade in Bristol is to park in neighboring Warren and take bikeway in. Otherwise, it a long walk unless you know someone or live on parade route. Renown for art and culinary schools, festivals for both appeal. Aquaculture and seafood are saluted annually in South County. Arts and crafts are shown in Scituate, Westerly and Wickford. Pawtucket organizes an open studio crawl in September. Providence has several permanent galleries and tastings events held at convention center.

Colorful foliage attracts in October north and west of capitol. Curious foodies taste clam cakes and johnnycakes at Usquepaug and Richmond fairs. November afternoons with purple skies and yellowed expanses radiate a sense of belonging. December doles out hectic short spins amidst holiday shoppers, but also opportunities to pass fabulous light displays at night if suitably equipped. LaSalette Shrine in neighboring Attleboro and Slater Park in Pawtucket will get you more than half way through your annual search for a million points of light.

Naturally, loops through major parks, such as Colt, Goddard, Lincoln and Roger Williams, are usually pleasant. Comparatively ideal are 80 miles of 7 linear parks in state's bikeway system, since devoid of car fumes and motorist impatience and relatively flat. However, few are lit at night, patrolled, or planted as parks with flower beds, specimen shrubs, or stately trees, but they do cross swirling eddies on old train trestles and pass fascinating architecture built centuries ago from native granite. RIDOT offers a map online with all bikeways in detail and suitable roads indicated in blue.

Wary of drawing an army, excluding worthy, implying safety, or insulting ordinary, reluctantly list 10 appealing, brief circuits that take in some of state's best ambience whether you bike or drive. In either case, proceed carefully and share roads nicely. Since all forms of travel present risks, participants assume all responsibilities.

1. Sakonnet: Begin at Island Park in Portsmouth and head north. Cross Sakonnet Bridge, then south to Main Street in Tiverton. Cross bridge on Namaqutucket. Again intersect RI-77, right to Seapowet through bird sanctuary, then along Puncatest Neck. Optionally, descend to Fogland Beach on Sakonnet River. After a few miles more south on RI-77, turn east onto Meeting House to Little Compton Commons, where you can explore quaint village and read Rhode Island Red plaque. After all, this chicken is, perhaps appropriately, the state bird. Willow, South Lake, Brayton, Bulgarmarch, Fish and Souza get you back to Sakonnet Bridge on quiet back roads after about 29 miles. Or you could backtrack along RI-77 and include shops and treats at Tiverton 4 Corners. During Summer, an authentic clam shack awaits your return.

2. Newport: Begin at Kings Park on Wellington, then loop Harrison, Ridge, Ocean, and Bellevue Avenues. Can’t beat boats in harbor, Fort Adams, Light at Castle Hill, ocean spray at Brenton Point, and opulent mansions, though traffic can be formidable. Best to choose early morning or offseason. Return on Memorial Drive and take left onto Thames Street, where you’ll see “The Wave” bronze, and wend south past a warren of small restaurants and shops before ending after about 15 miles. A right instead on Memorial to Purgatory will extend to Sachuest Point Reserve and vineyards of Middletown for tasting(s).

3. Narragansett: Another route that offers sea shores and superior vistas begins at North Kingstown Park n’ Lock at intersection of RI-1A and RI-138. Head south on Boston Neck Road past Chase Farm and note view across Narragansett Bay to Jamestown and Newport. Cross bridge at Narrow River and look both ways for more great views. Continue past town beaches and underneath The Towers on Ocean Road until you reach Scarborough Beach. Directly backtrack for about 22 miles. If you want more, extend to Point Judith Light and/or include a loop west to Sand Hill Cove and village of Galilee. Throughout are eateries and places to try namesake beer, several open year round.

Add interest on return by turning left after Narrow River onto Old Boston Neck through Middlebridge, then right up Bridgetown to retrace through Saunderstown, where there’s a small snuff mill museum associated with colonial portrait painter Gilbert Stuart, then back to start.

4. New Shoreham: All of Block Island suggests Scottish moors. The Nature Conservancy designated it among “The Last (12) Great Places” in the Western Hemisphere, so definitely worth a 45 minute boat trip if seas are calm or shorter flight from Westerly. From ferry landing within an hour by bike you can ring 10 miles of lower island on West Side, Cooneymus past Rodman Hollow, Lake Side, and Mohegan Trail, stopping by Southeast Lighthouse high on a bluff above Atlantic Ocean. To double distance, go up Corn Neck to North Lighthouse and retrace before afternoon ferry back to Point Judith. Or, by all means, lounge on a pristine beach or quaff brews within sight of ferry dock.

5. Glocester: Start around intersection of RI-44 and RI-116 in Greenville. Smith Avenue to Snake Hill passes orchards in Spring bloom, Mainly shady in Summer, town is renowned for its good road surfaces and low population density. Turn northwest onto Turtlelotte Hill. Cross and trace Putnam Pike for a mile, stop at Brown & Hopkins General Store (among nation’s oldest, open daily since 1809) in ancient village of Chepachet. Retrace up Turtlelotte Hill to Pound and sharply turn onto Paris Irons. A right on Snake Hill then quick left on Old Cranberry Hill tracks down Sandy Brook onto Rocky Hill Road. Elmdale leads to Polebridge, then a left on RI-116 north to right on Windsor. A left on Greenville ends your 20 mile spin.

6. Smithfield: Same start as 5, this is a hilly, shady Summer route with nice Fall foliage on back roads practically deserted midday. Go north on Austin Avenue to Mapleville Road. Either bear left onto strenuous Evans or right onto easier Tarkiln. Both lead eventually to Colwell. Right on Mattity then Nichols brings you to Log Road, a technical challenge for cyclists with twisty turns and undulating terrain dangerously south down and past Stillwater Reservoir. Pleasant View with its unpleasant traffic can’t be avoided, but a right off RI-116 onto Pleasant View Circle back onto Austin lets you to skip the nasty intersection at RI-44 near end, having covered, in all, about 17 miles.

7. Cumberland: Another reliable Fall foliage circuit starts near end of RI-99 (off RI-146), wherever convenient for you, and takes in varied water views and wide fields of Northeast Corner. Follow Mendon Road east to Cumberland Hill. Turn left on West Wrentham north. Turn east on rolling, twisty, tight Tower Hill, and right on Diamond Hill. Off route south on Diamond Hill Road is Phantom Farm with hot beverage and pastries. Again turn east on Reservoir crossing causeway. Continue north, bearing left on Burnt Swamp. To extend, you can continue straight with lefts on Hancock and West and a right on Arnold, up steep hill to The Big Apple, where fruits and treats are sold in September and October. Or instead take a left on claustrophobic Sumner Brown admiring allée of trees at Mount St. Rita cloister, then, in both cases, south on RI-121. The entrance to Diamond Hill State Park and Ice Cream Factory are to your left just ahead, from which you can backtrack. Or go straight on Pine Swamp then turn southwest on West Wrentham to Elder Ballou Meeting House, where, behind cemetery, cumberlandite, state’s official stone, was once mined for its iron content. Mendon Road to end completes about 15 miles, 18 or 20 with snack detour(s).

8. Scituate: Many bicyclists challenge themselves year round with this 14 mile circuit of lower Scituate Reservoir along State Routes 12, 14 and 116. Beware of fast vehicles, narrow roads, and sweaty climbs. Trees are mostly conifers and oaks, so colorful foliage doesn’t draw, yet does include Ashland Causeway and Gainer Dam, magnificent views across state’s largest manmade lake. Access from wherever you wish. Many choose the commons at North Scituate, about 3.5 miles north of route at the intersection RI-6A and RI-116. Others choose the village of Hope, 2 miles south of route, past the sporadically entertaining water aeration plant with scores of 30’ tall plumes. Where RI-12 intersects with RI-14/102, Ponagansett Road offers a mile detour to an impressive waterfall on the Barden Reservoir. There are no temptations en route, though Sunset Orchards nearby in North Scituate offers baked items and local fruit once harvested. In Spring, just past orchard there’s an impressive display of private rhododendrons you can visit for a small donation.

9. Lincoln. Begin anytime except in Winter at either Flanagan Campus of CCRI or Twin Rivers Casino off RI-146. Head east on Twin River Road, which leads into Lincoln Woods State Park. Bear right and follow park road past Olney Pond. At first real intersection (unmarked) turn right and descend through a rare covered bridge to exit onto RI-123. A right and 3 blocks ahead visit Eleazer Arnold House, a 17th Century stone ender. Further is Front Street with snacks and stores. Retrace RI-123. At Moshassuck River (sources are Olney and several smaller ponds) pass Moffet Mill (1812), one of state’s first machine shops, and Smith’s federal fieldstone Hearthside House (1810). Bear right at waterfall to continue tracing historically significant Great Road through Lime Rock village (1665). Turn west on Wilbur. Pass Conklin quarry, the source of limestone from which RI’s statehouse was built. Cross over RI-146 and turn left on RI-246, which parallels highway. Turn west on Harris to Jenckes Hill, then south on Angell. Turn east on Twin River to complete 12 interesting but strenuous miles.

10. Warwick: One of state’s busiest and most populous cities is also pretty flat along bayside coves, so makes for decent Winter spins if you're careful. Begin in Pawtuxet Village on the Cranston side of river. Little waterfalls below bridge are what give river its native name. Head south on Narragansett Parkway alongside bay to Spring Green, through neatly kept Governor Francis Farms on Algonquin, then Squantum which leads to Warwick Avenue. Watch for jets and planes on final approach to Green Airport. Carefully navigate dicey intersection of Airport and West Shore Roads, among state’s worst. Once safely on West Shore, proceed a dull mile to a left on Royal in quaint Conimicut Village with its picket fenced cottages. Bellman becomes Shawomet, then Point leads into Conimicut Park with a panorama of Providence River spilling into Narraganset Bay. Point leads back to West Shore. Next left on Tidewater, Longmeadow, then Palmer bring you to Rocky Point, a former amusement park which now features a biking/walking path and fine overlook. Backtrack Palmer to either bike path or Oakside to intersect Warwick Neck Avenue back to West Shore Road north. Turn left on Church, then right on Beach back to Conimicut. Retrace West Shore to nasty Hoxie, then Squantum to Narragansett Parkway. Fair Street leads to Post Road and ride's end after 17 miles ready for a hot beverage at Little Falls Bakery & Cafe.

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.