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.