Recent comments in /f/RhodeIsland

Beezlegrunk OP t1_jccaari wrote

Reply to comment by RIDG86 in The failure of Providence’s Fane tower is a lesson in politics and reality by Beezlegrunk

McGowan leads the Globe's RI bureau as far as I can tell, so I assume he's considered the bureau chief — if not him, then who is?

And at least half of what he writes about is sports, and he even manages to weave it into stories that have nothing to do with athletics (just look at the one we're commenting on — it's full of sports metaphors). He may not have the formal title of sports reporter, but he's a sports reporter — and his political coverage reflects that.

I don't share your appreciation of McGowan's coverage of local politics, because (like daily sports journalism) it's not very incisive — he tends to take things at face value and not probe much for deeper analysis. I don't see him relying on any informative sources or discovering information that isn't public knowledge. He covers politics the way a high school reporter would, by writing what he sees, and what the conventional wisdom says.

As far as his personal bias regarding the Fane tower story, he wrote about Salvatore not "wasting his time on the silly arguments from a handful of vocal critics [that the] "the design is ugly" or "that's too tall" — that's a pretty clear indication about how McGowan felt about the tower, and couldn't abide anyone who didn't share his view.

He also openly admits that he let Fane fend him off on the financing details, despite there being "plenty of people in the development world in my ear who raising legitimate questions about the [financial] viability of the tower" — which is a quite damning admission for someone who covers RI politics.

No serious journalist would allow a public figure asking for tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to get away with telling a fairytale about a project's financing, unless he supports the project and is afraid to ask too many tough questions about it. The tower project was like a team McGowan was rooting for, and he wasn't willing to criticize the coach or the team owners if it risked causing them to lose. That's not professional journalism, that's fan-style boosterism.

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DuckiestBoat959 t1_jcc7o8q wrote

Reply to comment by ChronicCumShots in The failure of Providence’s Fane tower is a lesson in politics and reality by Beezlegrunk

I'm tired of that answer man. I've spent my whole life believing people when they say its complicated only to visit other states and watch them easily succeed in the places that our state drops the ball. There's so much smoke and mirrors here that even simple things need to be fought over to get done. I shouldn't have to check a ballot box on whether I want my roads to be maintained properly. I shouldn't have to pay double my previous utility bill in order to modernize a power grid. These things should have been looked after. But somehow it always ends up falling on the taxpayers lap to get done. I'm not saying fixing a building isn't hard work but honestly with our track record I just don't believe these people anymore.

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therealDrA t1_jcc61mq wrote

Reply to comment by Beezlegrunk in The failure of Providence’s Fane tower is a lesson in politics and reality by Beezlegrunk

Thank you for defining the acronym. I think it is really generalizing to say anyone who supported the project is a BEAN. I supported it and do not fall in that category by a long shot, but, as others mentioned, the financial viability of the developer was not widely discussed. Had that been brought up I probably would not have. It is unfortunate we no longer have journalism of any value in the state. For those that rely on journalists for comprehensive reporting on issues, we don't have it in the ProJo or Sinclair.

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shahahahaha t1_jcc51xx wrote

Reply to Chinese Language Teacher. by HuliJingHunter

I Hope you find one! I was really hoping to get my son into Chinese language classes. We lived there for many years when he was little, and have wanted him to learn the language but have been unable to find anything in Rhode Island.

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GotenRocko t1_jcc4a7i wrote

Reply to comment by hcwhitewolf in Another Natural Gas Price Hike Despite Falling Gas Prices by DotDotCode

Funny they presented it so sloppy, because if they did a little more research they would see the 25% decrease is only in relation to the current winter rate, it's much higher than last years summer rate. It's 36% higher than last summer, and it's actually higher than the winter 2021 rate. So there is no decrease at all for electricity. And it wouldn't be annualized because the rates are for 6months, they will jump up again in the fall.

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RIDG86 t1_jcc3jna wrote

Reply to comment by Beezlegrunk in The failure of Providence’s Fane tower is a lesson in politics and reality by Beezlegrunk

>Dan McGowan

Pretty sure you gave McGowan a promotion and insulted him all in one swoop....I don't think he is a bureau chief as much as he is a reporter and columnist, and I am not sure when he covered sports...I presume before wpri? So like maybe ten+ years ago? In any event, with all due respects to sport journalists, i got a few faves, in the last ten years McGowan has been covering PVD politics so well he is the go to reference on any pvd issue you google. I never got the sense that he was a proponent or opponent of this project.

But I too am curious what BEAN means...I thought bean counters....but below someone said Build Everything and Now...which I never heard before, but makes sense

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degggendorf t1_jcbr2sy wrote

Reply to Another Natural Gas Price Hike Despite Falling Gas Prices by DotDotCode

Just for clarity, the reason for the requested increase to rates is increased infrastructure investment, not the cost of the gas itself. The main driver is their replacement program for what they identify as "Leak Prone Pipe", as the requested new weld shop - which may have brought long-term savings - has since been removed.

Whether LPP really needs to be replaced, or if their definition of "leak prone" needs to be revised, or if their replacement schedule is too aggressive, or whatever is well beyond my expertise, but this isn't quite as clear-cut as "RIE wants to make 3% more profit so they're raising prices 3%".

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hcwhitewolf t1_jcbjq4i wrote

Reply to Another Natural Gas Price Hike Despite Falling Gas Prices by DotDotCode

What an odd article. They present the 3% increase for natural gas as the annual amount of $51 as some insurmountable amount and then when it comes to the 25% decrease in electrical rate, they call it a “slim margin” and present as only a monthly savings of $17 instead of presenting it similar to the natural gas increase ($204 decrease annualized, if you didn’t do the math).

Just such a weird way to write an article and indicates a bit of a lean in the author’s narrative.

No fan of RIE, but subversive journalism isn’t the answer.

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