Letter to the Editor/Speaker by Greg Gerritt about Proposed Stadium

Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello,

I have been carefully watching the discussion about the effort to move the Pawsox to the Providence waterfront.  I do not think it is a good idea, and the public seems to overwhelmingly oppose providing subsidies to this effort.  Sometimes it appears that you are the only person publicly talking about trying to cut a deal that includes a public subsidy.

I am aware that you have said that this deal in no way resembles 38 Studios, but in one critical way so far it does.  It is being negotiated without the official voice of the people involved.  I think you are aware that if there had been public hearings on using the people’s money to fund 38 Studios the State of Rhode Island would not have made such a big mistake that we are still paying for.  The second example I offer is one that is rarely mentioned, but may be an even more appropriate example.  The proposal to build a container port at Quonset was very strongly supported by the political leadership of Rhode Island.  The Governor, the Speaker, the well connected law firms all weighed in on it.  But even so there was a very extensive public process, with stakeholders, studies, and public hearings.  I was a stakeholder in the process so I am very aware of how well it worked, how much better everyone was informed by the process. The end result was that the more we knew, the worse the deal sounded, and eventually the proponents went away.  If the State of Rhode Island had acted upon the first political impulse we would have opened a new port at exactly when the global recession hit and the people of Rhode Island would have been on the hook for about $1 Billiom dollars.

We all know the old expression, all of us collectively are smarter than any one of us.  I ask one thing.  Before you sign off on any deal, before you commit the people of RI to any financial support of the Providence Waterfront baseball stadium, hold public hearings.  Ask the people of Rhode Island for their collective wisdom.  The track record of the people on these sorts of things is very good.  We saved the state $1 Billion and could have saved another $100 million if we had been allowed to participate in the process.  Please publicly commit yourself to a full public process before committing any of our money to the baseball stadium.

Greg Gerritt
Providence RI 02906