259 replies to this topic

[frymasterspeck]

I don't even have a take on this yet, because it's kind of stunning. Pending special legislation, the Don has asked for the resignations of the entire board of directors of the EDC. This follows the recommendation of an advisory report he asked for. The PBN story has the full report as a downloadable .DOC file.

Another recommendation being enacted immediately is a national search for a new executive director for EDC.

[Cotuit]

I have read nothing on this, but let me say this in my ignorance. Someone needs to develop our economy.

[JimmyGreaves]

Cotuit, on Apr 22 2009, 11:52 AM, said:

I have read nothing on this, but let me say this in my ignorance. Someone needs to develop our economy.

I hate to be snark, but I wonder what economic development agency convinced Samuel Slater to build his mill.  That is an oversimplification of course, and I realize the value in having a point of contact for businesses to coordinate with.  However, I think a lot of the economic development problems of the state would be solved, not with an effective Economic Development Corporation, but with more government focus on the simple things: Good Public Works, Good Education, Good Human Services.  Again, just one person's uneducated opinion.  Feel free to argue.

Edited by JimmyGreaves, 22 April 2009 - 02:27 PM.

[frymasterspeck]

I posted my take on the New Commons blog. In a word, meh.

I see great potential for transformational changes, but the report reeks of same-old-same-old. No mention of creative sector, no mention of freelancers/1099 economy, and a distinct sense that the advisory panel is not well-connected to the arts/design/entertainment sector. Like, clueless.

Also, the notion of public education is mentioned exactly once and in a marginal context.

I give them a solid C for this report. Overall grade could go to A or to F, depending on:

• quality and BREADTH of the director search committee
  
• smartness of the director job description
  
• quality and WITH-IT-NESS of the director

[frymasterspeck]

Saw this Request for Information in the PBN:

Quote

...from qualified companies, organizations or individuals interested in providing training for Marine Trades workers in the RI Industry Skills Development Initiative. ...to align training resources and services with the labor market needs of Rhode Island's high-growth-and-demand sectors.

...a variety of training needs in areas such as: technical (i.e., systems composities, safety, building, welding, internet marketing, etc.) and soft skills (i.e., leadership development, project management and communications).  

The information required is: company name, contact person, address, phone, fax, email address, brief description of company, related experience/qualification, area(s) of training expertise, method(s) of delivery.

Must be submitted by May 29.

Wendy Mackie, Exec. Dir.
wmackie@my-turn.org

[numonex]

We need more condos like we need a hole in the head.  High end condos are going to bring in high player$ that are going to work and play in Boston, simple as that.  

We need an economic climate that is more competative with Boston.  More competative corperate tax, more competative infrastructure to serve larger corperations.  Not just more condos.

[frymasterspeck]

RI has a reputation as a low-wage, low-education workforce. I wonder how we ever got that reputation.

[Cotuit]

frymasterspeck, on Jun 30 2009, 12:39 PM, said:

RI has a reputation as a low-wage, low-education workforce. I wonder how we ever got that reputation.

HA!

[FjmArch]

Cotuit, on Jun 30 2009, 03:00 PM, said:

HA!

Spellcheck anyone?

[frymasterspeck]

On a related note, we picked someone returning from SoCal and were discussing the what would be the opposite of the verb  "to de-plane". Would it be "to plane" or "to en-plane"? This being Rhode Island, we decided it could only be "to com-plane".

PS. Spell check will NOT find embarrassing punctuation gaffes.

[CtownMikey]

Has anyone here ever read books about the law of attraction??

[frymasterspeck]

Go on...

[CtownMikey]

well.. keep in mind you would need to know about the law of attraction...

BUT, as a state in "ruin" "about to collapse"...

we have the majority of the population and state leaders focusing on.. pushing.. dragging out 99% negative news.

tens of thousands of college students being told of the horrors or tuition increases, staff shortages, and the horrors of the post-college job hunt.

tens of thousands of k-12 kids being told constantly how much their state sucks, how their education is poor, how asia and the rest of america blows them out of the water (trust me, I know how pointless teachers can be because they themselves are angry with the public school system... days of speeches about how we, the children, suck at life.)

tens of thousands (?) of unemployed people.. most of which I bet in this state are spending most of their days blaming someone else for their situation, not doing a thing to better their lives... just carrying around negative energy.

don't get me started on the unions and state employees... they suck any remaining positive energy in this state. (no offense to the family members that my post might be talking about)




What else would you expect to receive in a state who's energy/vibration must be so disgustingly negative.




Its a joke, and people need to take a step back and realize that this state and every citizen is responsible for the current reality that we live in.

I know I have.. and I'm happily in college, have my job from when I was 16 years old, and really my life does not see one hint of a recession... and I really believe that it is because of my attitude and the way I choose to live. optimistic, positive, and excited for the future

Edited by CtownMikey, 02 July 2009 - 11:11 AM.

[frymasterspeck]

Well, my young Skywalker, er, Mikey, you know the power of the Force. I can see that the constant drumbeat of negativity can sap one's energy, but only if you let that drumbeat surround you and penetrate you as it binds the state together.

Okay, enough. That Star Wars thing isn't working.

It's all about with whom and where you hang out. In my circle (NY-centric transplants), we're always talking about how much we love living in RI, how awesome it is. If you think RI sucks, try living in the massive strip mall known as North Olmstead, Ohio. For a place its size, greater PVD has an inordinate amount of cool and interesting things going on. If you're educated and progressive, you'll be hard pressed to find a more affordable city where you can find a critical mass of like minded people. Frankly, we're on a collision course with PDX to see who's the fixed-gear-riding-est, gay-mayor-having-est midsized city in the nation. (Shut up, Austin. You're in Texas. Move to a coast and we can talk.)

Long story short: bogus talking-head crap on the TV? Turn it off. Some douchebag complaining about how screwed up RI is? Walk away. Use the Force to find people who think like you do and increase the positivity.

Arguing with these downers is pointless. As the saying goes, never fight with a pig. You'll just get dirty, and the pig might like it.

[CtownMikey]

frymasterspeck, on Jul 3 2009, 07:41 AM, said:

Well, my young Skywalker, er, Mikey, you know the power of the Force. I can see that the constant drumbeat of negativity can sap one's energy, but only if you let that drumbeat surround you and penetrate you as it binds the state together.

Okay, enough. That Star Wars thing isn't working.

It's all about with whom and where you hang out. In my circle (NY-centric transplants), we're always talking about how much we love living in RI, how awesome it is. If you think RI sucks, try living in the massive strip mall known as North Olmstead, Ohio. For a place its size, greater PVD has an inordinate amount of cool and interesting things going on. If you're educated and progressive, you'll be hard pressed to find a more affordable city where you can find a critical mass of like minded people. Frankly, we're on a collision course with PDX to see who's the fixed-gear-riding-est, gay-mayor-having-est midsized city in the nation. (Shut up, Austin. You're in Texas. Move to a coast and we can talk.)

Long story short: bogus talking-head crap on the TV? Turn it off. Some douchebag complaining about how screwed up RI is? Walk away. Use the Force to find people who think like you do and increase the positivity.

Arguing with these downers is pointless. As the saying goes, never fight with a pig. You'll just get dirty, and the pig might like it.

I'm not saying I have a problem. I'm mostly pointing out that the Rhode Island section of this forum (along with the majority of RI residents) has turned into mostly negative nancys, and some people here are seem very passionate and eager to point out what is wrong with this state. Like I said,
  
""""I'm happily in college,still have my job from when I was 16 years old, and really my life does not see one hint of a recession... and I really believe that it is because of my attitude and the way I choose to live---> optimistic, positive, and excited for the future"""""

I am not the topic though.. the state is.. and I love it here to death. I hope it can become something even more unique in the future than it is now, with a nice balance of history, tourism, and high paying jobs in various fields. It just sucks to know that the majority of RI citizens are caught up in negative news that it seems to always overshadow any positive things going on here.

Quonset, 195 LAND, 500 more jobs to Fidelity, isn't there an MIT lab coming to as220?, Brown/JWU expanding, downcity mini grocery.

If someone here thinks the state is doing something majorly wrong.. with taxes or the budget or whatever, there has to be some way... someone has to have an idea or connection on how to make the voters aware of why it is wrong... we all have the power to change RI's future. Can't someone sleep with a weatherman or something??!

Is that power going to be wasted posting the latest negative RI news from Forbes.com or could it be used for something positive for once?

and I'm not trying to argue with downers..

they might not even realize that they are downers and may need a wake up call... and knowing is half the battle.




The more you know ANNDD shooting star***

[tangorre]

http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends.jsp

[frymasterspeck]

"Lies, damn lies, and statistics."

-- WARNING: High Level of Wonkiness Detected --

That's a cool map and a cool site, tangorre. But I would only take those data "directionally."

The source (not specified) is Indeed's own listings that aggregate postings on company career pages and major boards. They have some filters to eliminate duplicates, but as this shows, this is really two jobs listed as four jobs. So the degree of overlap could play a significant role. Places that have offices of major employers that aggressively post on multiple boards as well as their own website will have some increase in representation.

Also, they don't define how they calculate what a 'metro' is. Lets assume it's MSAs. An MSA is not, IMO, a good proxy for economic development area. It's too small. I grew up in a town that's part of the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk MSA, but everybody worked in NYC. While that MSA has more in-market workers now, the Metro North trains are packed taking workers to the city.

Finally, because the state boundaries put a good part of our metro in another state, all the jobs in the Attleboros, etc. probably aren't counted. It really depends on how they parse their listings.

So you have to take any given statistical output in its proper context.

Lies, er, Statistics About Rhode Island

I was at the People's Power and Light annual meeting last month, and Ken Payne (wikkit smaat) spoke a bit about why Rhode Island has the nation's lowest per capita energy use. It's certainly not because of any program by the state to reduce energy use. It's actually quite simple, entirely due to our small size, and not all that great an indicator for us.

Three factors have come together to create our statistic. First, we are very small, so small changes make a big difference for us statistically. Second, we are on the ocean and even have the bay in the center of the state. This strongly moderates the ambient temperature, so we're usually a few degrees warmer than, say, Worcester in the winter and a few degrees cooler in the summer. The take away is that our heating/cooling demand is, per capita, lower than our larger neighbors who have land far from the coast.

The last factor - and it's the "not good" part - is that our industrial demand is very, very low. Industrial demand can be a huge part of a region's energy demand, and ours has dropped as factories close down. Replacing industrial demand in a factory with residential demand in a converted factory is not even close to even.

The take-away isn't that statistics can be misleading. It's that RHODE ISLAND statistics are more misleading than others because small size makes us statistically unstable.

Now as to that study that shows we're psychologically unstable... DUH!

Edited by frymasterspeck, 14 July 2009 - 08:59 AM.

[brick]

I find it quite a bit more disturbing to see how many jobs are being created as a result of government spending.  Seeing as I am not in any down with the whole Keynesian economic model, that is the scariest part of that graph for me.

[frymasterspeck]

brick, on Jul 15 2009, 10:58 AM, said:

I find it quite a bit more disturbing to see how many jobs are being created as a result of government spending.  Seeing as I am not in any down with the whole Keynesian economic model, that is the scariest part of that graph for me.

I'm not sure that you can equate the spike in DC as jobs that are being "created". I'd be willing to wager that there's a whole lot of turnover in a whole lot of places right about now.

[frymasterspeck]

Only got a sec, but this is freakin scary how fast BetaSpring has sprung. First round produces three companies that are contenders for Mass High Tech start-ups to watch.

What's the technical term...? Ridonculous!