Finishes in the bottom half of statewide rankings
By Will Collette
I reported last week that Charlestown ’s
rating in the annual GoLocalProv.com rankings of Rhode Island ’s Best Communities had slipped
by five positions from 14th place to 19th place.
We lost the most amount of ground because of the cost to
live here – 32nd out of Rhode
Island ’s 39 cities and towns. We also lost ground
because of our low ranking for “arts and culture,” and “restaurants and bars.”
It’s not that the ones we have aren’t good – in my opinion, they’re just fine –
but we just don’t have much in these two categories.
Our ranking would have fallen further, except the Chariho School
Now that all of the towns have been reviewed, we can also compare
Charlestown ’s ranking to other South County
The Top “Best Community” in Rhode
Island honors this year go to South Kingstown . North Kingstown follows in fifth place and Hopkinton finishes in sixth place.
Ten places above Charlestown
is Richmond , ranked #9 in the state.
North and South Kingstown both have affordability issues
(#26 and #28, respectively, but less than Charlestown’s #32 ranking), but they
more than make up for it with high marks in all the other categories,
especially for their food and restaurants.
Hopkinton and Richmond score almost as low as Charlestown in
arts and culture, and restaurants and bars, but they beat us handily in
affordability, ranking #7 and #9 respectively.
Three South County communities came in at lower rankings than Charlestown – Narragansett at #22, Westerly
at #24 and Block Island at #36.
It was affordability that sunk Block Island (a.k.a. New Shoreham) to near the
bottom. Of course, Block Island is an amazing place, but these ratings were assigned not based on tourist appeal but on what it's like to live in a town year-round.
Narragansett was hurt by its poor affordability (at #36, worse than Charlestown ), arts and culture (#23) and
safety (#21).
Even though Westerly moved up
six spots from last year, its #24 ranking highlights its continuing
affordability problems – at #37, it is the worst in South County
While these sorts of annual rankings can easily be dismissed
as subjective, at best, or just plain wrong at worst, they do tell us how we
are seen by others and how we are compared to our neighboring communities. Whether we agree or not, it's worth trying to see ourselves as others see us.
As I wrote in my earlier article, there are some in Charlestown who are
perfectly happy that we have a low ranking, especially on affordability, since
that might discourage the riff-raff from moving into town.
While I am not advocating that we try to be more like South
Kingstown (I shudder at the thought), I think that last year’s and this year’s
ratings point out Charlestown’s challenges to be more affordable.
That is, unless a new town policy passed when no one was looking
to decree that we are to convert Charlestown
into a summer enclave for rich, out-of-state retirees. And we need to support
existing businesses and encourage new ones in those areas where we lag – arts,
culture and food.
It sure would be nice to have a 12-month economy where our
year-round businesses don’t have to dip into their summer profits just so they
can stay open after tourist season to serve us up a nice meal. I think we need
to figure out how to promote our off-season beauty and attractiveness to bring
at least a few people to town to see how great Charlestown is during the fall, winter and
spring.