GoLocalProv scores Charlestown's business appeal
By Will Collette
 |
| Ask the shopkeepers on Crossland St. how business friendly Charlestown is |
GoLocalProv.com loves to run stories on how things score in
polls and ratings. They do it to the state all the time (i.e. how Rhode Island
rates for food, tourism, love, hate, happiness, taxes, etc.) and from time to
time, the rate towns for their ranking in various categories.
Last June, I noted
that Charlestown scored #19 among Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns, for example. such rankings are, at best, a very subjective exercise.
In yet another one of these rankings, this time
on how well Rhode Island cities and towns rate in terms of business appeal,
Charlestown managed to just make the list of top 25 (out of 39), coming in at
22nd place.
Frankly, Charlestown’s score was much higher than I had expected, given Charlestown’s often open hostility to business and the CCA Party’s anti-business policies.
Take, for example, how Charlestown’s commercial signage policy is driving small businesses on Crossland Street out of town. We’ve even seen ordinances and Town Council actions by the CCA Party majority that were aimed at punishing specific small businesses.
Or how, under town ordinances, any new business
construction (limited to 10,000 square feet or less) would have to get past
ruthless Planning Commissar Ruth Platner.
Note to businesses considering a move to
Charlestown: make sure your
business plan accounts for no town water or sewage, includes a gravel parking
lot, short light poles and that the covers for outdoor electrical outlets
conform to Platner’s color scheme.
 |
| CCA Party platform on small business |
By contrast, Hopkinton came in second statewide,
while Coventry and North Kingstown came in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Little Compton came in at #6. South Kingstown was #9. Westerly was #13.
Indeed, it was surprising to see how many towns
that defend their atmosphere and character at least as fiercely as Charlestown
(e.g. Barrington, Jamestown, Portsmouth) came in ahead of Charlestown on
business appeal.
GoLocal says it gave second place ranking to
Hopkinton because it has the state’s highest projected job growth potential (29.4%)
which greatly boosted its overall economic outlook.
By contrast, Charlestown’s unemployment rate has continued to climb, even while the
employment picture for the rest of the state improves. The state just posted
the lowest unemployment rate in four years at 9.4%. In the latest figures, for
February 2013, Charlestown’s unemployment rate is 11.5%.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Most Charlestown workers have to get in their
cars and drive out of town for work since (a) we don’t have the jobs here in
town and (b) we have no public transportation.
One of the things that made the GoLocalProv
ranking of Charlestown even more suspicious was the way they chose to
illustrate the Charlestown profile. Each of the ranked cities and towns had a
similar thumbnail that featured key statistics and a photo of an iconic local
business.
Look at the Charlestown profile and see if you
can spot anything amiss:
