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News Bites: RI DEM Grant Opportunities / Coggeshall Farm Museum Crowdfunding Campaign / Stock Culinary Goods & Garrison Confections / Newport Restaurant Group to Open Avvio

by David Dadekian January 27, 2016

written by David Dadekian

Current news releases—Eat Drink RI is not the source for these items—please follow any links for more information.

DEM Promotes Growth of Green Economy with Latest Grant Awards

Nearly $400,000 to be invested in small businesses to foster innovation and growth of local food and agriculture

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management

As part of its efforts to expand the green economy in Rhode Island and support working families, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) announced today the availability of $380,000 in grant funding to local small businesses under the Local Agriculture and Seafood Act (LASA) and Farm Viability programs. The grants are designed to increase the competitiveness of Rhode Island products in the marketplace and help local farmers and food partners grow their businesses.

“Rhode Islanders take great pride in their agricultural heritage and diverse food cultures,” said DEM Director Janet Coit. “It is part of what makes our state such a special place to live, visit, and raise a family. And increasingly, local food and agriculture are hotbeds for innovation and entrepreneurship – spurred on by a growing awareness of the benefits of eating fresh, locally grown food and being connected to a local farmer, nursery, or fisherman. We’re proud to invest in the continued growth of local food and green industries and to support the many new businesses, working families, and innovative initiatives funded under these programs.”

Local Agriculture and Seafood Act (LASA) Grant Program

In partnership with the Rhode Island Food Policy Council, the LASA grant program provides up to $20,000 awards to new and small farmers, producer groups, and non-profits to support the growth and sustainability of Rhode Island’s farming, aquaculture, and seafood industries. Now in its third year, the LASA program funds both program and capital projects. For capital projects, priority is given to initiatives that (1) directly benefit new or small agriculture producers; (2) foster new collaborations or share new information among Rhode Island food-system partners; or (3) support new products or new sales channels with clearly defined markets.

“Adequate nutritious food is essential to human wellbeing and the bedrock of economic development,” said Kenneth Payne, Chair of the Rhode Island Food Policy Council. “LASA is a building block in strengthening Rhode Island’s agriculture and seafood sectors. Let’s all eat well and enjoy Rhode Island’s best.”

LASA is a public-private partnership funded through the state with generous support from the van Beuren Charitable Foundation, the Henry P. Kendall Foundation, and the Rhode Island Foundation. A total of $230,000 is available for the 2016 grant round.

For grant guidelines and to apply, visit dem.ri.gov. Applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. on February 16. Applications may also be mailed or hand-delivered to DEM Division of Agriculture, Room 370, 235 Promenade Street, Providence, RI 02908 by 4 p.m.on February 16; however, applying online is strongly encouraged. Awards will be announced as part of the Rhode Island Agriculture Day held each spring. Non-profit organizations are eligible for program funds only.

Farm Viability Grant Program

The Farm Viability Grant Program, made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, supports efforts to increase specialty crop production and grow the marketplace for these crops in Rhode Island. USDA defines specialty crops as fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, and nursery crops, including floriculture and turf grass.

The grants – open to individual farmers or agricultural or educational groups – fund projects up to two years in duration that support the continued vitality of local agriculture. Funded areas include, but are not limited to, research, marketing, food safety and security, plant health, “buy local” initiatives, and development of cooperatives. For a complete list of funded areas visit www.dem.ri.gov.

Fund projects will support the broad competitiveness of locally-grown specialty crops in Rhode Island. Initiatives that benefit a sole commercial product or provide a profit to a single individual or group will not be considered. Single entities are encouraged to participate as project partners. For this round, $150,000 is available in grants ranging from $10,000 to $50,000. To date, DEM has awarded more than $2 million in farm viability grants to support the competitiveness of locally-grown specialty crops.

For more information, visit www.rigrown.ri.gov. Applications accompanied by a W9 form should be mailed to DEM Division of Agriculture, Room 370, 235 Promenade Street, Providence, RI 02908 and postmarked no later than March 31, 2016.

In addition to these grant programs, DEM works across many fronts to accelerate growth of the local food economy, which supports 60,000 jobs in Rhode Island. The department continues to make investments in critical infrastructure as well as provide farm incubation space to new farmers through its Urban Edge and Snake Den farm properties. The state’s food system now includes 1,243 farms, an increase of 44 percent from 2002, and nearly 70,000 acres of farmland. And Rhode Island’s green industries account for more than 15,000 jobs and contribute $2.5 billion to the economy.

The Ocean State is a national leader in direct-sales to consumers, with approximately 50 seasonal farmers markets in the state’s urban, suburban and rural areas; seven indoor winter markets; and numerous pick-your-own and farm-stand operations. In partnership with the Seafood Marketing Collaborative, DEM developed the RI Seafood brand to uniquely identify Rhode Island seafood in the marketplace and help local fishermen and distributors grow their businesses. In 2015, nearly 100 million pounds of seafood arrived at Rhode Island ports, with an ex-vessel value over $75 million. There are 20 registered users of the RI Seafood brand – which was recently featured as part of Newport Restaurant Week, the Rhode Island Oyster Festival, and the Narragansett Calamari Cook-Off. For more information, visit www.seafoodri.com.

For more information on DEM programs and initiatives, visit www.dem.ri.gov. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RhodeIslandDEM or on Twitter (@RhodeIslandDEM) for timely updates.

Coggeshall Announces $50K Campaign to Fuel Education Program

Living history museum to launch crowdfunding campaign to meet $50K matching grant

Mortar and Pestle at Coggeshall Farm Museum

Coggeshall Farm Museum may be set in the 18th-century, but it’s launching a 21st-century campaign to raise funds for its growing education program. On Friday, January 29, the nonprofit living history museum in Bristol, RI will kick off a $50,000 crowdfunding campaign to help meet a $50,000 matching grant from philanthropist H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest.

“We’re using these funds to build something pretty amazing — a mobile living history program that puts the story back into history,” says Executive Director Cindy Elder. “Last year, 3,000 students came to Coggeshall for field trips, and we plan to host even more in 2016. Unfortunately, lots of schools find it difficult to afford field trips. Transportation costs alone make it tough. So we’re sending our educators from the farm yard to the school yard to get kids excited about history.”

Coggeshall is using the crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo.com, to generate the matching funds. The theme is “Send Coggeshall to School: $50K in 50 Days.” Donors access Coggeshall’s Indiegogo site at http://igg.me/at/coggeshall and can make gifts of any size. “Perks” for giving range from memberships to hearthcooking classes to naming rights for Coggeshall’s next newborn farm animal. Donations made on the museum’s website or by mail also count toward the match.

Coggeshall honors the lives of 18th-century tenant farm families and brings to life the daily struggles, joys and tasks experienced by working people of this time period. Elder feels it’s critical to bring this perspective into the classroom, because it helps children connect to history through stories that more closely resemble their own.

“We all remember the names of the powerful people who filled our history books,” she says. “But what about the everyday people who built this country from the ground up? The tenant farmers we represent didn’t own their land. They rented. And they had no voting rights. Through their own sweat and determination, they helped to build the American dream. That’s something today’s kids can understand.”

Coggeshall’s education program sheds light on an era when the United States was brand new, just after the American Revolution. The museum’s educators explore issues such as farming, traditional hand skills, politics, class, gender roles, the slave trade, the role of government, voting rights and other issues affecting working people of the time.

“We’re not paying lip service to history at Coggeshall,” says Elder. “We speak from experience, because we are operating a 48-acre farm using 18th-century methods every day of the year. We can share the things we’ve learned by caring for animals, raising crops, cooking over a hearth or mucking the barn when it’s 10 degrees out. History is not just dates and names. It’s the story of where we came from and how we got here. For us, history isn’t forgotten. It’s alive and well and living at Coggeshall Farm Museum.”

The “Send Coggeshall to School Campaign” will fund:

Development of a class-based living history curriculum, in collaboration with a team of K-12 educators and the Rhode Island Historical Society.
A prototype living history app for the classroom, developed in partnership with MuseumTrek.
Educational materials to assist teachers with pre- and post-visit lesson planning.
Pilot presentations at no cost to 20 schools in the next 12 months to test the program.

In the past 12 months, Coggeshall has received several grants to help it preserve this 1790s salt marsh farm and build its educational program, including:

$2,500 from Roger Williams University and $500 from BankNewport to fund field trips for Bristol students.
$32,000 from The Champlin Foundations for improvements that will enable Coggeshall to offer short-time residencies to scholars and craftspeople.
$25,000 from the Carter Family Trust and $1,000 from the Town of Bristol to hire and retain high-quality educators.
$3,260 from the 1772 Foundation and $1,000 from the State of Rhode Island for historic restoration.
$2,500 from Access for All Abilities to improve wheelchair accessibility to the site.

Coggeshall Farm Museum is located at 1 Colt Drive in Bristol, RI, off Poppasquash Road. The museum is open weekends from December 15 through April 15; Tuesday through Sunda during the week of February 15 for school vacation; and by appointment for groups or scholarly visits. For more information, visit www.coggeshallfarm.org, call 401-253-9062 or email Cindy Elder at c.elder@coggeshallfarm.org.

Garrison Confections Returns to Hope Street

Meet chocolatier Drew Shotts and sample Rhode Island’s finest chocolates February 6th at Stock Culinary Goods

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a new partnership between Garrison Confections and Stock Culinary Goods returns the entire line of the award winning artisan chocolate back to Hope Street in Providence where it all began.

To mark the union, Garrison Confection’s chocolatier Andrew Shotts will visit Stock on Saturday, February 6th from 11 am – 3pm to offer samples and talk about how he makes his nationally renowned chocolates. Campus Fine Wines will also attend to provide samples and suggestions of sherries, ports and bubblies that will pair perfectly with the chocolate.

Since leaving his popular Hope Street retail location eight years ago, Chef Shotts has been producing his chocolate confections from his factory in Central Falls, with most of it being shipped to major cities such as Los Angeles and New York. While limited amounts have been available locally, for the last several years the only way to get the full range was to visit the factory in the days preceding holidays.

“Before Christmas and Valentine’s Day, we would have people lining up to purchase outside of the factory, ringing the bell before we even opened,” says Chef Shotts. “But we wanted a solution that would allow more people to conveniently get their chocolate, while allowing me to focus on my work, which is experimenting with and creating the confections. That’s where Stock came in.”

For the last two years, Stock has rolled out a few select items, but with this new arrangement, the entire line of sixteen varieties of confections, including tablets, chocolate covered fruit and nuts, hot chocolate and boxed sets of bon bons is available at all times.

“This has been a dream of ours since we opened,” says Stock owner Jan Faust Dane. “Many of my customers are elated when they find that we carry it because they know that the gift of Garrison chocolate is always a hit, and now it’s all readily available, seven days a week.”

Each year for Valentine’s Day, Garrison releases its “Legendary Lovers” boxed set collection of boldly flavored and elegantly designed bon bons, with each flavor honoring a famous or infamous couple. This year marks the 15th year of the tradition and the lovers are a roll call of past years’ favorites, including George + Gracie, Scarlett + Rhett and Napoleon + Josephine. Those bon bons and other confections will be available to sample during the instore event.

Stock Culinary Goods, with its Garrison kiosk, is located at 756 Hope Street, Providence near Rochambeau.

Newport Restaurant Group to Welcome ‘Avvio Ristorante’ in former Papa Razzi Location

Newport Restaurant Group’s Award-Winning Portfolio Expands to Include Avvio, an Inspired and Classic-Italian American Eatery in Garden City

Avvio Ristorante exterior rendering

Newport Restaurant Group, a division of Newport Harbor Corporation, an employee-owned hospitality company, is pleased to announce Avvio, a new restaurant in the former Papa Razzi space in Garden City, Cranston. Avvio will join the Newport Restaurant Group collection as the ninth location in Rhode Island and will embody the essence of everyday Italian dining; a place where friends and family gather, share laughs and celebrate milestones. Papa Razzi will be closed for business beginning on Sunday, January 31st and Avvio will open as a classic Italian eatery in spring 2016.

“When Newport Harbor Corporation purchased seven Papa Razzi restaurants in 2012, it gave us the opportunity to grow our footprint into Massachusetts,” said Paul O’Reilly, CEO and President of Newport Harbor Corporation. “The Cranston location has been successful, but with the growth and expansion of Garden City, we saw an opportunity to refresh the space and enhance its offerings to align with Newport Restaurant Group’s culinary philosophy. These changes will allow us to add Avvio to the Newport Restaurant Group portfolio and to provide guests in the West Bay and statewide the experience they have come to expect from our restaurants and with a similar price point to Papa Razzi.”

Chef Greg Coccio, former Executive Chef at Papa Razzi will remain in this role at Avvio. His efforts will be complemented by Chef Kevin DiLibero, Director of Culinary Arts. Both have been cooking within Newport Restaurant Group for many years and share a passion for and heritage of Italian cooking.

As always, the Newport Restaurant Group’s focus on simple ingredients will be on display, sourced locally and directly from Italy. Prepared with distinct, yet traditional cooking techniques, Avvio’s menu will feature inspired Italian classic dishes along with Neapolitan pizzas and a wood-fired grill.

The culinary team will be augmented by Chef Casey Riley who serves as Chief Operating Officer and oversees the culinary development of each Newport Restaurant Group property. Chef Riley’s extended familial roots are in Cranston and this opening is especially personal and special as Casey’s appreciation of Italian cooking was first nurtured through the traditions passed on to him via the family table.

During the closure, Papa Razzi gift cards will be accepted at all Papa Razzi locations in Massachusetts, as well as at Newport Restaurant Group properties Waterman Grille and Hemenway’s, in nearby Providence. Visit www.paparazzitrattoria.com or www.avvioristorante.com for additional details.

January 27, 2016 0 comments

farms news

Cluck! Approved By Providence Zoning, Next Steps to Open the Store’s Doors

by David Dadekian May 14, 2013

written by David Dadekian

On Monday evening, May 13, 2013, the Providence Zoning Board of Review approved Drake Patten’s request for a zoning variance for the property at 399 Broadway so that she can open an urban farm supply store named Cluck.

If this seems like a bit of déjà vu it’s because the Zoning Board approved the request three months ago and, through some legal wrangling by the opposition to Patten opening Cluck, it was overturned by the Superior Court. If you’re interested in reading all about that legal decision, please see this previous Eat Drink RI story. Today’s story is about moving forward and, to be completely truthful, I certainly hope this is the last Cluck story I have to write until I can publish a “Cluck is now open” story.

Once the Zoning Board publishes this most recent decision the opposition to Cluck are allowed twenty days to appeal, though hopefully the concessions Patten has agreed to—keeping a limited number of chickens and bees at the store and the coops hidden by plants, as well as not opening until noon on Sundays and leasing three parking spaces to the Sts. Vartanantz Church—will help to keep things moving forward smoothly.

Patten has posted on the Cluck Facebook page that she now needs to enter the Zoning decision at Providence City Hall, get a building permit (which she had already done after the last Zoning Board approval, so it may still stand), get a certificate of occupancy and register a sales permit with the State of Rhode Island. Once all that is complete Patten can open Cluck to the public, even if it is within the twenty day window for appeal.

Eat Drink RI offers cautious, optimistic congratulations to Patten on this latest victory. Congratulations and acknowledgment should also be given to the Providence West Side community who rallied around Cluck and helped donate $9,550 for Patten’s legal fees via a now-completed Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign set up by Cornydon Luxmoore.

May 14, 2013 0 comments

farms news

The Latest on the Battle for Cluck! Your Help Is Still Needed

by David Dadekian April 29, 2013

written by David Dadekian

Drake Patten (in foreground) speaking to crowd at Cluck! on April 14, photo courtesy of Mike Ritz

I’ve written twice before about Cluck’s attempts to open an urban farm supply store at 399 Broadway in Providence. Unfortunately, after many months of planning, build-out, stocking the store with inventory and constant persistence from Cluck’s owner Drake Patten, the store has still not been able to open it’s doors. Now, more than ever, in this fight to not only open a store but to do what’s right for small business in Rhode Island, Cluck needs your support to move forward.

This is not going to be a brief story, if you don’t read all the way through, please do visit the Indiegogo “A few bucks for Cluck” campaign and pledge whatever you are able to help Cluck get through this legal battle. As you will read below, this has been and continues to be an arduous process, and if you’d like to see an urban farm supply business like Cluck succeed your financial support is greatly appreciated.

To find out what’s gone on before this, please read, Support Cluck! Urban Farm Supply on Broadway in Providence, and then come back to this story.

A lot has happened in the last couple of months since the City of Providence Zoning Board of Review ruled in favor of the zoning variance needed for Cluck to open. The opposition to Patten’s store, Anthony Paolino, Monica Paolino, John Paterra, Elizabeth Monaco and Sts. Vartanantz Church, filed an appeal for a stay of the business and an overturn of the zoning decision.

Unfortunately, the judge ruled in favor of the opposition. Patten posted a full explanation of the proceedings to the Cluck Facebook page and in short, John Paterra and Elizabeth Monaco, both of 414 Broadway, claimed to be legal abutters who were not informed of the Zoning Board of Review meeting, even though Paterra had previously signed and notarized a petition to the Zoning Board being circulated by Sts. Vartanantz Church. In this writer’s opinion, the opposition’s lawyer used a legal technicality to win.

Patten can go through the Zoning process again, this time making sure to inform all abutters of the process. There’s no reason to think the 4-to-1 decision in her favor would change this second time around. However, the financial burden this legal battle has taken on Patten and her business has become heavy. It cost approximately $10,000 to go through the Zoning Board of Review decision the first time, and before the appeal loss Patten went ahead and renovated the 399 Broadway space, fully-stocking it with merchandise for the spring growing season, an investment of perhaps $60,000 or more.

Cluck! Urban Farm Supply artist rendition of exterior

To help with this financial burden, Coryndon Luxmoore, a user experience designer at Buildium and advocate for a strong Rhode Island design and startup community, created a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo called “A few bucks for Cluck” with the hopes of helping Patten’s continuing legal battle. It is imperative to give if you can to fund this fight since it is definitely not slowing.

Since the ruling to overturn the Zoning variance, Patten was able to acquire a City of Providence peddler’s license and hold a makeshift yard sale on the 399 Broadway property for the last couple of weeks. Patten can’t open the store and sell out of it. However, with her landlord’s permission, Patten has been able to set up a few carts of merchandise and sell what she has out on the lot for the day. It’s far from a great situation, but at least it allows her to move some merchandise, especially merchandise which is very seasonally dependent.

This form of sale is licensed by the city, though that didn’t stop the opposition from sending City Building Inspectors with a Notice of Violation on Thursday, April 25th. Fortunately the City of Providence recognized that Patten can’t be violating a license that the City itself granted her, and the Notice was withdrawn the following day. Clearly not finished in harrassing Patten, on Monday, April 29th the opposition’s lawyer served Patten’s lawyer with a restraining order.

The effects of the restraining order remain to be seen. A new Zoning Board date of Monday, May 13th has been issued and Patten asks that supporters once again send an email or a letter of support to the Zoning Board of Review via Peter Carnevale, Director of Zoning, at pcarnevale@providenceri.com. Please attend the hearing on May 13 at 5:30 p.m. at 444 Westminster Street, at the corner of Empire Street and Westminster Street.

That looks to be the story so far. You can follow Cluck’s updates on their Facebook page. Below is a report on the community gathering that happened at Cluck two weeks ago. Transcripts of some of Patten’s speech along with comments from local politicians and my interview with Providence Mayor Taveras follow.

Gathering at Cluck! on April 14

On April 14th a crowd of almost 200 people gathered at 399 Broadway to voice their support for Cluck at an event West Side resident Mike Ritz helped put together. Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, State Representative John J. Lombardi and Providence City Councilman Bryan Principe all were in attendance and Lombardi and Principe both spoke to the crowd. The owners of several Providence small businesses, Adler’s Hardware, Jephry Floral Studio, Julians, Stock Culinary Goods and The Grange, all voiced their support for Cluck.

Patten offered the following remarks, some in answer to questions from the crowd.

“This is a big deal. You are a big deal to me today. Looking out over this crowd I can’t believe it. I just wanted to open a business. That was the goal. There has been a lot of misinformation about this business. This is a small business that wants to be part of the evolution of this city. I believe and I think many of you believe that we have to grow and change as a city and this business is an example of that.
“I think the misinformation has been spread in part around what I’m doing here. This is urban farm supply. I want to help people grow food. We are a city that’s committed to grow food. Today is a larger conversation about what our city will be and in specific this neighborhood which is struggling between old ideas and new ideas and somehow this little business, unwillingly, is in the middle of that conversation.
As I look out across this crowd I see the future and I see your support as getting my doors open. I’ll be honest with you, we have to start over in this zoning process. It’s been expensive. It’s cost close to $10,000.00 to go through the zoning. It was hard for me and hard for me and it was a big decision. But when I looked out over this crowd today I decided we’re going to do it again. I’m going to need your support and I’m going to rely on the support of the City and our elected officials, who by the way have been extraordinary, and that’s no small thing. I want this to be a celebration of what will happen here. I’m going to need your support to move this forward and I know I can count on you.
Reach out to our elected officials, who are our voice, and talk about not just this business but how we will open other businesses. Both our mayor and our governor have committed to small business. This is a case study about how this will happen. We need financing. I’m doing this business with investors and private financing. We need as much as we can to have financing that’s not necessarily private, that comes from other agencies. We have a great EDC. We need to support that because this is the future of our city.
I don’t accept that there’s a political machine. There are politics and there are politics at play here. I’m a bit of a Pollyanna. I will go through the legal process as I did before and this time we won’t forget to notify a person. I will have faith in the Zoning Board. I think they made a very fair decision last time. Nothing has changed. If anything we have this incredible example of what can be here. So I’m going to place my faith in the legal system. That may be foolish but I have to believe.
Any business that comes into this location will change potentially the traffic situation. So whether it’s Cluck or anything else it will change it. We are providing parking spaces on-site, the legal number that we have to provide, and importantly we have built a business on a bike route and a bus route, that was intentional. We also will be doing delivery. We don’t expect that the majority of people who come here will be in cars. This is a business that is designed for a walkable city and a public transportation city. And in closing and limiting our curb cuts, we will also be providing new spaces. So in all those ways we have been thoughtful about the impact on the street and actually see what we’re doing as increasing parking spaces for those who need it but not really for the people who necessarily will come here. We will have adequate on-site parking at any time.”

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras didn’t speak at the event, but I took a moment to ask him his thoughts.

eat drink RI: Why did you come here today?

Mayor Angel Taveras: I came to listen. Any time you have your citizens organized around an issue . . . This is a Sunday morning, to see over a hundred people out here, that’s good. We need more community involvement. I think that we can always learn how we can do things better. We always try to strive to improve the process. We’ll look to do that. This whole process, it’s unfortunate that Drake has to go through it again, but what we’re going to do is use it as an opportunity to examine what has happened and what can we do better as a city and what can we do better to be supportive of applicants and how can we improve the process.

edRI: I approach it from a food angle. There’s been great movement in the city for urban farming, but there’s still a lot of food insecurity and a lot of food deserts. Do you think something like this could help that?

MAT: I’m very supportive of sustainability. I look at it even broader than just food. It is sustainability and this is a big part of it. That’s why I supported the Fertile Underground. I’ve been very supportive of the Southside Community Land Trust. We just started Lots of Hope, where we’re going to turn abandoned lots into urban farms. When you talk about the issue more specifically like that, it’s something that I believe in. [I’ve] been working very hard with Healthy Communities [Office] that we started, Peter Asen leading that effort. And you’re so right about the food deserts that exist in our city and it’s something that we need to address to make everybody eating better and this is a great opportunity. It’s an important issue and I’d like to see us do an even better job. We are leaders with respect to it, but we need to continue to lead.

From City Councilman Principe:

“Small business is the backbone of the Rhode Island economy. . . .You are the backbone of our community. You are the backbone that keep our small businesses thriving in a time when we so desperately need that. Keep up the support. Remain vigilant, as you are. Remain respectful, as you are, even with those with differing opinions on the issue. That’s the way we do things here. When we come to the politics of this, I know the city has been supportive. Drake and I have had numerous conversations in regards to the issues that she is facing and we will take the lessons learned from this, adjust and revise, as we welcome a new business into our community.”

From State Representative Lombardi:

“Is it [Cluck] going to create congestion? Is it going to create bad atmosphere? And I say, because I live within the 200′ radius, bike paths, busses, major thoroughfare, walking distance, come on, what congestion? It just makes no sense. This building was empty for many, many years, and it was the subject of graffiti, prostitution, drugs, vandalism. It was an eyesore. It was a pall on the neighborhood.
The resistance that you’re getting is the naysayers, the traditional, perennial naysayers who don’t live in the neighborhood. They have property in the neighborhood. They represent that they live in the neighborhood. But guess what? They’re not being truthful. This was an opportunity for free parking for many individuals and I say . . . if we can get more people in this neighborhood to create business, to buy gasoline, to hire an accountant, to go and pray, to hire a lawyer . . . isn’t it what it’s all about?
This is about doing the right thing. What did it cost her in merchandise? What about her sweat equity? You’re not talking $10-$20K here, you’re probably already talking over $100K. So bear that in mind. She’s going to need your support. Support her.”

Regarding the Indiegogo “A few bucks for Cluck” campaign, Luxmoore emailed:

“Starting a campaign for my friend Drake is a natural extension of my interest in seeing new businesses start in Providence and watching Sin work so hard at becoming successful. I felt that providing a forum for contributing would provide a meaningful way for others who wanted to see this kind of progress to contribute, in addition to expressing their feelings online and to their elected officials. Finally, this delay to a small business that is dependent on the spring season to make a large percentage of their revenue could easily be a deathblow. My hope is this will be a small way of reducing that impact and to demonstrate to private investors that the community is willing to put their money where their mouth is in supporting the business.”

Below is a video West Broadway community leader Elaine Collins made at the April 14th event.

Again, if you are able, please give to the Indiegogo “A few bucks for Cluck” campaign.

April 29, 2013 0 comments