Small Business

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Paraphernalia paranoia: Allston head shops shut down

Busted
Who is responsible for the wave of "functional glass art" shop raids that has recently taken place throughout Allston?
By VALERIE VANDE PANNE | July 02, 2010

Boston pols bail on Bank of America

Locovore Banking Dept.
In this time of political stridency, where everything is either red or blue, Boston City Councilors have found a potential purple issue that everyone can stand behind, be they radical lefties or Fox News worshippers.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 14, 2010

Bragdon vs. Trevorrow, Greens, District 120

Primary 2010
Charles Bragdon and Anna Trevorrow vie in the East End legislative race
By DEIRDRE FULTON | May 19, 2010

What the health-care bill really means

Reforming the System
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama signed the new health-care bill into law.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 24, 2010

A bad development

Citywatch
The most telling thing about this week's report on the R.I. Economic Development Corporation may be how many people didn't want to talk about it
By MARION DAVIS | April 22, 2009

It's getting easier to go green

THE ENVIRONMENT
In Rhode Island and across the US, economic troubles seem to be getting worse by the day. But green energy and conservation, several local advocates and entrepreneurs say, has a chance to flourish in the coming years.
By MARION DAVIS | February 25, 2009

Funeral recession

These days, practically nothing is immune to the economy's woes — not even the death industry.
These days, practically nothing is immune to the economy's woes — not even an industry that caters to what would seem to be the one recession-proof commodity: death.
By JULIA RAPPAPORT | March 03, 2009

Rhody's local food movement finds its groove

Relishing the fresh flavor of homegrown goods
Five years ago, when Farm Fresh Rhode Island (FFRI) launched its mission of promoting Ocean State-produced food, co-founder Noah Fulmer discovered a curious disconnection in the local food chain.
By IAN DONNIS | February 23, 2009

Enrich thy neighbor, Portland

'Buy local' and take care of business
Back in the temperate zone, the local and national economies are in the crapper.
By JULIA RAPPAPORT | December 10, 2008

’Tis the season to buy local

Tips for keeping your holiday gift-giving bucks in the ocean state
Frog and Toad, an idiosyncratic gift store on Providence’s East Side, is your quintessential mom and pop shop.
By IAN DONNIS | December 12, 2008

Enrich thy neighbor

'Buy local' and take care of business
'Buy local' and take care of business
By JULIA RAPPAPORT | December 12, 2008

Ordinance aims to easy the bite of displacement

Citywatch
When Granoff Associates announced plans in May to renovate the Arcade in downtown Providence, tenants in the building got a scant 30 days’ notice.
By AMY LITTLEFIELD | August 27, 2008

Corporate welfare state

A little change in the tax law with big consequences
In 2006, state lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to give away millions of tax dollars a year for decades to some of Maine’s biggest corporations.
By LANCE TAPLEY | February 20, 2008

Big ideas for the arts

Is this a soapbox or someone’s installation piece?
Almost every young artist I know pays the bills by selling tourists stuff from a retail shop or getting their peers drunk at bars, selling a little bit of their soul while they're at it.
By IAN PAIGE | January 02, 2008

D.C. wannabes

Twelve people want to represent you in Washington; we explain who they are as the winnowing begins
Already some candidates have come and gone, but the field remains wide open as candidates prepare for the June 2008 primaries.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 26, 2007

Hope Artiste Village

Around Town
The new Hope Artiste Village, on Main Street in Pawtucket, hopes to break the familiar cycle of gentrification.
By JESSICA KERRY | December 26, 2007

Why RI Republicans fail

Quick to blame Democrats, the local GOP can’t seem to find candidates or a long-term plan of its own
Providence Journal op-ed columnist Edward Achorn has made repeated reference to the apparent “learned helplessness” of Rhode Islanders.
By IAN DONNIS | November 14, 2007

Family plots

Sidney Lumet shows how it’s done
Sidney Lumet may be 83, but his new film makes Quentin Tarantino and even the Coen Brothers look geriatric.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 07, 2007

City Feed and Supply

Bearing the fruits of the community back to the neighborhood
Put down your brown-rice sushi and get thee to Jamaica Plain’s City Feed And Supply, a throwback to the days of mom-and-pop corner stores.
By KARA BASKIN | November 06, 2007

Cicilline leads charge to replace economic development guru

Citywatch
Three years after Donald C. Eversley was ceremoniously introduced as the president of the Providence Economic Development Partnership, the partnership has moved to not renew Eversley’s contract.
By IAN DONNIS | June 07, 2007

Futures of WCLZ, WCYI, WTOS in limbo

Portland buzz
Local radio station 98.9 WCLZ is going up for sale, and its future is unknown.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 06, 2007

Unplugged

Rhode Island is poised for a wireless leap forward with the first-in-the-nation statewide network
An argument can made that just as the Industrial Revolution was sparked in Rhode Island, so, too, did the withering of the Industrial Age.
By MATT JERZYK | May 24, 2007

Providence: safer than you think?

Violent crime is down, unlike in many us cities. Can the good news last?
Every year, as summer approaches in US cities, violent crime spikes as predictably as the arrival of Memorial Day cookouts.
By IAN DONNIS | May 24, 2007

Market forces vs. government intervention

Choosing sides
People heading to a forum about how to preserve downtown Portland’s local business environment had to walk past vacant storefronts, and some soon to be vacated, to get to the discussion.
By IAN PAIGE | February 21, 2007

The brain drain

Rhode island needs a more robust economy to retain the young and the educated
Rhode Island is lucky to have Kipp Bradford.
By IAN DONNIS | February 15, 2007

Would the ProJo be better with local ownership?

Belo — unwilling to sell to Sundlun — seems a bit more benign than in the past
In 2003, former Governor Bruce Sundlun wrote a letter to Robert Decherd, the CEO of the Dallas-based Belo Corporation, expressing his interest in restoring local ownership of the Providence Journal.
By IAN DONNIS | December 07, 2006

Indie economy

Portland’s new Buy Local campaign is playing nice, for now
Carolyn Mix is one of Buy Local’s newest converts. Owner of the 2Note botanical perfumery, which has been open in the Old Port for about six months, Mix says she joined Portland’s new coalition of independent businesses because she believes in the cause.
By SARA DONNELLY | December 06, 2006