OSCAR

“Rhode Island should choose to be extraordinary not ordinary.” Mark S. Hayward, Director, US Small Business Administration at Bryant University’s Challenges and Opportunities Summit 

We continue to discuss our environment and propose solutions to move us forward as a state. We talk about leadership and partnerships as foundational building blocks to move us to economic stability. Taxes, strategic plans, corporate incentive packages and start-ups are the tools to recovery. Where is the action. People use tools, move policies and add value. It is time to leverage our scale and our amazing talent and relationships and stop dialoguing and start doing. As Neil Steinberg stated months ago, and is requoted by many leaders, “Just do it.” Let’s get started RI. Let’s build the campaign with our friends, family and leaders and move the dialogue to actionables. Let’s say “we did it, together.”  Nike didn’t wait.

Lincoln Chafee, on Monday:

“I believe that Houston — together with Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Cleveland — could be a model for bringing job creation and economic growth to Providence and Rhode Island,” Chafee said in a statement issued Monday morning. “We have valuable land opened up by the relocation of Route 195, and a partnership between our universities, the city of Providence, hospitals, nonprofits and private businesses could transform this area into a hub of health- and research-related economic activity and job creation.”

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We are so quick to point out the challenges of our state, but January 2011 is a time to celebrate our strengths and the opportunities before us. Emerging opportunities for Rhode Island to enter the world stage come as a result of several current and significant local developments: the removal of an interstate highway through a dense downtown district opened almost 20 acres of newly developable urban land; unprecedented political churn with newly-elected Mayor and Governor both voicing commitments to environmental sustainability and economic growth as a City-State; the continued growth and success of OSCAR and its data-driven decision making pilots, like Green the Knowledge District ; and a city-wide initiative to boost Providence’s position in the knowledge economy.  These opportunities demand a new, collective vision for Rhode Island, and they have propelled leaders of Providence and Rhode Island via OSCAR to recognize that if great change can occur, it can happen here with our will and capacity.