Is Newport an Intellectual Wasteland Lacking a Sense of Humor?

An article published in September 8th's Home & Garden section of the New York Times about Newport residents Richard Saul Wurman and his wife, Gloria Nagy, featured less than enthusiastic comments about the character of the local populace, and the general cultural and intellectual atmosphere of their adopted city.

For those of you who don't know Richard Saul Wurman, he is considered a global thought-leader and is the founder of the TED symposium (Technology, Entertainment & Design). Wurman and TED bring together some of the most influential movers-and-shakers in the world – from technology, entertainment, design, science, business, politics, philanthropy and the arts. TED's speakers and attendees include former U.S. presidents, Fortune 500 CEOs, and best-selling writers (for example, Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point").

One of Wurman's taglines for TED is "ideas worth spreading." Indeed, the organization's website reaches a global audience in the millions.

Wurman's wife, Gloria Nagy, is a writer. In 1993, the couple purchased "The Orchard," a 19th-century replica of an 18th-century French country house that sits behind high walls on eight acres. When they first acquired the "super mansion," as a friend described it, the Orchard featured 13 bedrooms, 11 fireplaces and 11 period bathrooms. It is located across the street from the admissions office of Salve Regina University on historic Ochre Point Avenue.

Quoting from the Times, here are a few of Richard Saul Wurman's and Gloria Nagy's comments about Newport and its people. The designer Massimo Vignelli, a friend of Wurman and Nagy, also made remarks.

• …Wurman, who is extremely fond of certain profane terms, employed a common one to dismiss his neighbors. Afterward, he added, "…this town is an intellectual wasteland without any sense of humor. I've been living here for 17 years, and if you asked me to tell you when I last had lunch with anybody but my wife or someone that came to see me from India or New York or Boston or Germany, I couldn't come up with a name."

• The absence of a local social life, Ms. Nagy said, is the price of living here.

• "You don't leave New York to go to Newport," Vignelli said. "You go to London, Milan, Paris. In Newport, you know, there is nothing outside your house. All you have is your things inside, and that's the end of it." 

• "The kind of people there need each other. They need their booze at 5, their costume parties. They need to know who is who, and who married what and how much money. It's a kind of zoo." – Vignelli

• "...she [Nagy] would cast her eye on the town's inhabitants. Who were these people, with their committees?"

• "I never heard people talk with an English accent in America," Nagy said. "I wanted six pals, and we can all be in the kitchen cooking spaghetti. I couldn't meet one pal."

A link to the article is here.

As a media communications professional and Patch contributor covering Newport and Aquidneck Island, I find these comments provocative and newsworthy. As someone who resides here, they give me pause.

Richard Saul Wurman and his wife can't be written off as disaffected people burdened with too much money, who might have had a bad day in the company of a reporter with a digital recorder.

Mr. Wurman is a key influencer and social connector with ties to all sorts of innovators, entrepreneurs and captains of industry the world over. He is a man whose words and thoughts carry weight, whose opinions travel far and wide. He's used a global media outlet – the New York Times – to express his opinions about the color and character of an entire community. 

On the one hand, Mr. Wurman and his wife seem a little lonely – perhaps someone should invite them over to their home to drink a bottle of good red wine and to make pasta? On the other hand, the tone and substance of their remarks, which some might excuse as tossed off and snarky, when coming from a person of Wurman's status, are caustic and reputationally damning. This is especially true when you consider that cities today make it a point to manage and protect their good name and reputations, just like corporations or brands, to foster and attract new business to the area. Or at least the more successful ones do.

In other words, while everyone has their own experience of living here and is entitled to their own opinions, Newport and Aquidneck Island could use a good shout-out. We could probably do without the shouted and derisive put-downs, particularly during a time of downgraded economy with its attendant effects on civic morale.

Hence, I've sought comments from Newport's elected officials, community leaders, cultural stewards, internationally-renowned social scientists who reside in the region, and prominent business and working people, in response – and in an attempt to understand – Mr. Wurman's and Ms. Nagy's remarks.

Jeanne-Marie Napolitano, Mayor of Newport: "It's like Abraham Lincoln once said: 'I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.' And in that spirit, I'd like to extend a dinner invitation to Richard Saul Wurman and his wife, Gloria Nagy, so that they might experience the Newport that they've yet to experience – a community of high-caliber people, deep cultural resources and stimulating intellectual and personal exchange. To the consternation of some of my colleagues, I've learned from politics that when someone has a problem, even if I don't necessarily agree with them, I pick up the phone and call them. Life's too short. So on behalf of the community of Newport, my family and friends, I extend an invitation to Mr. Wurman and Ms. Nagy so that we can all get to know, and I'm sure, enjoy, one another better."                                                                                

Dr. Soheyl Amini, Department Chair of Sociology and Anthropology, Salve Regina University: "As a social scientist and sociologist, this is an example of people falling into fallacies I call 'hasty generalizations.' Bellevue Avenue is not Newport. It represents certain historical moments turned into museums. To make a judgment about a whole community is flawed, but not unique. In fact, it is happening all across America where people don't know their neighbor and we seem to be becoming ever more alienated. We no longer live in a time where people will cross the street to enjoy an iced tea with the people who live right next door. Not if you stay in your home, but if you seek culture and intellectual dialogue you will find it. At Salve Regina University, for example, we have the Pell Center, where leaders and thinkers from all over the world come to visit to share perspectives on local, national and international affairs."

Federico Santi, owner of the Drawing Room, and chairman of the Newport Film Commission: "They moved to the wrong side of Newport. That area of Newport can be very superficial, especially if you purchase a grand house and expect to be 'welcomed' into the 'neighborhood.' In the Hill area where we live, there are retired Navy people, merchants, doctors, realtors, retired couples, gay and lesbian couples, etc. Really quite a mix of people, and like dogs, mixed breeds are always better behaved and in the long run cause less problems, mentally and physically, than the pure breed!"

Dr. Jacquline Cottle, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Roger Williams University: "It is a natural human tendency to categorize other people into 'us' and 'them.' We do it all the time in order to help us make a chaotic world more manageable. However, sometimes along with those categorizations, comes a tendency to think in erroneous ways. For example, the assumption that all of  'them' are the same. If we do not believe that there is any variety in a group of 'others,' it may keep us from finding out that they are in fact not at all the same." 

Bill Lehourites, manager of Jonathan's Ocean Coffee Roasters Café: "While that may be how they see things, I disagree. They sound like a kid that doesn't get picked first for gym class and then complains to anyone who listens. Perhaps they should seek validation within themselves first, rather than throwing the whole geographic area under the bus. I see folks from all walks of life at the café I run and part of what makes Newport great is the fact that practically everyone, once you get to know them, has a fascinating story."

Evan Smith, CEO & President of the Newport & Bristol County Convention & Visitors Bureau: "The people who live in the community of Newport are people who could choose to live anywhere in the world and they choose to live here. The word 'community' infers that there are diverse elements that cohabitate and comingle. And nowhere in America will you find a community of 25,000 people that has a population more well-traveled, and with more diverse life experience, than Newport. Its vibrancy and sustainability have enriched and motivated people for over 350 years, and I anticipate that Newport will continue to do so for another 350 years." 

Kathryn E. Leonard, Newport City Council member: "Newport has been a mecca for years, for culture, for the arts. There's some [sic] really smart people here. I respect Saul Wurman and I really like his wife, but I don't want to get into a pissing contest about the community, because it's detrimental to the community." 

Peter Kramer, M.D., NY Times best-selling author, and TED conference speaker: "Before I moved to Rhode Island, I lived in Maryland, where there are many exclusive country clubs. While I didn't live next door to the people who belonged to these exclusive country clubs, even if I had, I would not have been invited to attend. In a small state like Rhode Island, with a very small population of middle class, you live shoulder-to-shoulder with working class people and people from all sorts of socio-economic and educational levels. That is one of the glories of the state. It takes some adjustment and it's fun."

Jack Maytum, Director of the Firehouse Theater: "If Wurman is such a wunderkind of collaboration among the international glitterati, why isn't he able to forge fulfilling relations in his own neighborhood? The wide range of diversity of people and institutions in Newport should provide a mother lode of ore for him to mine. I suspect he's not trying very hard. Perhaps he doesn't see the glamour in it. Ms. Nagy seems betrayed by her local acquaintances who request contributions or commitment to one or more of Newport's many public service organizations. Most well-heeled Newport residents would consider that the price of admission to the community, especially if they just acquired the Firestone estate with eight acres on the Cliff Walk." 

Hank Whitin, co-owner of Pour Judgement Bar & Grill: "That [New York Times] article is so detached that I felt like I was reading a subtext to Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead.' To be honest, I didn't feel like it snubbed Newport as much as it painted a picture of the couple as pretentious and self absorbed. It's a breezy society page article that I wouldn't give much thought to."