Crossroads Blues

Let me start by saying, my apologies to Robert Johnson
for the title, but it did seem appropriate.

“Crossroads Blues” was a song by the aforementioned musician in which he “sells” his soul to the Devil, and in return gains the ability to play the blues and achieve fame. As the old story goes, the bargain is not quite what he expected.

This story is playing out in real time right here in Portsmouth.

For as long as I can remember, the buzz words here in town have been “open space” and “support our farms”.  Both are very noble purposes.  I would ask that you remember the old adage about “too much of a good thing”. 

Portsmouth has a problem.  There are just too many good things here.  Good
schools, the Glen, Melville, the beaches, open space, and the farms.  The list is quite long.  It’s why you came here.  But those good things have a dark side, as
you’ll soon see.

Our schools: There is no debate, we have great schools.  And great schools are not cheap.  Did you know the town spends over 60% of its budget just for the school department? That’s around $12,000 per student (according to RIDE InfoWorks).  But that’s not the problem.  The problem is that the average town household has 2 children, (2.3 actually), which equates to a cost of $24,000.  The average house in Portsmouth is worth just about $375,000, generating a tax bill of $5340. See the problem?  That average house is using $6660 more in services than it pays.  And that is just for schools.  Remember the police and fire
departments?  How about the roads?  This is referred to as “The Gap”.

 Open Space:  The AILT has done a fantastic job for all the residents of Aquidneck Island.  They have preserved some wonderful tracts of land throughout Newport County.  And where is most of it located? Portsmouth.  Now let’s look at the
down side.  The AILT is concerned about open space, not about how economically viable a town is. That's not their job. If a town has no available tracts of land,
then there is no growth.  And we all know that when something stops growing, it dies. The only growth this town has is Residential, leading back to the above
mentioned tax gap.

What Portsmouth needs is smart, well regulated growth.  We need commercial growth and we desperately need it now.  No, I am not talking about Target, so you can relax.  Some form of retail and office development mixed with light industrial would put all of us in a much better place.  This NIMBY
mentality has got to stop.  Think Briggs’ property. 

Can you imagine where we will be in 10 years?  How about paying 40% more in property taxes, (and that may be on the low side).  Or would you rather we spend less on our schools? The Glen will remain beautiful because no one will be able to drive there with our roads falling apart.  This all boils down to balancing what we want, with a sensible way to pay for it.  We have enough open space, more than
enough houses, and the farms are doing fine. Now let’s attract some business so we can all afford to live here and enjoy what we built.

So, here we are. Standing at the Crossroads.  The question is:  What are you willing to give up?  We can’t afford to be a bedroom community anymore.  And our soul is worth a lot more than a million dollars.  I just hope we’re not all singing the blues 10 years down the road.

J.Lane McMahon