Browse: Home / Contrasting BI Times, Projo Pieces on Island Flights 

# Contrasting BI **Ti mes, Pr**  **ojo Pieces on Island Flights**  By Bob Plain on July

25, 2012

A view of the Coast Guard Station on the west side of Block Island. (photo by Bob Plain) Both the biggest and smallest newspapers in Rhode Island weighed in last week on whether or not the federal government should subs idize private sector flights to Block Island. Interestingl y, it was New Shoreham’s paper of record

– not the state’s

– that thought to make an economic argument on behalf of Rhode Island. “And wh y, more than anything else, is RIAC sponsoring Cape Air, a co mpany that started in Massachusetts and now flies all over the globe, over homegrown New England Airlines?,” asked the Block Island Times edito rial (reprinted in the ProJo, Ishould note). Itgoes on: Why not give the $900,000 in federal funds, and another $250,000 in state support, to our homestate compan y, instead? Why not encourage the local airline to fl y high? The jobs and money this service would bring should stay with a Rhode Island compan y. The New England Airlines crew alread y know how to handle the tricky island landing strip, alread y know how to service the Islander airplanes that Cape Air would have to buy to fl y here. And they ’re here for us, y ear round, when we’re sick, when we need medications, when the ferry’ s not running, when time is of the essence, and when we simpl y want some Chinese food flown over. They ’re a lifeline service, and we need them. The Projo, on the other hand, mak es no economic argument at all. Instead

– and I’m not making this up

– they

say spending $900,000 federal transportation dollars to help a private companysucceed in the local marketplace is a good idea because the elite will probably appreciate a way to avoid the “colorful” people who take the ferry

. Seriously , this is their argument. You can re ad it for y ourself here . Or just trust this excerpt as the gist of it: We suspect that those who fly to Block Island will be considerably less overtly

colorful than those on the Block Island Ferry . Indeed, that’s one reason the proposal for service to Bloc k Island from Green sounds so appealing to some folks, especiall y to the affluent who can afford it. [The] focus was less on locals than on out

- of

- staters, even if leveraged

- buyout specialists planning to build gigantic summer houses might rival people beh aving badly on the ferry

as threats to Block Is land’s allure. Where to begin with this one... First, given what has been going on in Rhode Island as of late, the Providence Journal editorial board might want to be more reticent in advocating for the public s ector to pick winners in the private sector. Secondl y, there are literall y at least 900,000 better ways Rhode Island could use $900,000 in transportation dollars than by subsidizing air travel to Block Island. But the trul y abhorrent angle of the Projo’s p iece is that the ty picall y - conservative editorial board is actually

advocating for economic redistribution

– a force it often claims to disdain. The difference is in this case wealth would be being transferred to the elite, rather than the middle class. Wh ile $900,000 in federal transportation dollars might not seem like a lot and few may care how eas y or hard it is for the affluent to get to their vacation locale, the difference in these two editorials is worth noting for when the Projo eventually weighs i n on an issue that matters to y ou ... how much can we trust their opinion if the tiny little Block I sland Times was able to out

- think the editorial board of the mighty Providence Journal when it comes to a no

- brainer for local business like this issue.