Its fall. Fall descended swiftly, from 80+ degree days in August to low 70s and now 50s overnight. I had to turn the heat on to take the chill off the house in the morning. But by September 26 it was 80° again.
Trump keep saying we’ll have a COVID vaccine before the election, based on nothing. Everyone else in his administration says next year, March or April at the earliest. He just says what he thinks people want to hear. He does not care at all whether it is true or could possibly be conceived of as true.
Ruth Bator Ginsberg died last Friday. The Senate is quick to talk about replacing her, when four years ago, they held up a nomination all summer because they wanted to wait until the election. People are calling them hypocrites, because they are, but they will probably get away with it anyway.
Restaurants in Providence are starting to announce sales or closures. Its a bad sign that this fall into winter will be very tough on the local economy as outdoor seating — something that has been keeping some places open at all — becomes unfeasible.
- Nick’s Westminster and Bravo Bistro closed March 2020 as businesses kept people home
- Red Stripe in East Greenwich closed in April
- Acoustic Java (former Cable Car location) closed in the spring. They opened Sept 2019
- Luxe Burger bar announced their closure over the summer. They were heavily dependent on Convention Center and Hotel traffic
- Loie Fuller’s closed this summer
- Knead Donuts closed their downtown Providence location, perhaps temporally, as they opened a new location in East Greenwich
- White Electric is for sale
- Birch will close in October
- Scialo Brothers Bakery on Atwells Ave. will close
The girls are both back at school in person for now. They both really love it even though it is very different, and I hope they stay open for in person learning. We have to be ready to learn from home at any moment, though.
Henry Barnard school has announced that it will not reopen again next year. Another COVID casualty? Not quite. They have raised tuition year over year until they became as expensive as other options which are perceive to be better, like the Wheeler School. And then, surprise, enrollment dropped. One of the reasons why they did so well was their tuition was lower. We should know, we wanted Vivian to go there as Beth and her brother went there over 20 years ago. Beth worked there as the new administration kept raising the price. Now, some families we know need to come up with other options for next year.
Its sadder to me because Henry Barnard’s roots go way, way back to some of the early years of Rhode Island College in general when it was called The State Normal School. Can you tell I have been doing a bunch of ArtInRuins research lately?
My statistic round up:
- 13 million people are still out of work, collecting benefits. This does not count gig-economy workers that are not eligible for benefits
- 31.1M cases globally with 961K deaths and 21.3M recoveries (mortality rate of 2.99%, down from 5.98% this summer)
- The U.S. surpassed 200,000 deaths recently, with 6.86M cases and 3.71M recoveries (mortality rate of 2.93%, down from 4.51%)
- 23,620 confirmed cases in RI with 1,088 deaths (mortality rate of 4.61%, down from 5.65%)