Drone pilot Marc Bontemps captures video of Providence skyline
Bontemps, known for his aerial photos and videos on the Instagram account captured.by.marc, shares his craft with columnist Mark Patinkin.
captured.by.marc
Here are some of The Providence Journal’s most-read stories for the week of Aug. 25, supported by your subscriptions.
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Here are the week’s top reads on providencejournal.com:
WESTERLY – Rhode Island’s most famous part-time resident spent time this week at her Watch Hill home, along with her football star boyfriend, at least according to People magazine and TMZ.
Both outlets report that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce – along with pals Patrick and Brittany Mahomes, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Cooper – were in Rhode Island this week, as the singer takes a break from her Eras tour, which resumes in October, and the Kansas City Chiefs tight end prepares for his Sept. 5 season opener against the Ravens.
Read on for more details on the celebrity sightings around Swift’s Watch Hill mansion, dubbed the “Holiday House.”
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Entertainment: Taylor Swift is in Rhode Island this weekend (and she brought some famous friends with her)
PROVIDENCE − The owner of the Atlantic Mills in Olneyville has put the giant mill building up for sale after backing out of a deal with the city and the Providence Redevelopment Agency to buy the sprawling property.
Those who work in the building say they are worried about being kicked out of one of the cheapest manufacturing, warehouse and office spaces in the city, which could mean the end of business for some of them.
Unlike downtown Providence, where offices have remained empty since the pandemic, the Atlantic Mills is almost full, with an estimated 88% of its occupiable space leased. Tenant businesses say that alternative spaces elsewhere in the city are far too expensive and lack the sense of community they prize at their current location.
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“We call this a hidden gem,” said tenant Mike McNulty, who runs a woodshop there.
Real estate: ‘Hidden gem’: Pending sale of Atlantic Mills leaves tenants worried about their future
All summer long, American Mussel Harvesters’ 8-acre oyster farm south of the Jamestown Bridge sat idle.
The problem wasn’t the oysters. It was the 90-minute voyage to get there. And Adam Silkes, who oversees the operation, just couldn’t justify burning all that time and fuel.
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Until a few years ago, American Mussel Harvesters kept its boats at a marina near the company’s Quonset headquarters, so shellfish only had a five-minute trip from dock to cooler. Then, according to Silkes, the cost of dock space more than doubled.
“It’s reaching crisis proportions, honestly,” said Bob Rheault, executive director of both the Ocean State Aquaculture Association and East Coast Shellfish Growers Association. If you can’t access your farm, he said, “it’s a death knell.”
Read the full story to learn what’s causing the shortage of affordable dock space, and what solutions are being proposed to protect the state’s aquaculture industry.
Local news: Rising prices leave oyster farmers, quahoggers searching for places to dock their boats
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“It just makes sense to be a Republican in Rhode Island!” proclaims a whiteboard in the unassuming headquarters of the Rhode Island GOP.
GOP chairman Joe Powers, who came up with the slogan, argues that people are “sick and tired” after almost 90 years of Democratic rule. But when asked about the main obstacles that he faces when trying to enlist candidates, he answers bluntly: “Being a Republican in Rhode Island.”
Rhode Island voters have gone nearly two decades without electing a Republican to any of the state’s top offices or to Congress. And GOP members are shut out of many of the positions that typically serve as a pipeline to political advancement.
Political Scene explores how Powers and the state GOP’s new executive director, 22-year-old Aidan Carey, are trying to build the party’s bench and chip away at Democrats’ supermajority.
Political Scene: Is there a path for Republicans in RI? Inside the party’s effort to build its bench.
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Journal columnist Mark Patinkin was scrolling through Instagram one day when he came across a post with stunning aerial nighttime footage of Providence, backed by classical music.
Curious about the person behind the page captured.by.marc, he tracked down Marc Bontemps, a Montreal native now living in Providence who wanted to show off the beauty of his adopted city. Bontemps became a licensed drone pilot, capturing images ranging from WaterFire to tugboats on Narragansett Bay, and he displayed his craft while being interviewed on Providence’s pedestrian bridge.
Mark Patinkin: Drone pilot’s videos hold Providence in the highest regard. How he works his aerial magic
To read the full stories, go to providencejournal.com.Find out how to subscribe here.
NORTH KINGSTOWN — Rhode Island State Police arrested four individuals on various charges during a series of traffic stops and warrant executions on Nov. 15.
At 4:45 p.m., troopers arrested Noel Morales, 52, of Meriden, Connecticut, as a fugitive from justice on a third-degree assault charge from Connecticut.
Morales was apprehended during a traffic stop on Route 95 in Exeter.
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William Zuercher, 64, of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, was arrested at 8:58 p.m. for driving under the influence and refusing a chemical test after being stopped on Route 95 in Exeter.
Zuercher was arraigned and released to a responsible adult.
At 10:20 p.m., Richard Adorno, 43, of Providence, Rhode Island, was arrested on a warrant for domestic violence simple assault during a traffic stop in Warwick.
He was later transferred to Providence police custody.
Derek Iraheta, 45, of West Warwick, Rhode Island, was arrested at 1:51 a.m. on Nov. 16 on warrants for domestic violence simple assault and failure to relinquish a telephone.
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Iraheta was stopped on Route 95 in East Greenwich and later turned over to Warwick police.
All arrests were processed at the Hope Valley Barracks.
Francis Renault was a celebrated “female impersonator” raised in Providence, R.I.109-03-06, Francis Renault Collection, RI LGBTQ+ Community Archives, Providence Public Library
“This project felt like it was specifically invented for me,” said Lauren YS, the Los Angeles-based artist who painted the mural. “We’re on the street corner that used to house the Chinese Merchants Association, was Chinatown, and is now a queer neighborhood. That cross-section of identity is what I practice within.”
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YS said they have worked on plenty of projects in Chinatowns across the United States, as well as painted murals in LGBTQ+neighborhoods. “But never has it actually intersected,” theysaid.
The 85-foot-wide mural is located at 40 Snow St., a building owned by Paolino Properties, and faces the Dark Lady, a storied gay nightclub that regularly hosts drag and dance parties. The Avenue Concept, a nonprofit arts organization responsible for many of Providence’s murals, worked with the city and Paolino Properties to hire YS for the commissioned piece.
Artist Lauren YS painted a new mural in downtown Providence on Snow Street.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Unlike many muralists, YS did not project an image of a rough sketch of the mural onto the building at night. They drew the mural out by hand.
In addition to Renault, the mural features other elements that honor Providence’s LGBTQ+, Chinese American, and Southeast Asian communities — which often intertwined in local lore.
Born Antonio Auriemma, Renault performed in 42 countries and across the US, including frequently at Carnegie Hall in New York. His costume collection was valued at $50,000, according to the Providence Public Library’s archives ― worth about $1.1 million today. A writer at the Dallas Morning News noted it included a replica of Marie Antoinette’s wedding gown and a kimono “covered with roses of gold hand embroidery.”
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The mural also includes a figure holding a pair of scissors and a piece of thread, which is meant to honor Perry Watkins, who in 1939 became the first Black costume designer from Providenceon Broadway. He attended Hope High School, where he and a friend illustrateda newspaper called The Foolscape, and he was awarded a scholarship to study art at the Rhode Island School of Design. This figure in the mural is also holding a fan adorned with the name “Port Arthur,”a Chinese-American restaurant and dancehall known as a haven for the city’s Asian and LGBTQ+ communities.
The scissors on the far left of the mural are meant to honor Perry Watkins, who in 1939 became the first Black costume designer on Broadway from Providence.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
The Tow family opened Port Arthur on Weybosset Street in 1921. The restaurant’s third floor was an elaborate banquet hall, and musician Bobby Hackett, who later played with Frank Sinatra, honed his craft playing in a six-piece band at the restaurant while he was a teenager. During World War II, Port Arthur became popular with sailors and soldiers, and Shore Patrol considered it such a problematic spot that it was nicknamed “blood alley,” according to the book “Lost Restaurants of Providence.” Port Arthur closed in 1965.
The two middle figures in the mural blend ancient Chinese opera with modern drag, said YS.
“For centuries in China, only cis men were allowed to perform,” said YS. “All the crazy femme types were played by cis men. So my ancestors have been doing drag for forever.”
One of the opera performers is wearing a name tag that says “Luke’s,” referring to Luke’s Chinese American Restaurant, which was located directly behind Providence City Hall from 1951 to 1990. This same figure is also holding two playing cards — the king of hearts and the queen of spades, which YS said represents“Kings & Queens,” a gay bar in Woonsocket open from 1977 to 2002.
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A fan adorned with the Port Arthur logo, which was a former Chinese restaurant that shuttered in the 1960s.SmallFrye
A dangling, gold charm bracelet and purple earning with a cursive letter “B” honor the late Beatrice Temkin. Temkin, who was often called “Bea,” was a pioneering local LGBTQ+ ally, and The Beatrice, a nearby hotel owned by her son, former mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr., is named after her.
The red curtains painted on either side of the mural represent the local theaters downtown, YS said, and the arches reference the now-closed Chinese restaurants and dancehalls that were central to the theater experience from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Artist Lauren Ys painted two tigers on a new mural in downtown Providence.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
“Public art is fundamental to Providence, and this mural will not only beautify downtown, but also tell a powerful story of our community’s rich history and vibrant diversity,” said Mayor Brett Smiley.
The city paid $65,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to commission the mural, which will be part this year’s PVDFest festivities, according to Joe R. Wilson Jr., Providence’s director of Art, Culture, and Tourism. PVDFest, the city’s signature arts and culture festival, will take place Sept. 6 and 7.
In the mural, Renault holds lavender blossoms — (which have become a symbol of empowerment for the LGBTQ+ community) — and YS pointed to the rainbow Pride flags nearby. There are obvious signs of the queer community around downtown today, they said, but hardly anything references what used to be a thriving Chinatown built by working-class families.
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“It makes me really sad that there is no Chinatown here,” said YS. “We feel sort of displaced if there’s no hub.”
“This piece nods to the immigrant history that built these neighborhood blocks,” added YS. “Maybe, someday, Providence will rebuild it.”
The new mural will be part of PVDFest activities.SmallFrye
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.
PROVIDENCE — A former US Navy petty officer on Thursday admitted in Rhode Island federal court he was involved in stealing and selling more than $856,000 worth of military gear from a Navy base that supplies the branch’s Atlantic Fleet, prosecutors said.
Richard Allen, 52, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and six counts of money laundering, as charged in a February 2018 indictment, according to a statement from the Rhode Island US Attorney’s Office.
Allen, of Citrus Heights, Calif., served for more than 20 years in the Navy, before his discharge as a Petty Officer First Class, officials said.
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While he was stationed at the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown-Cheatham Annex in Williamsburg, Va., Allen in 2013, 2014, and 2015 repeatedly broke into a warehouse at the base that held “working uniforms, winter gear, flame retardant shirts and pants, soft body armor, goggles, infrared flag patches, Navy SEAL Trident insignia, and Small Arms Protective Insert plates,” prosecutors said.
In total, Allen and others lifted $856,433 worth of that gear and supplies, and stored the stolen goods in various locations around the country, including in storage units in Rhode Island, according to prosecutors and the indictment filed against Allen, obtained by the Globe Thursday.
“Allen and others then identified bulk-sale domestic and international customers for the stolen goods and arranged for delivery either in person or via commercial shipping,” the US Attorney’s Office said. “Payment for the stolen goods was frequently made and received via PayPal, including dozens of payments made from an account in China.”
Allen and his co-conspirators kept the proceeds in their bank accounts “in increments of less than $10,000, in an effort to avoid bank reporting requirements,” prosecutors said.
Under the terms of a plea agreement he signed on Aug. 23, Allen agreed to provide $100,000 to the court — a sum that “represents the defendant’s proportionate share” of the Navy’s equipment losses as a result of Allen’s theft, according to court files.
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Allen also agreed to forfeit cash from the alleged scheme kept in four Providence-based bank accounts, the court file states.
In exchange, prosecutors agreed to recommend a “reasonable” 18-month prison sentence, when Allen goes before Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. for sentencing on Nov. 26, according to the agreement.
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Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.