Rhode Island
Why stop at the ‘Gulf of America’? Maybe it’s time to rethink names of RI cities and towns
It seems Donald Trump’s Gulf of Mexico name change is going forward.
Even the Coast Guard is officially calling it “The Gulf of America.”
To me, that’s a sign we’re now allowed to change geographical labels.
Which, of course, got me wondering how we might apply that here.
I’ve long thought that the state’s 39 cities and towns are way too many – maybe now’s the time to consolidate them into a half dozen or so.
I’ll get to that in a moment, but first, if the Gulf of Mexico can be renamed, why not Rhode Island itself?
Frankly, it’s a bit absurd that no one is sure where our name came from.
One theory is that in 1614, Dutch explorer Adriaen Block called it Roodt Eylandt because of the red clay along the Block Island shore. Another is that Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano thought we looked like the Greek island of Rhodes.
Wouldn’t it be better to name us after something more relevant?
From our beginnings, Rhode Island has been known as a contrary state, the first to reject the crown and the last to ratify the Constitution.
So perhaps we should be named Contraria?
Or Rebellia?
I once heard a British visitor say, “Rhode Island is such a funny little state – is it necessary?” Perhaps not, which makes me think we could also be called “Inessentia” or “Afterthoughtica.”
Since there are two Carolinas and Dakotas, we conceivably could be renamed South Massachusetts. But 390 years later, I’m still mad that they kicked out Roger Williams, and I’d rather not be known as their appendage.
We could also be East Connecticut, but why be melded into a state that – how do I put this politely? – does anyone even know what Connecticut is about? Like, what’s nutmeg? At least Rhode Island is distinct, from accent to brash politics – “brash” being a polite word for “occasionally corrupt.”
But I don’t think the name “Corruptia” would help our tourist pitch. This has me thinking it would help if a new state name highlighted our coastal distinction.
So if I had to make a final decision, I’d call us “Beachlandia.”
Meanwhile, let’s get to the idea of compressing the absurd number of 39 Rhode Island cities and towns.
My initial thought was to combine towns by personality – for example putting together East Greenwich, the East Side, parts of Barrington and Newport and call it the town of “Affluence.”
One might also combine Pawtucket and Woonsocket as comparable working-class cities named “Woontucket.”
But I think the towns have to be contiguous. And if we’re going to jettison the absurd number of 39, let’s be serious about making it not much more than a half dozen.
I picture seven.
First, let’s look toward the west – you know, that sea of red in the state’s post-election maps. That would include Burrillville, Hopkinton, Richmond, Exeter, West Greenwich, Coventry, Foster, Scituate and Glocester. As far as I know, there’s only one thing out there in western Rhode Island, so I’d call that town “The Woods.”
Which brings up another Rhode Island region – to the south – also known for one thing. I’d merge Charlestown, South Kingstown, Narragansett, North Kingstown, Westerly and Block Island and call it “The Dunes.”
Now let’s move east across Narragansett Bay. You know how when you ask people from Middletown where they live, they often make it easy on everyone and say, “Newport”? I’m guessing other folks do the same – especially if they’re out of state and someone asks what town they live in.
So I’d combine Jamestown, Middletown, Portsmouth and even Tiverton and Little Compton, all of which are in the sailing city’s gravitational pull, and name that town, “Le Newport.”
Next, I’m thinking about the wraparounds circling the state’s sole metro area. I’d include Warwick, Cranston, Johnston, North Providence and even East Greenwich.
Of course, those towns all see themselves as distinct, but I’ll bet folks in places like Boston just meld them together as “the land beyond Providence.” I’ll throw West Warwick into that mix because I don’t know where else to put it. And we’ll call that combined town “The Burbs.”
That leaves the state’s urban core – Providence, East Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls. I might borrow one of my favorite Rhode Islandisms and call it “Down City.”
To the southeast of Down City, there’s a necklace of towns that don’t quite qualify as Le Newport, the Burbs or The Dunes. I’m talking about Barrington, Warren and Bristol. We’ll call that town “The Marina.”
That leaves Lincoln, the Smithfields and Cumberland, which aren’t quite The Woods. And Woonsocket which is too far to be Down City or the Burbs. I think that amorphous mix of towns should simply called, “The Rest.”
All seven of these new combined towns would make up the newly named Beachlandia.
Let me know if you have better ideas for a state name.
Meanwhile, someone please alert the Coast Guard.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra announced their 2026 Summer Pops schedule.
All concerts are free and open to the public. No tickets are required.
The Summer Pops series will be held in:
- Narragansett at the North Beach Clubhouse on July 10 at 8 p.m.
- Providence at the Roger Williams Park Temple to Music on Aug. 5 at 7 p.m.
- Newport at the Rosecliff Mansion on Aug. 9 at 7 p.m.
- Bristol at Independence Park on Sept. 5 at 7 p.m.
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The program will feature overtures to “West Side Story,” “Wicked” and “The Marriage of Figaro and William Tell.”
Whitehouse climate speeches over the decades
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has been speaking out about climate change for decades
On Aug. 7, 2025, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse gave his 300th “Time to Wake Up” speech about the dangers of climate change.
“It’s hard, given our peril, not to feel a bitter sense of failure about where we are,” he said.
Since then, he’s given at least seven more of these speeches. This session alone, he’s sponsored more than 30 bills on environmental protection. And he warns about the dangers of climate change almost every day on his social media channels.
Climate change has long been a priority of the left. But lately, Whitehouse seems like the only Democrat remaining who’s still trying.
“The Democrats have been running away from this issue,” said J. Timmons Roberts, a professor of environmental studies at Brown University.
He’s not sure why they’re backing away. Maybe they are preoccupied with other issues, he said, such as the Iran war and immigrants’ rights. Or maybe they think that Democrats should stop talking about climate – a group Whitehouse calls “climate hushers.”
This group includes Matthew Huber, a professor of geography at Syracuse University, who argued in an opinion piece for The New York Times that climate change fuels polarization and that Democrats should stop talking about it in order to win back the working class.
But Whitehouse has taken to social media to address this line of thinking, saying in posts that it’s wrong “about pretty much everything.”
In a recent interview for Political Scene, he said it’s worth it to keep trying because the risks are so high. And he thinks that, politically, it’s actually “a winning issue that my party has just gotten wrong and overlooked.”
Do people care about climate change?
Addressing climate change under the Trump administration is “brutal,” Roberts said.
“It’s hard to know where to start,” Rachel Cleetus, senior policy director with the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said. “They’ve pretty much torn up federal agencies. Attacked budgets and staffing and expertise. They’ve undermined climate science. They’re spreading propaganda and lies about climate science. They’re boosting the fossil fuel industry, attacking clean energy. It’s just from every possible angle.”
Yet around the country, Democrats have been backing away from talking about climate change. Many rising Democratic stars, such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, speak more about affordability than climate action. And Roberts thinks that even historically climate-friendly politicians, such as Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, who he said has been “legendary” in the climate fight, have lately been quiet on the issue.
Their silence seems to correlate with polls showing that climate ranks low, or falling, on people’s priority lists. Regular Pew Research Center surveys consistently find that climate is near the bottom of people’s priority lists. An April poll from the center found that support for the United States prioritizing renewable energy development over fossil fuels has declined from 79% to 57% in the last six years – and it even declined among Democrats. And a compilation of YouGov polls show that 4.5% of Americans currently rank climate change and the environment as the most important issue for them, down from a high of 16.6% in December 2021.
Roberts said that people do care about the issues – the 2025 Rhode Island Life Index survey found that 62% of Rhode Islanders say that climate change is a serious problem in their community. But it’s not always at the top of people’s priority lists because things like the economy and crime can take precedence in voters’ minds.
Climate hushers, Whitehouse argues on social media, fall into the problem of “poll-chasing,” where they ask what voters think and parrot that back instead of leading on an issue. Instead, he and Roberts said, politicians themselves can raise the salience of climate change.
“Democrats can drive this public opinion if they choose to,” Roberts said. “These issues don’t just happen by themselves. There’s a whole theory on what drives public opinion, and there’s some great research on environmental sociology that says that it comes from party elites. That the opinion on climate change doesn’t just happen by itself; it’s really what are the politicians talking about that drives public opinion.”
Plus, Whitehouse suggested in the interview that when people connect the dots between climate change and their lives, the issue skyrockets in priority to them. He mentioned a poll he often cites that found 92% of voters in Texas are worried about home insurance, a higher amount than were worried about health care, and that 66% of Texas voters connected their home insurance concern to climate-driven extreme weather.
Why is Whitehouse still trying?
Climate change, along with what he sees as political corruption from fossil fuel companies funding legislators, is Whitehouse’s top policy issue because of its urgency and how it’s intertwined with everything else.
“It’s already in your increased grocery prices. It’s already in your increased electricity prices. It’s already in your increased home and auto insurance prices. So if you want to deal with those big cost increases, you’ve got to face the facts about what fossil fuel emissions do,” Whitehouse told Political Scene. “We’re in kind of a gradual stage of this economic distress, but there’s every prediction that this goes really bad all at once.”
It’s not that climate change is more important than issues such as wars or rights, but that it’s the context in which everything is happening, said Cleetus, of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“Yes, there are many pressing challenges, geopolitical challenges, that are making news headlines,” Cleetus said. “Climate change is not stopping for the politics. It’s here. It’s the background condition that’s exacerbating a lot of the acute challenges people are already facing.”
And it’s not some abstract, future problem either, Whitehouse said. While states such as Florida and Texas may be seeing the brunt of the home insurance crisis, Rhode Island won’t be far behind. He’s afraid of another insurance meltdown in the state, like the Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corp. collapse in 1991.
Whitehouse argues that voters are ahead of politicians on this issue. And Roberts is optimistic that lawmakers will come around, too, especially if the midterms don’t go Trump’s way.
“I think the pendulum is about to swing back, and people, I mean this, people do care about this issue over the long haul,” Roberts said. “We need people like Sheldon Whitehouse who are continuing to talk about it.”
Video: Braden Lynch, of Lincoln, wins RI tennis singles title
Braden Lynch, of Lincoln, wins RI tennis singles title on May 17 at Slater Park.
PAWTUCKET – Sunday afternoon brought a breakthrough for Braden Lynch, the first boys tennis state singles champion from Lincoln in 38 years.
The sophomore was impressive throughout on the hardcourts at Slater Park, taking care of Bishop Hendricken standout Luca Testa in straight sets.
Lynch never appeared anything but comfortable under the warm sunshine and in front of the crowd gathered outside the fence, posting a 6-3, 6-2 triumph in 75 minutes. He became the first member of the Lions to lift the trophy since Tom Evans did the honors in 1988 and just the third sophomore to claim the crown in the last two decades.
“I’m proud to do it for my school,” Lynch said. “I’m proud to do it for myself. Proud to do it for my coaches, for my family – I’m just very proud right now.”
David Levy and Liam Levy took even less time to become the first boys doubles champions from East Greenwich, racing to a 6-4, 6-0 victory over the La Salle tandem of Gavin Britt and Connor Cavanagh. That match wrapped up while Lynch was taking full command against Testa, using multiple breaks of serve in the second set to build what turned out to be an insurmountable lead.
“Luca’s obviously a great player, so I knew I was going to have to play pretty much at my best if I was going to beat him,” Lynch said. “I ended up playing pretty well.
“I thought my forehand was able to dictate, and I was very happy with how I served throughout the match. I was able to keep that in mind.”
Lynch held at love to take the opening set and closed the match with what became a familiar sequence by the end of this one. He approached the net behind a forehand down the line and put away an overhead smash to clinch it. Lynch lived up to his No. 1 seed in the process and delivered on his own expectations entering the season.
“I definitely did think I could,” Lynch said. “That was in my mind from the start of the year – to be able to do this. It’s great to see it come to life.”
Testa needed three sets to eliminate North Kingstown’s Will Michaud in the quarterfinals before dropping just three games in his semifinal meeting with Barrington’s Gabe Anderson. Lynch traveled the more difficult path, beating South Kingstown’s Jonah Plonsky in straight sets in the quarterfinals before matching up with La Salle’s Andrew Smith in the semifinals. Lynch dropped the opening set to the defending champion before rallying to a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory.
“It definitely gave me a whole bunch of confidence,” Lynch said. “He’s obviously a great player with a huge serve. He has a huge wingspan. He’s hard to pass.
“I felt that I was able to play super well in that match, and that definitely gave me some confidence going into this one.”
Lynch was immediately penciled in as Lincoln’s top singles player as a freshman and lost to Smith in the quarterfinals. His offseason work included time in the gym and some sessions with a mental skills coach to sharpen his focus. Lynch joined Kyle Burke (South Kingstown, 2007) and Max Schmidhauser (Classical, 2018) among recent second-year winners of this event.
“It was a ton of work, to be honest,” Lynch said. “A lot of time on court. A lot of work in the gym, speed – pretty much doing everything you could think of to better my game.”
Levy and Levy were surprise finalists in 2024 as the No. 2 doubles team for the Avengers. Thet fell to Gabe Anderson and Bryce Kupperman in straight sets, as the Barrington duo put an end to a storybook run. Levy and Levy authored a different finish this time thanks to their steady play both from the baseline and at the net.
It had been more than 40 years since two brothers teamed up to win a doubles championship in the state. Gordie Ernst and Bobby Ernst were the last to do it from Cranston East, capturing three straight from 1983-85. The tournament format has since changed – Gordie Ernst was also a four-time state singles champion, and doubles entries are now based on the team ladder rather than a selection off the roster.
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On X: @BillKoch25
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