Politics & Government

Sen. Whitehouse Visits Wickford Businesses

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse stopped in to Wickford Village this week to talk with local businesses.

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse stopped in to Wickford Village for a few hours Thursday, visiting local shop owners. Whitehouse stopped in at Green Ink, Narragansett Bay Olive Oil Company, Wilson's of Wickford, Pastry Gourmet and others to talk to owners about the state of business in the area as well as their concerns.

Most owners spoke of the inconsistency of business in the village. Wickford shops derive a large portion of their sales to Christmas-time shopping and largely rely on summer tourism. 

According to Whitehouse's office, the senator regularly visits businesses in the state when he's not in Washington, D.C. In August, during the Senate recess, he spent a month touring jobs and businesses across the state. Though Whitehouse has been visiting businesses like this since he took office in 2006, he began to up the ante after the 2008 economic crash.

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Wickford and other seaside communities may get a boost from some forthcoming branding. According to Whitehouse, a branding agency that was brought in to help boost travel to the U.S. after 9/11 is gearing up to brand and market Narragansett Bay to attract more tourism to the area.

"The thing that Rhode Island is really great is the density and history of character here," said Whitehouse. "The more we convey that, the better off we are."

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In February 2011, Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation made a presentation at a HistWick meeting where then-Executive Director Keith Stokes spoke of ideas to restore and revamp historic villages across the state. At that time, Stokes said the state was looking to target cultural heritage tourism – which has seen great success in communities like Williamsburg, VA where this form of tourism resulted in 25 percent more money spent by visitors.

Possible ideas included more pedestrian-friendly walkways, bigger sidewalks, better lighting, understandable signage and accessible waterfront views. According to Stokes Wickford is "a poster child" for such a facelift.

A unique selling point for Rhode Island is its abundance of pre-Revolutionary War structures, such as the historic homes surrounding Wickford, said Stokes. (Check out our story on North Kingstown's 20 oldest homes here.)

Since that presentation, there have been no additional updates on the program. Sen. Whitehouse also had not heard of any updates, but said that he would support such a program to help foster business in RI's historic main streets.

What do you think could help boost business in Wickford Village?


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