Newport† Vol. 38, No. 28
BORN FREE
WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2010
Sharing Fields of Dreams
What’s Inside
Newport’s Bittersweet Summer of Music By John Pantalone
Table of Contents ARTS CALENDAR CLASSIFIEDS COMMUNITY BRIEFS CROSSWORD DINING OUT EDITORIAL LETTERS MAINSHEET REALTY TRANSACTIONS RECENT DEATHS
9 14 22 4 21 12 6 6 11 7 21
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Fifth Ward Little Leaguers were treated to special baseball clinic with the Newport Gulls this week. Boys and girls, ages 6-12, took to the ballfields on Wellington Avenue for the day on Monday, taking infield, batting practice, and running drills with players from the hometown Gulls.It’s all part of the team’s regular seasonal community outreach. Similar camps are also held in Portsmouth and Middletown. (Photos by Tom Shevlin)
One Man’s Story: Life at 50 Washington Square The tale of a disenfranchised soul in Newport
Another long-time resident confirms Parmenter’s disdain, “People in Haiti have better living quarters. There must be a minimum space standard; a 9 ft. by 12 ft. room is just ridiculous, for the money they get, there’s only room for a bed, nothing else — it’s just that tiny.”
By Lynne Tungett NEWPORT – As I sat in the district courtroom on Monday, May 24, I wondered what the outcome would be of the case I came to observe. Judge Walter Gorman seemed to have a full docket that morning; several lawyers were at the tables in the front gallery and every bench was occupied by those waiting for their turn to be heard in the austere courtroom on the first floor of the Newport County Courthouse in Washington Square. Several weeks before, a man entered our offices on Broadway and said he had a story to tell. He was quite tall, lean; wearing a black silkscreened T-shirt, jeans and a gold cross around his neck. His thin, nearly shoulder-length brown hair protruded helter-skelter from beneath the baseball cap turned backwards on his head; age 42, he had been living at the 50 Washington Square complex for the past five years; his name — Scott Parmenter. The initiation Since I became the publisher of Newport This Week in March of this year, and began spending every day in the office at 86 Broadway, right across from Thompson Middle School, I have become initiated with the neighborhood residents, many of whom spend a lot of their time walking up and down the length of Broadway; from the historic cornerstone of 50 Washington Square at Broadway and Farewell Streets, towards the northerly end of Broadway near the hospital. Parmenter has not been the only resident of 50 Washington to come by our offices anxious to talk. But, he has been among the most articulate and persistent in wanting to tell his tale. Safe-haven begins In the shelter Parmenter’s began his residency
at 50 Washington Square downstairs in the McKinney Shelter (with the official address of 15 Meeting Street). The open-bunk style space has an occupancy limit of 18 men and categorized as a “wet” shelter, those seeking refuge are not denied because they are intoxicated. Space is also allocated on the second floor for six women. Parmenter said that he spent 6 months sleeping on one of the provided cots in the shelter and abided by the rules, one of which is “in by 8 p.m. and out by 7 a.m.” and maintained his mental health treatment regiment so that he qualified to be moved to the “transitional” phase. During the second phase of his continuing transition, he was among 12 men promoted to reside for six months in a room divided in half by a walled partition. Despite the cramped semi (not so) private quarters, with only a bed in each “room;” he spoke highly of the shelter’s transitional staff and was prideful when he explained how next, he was “graduated up” to a room on the floor above. Getting the shaft Before being assigned to a permanent room, residents take one more intermediate step by, “living in a
Scott Parmenter in front of his former home at 50 Washington Square.
shaft room for a year to a year and a half, depending on room vacancies,” Parmenter explains. The shaft rooms are situated on four of the building’s five floors and surround an open, center shaft of the edifice, topped by a skylight. With only one window that opens to the airless “shaft” and completely surrounded by other rooms, Parmenter disgustedly proclaims, “the rooms are inhumane; some jail cells are bigger. But what do you do? You put up with it until you get a real room and that’s what I did — just put up with it.”
Room 213 Parmenter became a model tenant; he worked through his addiction issues, was “cooperative” and was able to get a job. His shaft room time over, he was rewarded with a bigger room and his own mailing address, 4 Farewell Street, Apt. 213. The tiled-floor room accoutrements include; a bed, a wardrobe for clothes, and a table to eat from with a chair. A small microwave, sink and a mini-fridge comprise the efficiency “kitchen” and because of the $9.5 million renovation in 2005, the room now had a private shower, sink and toilet. The former Armed Services YMCA “shore-leave” room was now home — at least for the next three years. May 24, 2010 and the legal journey On May 14, Parmenter received a summons to appear in District Court on May 24 to answer a “complaint for eviction for non-payment of rent.” That morning, Parmenter appeared in court clean-shaven, wearing a dress shirt, pressed khakis and a polished pair of loafers. When it was his turn to go before Judge Gorman, he stood, alone, at the table designated for defendants on the left side of the room. At the other table, was the plaintiff, Fifty Washington Square L.P. with two representatives, their legal counsel and a Newport County Community Mental Health Center (NCCMHC) advocate.
See “Fifty” on pg. 3
LOC AL NE W S M AT T E R S P L E A S E S U P P O RT O U R A D V E RT I S E R S
NEWPORT – The 42nd Newport Music Festival began last week and will continue until July 25. Sixty-five concerts of chamber music in 17 days with several musicians performing multiple times, often playing or singing compositions they had never seen before the time of the festival. A musical spectacle to be sure, but a bittersweet one this year. The Music Festival’s protean schedule reflects the personality of its director, but the director is gone. Mark Malkovich, who arrived in Newport 35 years ago this summer and nurtured the festival to its status as one of the world’s most prestigious, died in June in a car accident in his native Minnesota at age 79. His passing came as a shock, but in the manner he would expect, the festival has gone on, albeit with a pall of regret tempered by the celebratory nature of the event itself. Malkovich was an outsized character, a bravura personality, at times sweet, at times gruff. As with most driven people, he poured himself completely into his interests: first business, later music. Thinking of the Music Festival without seeing Mark Malkovich at the center of it seems like imagining a forest without the trees. What would you see? Yet his 35-year tenure, in which he rescued the young festival from ruin and raised it to international stature, leaves a legacy to be enjoyed still. The music was the moment for him; it still is.
See “Music” on pg. 9
Council dives back into Historic District ordinance By Tom Shevlin NEWPORT – City Council members were scheduled to reconsider a vote which derailed efforts to make the Historic District review process more user friendly on Wednesday. As we reported last week, several councilors have been working behind the scenes in recent weeks to come to a compromise over the long-awaited ordinance change. First Ward Councilor Charles Y. Duncan placed the matter on the docket for reconsideration last week, and was expected at press time to offer up his support to a slightly revised ordinance. To find out how the council voted, be sure to visit us online at www. Newport-Now.com. You can also follow along live online via our Twiter stream at Twitter.com/NewportNow (handle @newportnow)