Despite extensive research, the original statement by Sarah Frost remains elusive. Several weeks before the meeting, Sarah Frost commented on the financial system of the hospitals operated by Brown University Health. To balance the budget, Frost mentioned that the Birthing center at Newport Hospital could be at risk of closure to meet the company’s financial needs. Newport residents were understandably concerned.

The Noreen Stoner Drexel Birthing Center has been an instrumental part of the community here in Newport since its creation in 1995. Based on statements from the hospital personnel present in the meeting, the center has roughly 500 babies being born every year.

If the birthing center were to close, residents would be forced to drive to neighboring hospitals to give birth, at a distance of roughly 30-40 minutes away, requiring traveling over bridges. Current and former hospital staff expressed concern that babies would either be traveling via ambulance or be born in the ER in Newport. Neither option is optimal for patient care.

The town hall meeting was filled with pleas from mothers, hospital staff, and community members for Brown University Health to continue operating the center. Many mothers talked about how positive the experience was at Newport, compared to other locations.

Despite the outpour of support, the clinic is run by Brown University Health, and the result of the meeting was the city council sending an official document to Brown University Health to keep the center open. Both Jamestown and Portsmouth followed Newport’s lead and passed resolutions opposing the closure.

Despite an official request to the press office at Newport Hospital, I have been unable to ascertain the amount of loss the birthing center incurs yearly. According to Forbes, the cost of having a baby can average between $14,000 and $27,000. Assuming a pregnancy rate of roughly 500 per year, that is somewhere between 7.5 and 13.5 million per year. That is assuming that the patients or insurance pays for no births.

The question that I have is, would it be possible to raise additional money from the State, county, townships, and philanthropic gifts to make up the lost cost and replace the contributions made by Noreen Stoner Drexel when the facility was opened?

Are there any other proactive steps we can take to ensure the long-term survival of the clinic?

Since starting this piece, Brown University Health has come out and stated that the Clinic will not be closed this year, but will be up for review next fiscal year.

Aside

Writing this was particularly hard. Finding source material from the new pieces I was reading online was very challenging.

I wrote this piece because I was upset with the coverage I was seeing. People mentioned the financial challenge, but there are no specifics. When I requested additional statistics from the Hospital, they were not forthcoming.

Many of the stories did not talk about the history of the center, did not mention information on the numbers, but instead focused on the emotional aspects of the story.

While this is an emotional story and I’m passionate about the issue, focusing solely on the emotion without understanding the financial numbers involved was only seeing half of the story. Even now that Brown University Health has committed to keeping the clinic open for another year, there is no resolution to the financial situation that initiated this entire process.

During this past summer, I found myself in a distressing situation with a realtor, Ben Willett. This post delves into Ben’s potential ethics violation and the disappointing lack of accountability from Keller Williams and his manager, Jen Bove.

Ben and my agent are in the same brokerage. Ben originally contacted my agent and said he had people interested in my property for the month of July. He had us on the line and went through the application without mentioning any concerns about the price. He came back after the application was submitted and, in an email, offered a 12% reduction in our price.

While I don’t begrudge him or his clients for attempting to negotiate on price, how it was done felt disingenuous. We did additional research on the market and discovered there was no one else at our price point, so we held fast, and they ended up capitulating. So we had a deal.

Due to platform restrictions, they could only pay part of their security deposit upfront, but I was okay with that. I wanted to start the relationship based on trust.

With three days left in the month after the partial security deposit was paid, we received a text from Ben about a cat they were bringing that was not included in the lease application. There is a little disagreement about whether Ben had told my agent about the cat verbally, but it was not on the lease.

Here is Ben’s Text:

My agent does not remember Ben mentioning the cat, but he admits it might have slipped his mind. He doesn’t believe it did. Either way, it was not in the lease and was brought back to us several days later.

Regarding the timeline, about half the time left in the month went by before I was notified about the cat. This made things much more challenging, as I had significantly less time to rent for the month of July.

Now, if this were slip of the memory or a something Ben did not know about, it would be one thing, but it wasn’t. After my tenants moved in, they discussed with me how they had another property lined up but had to back out because they would not accept the cat. This means that they knew the cat was an issue and PURPOSELY did not disclose this on their original rental agreement. While the clients are not bound by a code of ethics, Rhode Island real estate agents do have a code of ethics. This directly violates Article 2 of the code, which states:

Article 2 Realtors shall avoid exaggeration, misrepresentation, or concealment of pertinent facts relating to the property or the transaction.

This clearly shows that Ben violated the code of ethics. At this point, I was distraught with Ben and how the situation was handled.

In response to my frustration, I contacted Ben’s boss, Jen Bove, the owner of the local Keller William brokerage. Jen dismissed my concerns by saying, “She has never heard any complaints about Ben before.” She then promised she would get back to me early next week. She never did.

After much reflection, I realized I was not comfortable leaving the interaction where it was. I talked to several friends and one suggested leaving a Google review on my experience. One causal acquaintance was a fellow agent working on a deal with Ben. He told me he would try and prod Ben with the situation. Upon reconnecting, apparently, Ben had told my friend that he had talked to my broker and, in his words, “did nothing wrong” and, therefore, was completely non-plussed about my feelings.

At this point, I felt that I had write the review to talk about how these people had been treating me and perhaps prevent them from treating others in the future. At the very least, they were dismissing my feelings and not hearing my position.

Here is the original review in full:

Ben represented tenants applying to my home. He actively concealed information about his tenants on their application (e.g., knowing they had a cat and omitting it). After we agreed on terms and received the security deposit, Ben came back to us and said that his tenants actually had a cat. Would we need to fill out additional paperwork, or would the landlord just “be cool” with it?

Ben never apologized.

I contacted Ben’s broker about my frustrations with the situation, but no action was ever taken. I later heard that Ben talked to his boss and said he had nothing wrong, but I think differently.

I would not recommend using Ben in any of your dealings.

---

Also of note, he tried to move my tenants into another property and inspected it, but when they went to move in, they found the property was nowhere near acceptable for them. I’m not convinced that Ben actually cares about the needs of his clients. There are MANY agents in this town; find someone else.

After silence from Ben, the broker, and my agent, the morning following the posted review, I received a call from my agent. He told me that Ben had called me earlier that morning, demanding he get me to take down the review. My agent reiterated that it was my decision but that Ben wanted me to take down the review.

During my conversation with my agent, I disclosed that a call from Ben or the Broker would probably be more appropriate at this point. I said he was free to relay that information with my contact information to Ben.

The following week Ben called me and we had our first conversation. During the course of the conversation, Ben told me that he understood why I would be upset with the situation, but said the only person I could be upset with was my agent. Despite not having any proof other than his verbal conversation with my agent about the cat, which he claimed was witnessed by his assistant, he maintained that he had done absolutely nothing wrong. When I asked him about details like when he updated us about the cat, he used the word immediately, even though we have an indication from the text that it was days later.

No matter my concern, Ben seemed to have an answer to explain his behavior. While his answers were plausable, none of them came across as genuine. They came across as self-serving. I left the conversation more upset than I had entered it. I thought about updating the review with the content of the phone conversation but decided that rather than talk about how upset I was, I’d instead move on.

However, Ben was not content and decided to call me back and continue asking me to modify the review. In our second phone call, Ben was much more relatable, and I left believing that there was a chance that my interaction with him might not have been typical. I modified my review from one star to three stars and included the following at the top:

Update: I have now talked to Ben several times about this review. While my experience with him was less than stellar, it might be possible that I just got the worst of Ben, and this is not a true representation of how he does business completely.

Hopefully, I will update this with more information about the nature of our conversation and where I might have been mistaken below, but in the meantime, please consider making your own opinion about him.

The content of the second phone call is less vivid for me. I remember Ben talking about the phone call with my agent, remaining very constant, and he notified my agent verbally about the cat before the application. He also wanted to share more context on the experience of my tenants as they were moving out and how he had done his best for them when moving into the place after my rental.

He mentioned that he had learned a couple of lessons from this. Firstly, he had learned to put everything in writing and make sure that everyone knew all the information. If people’s applications were changing, he would now make them update them instead of continuing to shop old applications around.

I told him the real issue was that he and his boss ignored my concern and did nothing to hear me out until I made my post in a review. He acknowledged that it would have been better if we had talked earlier.

Again, at this point, I was happy for our interaction to be done. It was not.

Earlier this week, Ben contacted me for a third phone call. He referred to my words in my review about updating my review with more details as an invitation to continue discussing the situation with me.

We talked, and during the conversation, the line I had written in the section about how there are plenty of agents and I would recommend working with someone else really bothered him.

During the conversation, it felt like everything he did was still very self-serving. Ben wants to be a successful real estate agent. Ben wants others to know that he genuinely cares about his clients. The truth is, I believe him. He wants good things for his clients. I wonder whether Ben would be willing to bend the ethics of his position to benefit his clients at the expense of a landlord. I remain unconvinced as all our interactions only happen when Ben seeks something from me. Namely, he wants me to change my review and put him in a better light.

In addition to my experience, I have asked several other people around town about their knowledge of Ben. Several people who did not give me consent to share their names have shared that he does not have a good reputation. They volunteer this information only after I share my experience, so this is confirmation bias, but I leave all this interaction feeling that Ben is focused on Ben’s interest.

In response to our last conversation, I will update my review again. I will try to keep this post current as the situation evolves.

Simple Merchant

https://www.simplemerchantcoffee.com

513 Broadway, Newport, RI
M-Sat 7am-5pm (food to 2:30)
Sun 9am-2pm

This is the best coffee shop in town. They have up to five different coffees available for order at any one time:

1. House Drip
2. Rotating Drip
3. House Espresso
4. Rotating Espresso
5. Flash Brew (not cold brew, but a brewed coffee served cold)

The shop is fantastic, the owner is rad, and the food is vegetarian, with many options being served vegan. The milk is done right, and you get good Latté Art.

Milk Options:

• Whole Milk
• Nonfat
• Oat (usually Minor Figures)

Hill Market

https://www.hotelviking.com/dining/hill-market/

One Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI
Daily 7am-2pm

This coffee location is in the Newport Viking Hotel. Don’t let that fool you; it has top-of-the-line espresso machines and grinders. Service can be a little hit or miss, but it is way more often hit than miss. They have some fun drink options on the menu as well. I’ve had an espresso in a cookie cup.

Their coffee is La Colombe, which isn’t my favorite but could be better. They also have pastries and other options.

This place is often overlooked; take notice of it.

Empire Tea and Coffee

https://empireteaandcoffee.com

Locations

22 Broadway, Newport
Daily 6am-5pm

112 William Street, Newport
Daily 6am-5pm

251 Thames St, Bristol
Daily 6am-6pm

Information

Empire Tea and Coffee was one of the first higher-end coffee shops to open in town. Where they really shine is on the tea side. Other shops have a small smattering of tea, but Empire offers a far more diverse selection.

From a coffee perspective, they roast their own beans; honestly, I’m not a massive fan of their coffee. I have also seen issues with their training. Their milk never comes with latte art and is often served too hot or with too much foam.

Of note, even though they are using the same beans, different locations will have different tastes, even with things like Cold Brew which is all made at Broadway. This code be due to the quality of the ice served with it, but the Broadway cold brew tastes much worse than the William Street location.

Coffee Grinder

337 Thames Street, Newport
M-F 7:30am-6pm
Sat 7:30am-7pm
Sun 7:30am-6pm

This is the new location of The Coffee Grinder. The previous location is now Spring Line Coffee. I have yet to go to the new location, but the old location was a very traditional Italian-style espresso. It has a very dark and heavy flavor, but not for me.

Still, the location is great, and if you need a coffee downtown, this might be where I would head.

Mozz

https://www.mozznewport.com

181 Bellevue Ave, Newport
W-Sat 8am-6pm
Sun 8am-3pm

This is more of a cheese shop and a fantastic Italian-style bakery. In addition, they are pretty particular about their coffee. They use custom-made pods to produce their coffee, not ground. Still, it delivers an authentic traditional Italian-style espresso. They even have an espresso bar facing the sidewalk (in the shopping center). I have not tried their coffee, but their food is pretty great.

Nitro Bar

Locations

404 Thames Street
Newport, RI
7am-5pm Daily

2 Pond Ave
Newport, RI
7am-5pm Daily

Information

The Nitro bar gets a lot of hype. It is featured in local guides (even though, technically, they started in Providence). Their specialty is Nitro Cold Brew Coffee. As someone who thinks Nitro takes away from the flavor of the coffee, I’m not a fan of their coffee. They label their beans but don’t put roasting or origin information on their bags. Their espresso drinks are hit or miss based on the baristas. Some have decent training (Owen comes from SMC), others have very little training, and what comes out is pretty horrible. I’ve burnt my tongue on their stuff before.

They also have a kitchen and food. They talk about how good their food is, but I’ve always found it very overpriced. I’ve gotten an English muffin-sized sandwich for 12 bucks. It was good, but not worth the price.

My general feeling is that the vibe of this place is pretentious, and I don’t feel comfortable going there.

Springline Coffee

33 Banisters Wharf
Newport, RI
Sun-Wed 7am-5pm
Thurs-Sat 7am-7pm

Springline entered the old location for [[#Coffee Grinder]] past the Black Pearl. The spot is excellent, but I have roughly the same problem with the Coffee Grinder: the coffee tastes very burnt. The staff running it seems pretty young and not super well trained, but I’ve only been once. They have a single-shot espresso, so you can get half of what you usually get at other places, which is nice if you want a little less caffeine.

They roast, but I need to find out where. Their beans have the same problem of being pretty dark and classic coffee over the newer flavors I’m more interested in. I would not recommend it if you like third-wave coffee. If you like traditional dark coffee, this might be okay with you. The view is excellent.

More to Come

I’ll work on an updated list with even more coffee places locally. I’m considering the following list; please let me know if I miss yours.

• Custom House
• The Coffee Guy
• Mission Mornings
• Beaucoup