Why Block Island once threatened to secede from RI
Every now and again a part of a state gets it in their collective head that they would be better off as their own state.
Take New York. Over and over again since the 1990s, bills have been introduced in their state Legislature suggesting that New York City be split off into its own state. And there's even a movement on top of that one to have Staten Island secede from New York City.
Or, take the time in 1984 when Brimfield, Massachusetts, famous for its antiques flea markets, threatened to secede from the rest of the state amid a dispute over the siting of a hazardous waste facility. And Nantucket threatened not once, but three times to secede from the Bay State.
A What and Why reader wrote in asking if it was true that Block Island threatened to secede from the rest of the state. Here's the story.
When did Block Island threaten to secede from Rhode Island?
It was late spring in 1984, and Block Island residents were fed up with the moped rentals.
Tourists were driving them everywhere, choking the roads with traffic. Islanders felt they were noisy, a threat to the beaches and, most significantly, they were overwhelming the 12-member rescue squad with accidents. This started in the 1970s, according to New York Times reporting from the time, when a tourist boom sparked the beginning of the mopeds. In the summer of 1982, there were 42 calls for injuries, and in ‘83 there were 78 calls, including fractured skulls and a pregnant woman who miscarried.
And for each call, Lisa Sprague, the head of the island's volunteer rescue squad, told The New York Times in 1984, a member of the rescue squad had to accompany the victim to a hospital on the mainland.
The town made an overture to fix the problem, proposing legislation that would have required anyone operating a “low-horsepower, two- and threewheeled vehicles” (i.e. a moped) on Block Island to have a motorcycle license. Dozens of year-round island residents took the ferry and went to the State House to support the measure in a Senate Corporations Committee hearing in May 1984, according to The Providence Journal's coverage of the May 3 hearing, only to watch it sputter out.
This was after 6% of the island's year-round population had journeyed by ferry, then a double-decker bus to make their case in April, according to Journal reports.
And maybe it was because Brimfield had put the idea of succession in the news and therefore into everyone's heads, but on May 7, the Block Island Council voted 4-0 to place the subject of succession on the agenda for the Financial Town Meeting on June 5.
“It seems like there's nobody listening, and we're getting [a] little tired of it out here,” Councilor F. Norris Pike said.
Where did Block Island plan on going?
When the proposal was put forward, it was more a cry for help than a plan.
The Council didn't have a plan for where they would go, per se, though Councilman H. Dennis Heinz did point out to the Journal reporter that “New York, Connecticut or Massachusetts are all in view.” There was also talk of trying to create a state with Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, or just going it on their own.
While Nantucket was quick to shut down the three-island idea, having made their own failed succession threat just a few years earlier, it turned out that Block Island was very desirable.
Massachusetts, through Gov. Michael Dukakis' spokesperson said, the Bay State “always felt that the people of Block Island shared the spirit of Massachusetts, and if the people of Rhode Island and Governor Garrahy have no objection, we'd be more than happy to welcome them to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
Connecticut Gov. William O'Neill, who thought Block Island was a “little gem” and loved to vacation there, was quick to tell the Block Island residents that he would love to have them. In a letter to the Town Council, he offered assurances that he was “fully prepared to introduce necessary legislation in the Connecticut General Assembly to accomplish this goal.”
New York was quiet about it, but they have enough trouble with their upstate/ downstate thing.
The whole affair had Town Solicitor William J. Gallogly doing a deep dive into how the state of Hawaii was created, and how Virginia and West Virginia had split up, and who Block Island would need authorization from.
“There are not a whole lot of sources,” Gallogly told The Journal.
So why didn’t Block Island secede?
It's not much of a spoiler to say Block Island didn't go through with it.
During the June 5, 1984, meeting, the vote to secede was the last item on the agenda, and Town Moderator Lewis Gaffett staunchly refused to move it up the warrant, and so it wasn't until 11:40 p.m. that the debate that most people were there for began.
And when push came to shove, it turned out that Block Island residents really, really liked being Rhode Islanders.
“I love Rhode Island. I could never live in any other state or any other town,” resident Nicholas A. DePetrillo was quoted as saying during the meeting. “I'm sure they got the message. I'm sure they'll listen to us.”
Instead, they voted to ask Rhode Island Gov. J. Joseph Garrahy “to hold a referendum asking state voters to approve one of the following: Can Block Island regulate its moped rental businesses; or, should the island be allowed to secede?” the Journal article said.
The governor called for a special session, and by the end of the month the General Assembly, somewhat begrudgingly, gave Block Island the power to regulate the number of mopeds that businesses could rent to tourists.
With that, talk of secession ceased. What and Why RI is a weekly feature by The Providence Journal to explore our readers’ curiosity. If you have a question about Rhode Island, big or small, email it to klandeck@gannett.com. She‘s grateful for all of the questions she’s received this year from readers.
The governor called for a special session, and by the end of the month the General Assembly, somewhat begrudgingly, gave Block Island the power to regulate the number of mopeds that businesses could rent to tourists.