Rhode Island is famous for giving away the store.

Jef Nickerson over at Greater City: Providence wrote a post with some pictures today about some ABC pilot that's being filmed on Mathewson Street.  The pictures show downtown Providence tarted up to resemble Philadelphia, where the series is apparently supposed to be set.  I'd been hearing by and by about a pilot being filmed here, but I had no idea when or what it was.  I won't bore you with the details, Jef already has them in his post. 

Obviously, this whole thing grinds my gears, because otherwise I wouldn't be blogging.  I had this conversation with my friend Chaz a while back, when the state was thinking about canning its film industry tax credit.  The city has been routinely disrupted every so often because some bigshot is filming here.  You all know exactly what goes on:  every busy corner in town is suddenly blocked off, throwing traffic into disarray and shutting down local businesses until the filming is done.  In one famous instance, film crews went as far as to show up at the statehouse unannounced and demand it be closed for them to film. 

I guess some of this could be forgiven if any of it meant good publicity or real economic growth for the city-state, but little if any net gain is ever realized because hardly any of these things showcase the city, or even use it as the plot setting.  Providence is always used as a stand in for "bigger and better" cities, because frankly it's cheaper and prettier, but rarely if ever is our name even mentioned.  Sure, we all know it was filmed here, but to the average slob sitting in front of his living room TV in...wherever, it's Boston, New York, Philadelphia.  I'm sorry, but if you're going to show up here, take our tax dollars, disrupt daily life and shut down local businesses, you had better show our beautiful fucking city in your work.  It should be written into the tax credit, but God forbid our lawmakers give us a reason to be proud of ourselves or where we live.  It's dumb enough that we've even kept it to begin with, since it clearly does nothing but cost us money in a bad economy.  Meanwhile, we're closing down well-performing elementary schools, and allowing our buildings to rot away and be victimized by sleazy politicians who make them into parking lots that fund their latest run for mayor, because we certainly can't subsidize any of that shit.