If you’ve been following the recent controversy surrounding CLUCK! and its very public battle with neighboring objectors,  you’d most certainly appreciate this open letter to CLUCK!’s opponents by Providence Monthly.

This article, written by John Taraborelli, highlights some of the main grievances that many of us have been feeling towards this whole situation. Not just the Providence Zoning Board, but more specifically, their main objector, Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Church. Now, we don’t believe in fighting hate with hate, at all.

But what this article addresses is the plain and simple fact that these seemingly pointless objections suppress something good for the neighborhood. And by something good, we mean, small businesses, culture, vision and progress.

More than anything, the city of Providence desperatly needs the support of small business ventures. Our state is currently ranked as having the sixth-highest unemployment rate in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s recent report. This isn’t an issue to be taken lightly, by any means (or costs).

Tataborelli hit the nail on the head when he says, “That a small business owner should have to endure months of legal fights, backbiting and fear mongering, rack up exorbitant legal fees and rally the support of hundreds of neighbors simply to earn the right to sell seeds and garden tools in a once blighted property that she has remodeled and revitalized is patently absurd and sends a terrible message about the cost of doing business in our fair city.”

Yes, yes, and yes.

CLUCK! proprietor Drake Patten, shouldn’t have to rally hundreds of people in support to just open up a harmless farming supply store, which in fact, replaces an abandoned gas station.

However, it must be said that public occurrences such as this only furthers other business owners, artists, and the overall community to stand for what they believe in. As a city that is currently undergoing reforms in historic tax regulations, public financing, and abandoned properties, we need facelifts when we can get it. Right?