It’s a tale as old as time: A beautiful-yet-stuffy old neighborhood is disturbed when some uncultured new money moves in and disrupts the long-standing aesthetic. No one comes off looking good; the old guard is whiny and the new blood is a barbaric group that doesn’t respect the history. That scene is playing out once again in Providence with none other than New England Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola.
Amendola has installed a temporary carport in the driveway outside of his College Hill home (built all the way back in 1774). It’s a practical move to cut down on time scraping his car of the ice and snow that New England winters bring so he can get to practice on time. But, oh boy, the locals are not happy.
They’re polite enough about it to the AP when interviewed, but you know they’re talking all kinds of trash when sipping their coffees and staring out their kitchen windows. Here’s one sample:
“It’s a simple utilitarian structure, but if you had tons of these around the neighborhood, it would significantly detract from the historic quality and aesthetic appearance of the Benefit Street neighborhood.”
Oh my, the historic quality, you say? Won’t someone think of the historic quality! And before you go defending what we’re sure really is a gorgeous neighborhood, get a load of what one of these people said about Amendola living in the neighborhood.
“I hope that he’ll stay. This city needs celebrities… I think it’s cool. I think it would cooler if Tom Brady lived here. I would offer to help him shovel his snow.”
Jeez, Patriots fans, can’t you ever be happy? Amendola, for his part, is taking the right approach to the media.
“I don’t want to talk about that.”
