This being a time of year to take stock, I was at first tempted to write about what makes this state one of the best secrets in the country.

The capital’s in renaissance, the violent crime rate is down, we have one of the best restaurant scenes anywhere, and the area’s big-league baseball, football and basketball teams are out front.

Our beaches are the nicest in the Northeast, we have Colonial architecture as distinctive as Williamsburg’s, and our traffic and bike paths are better than Boston’s; though I vaguely recall this one recent day that did have a bit of a traffic jam.

Which got me thinking about other issues this past year.

So instead of singing only our praises, today I think I’ll offer this:

New Year’s Wishes to make life even more livable in Rhode Island:

• Bathrooms installed in Providence school buses, hopefully before the next snowfall.

• Public employee retirement packages a mere 50 percent better than those in the private sector as opposed to 100 percent.

• Someone thinking it through before opening the next phase of the Iway.

• Barrington parents who cooperate with the police.

• For the average stay on welfare to come down from 39 months to, oh, perhaps 30 … since the average in other states is 22 months.

• A local FBI office that doesn’t need one of the most outsized public corruption teams in the country.

• Cell phones for the state’s various directors of emergency management so someone can tell them about crises before the morning after.

• Interstate bridges strong enough to support trucks.

• Highway signs asking people going 45 to not use the high-speed lane.

• A state tax rate more like Florida’s than Sweden’s.

• Requiring General Assembly members to demonstrate fifth-grade proficiency in math so they can make Column-A equal Column-B instead of having a $500-million-or-so difference.

• Solving the state’s affordable-housing crisis by sneaking a few hundred more free apartments into the Providence Place garage.

• For the state legislature to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the collapse of European communism by joining the likes of Russia, Romania and Bulgaria in embracing a two-party system.

• To make CVS officials secure enough in their bag inventory to not feel the need to buy a million extra from a certain former Senate majority leader.

• A post allowing Steve Laffey to take care of the few dozen other crossing guard-like contracts in the state.

• Physician reimbursement rates a bit higher than those in Ghana so we can keep good docs from fleeing the state.

• To climb from dead-last nationally in business climate to, I don’t know, would 47th be asking too much?

• A board chairman of the state’s one law school who doesn’t make the front page.

• A party for Linc Chafee to run to instead of from.

• For someone to tell me I must have misread a report saying that taxpayers will pay $400 million toward state employee pension costs this year, meaning we’re footing 25 percent of it today as opposed to 10 percent in 1999.

• School officials who declare a snow day before the storm instead of in the middle of one.

• A governor’s veto that cannot be overridden by opposition leadership casually snapping its fingers.

• For voters to be as angry about the budget deficit as, well, talk show hosts are.

• Policies that don’t chase away to Florida the 2 percent of wealthiest taxpayers — seeing as how those few pay 44 percent of all taxes here.

• Giving Governor Carcieri the phone number of Liz Roberts’ office so he can tell her when he’s going out of town.

• And Carcieri’s number to Lieutenant Governor Roberts so she can ask when he’s gone.

• A crash course from folks in, of all places, Louisiana, or any of the other 39 states that are expecting a budget surplus.

And finally, perhaps the most implausible, unlikely wish of all:

For the U.S. Attorney to be as bored as the Maytag repairman.

mpatinkin@projo.com