The May 29 news article about the cancellation of various summer events for the public on my Providence waterfront site needs some clarification and corrected emphasis (“Zoning Board’s action cancels weekend carnival”)

1) The Providence zoning board voted 3 to 2 in favor of my requested variances, but a 4-to-1 vote is required by law. Chairwoman Myrth York, lawyer Michael Egan and Scott Wolf, head of Grow Smart, supported the requests. This fact was buried in the bowels of the story.

2) The environmental problem at the site has been caused by the refusal of the state Department of Environmental Management to compel Cargill Energy, a multibillion-dollar corporation, to clean the site. The impasse between Cargill and the DEM has lasted for more than a decade. Despite the stalled remediation efforts, however, no one suffered ill effects from last year’s several well-attended events at the site, nor did over 120,000 ferry passengers who used my land and dock from 2006 through 2008, or the 7,000 cruise-ship passengers from American Cruise Lines.

3) The real environmental polluter on Allens Avenue is Promet Shipyard, which led the opposition. This firm sandblasts lead paint from the vessels it repairs without proper covering and then spray-paints these ships in the same way in gross violation of federal environmental standards as set forth in the Clean Air Act. The asphalt plant at Narragansett Improvement Co. (another objector) is also an air polluter using an outmoded process. The Journal headline should have read: “Air Polluters Prevail in Battle for Environmental Purity.”

4) Saddest statement of all is reporter Philip Marcello’s correct comment — held until the very last paragraph of the long essay — that after years of study and debate “the city is still without a formal waterfront policy.” Such indecisiveness and failure of initiative or leadership is the main reason why Providence ranks as one of the most economically devastated cities in America. A revitalization of the wilting Allens Avenue waterfront, north of Thurbers Avenue toward downtown, would provide many new jobs, give people access to their harbor and grow the tax base tremendously. The waterfront land along that one-mile strip, paralleling Route 95 and serving as the southern gateway to the city, yields a puny $776,000 in annual property-tax revenue.

The city’s response to this development opportunity is lamentable and incredible: Do nothing, and maybe the problem and the recession will go away. On this issue, the so-called Renaissance City can best be diagnosed as stillborn.

PATRICK T. CONLEY

East Providence