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“The report from the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change concluded that climate change was already having effects in real time – melting sea ice and thawing permafrost in the Arctic, killing off coral reefs in the oceans, and leading to heat waves, heavy rains and mega-disasters.
And the worst was yet to come. Climate change posed a threat to global food stocks, and to human security, the blockbuster report said.
‘Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change,’ said Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC.
Monday’s report was the most sobering so far from the UN climate panel and, scientists said, the most definitive. The report – a three year joint effort by more than 300 scientists – grew to 2,600 pages and 32 volumes.”
The bottom line is that nowhere near enough action has been taken to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, and the urgency to do something increases with each passing day. Rhode Island can be considered among those that have failed to act, but that could change this year.
While Massachusetts and Connecticut passed comprehensive climate change legislation over 5 years ago, Representative Art Handy’s Climate Solutions Acts have consistently fallen flat at the State House. This year Handy, who chairs the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee, has taken a new approach.
His Resilient Rhode Island Act of 2014 keeps the same ambitious goals for mitigating RI carbon emissions and adds new provisions for climate adaptation, helping the State’s cities and towns coordinate in preparing for rising sea levels, increasing flooding, and more extreme weather events. By adding the adaptation piece, Handy hopes to build a stronger coalition of support behind the effort, as storms like Sandy and the floods of 2010 have convinced businesses, officials and residents alike that we need to be more prepared.
Considerable momentum has already been generated for getting this bill passed. The Coastal Resources Management Council has been conducting outreach around its Beach Special Area Management Plan (SAMP), Governor Chafee recently created the Executive Climate Change Council, the fantastic Waves of Change website was released, and Senator Whitehouse’s continued campaigning at the federal level is being heard here. The Resilient RI Act even has its own information filled website. Additionally, Brown University is devoting resources to the effort, and it is Sierra Club RI’s number one priority.
In fact, I started a petition in support of the bill yesterday that already has close to 150 signatures on it, and I invite you to be a part of creating even more momentum on Smith Hill. CLICK AND SIGN
Time is of the essence. The Resilient Rhode Island Act is going to be heard this Thursday in Handy’s committee. If you can, I urge you to come out and voice your support. The IPCC report and our own senses demand this urgency.
If we had had the wisdom to pass such legislation twenty years ago when the science supporting it was already demanding such action, we would not have suffered so badly from Sandy’s glancing blow, and we would have created the framework for building a clean energy economy that would have meant thousands of good paying jobs. Better late than never, right? Just ask Sheldon:
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In case you don’t know, the RI Future newsroom (aka the Hideaway) is located behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown just below a waterfall on the Mattatuxet River. I pretty much think I have the most beautiful non-coastal office in the Ocean State.
But it isn’t at all without its downsides. One of which is that a 100 year flood will destroy this place. Yesterday was not the flood, but it’s probably coming and it’s probably coming sooner rather than later. When it does, I just hope I’m here to document it….
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Progressive activist Margaux Morisseau, best known for leading the charge against payday loans in Rhode Island, is running for state Senate District 21, the seat currently held by Republican Nick Kettle.
“I am running because I want to be a part of the solution that helps improve our state for all people,” she said. “With my background in small business and community development, I know I can bring people and resources together to work on creative solutions and actually get initiatives accomplished. District 21 deserves a public servant who is dedicated to improving communities and is passionate about helping people move up the economic ladder.”
Morisseau is the director of Community Building and Organizing for Neighborworks Blackstone River Valley, a nonprofit Community Development Corporation which builds homes and communities for low-to-moderate-income families in Northern Rhode Island. She’s also the founding director of the RI chapter of New Leaders Council, a national non-profit that works to train and support progressive political activists.
And she’s already shown her political chops at the State House by going head-to-head with former speaker-turned-lobbyist Bill Murphy over payday loans.
On April 14, she is having a campaign kick-off event at the Corner Bistro in North Scituate (1115 Hartford Pike). You can support her campaign here.
District 21 includes parts of Coventry and West Warwick as well as Foster and Scituate, which is Morisseau’s hometown. She lives in the Clayville hamlet which straddles Foster and Scituate.
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Former Associate Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge Robert Flanders Jr., did not intend to get the biggest laugh at the recent forum on the possibility of a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con) being held in Rhode Island, but he did.
The forum, sponsored by the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership at Bryant, the Roger Williams University School of Law, Common Cause Rhode Island and the Rhode Island League of Women Voters, was attended by over one hundred participants, most of whom were of the politically savvy sort interested in the possible consequences of a Con-Con.
Flanders got his (unintentional) laugh when he suggested that the Rhode Island House of Representatives, under the leadership of the new Speaker, Nicholas Mattiello, might champion ethics reform.
It should be noted that Representative Joseph Almeida, Speaker Mattiello’s choice for deputy minority whip, has already come under scrutiny from the Board of Elections and the Attorney General’s office for “a campaign-finance case involving Almeida’s “misreporting’’ of contributions and expenditures.” Apparently Mattiello was unaware of Rep. Almeida’s circumstances when he tagged him for his post and it is unknown what action Mattiello intends to take in light of these revelations, though the safe bet is “none.”
You can see the comment Flanders made in the video below. (I’ll have more videos from the forum on RI Future soon.)
“You Laugh,” said Judge Flanders in response to the laughter, “It seems improbable.”
Judge Flanders’ larger point was that without the threat of a Constitutional Convention, Speaker Mattiello will have no reason to tighten ethical standards, but if a Con-Con appears in the offing, and if the convention delegates seem willing to enact real ethics reform from outside the House structure, then Mattiello might be feel compelled to enact his own reform or risk looking weak and ineffectual on ethics.
Oddly, few people present at the forum seemed to think that Speaker Mattiello in particular or the General Assembly as a whole was much interested in doing the right thing and tightening ethical standards on their own. It is partly this lack of faith in the General Assembly that makes people support the panacea of a Con-Con in the first place.
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“I wish I could say, ‘Go read this book! There’s a great narrative of what happened in 1984-1986,'” says John Marion, Executive Director of Common Cause RI, “There isn’t a single volume that tells that story.”
Instead, Marion gave this terrific talk at the opening of a forum sponsored by the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership at Bryant, the Roger Williams University School of Law, Common Cause Rhode Island and the Rhode Island League of Women Voters that sought to provide needed information to the public about the possibility of a Constitutional Convention in the next few years.
What will a Constitutional Convention look like? What issues are likely to be taken up? What will an election of delegates look like and what will this all cost? Marion attempts to answer these and other questions by examining the history of the 1984-1986 Constitutional Convention held here in Rhode Island, which is also the last Constitutional Convention to be held anywhere in the United States.
This might just be the best introduction to this important subject available anywhere.
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For those of you who aren’t as obsessed over land use and transportation as I am, you may not be aware of the annual #MarchMadness #parkingcrater competition on Streetsblog. Last year’s winner, Tulsa, Oklahoma, was certainly embarrassed to get national attention to its poor land use, but the pain must have worn off when the city quickly changed its zoning code and land use policies to discourage surface lots in its downtown. We could certainly use such a victory in Providence. Here are some of the places we’ve highlighted in the state so far:
University of Rhode Island campus, Kingston, RI
URI is a relatively pretty campus, although with the campus constantly expanding its parking, it’s hard to know how long that will be the case. Eco RI has highlighted the campus’ hunger for farmland, which it has been quickly converting into surface lots. URI’s Kingston campus does have a policy of charging a small fee for parking to residents and students, but the need to add more lots suggests that that price does not meet the demand. URI’s other positive features include support for RIPTA passes to students at its Kingston campus, as well as a bike path running nearby it through the villages of South Kingstown and Narragansett. URI has failed so far to make crossing Route 138 to the bike path safe for students, and also has yet to charge any fee or provide any transit incentive for students or faculty at its Providence campus, which is nearby Kennedy Plaza.
Which brings us to. . .
Rhode Island College, Providence, RI
Rhode Island College is a warning of what URI could become. With “free” parking for students (paid for automatically through tuition), RIC doesn’t even charge visitors from outside the university to park. It’s entire campus is wall-to-wall surface lots. It’s the saddest/ugliest thing I’ve ever experienced.
RIC’s policy means higher fees for students, who don’t even find themselves happy with what they get in return:
South Side Hospital Complex, Providence, RI
Whoa! It’s like the surface of the moon over there!
The Providence Streetcar is planned to terminate in the hospital complex, and I certainly hope it will improve development patterns there and reduce the need for so many lots. However, there’s a real need to develop #frequentRIPTA, as the 12 minute frequency planned for peak streetcar trips will not be adequate for such a short route.
One also wonders if doctors and nurses would have more positive impact on the neighborhood’s struggling businesses if they didn’t have to trek across huge lots to get to anything outside of the hospital.
The South Side of Providence doesn’t have a great public reputation, but I’ve spent a lot of time walking and biking down there, and it’s a really nice community with a lot of good things going for it. Another thing that would help reduce this parking crater would be to update the Point Street I-95 crossing. It’s currently designed as a two-lane one way with a lot of fast traffic on both sides, very poor pedestrian access, and virtually no way to cross on bike, except for the fleet of heart. The South Side is deceptively close to downtown Providence, and could have a lot of mobility benefits for low income folks on a one- or zero-car budget if RIDOT hadn’t callously built its infrastructure for circa 1955.
The Dean Street Bridge
This span of bridge crosses U.S. 6 and the Amtrak Northeast Corridor between Federal Hill and Smith Hill, but with no access for transit or bikes. The ramps into Federal Hill are just a stone’s throw from the Viaduct, but apparently the state also thinks it appropriate to waste a huge footprint of land so that people can use highways as local roads. A 2013 assessment by RIDOT found the bridge to be in “fair” condition, and called it “functionally obsolete” (functional obsolescence can refer to a number of things but does not indicate structural problems. It can, for instance, simply mean that the agency feels the bridge needs more “capacity”, i.e., costly widening). The bridge is part of a series of expensive infrastructure projects necessary to U.S. 6 & 10, including the 6/10 Connector, which will come at an estimated cost of $500 Million and will dwarf the cost of the Sakonnet Bridge. The poor design of the Dean Street Bridge, with poor multimodal access, means it’s in a constant traffic jam for users, and cuts of anyone who is not driving.
Perhaps this is a job for a highway removal, and unlike I-195, let’s take it out and just not replace U.S. 6 at all. The 480 foot span of the Dean Street Bridge could then be considerably reduced in for whatever comes next, and multimodal improvements like transit lanes, protected bike lanes and wide sidewalks could carry users other than cars between two of Providence’s nicest neighborhoods.
The Statehouse Lawn
There was a time when there was no parking at the Statehouse. . .
Highlighted by the Projo, The Phoenix, and Providence Preservation Society as a majorly bad land use, the surface lots that Governor Chafee added to Francis Street and the Statehouse lawn have set taxpayers back millions (the Francis Street lot cost $3.1 Million for land acquisition alone, making each of the approximately 100 parking spots $30,000 a pop, without factoring in things like lighting, paving, or drainage costs). To put this in perspective, with matching funds from a City of Providence program, residents could plant 15,000 street trees for this cost, half that if they had no matching funds from the program. In a city of 25,000 street trees, that would represent a huge growth in green space. The Walking Bostonian has reported on the comparative cost of providing bus service compared to parking and found bus service to be cheaper, while a Hartford study recently found that for each parking spot a city gets, it loses $1,200 in tax revenue.
The (Proposed) Garrahy Garage
This is definitely one of the more improbable pictures I’ve taken off of the internet to support a weird metaphor. . .
As we finish our week of educating the I-195 Commission about the need for urban protected bike lanes, the front-and-center position of parking comes to mind. Commissioner Jan Brodie last expressed opposition to the bike lanes, which have broad community support, because they would threaten double parking (which is illegal), and did not agree to using a few on-street spots as loading zones for the court buses and trucks that tend to block the street. The fact that the I-195 Commission has been encouraging public expenditures on a parking garage, at $30,000-$50,000 per spot estimated cost should seem a little out of place with this, especially when it’s noted that Providence’s downtown is covered in parking in every direction, and that getting people on bikes or into transit makes many parking spots available without adding any.
The project has been greenwashed, in my opinion, by adding a bus hub to the bottom of the garage, but of course as a driver what one needs least is a garage to park and catch a bus from, and as a transit user what one needs least is a bus hub at which to park one’s car. So it’s kind of like wrapping yarn around a pigeon to attach it to a rat, and then calling it a magical griffin. . .
Do you have a #parkingcrater to add to our #MarchMadness competition? Tweet one at @transportpvd!
THIS JUST IN: As I was writing this, Barry Schiller of the Coalition for Transportation Choices wrote to say that RIDOT is planning to widen I-95 through parts of Providence, at $46 Million in costs. I can’t wait to see the parking craters that come of that plan if it’s ever approved. . . I <3 RIDOT.
~~~~
Note: An earlier version of this article attributed an incorrect cost estimate for the replacement of the Dean Street Bridge. This post has been updated to include an assessment by RIDOT that does find the bridge to be “functional deficient” and in only “fair” structural condition for its superstructure and substructure. Thanks to commenter Jef Nickerson of Greater City Providence for noting this error.
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If there is one thing everyone in Rhode Island agrees about it’s that jobs and the economy should be our number 1 priority. But there is a great disagreement in how we accomplish that. I think these two very similar Ford and Cadillac commercials explain the difference between the economy conservatives want for Rhode Island and the economy progressives want.
Cadillac:
Ford:
I actually believe Rhode Island needs both these economies. But I haven’t seen a lot of evidence that our Cadillac economy is struggling. I think oftentimes what happens is we point to the problems of our Ford owners and suggest solutions for Cadillac owners.
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Elisabeth Harrison’s generally good story on the Common Core in Rhode Island contains this passage:
Marilyn Adams, an expert on early reading and a professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences at Brown University helped write the standards for early reading. She says the result is far from perfect, but she does believe it is better than almost any other set of state standards out there.
“And by the time you get to the upper grades, they’re stronger than anything out there, they really are,” Adams said. “In terms of literature, in terms of writing, in terms of thoughtfulness that’s expected to permeate the curriculum, they are intellectually stronger.”
When an expert’s comment is that a document is “far from perfect,” and then goes on to praise some of the parts furthest removed from her expertise, it is a bit of a tell. While standards documents are extensive and tedious, individual sections are manageable, so let’s just look at the 11th and 12th grade reading literature standards in the Common Core and the current NECAP. I’ve just shortened them up a bit by removing the number codes and parenthetical examples.
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama.
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.
Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant.
Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics.
By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Demonstrate initial understanding of elements of literary texts by…
Identifying, describing, or making logical predictions about character, setting, problem/solution, or plots/subplots, as appropriate to text; or identifying any significant changes in character, relationships, or setting over time; or identifying rising action, climax, or falling action
Paraphrasing or summarizing key ideas/plot, with major events sequenced, as appropriate to text
Generating questions before, during, and after reading to enhance/expand understanding and/or gain new information
Identifying the characteristics of a variety of types/genres of literary text
Identify literary devices as appropriate to genre
Analyze and interpret literary elements within or across texts, citing evidence where appropriate by…
Explaining and supporting logical predictions or logical outcomes
Examining characterization motivation, or interactions, citing thoughts, words, or actions that reveal character traits, motivations, or changes over time
Making inferences about cause/effect, internal or external conflicts, or the relationship among elements within text(s)
Explaining how the narrator’s point of view, or author’s style, or tone is evident and affects the reader’s interpretation or is supported throughout the text(s)
Demonstrating knowledge of author’s style or use of literary elements and devices to analyze literary works
Examining author’s style or use of literary devices to convey theme
Is one of these clearly intellectually stronger than the other? Why should we think they would be, since the NECAP standards were published in 2006 and closely aligned to Achieve’s American Diploma Project standards, which were a direct precursor to the Common Core standards? There was no breakthrough in our understanding of high school or collegiate English in the intervening three years.
In terms of writing, it depends on if you believe that being “intellectually stronger” requires an almost singular focus on one particular type of formal, logical, academic argument. If you believe that writing for self-expression or aesthetic reasons makes you intellectually weak, you may agree with Dr. Adams and Common Core proponents. On the whole, though, at the high school level Rhode Island’s old and new writing standards are more similar than different.
People don’t trust the Common Core because most of what what we have been told about the standards is obviously not true. Some people are a bit confused about exactly which bits are the lies, but it is no wonder given the context.
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If there is one thing a documentary film should strive for, it is exposing people to a little-known aspect of life. This is precisely what filmmaker Edgar Barens has done with his Oscar nominated film, “Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall.” It premieres on HBO, on March 31st, and is poised to stir up some substantial changes in America, the global incarceration leader, where approximately 250,000 aging people are behind bars.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 2001 and 2011, cancer and heart disease were the leading causes of over 3,000 annual deaths in state prisons. Another 1000 people die every year in local jails, often with little or no health care.
I met Edgar Barens in 2009, when he had 300 hours of footage from the Iowa State Penitentiary’s hospice unit, shot over six months in 2006-2007. Prison administrators invited him to do a story after seeing his previous documentary Angola Prison Hospice. This latest product is a 40-minute film nominated for an Academy Award. Coincidentally, Prison Terminal is about the death of Jack Hall, a World War II POW survivor, while the winning film was about the last survivor of the Holocaust.
Jack Hall is proud of his military service, yet remains haunted by the hundreds of farm boys, tradesmen, and regular folks he killed while wearing the uniform. It is interesting that the government awarded medals for these killings, but sentenced him to die in prison for killing the man who sold drugs to his son. The latter was probably the only time he had a genuine motivation to end someone’s life, but Jack’s story here is not about that homicide. The story is deeper, taking us to a crossroad of multiple dilemmas in America’s criminal justice system.
Pvt. Jack Hall.
The Disposable Heroes
Incarcerated veterans are vastly growing in number, as they historically do after every war, with estimates ranging from 140,000 to 250,000 currently behind bars. It should come as no surprise that Jack Hall’s experience of killing, seeing friends die, and being held in an enemy prison might leave more than a few scars. It is understandable that any such person might seek to suppress their thoughts with alcohol or drugs, and may also have a hard time holding down a regular job. This PTSD and effects, and effects of effects, helps explain the record high disposable heroes currently locked up in prison after their Iraq and/or Afghanistan tours. It is only amplified by America’s shortcomings in soldier reentry and rehabilitation (words typically used for prisoners returning home, but soldiers’ experiences can be frighteningly similar).
At the heart of Prison Terminal is a hospice program, where fellow inmates are serving as the volunteers and providing end-of-life care. In another twist on presumptions, Jack is a former Segregationist who found himself living in the most intense racial experiment throughout history. The viewer doesn’t experience Jack’s evolution over the previous years, but what we see is the shared love and humility of two primary caretakers in action: “Herky,” and “Love,” both Black men. Both also convicted of killing someone and will apparently also die behind bars. As they see it, what they do for Jack will hopefully be done for them when the time comes.
Herky, a prison hospice volunteer.
Many members of the general public develop their views of prisons through television shows such as Oz, Orange Is The New Black, and LockUp. Furthermore, most documentaries focus on a wronged situation, such as exonerations, drug war casualties, and political prisoners. Prison Terminal defies stereotypes and presents a familiar world to those who have been incarcerated, and their families. Herky and Love are like hundreds of people I know: just waiting for a burning car on the side of the road so they can save some kids. It will never erase the terrible things that gets someone into prison, but will at least make looking in the mirror a little easier by creating a counter-narrative, about helping humanity rather than hurting. Not to imply that everyone in prison is an angel, nor even that the majority are there for something terrible, but the number of lifelong malicious and selfish people in prisons is a far smaller than most would ever imagine.
It should not come as a massive surprise that the majority of hospice workers in Iowa are Black. As examined in the book, “Mothering in Prison,” some communities unfortunately have learned to expect travesties. Coming up out of slavery and through a challenging American history, Black people have had to adapt to survive, and take care of their wounded family. Here, Jack Hall is part of this family regardless of his color. And to Jack’s credit, healing his previously-strained relationship with the son who turned him in is a core part of the dying process.
Prisoner health care: an oxymoron
Prison health care in America primarily consists of popping pills, and scant staffs struggling with sparse budgets. If they are going to take control of someone’s body, the government has a legal and moral duty to take care of it. However, not every person enters prison with a clean bill of health. They go in with cancer, diabetes, HIV, and every other ailment afflicting the general public. Perhaps on the outside they had a job, insurance, or even coverage under the Affordable Care Act. And then they are sent into this jungle. The diet is terrible and, at times, the exercise non-existent. Leave someone in prison long enough and they will certainly contract any ailment one would expect on the outside.
There are only 75 hospices in the thousands of American jails and prisons, and only 20 are staffed with prisoner volunteers. People should die with their families, especially the ones closest to their hearts. Iowa’s hospice program struggled since the film was made, as a new director was not as passionate about the program. This signals the need for specific policies to be in place, to survive turnover and attitude. The program costs absolutely nothing, with everything donated (including hospital beds) or made by prisoners. Hospice actually saves money by weaning people off costly medications and treatments in their final days.
Some states have responded to the medical crisis by building multi-million dollar medical facilities that will need to be staffed and maintained over the years. This also creates more overall beds in the system; beds to be filled. Every prison should instead convert space already in place, and consider Medical Parole whenever possible. Not everyone has somewhere to go in the final years, and granting homelessness to sick people is not providing dignified deaths.
Edgar Barens is taking Prison Terminal on a tour that will include dozens of prisons throughout the nation. This film should be seen. A five-minute version should be screened for politicians. Hopefully they, like Iowa, will recognize that it is possible to do better. They can respect families and religions, and make a considerable reform within this terrible phenomenon of mass incarceration. Furthermore, the Veterans Affairs administrators can watch this film and reconsider the final crime in Jack’s case: the VA would not allow him to be buried with honors due to the “Timothy McVeigh” rule, barring people convicted of capital crimes from a final acknowledgment of their service. Jack’s final respite, despite fears his service would send him to Hell, was to be buried as a soldier. Instead, the prison fingerprinted and disposed of him, his life, and death.
Pvt. Jack Hall escaped from a POW camp, yet could not escape that one moment of rage as an unwilling soldier in the War on Drugs.
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Nobody likes losing, but sometimes, no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try or what new strategies you develop, you go into a battle knowing the numbers are against you, and that you are going to lose. There is nothing wrong with losing, but there are different ways to lose.
You can lose gracefully and with style, summoning all your energy to give it your all, demonstrating to your opponent and those watching that you are a worthy foe and someone to be taken seriously. In doing so you can demonstrate the best of the values you hold dear, earning the begrudging respect of even your most diametrical opponents.
Or you can lose in a tawdry muddle of confused loyalties, last minute defections, 11th hour deal making and factional splits.
As Nick Mattiello consolidated his power in the Rhode Island House of Representatives over the last weekend, making deals with conservative Democrats and even more conservative Republicans, progressive hopes were hung on the “progressive caucus” that seemed to coalesce around Representative Michael Marcello, but Marcello lost big.
In the end Mattiello had ten times the votes.
Progressives lost this battle, and perhaps it was inevitable, because the numbers were not there, but progressives lost something else as well. They lost the chance to define the battle they were losing. In the scramble to find an alternative to the business-as-usual Mattiello, progressives rallied around “anyone but Mattiello” which became a statement about what we were opposed to, but not about what we believe in. We did not rally around our values.
Representative Teresa Tanzi got me thinking about his when she told Bob Plain that she abstained from voting for either side “because there were no women on the new leadership team[s]” put forward by Mattiello or Marcello. The leadership teams under consideration were primarily made up of white heterosexual male lawyers. From a conservative like Mattiello this is to be expected. Diversity is not the conservative value that hegemonic patriarchy is, after all.
But for a so-called progressive caucus to ignore diversity, one of its key values, is more than an oversight, it’s an abandonment of principle and a violation of our values for the sake of petty politics. Worse, this was done for the sake of a battle that was destined to be lost. Putting aside values for a moment, from a pragmatic, political point of view, this was a terrible strategy. Why on earth would anyone sacrifice their values when they know they are going to lose?
If anything, all the losing side in any conflict has is its principles and values. When faced with defeat, the losing side should seek to differentiate itself as much as possible from its opponent. For instance, Mattiello might have had the numbers and the political grease to unify a coalition in his favor, but the progressive caucus could have staked out the moral high ground, demonstrating not only diversity but other core values such as women’s autonomy, the rights of workers to not be exploited, concerns over the environment, and a call for getting special interests out of politics.
When Representative Joseph Trillo snidely suggested that Marcello’s camp was more concerned with plastic bag bans than improving the economy, the progressive caucus should have been able to say that they are interested in protecting Rhode Island’s most valuable asset, the environment. While Mattiello dismissed calls for reforming PayDay Loans as unimportant, the progressive caucus should have asked why the economic exploitation of our at risk poor and the shuffling of millions of dollars from poor urban communities to out of state corporations is beneath his notice. A progressive caucus might suggest that Mattiello’s longtime mentor and supporter, former Speaker Bill Murphy, who gets a pretty hefty paycheck every year from PayDay loan companies, might be exerting an influence. And what about the plague of gun violence? Most Rhode Islanders want an assault weapon ban, but not Bill Murphy, who also lobbies for the NRA, and not his hand-picked successor Mattiello, or any of Mattiello’s new committee chair appointees, all of whom seem to have perfect scores from the NRA.
If the progressive caucus wants to mean anything and if the progressive caucus wants to effect real change in the General Assembly as opposed to the appearance of change currently on offer from Mattiello and friends, then it will have to figure out how to stand up for progressive values, explain the importance of progressive values, and demonstrate those values in a way Rhode Islanders can understand.
Doing this will not only make the progressive caucus look good when they lose, it will give them the best chance they have to win.
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Rep. Michael Marcello addresses litigation lending at a recent State House briefing.
Big time props to the Marcello 6, who stuck by their speaker candidate even after realizing he didn’t have the votes to win. They are:
Greg Constantino of Lincoln, Paddy O’Neill of Pawtucket, John Lombadi of Providence, Linda Finn of Middletown, Joy Hearn from Barrington and – of course – Marcello himself. These six are now effectively the loyal opposition in the House of Representatives and I hope other progressives join them.
They are now effectively the loyal opposition in the House. Hopefully the 5 Liberal Abstainers will join them. They are:
Edith Ajello and Maria Cimini of Providence, Teresa Tanzi of South Kingstown and Larry Valencia of Richmond {Update: Andd Rep. Jeremiah O’Grady, Lincoln]. Progressives are pretty disappointed in these five. Tanzi said she did so because there were no women on the new leadership team, and Valencia told me he would explain his decision to his constituents in the future (declined to comment). My guess is Team Marcello had splintered to the point that some didn’t want to support it.
West Warwick Republican Pat Morgan also abstained, but her reasons for doing so were certainly different. She disrupted the formal vote to try to give a speech about her reasons, which seemed to be that she wanted something for her support. This generally drew ire from both parties, though Minority Leader Brian Newberry defended her on procedural grounds.
Some progressives legislators also voted for Speaker Mattiello, including Frank Ferri, of Warwick, Art Handy of Cranston and Chris Blazejewski. Blaz, of course, was initially a leader of Team Marcello and Handy was an early supporter. Handy said his decision to jump ship was an attempt to remain chairman of the Environmental Committee.
“Staying as chair and having more access to leadership is one of the best things I can do for the progressive causes I care about,” Handy said.
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I’ve tried hard not to get into the squabbles of our time, and failed – I’m too juvenile to accept the principles the current conversation is predicated on, yet too foolish to stay out. Another self-deprecating way of saying it would be that I’m too ignorant or lazy to know where to begin, and most importantly, when and how not to. Even when I think I know where to start, it still feels pretty futile.
Well, I think I know where to begin this time. I’d like to show you two quick things:
As Feds trounced into our now-busted Speaker’s office, Justin Katz asked the following on Twitter:
“@NBC10_Parker Silly question, but I can’t help but wonder: Do they knock when they do that, or just stroll right in?”
What Justin was really asking was: “Are the bastards being civil?”
Another one from a year ago: As a bleeding Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was being arrested in a backyard somewhere in Boston, and for dubious reasons wasn’t immediately read his rights, Saul Kaplan had this to say, again on Twitter:
“Read this kid his Miranda rights. We are a nation of laws.”
I’m a decidedly different human being from Justin, Saul, Gordon or Dzhokhar. I walk, like everyone else for that matter, to the hopeful beat of a different drum. My cadence is one that I have a hard time appreciating, but I remain ever thankful I am not a Dzhokhar or for that matter, a Gordon. What is important to note is that we are all citizens – residents with rights and responsibilities to this strange republic. With Tzarnaev the exception, all of the above are also Rhode Islanders who give a damn. Despite the ambient psychosis that comes with being a member of this complicated community, we believe in its core values. We really do. Even when we don’t agree on what exactly they are, why they are, or who embodies those values best, we still share them. We struggle to honor our principles even while we question them – so sometimes, when we’re all in crisis, the scales fall off of our eyes and we can see them clearly in one another.
I’ve been focusing on those values for a while now, to the exclusion of almost anything else that might pay the rent. For me it is all about coping with what this country is, and what it is not. It all came to a head for me, as you might guess, after coming home from Afghanistan. It has taken a few years for me to let go of the crumpled wrapping paper that once conveniently concealed the lunatic shame of it all. It’s been a pissed-off rager of a battle for me ever since, one that has broken me as it has broken many folks who can’t bear to call it even or call it quits. The result is that I am no longer afraid, but instead rather empowered, when I meet anyone who’s touched the dark matter of politics and lived to remark about it. We really need you people!
Those tweets have that special basic substance that makes this struggle worth it. Their depressing context might have us believing that we’re aboard an ill-fated cruise, but their content shows us that we needn’t look for icebergs if we know we already hit one. What we must do instead: make eye contact and start with the basics. We need to agree to take a long look at what we generally take for granted. In a year like this one, we can’t afford not to. We can leave it to history to see who was right or wrong (since no one will ever agree on that anyways!) but we can not leave it to history to honor each other. It is time to dig deep and hit the books together. We have to do it anyways.
We will end up forgotten. Our devotion to the precious basics that we do share, will last.
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Well, it’s safe to say my first interview with Speaker Nick Mattiello didn’t go great, and here’s hoping this is in no way indicative of how other progressives may fare in their dealings with the brand new ‘most powerful politician in Rhode Island.’
Full disclosure, I’ve spoken with the Speaker before, and this is in no way indicative of our dealings! But Gordon Fox was always a delight to deal with in public and people say he ran a pretty stern ship behind the scenes so maybe Mattiello will be tough on reporters and easier on legislators.
That aside, I think he makes a good point when he says that legislators should represent their districts and not ideology (Randall Edgar of the Providence Journal asking the question)
It’s no secret RI Future wasn’t rooting for Speaker Mattiello to win this one, but we certainly congratulate him and wish him all the luck in the world in leading the group elected to do the people’s business.
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In 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney told Senator Patrick Leahy to “Go fuck yourself” in response to Leahy’s criticisms over Cheney’s Halliburton war profiteering. Later the same week, Cheney said he didn’t regret cursing at the Senator on the Senate floor, and even as recently as 2010 said of telling off Leahy, “That’s sort of the best thing I ever did.”
I think Cheney set a pretty low bar for “best thing ever,” but sadly, given his record, he might be right. But I digress.
Yesterday Dan Bidondi (to be played by Michael Chiklis in the movie version of this story) posted a video on Info Wars where Rhode Island State Senator Josh Miller (and a local photographer) told him to “Go fuck yourself.”
Bidondi reacted with mock outrage, editing the video in such a way as to leave out the part where he is harassing people in the State House with idiotic questions. Bidondi’s behavior and conduct were deplorable that day, and when I called him on his behavior (using words much more polite than “Go fuck yourself”) he told me that he was a member of the press and was exercising his right to free speech. He proudly displayed his Info Wars press credentials.
Bidondi is a member of the press, and he has the First Amendment right to free speech. So does Senator Miller, of course, but Miller is also a better person than Bidondi (or Dick Cheney, for that matter) because after due consideration, Miller apologized for his behavior, saying, “Regardless of the emotions and atmosphere of the moment, it does not justify the language I used that day. Out of respect for the decorum of the State House and the constituents I represent, I offer my apologies.”
No such apology seems forthcoming from Bidondi.
Info Wars and Bidondi represent the very worst of the right wing Internet. Comments on Bidondi’s Josh Miller post number in the hundreds and are filled with anti-semitism, thinly veiled death threats and racism. Reading them is stomach churning.
BR549 said, “I thought this clown looked Jewish, ……. and sure enough, after a bit of digging, there it was. So we have yet another arrogant Jewish leftard progressive in office, who has to lie through his teeth on his FaceBook page to try to convince everyone that Dan BiDondi is a basher of elderly veterans.”
Earl Scheib said, tactfully, “He needs to be Trotsky’d” by which I assume he means “hit in the head with an icepick.”
Joel Bensonetti observed that, “Josh Miller looks a lot like Pol Pot, only white.”
These are some of the tamer examples.
Anyone who has dealt with Dan “false flag” Bidondi knows that he is not a honest player in the public debate, that he intentionally mocks and goads the people he stalks for impromptu interviews, that he espouses any inane conspiracy theory that pops into his head, and that he actively courts exactly the amount of respect he deserves.
Senator Miller may have lost his cool but he apologized to his constituents and the citizens of Rhode Island, not to Bidondi and not to that hotbed of racism, misogyny and anti-semitism called Info Wars.
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Many of you may have read this recent post, which talked about the I-195 Commission’s silly statement that double parking is more important than biking. We said the story would evolve, and we were hoping some simple nudging of the commission in the right direction would show them the error of their ways and get them behind protected bike lanes which have already gotten support from the business community on S. Main Street and the Brown and RISD campuses nearby.
Well, the story did evolve, but not exactly how we thought. In response to the article, the I-195 Commission tweeted the following:
Note the several tweets exhorting that the I-195 Commission likes bikes and all things bike-related, which to me comes off as the cycling version of “But I have black friends!”
But note also, especially, tweets 5 and 6 of the series. “we see shared traffic lane on S. Main as the best model for PVDs dense urban core (5/7)” and “a designated bike lane is better in a suburban model, not a downtown model (6/7).”
Ridiculous, right?
So we’ve started a campaign on twitter, since that’s the social media we use primarily. If you use another social media device, please spread it there as well. We’re asking people to #educate195, and send them examples of urban dedicated bike lanes, especially protected infrastructure. Send a tweet with #educate195 as a hashtag at @transportpvd and @195commission telling them why bike lanes are important in downtowns. For further reach, include someone from the city you’re tweeting about. We asked the Bike Coalition of Greater Philadelphia what they thought of this statement, and they said:
David Hembrow of the blog The View from the Cycle Path had this to say:
PVD’s own @papabybike vented his frustration:
We had other Providence reactions. Anne of Small Point Cafe, whose business certainly would benefit from a bike lane going up South Main towards her neck of the woods on Westminster, shared via the Rhode Island Bike Coalition her thoughts that this makes her so angry that “I could run my bike lights off of the steam coming out of my ears.”
And deceptively named @Iowa_Jen, who is from the Iowa originally but lives in Providence, tweeted from Austin, Texas, where she’s visiting for work:
Don’t get us wrong. We think the suburbs deserve bike lanes too. We just think cities need them even more.
If you could bring examples of bike lanes from a city to somewhere urban in Rhode Island–Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Central Falls, Newport– what infrastructure would you bring? Share your pics, videos, and thoughts @195commission with #educate195.
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Coventry Rep. Scott Guthrie said he is supporting Rep. Nick Mattiello for speaker because “a couple people pissed me off.”
He said he initially contemplated caucusing with the group supporting Rep. Mike Marcello, but at the outset that group didn’t even know who it would put forward as the candidate for speaker.
“There was no one they had a name for,” he told me this morning. “If you have a name you can build a team around a name.”
He also said the group was “cutting deals here and there.”
“I like Michael but now it’s going to turn into silly season,” Guthrie said. “Do we have a smooth transition and do the people’s business? All this is is politics for the next election.”
South Kingstown Rep. Spencer Dickinson, another occasional ally to the progressive movement, said he too is supporting conservative Democrat Nick Mattiello.
“I began by supporting O’Neill or Lombardi, but lack of sign-on by the progressive wing made those choices unavailable,” he wrote on his Facebook wall. “I believe that if you had been with me for the last 72 hours, and seen what I have seen, you would have made the same choice.”
On my Facebook wall, Dickinson, a vocal critic of Gordon Fox and his leadership team, wrote: “Plausible intel that the Ucci Blazejewski team (that later grafted on Marcello as speaker) actually started out as the team of horses that was to keep [Frank] Anzeveno in power. Mattiello put a credible stop to that and that’s one reason why he will be the next speaker.”
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He exposed the illegal campaign tactics of the NRA. He leads the Progressive Democrats of Rhode Island. He’s a frequent contributor to this blog. And – hopefully – next Sam Bell will add to his resume state representative from District 4. With news that soon-to-be-former House Speaker Gordon Fox won’t be seeking re-election, Bell has announced he will run for Fox’s old seat.
“Our state needs a fresh Democratic voice on Smith Hill,” said Bell in a widely distributed press release. “As Representative, I’ll fight to invest in our schools and our workforce, and I’ll be an unfailing advocate for transparency and sunlight at the State House.”
“I’m glad to have stood up for the people of Rhode Island against the powerful, out-of-state gun lobby,” he said in his statement. “I’ll continue to protect my constituents against the forces of special interests on Smith Hill.
And Bell will likely be the only RI Future contributor vying for the District 4 seat at the State House. Mark Binder, who challenged Fox in 2012 and occasionally posts to RI Future, indicated he will NOT run again in an email to supporters today.
“Let me be blunt,” he wrote. “Any representative who votes for the sort of “Leadership” that enabled Gordon Fox to abuse his power is betraying the interests of citizens. We, the people of Rhode Island did not elect you to submit to the whims of lobbyists and special interests and corporations. We elected you to serve the people.
“For too long the political conversation has been framed by special interests. The purpose of our State Government is not to create jobs, however much that may be a method for getting votes. The purpose of our State Government is to create an environment where people can live and work and thrive. This means protecting our landscape and natural resources, paying for education that teaches beyond tests, and offering powerful reasons for people to live and work here.”
Ed. note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Binder would run due. He is not.
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Whoever the next House Speaker is, their chief of staff won’t be Frank Anzeveno. The top aid to the past three speakers said in a statement that he cleared out his State House desk and won’t serve the next speaker.
As is his custom, he wouldn’t speak on the record. But House spokesman Larry Berman released this statement on his behalf:
“Privately, I have known for a while that Gordon Fox would not be running for another term. He did not want to announce that decision so that the focus would be on the many challenging issues before the House of Representatives. With this knowledge and consultation with my family, I made the decision to leave at the end of this session in June. I had previously been in contact with the Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island and the Joint Committee on Legislative Services to make an informed decision.
“In light of recent events at the Statehouse, time has accelerated. I cleaned out my office over the weekend in anticipation that a new Speaker needs to bring in his own staff.
“It has been an honor for me to have witnessed the hard work, dedication and commitment that our public officials, as well as the loyal and conscientious staff, bring to the Statehouse every day. I will always respect the House of Representatives and wish them the best in tackling the difficult issues before them.”
Anzeveno began his State House career in 1980 as an elected representative from North Providence. Her served for 18 years and in 2001, he became Speaker John Harwood’s chief of staff, a position he retained through Bill Murphy and Gordon Fox’s tenure.
Privately, state reps said bills required his blessing, and he relished in his bad cop reputation at the State House. He had a sign on his desk – and I would love to know what happens to it now – that read, “No better friend, no worse enemy.”
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One of the most pernicious myths about Rhode Island politics is that the state house is dominated by liberal, labor-backed, Democrats. The Democrat part is certainly true, but neither the liberal nor the labor-backed parts are. Rhode Island, after all, enjoys the only voter-ID vote-suppression bill in the nation voted in by Democrats. We have endured 15 years of tax cuts for the rich that have impoverished our schools and towns and allowed great profits for businesses that turn around and betray our state. We allow payday lenders to soak their customers for 260% interest rates. We were utterly unable to enact any meaningful gun control legislation in the aftermath of an appalling massacre in the next state over last year. The list goes on in a long and embarrassing fashion.
Labor gets a lot of blame for this in certain circles, but it’s a sick joke. The labor movement in Rhode Island is so disunited that pensions were “reformed” in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2011, each time making pension coverage for state employee union members weaker and smaller. Whether it’s labor law, pensions, taxes, or municipal funding, it is difficult to think of a high-profile controversy in the legislature won by labor in the last 15 years.
The tragic part of this is that Rhode Island’s electorate is not nearly so retrograde as its legislature. Gun control polls well, as does reproductive justice and raising taxes on rich people, and yet the legislature does not act that way.
This accounts for the Machiavellian nature of legislative politics. The conservative Democrats who have held power there for decades rely on strong-arm tactics to enforce docility among the rank-and-file. Uncontroversial bills get held until after the budget is passed to assure its passage, committee chair and vice-chair seats are awarded to “team players,” malcontents are assigned to the standing committee on whatever they care least about. These are not a sign of power, but a sign of weakness. The leadership has long been aware that their hold on power is precarious, and they rely on the disunity of their opposition to maintain their hold.
Part of what maintains that disunity is the selective granting of power to a few individuals, who are allowed to sit as committee chairs or vice-chairs. These individuals imagine they have some leverage worth protecting and that their position allows them some access to the inner workings. This makes them reliable votes to protect the interests of the powerful. But a lot of it is illusion. I found myself once talking to the vice chair of House Finance committee some years ago on the very day that the Finance Committee issued its revision of the Governor’s budget. I was fascinated to notice that he knew as little about what was in it as I did. In other words, his position allowed him to think he had access, but in reality he had virtually none.
This is what is happening today. People with some small measure of influence — who will never get any more than what they have from Mattiello’s leadership — are unwilling to risk what little they have by supporting a leadership that actually favors their perspective. The tragic part, of course, is that if they could be united, they could make a change.
Tomorrow will be a test.
If Nick Mattiello becomes Speaker, the most powerful position in the state Democratic Party, it will be through the support of tea-party Republicans allied with representatives who do not believe he supports any of their priorities, but are willing to go along with him for the sake of small and ultimately meaningless favors. Do you want Republicans Doreen Costa and Joe Trillo to be kingmakers of the Democratic Party?
The conservative path of our recent history has brought us one bankrupt city and a couple more flirting with it. We have given up tax revenue and gotten nothing for it in return. Our schools, buses, streets, and virtually every other public service you depend on, has gotten smaller, weaker, dirtier, and meaner. The legislature has thwarted Governor Chafee’s attempts to restore Carcieri’s school funding cuts and any semblance of equity among the cities and towns, along with most of the other useful reforms he has proposed. You can be upset with him for not fighting harder, but he is not the obstacle to reform in Rhode Island. This is the status quo of our state, and if you are happy with it, then you have every right to be happy with the status quo of the Assembly leadership.
If you are not happy with it, though, please contact your state rep today and ask them to support change at the state house tomorrow. And if you are a state rep reading this, please remember that the bluff only works when no one stands up.
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The Procaccianti Group, the multinational real estate holdings corporation that owns the Hilton and Renaissance hotels in Providence where workers have been protesting and organizing a labor union to demand more humane working conditions, should treat their employees better, agreed Justin Katz and I on last week’s NBC 10 Wingmen.
“In a given circumstance, perhaps they should” form a union, Katz said and said the way they have been treated is “garbage from [employers].”
But, as per every episode, we also had some disagreement. Katz would prefer the invisible hand of the free market create better working conditions for the Hilton employees.
“What I don’t like the union union debate the way it sets it up unions have power to counteract business power,” he said. “If a company isn’t valuing its workers then that’s a problem with the company and we have to create an economic environment in which they suffer for that.”
In theory, everyone agrees I suppose. But from a practical point of view, unfettered capitalism simply doesn’t have an effective way to compel a multinational holdings company to pay poor people a living wage without workers organizing and making a stink about it.
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The newest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was released today, and it isn’t pretty.
