May 27, 2015 – RI Future

May 27, 2015May 27, 2015

Video: Stadium opponent Tim Empkie

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Dr. Tim Empkie came to Rhode Island 30 years ago for a job at Brown University. In recent months, Empkie has become one of the most familiar and visible stalwarts in the ongoing campaign to prevent public funds being used in the construction of a new stadium in downtown Providence. He’s one of the driving forces in the voter initiative profiled by RI Future here. I talked to Empkie during morning rush hour at the corner of Point and Wickendon St.

We didn’t talk about the stadium so much as what the public reaction to his advocacy has been like.

Empkie also shared his thoughts on living in Rhode Island.

May 27, 2015

Voter initiative launched to stop downtown stadium deal

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Since the idea first surfaced to move the Pawtucket Red Sox to downtown Providence, many Rhode Islanders have feared a backroom deal would be made – regardless of the project’s merits – between the affluent owners and local politicians. But Sam Bell says a start-up group calling itself the Providence Campaign Against the Stadium Deal has a plan to make sure the decision is made by the people of Providence instead.

“We are now more than halfway towards the 1,000 signatures we need to send our anti-stadium ordinance to the City Council,” Bell told RI Future in an email.

He explained, “Our voter initiative uses Section 209 of the Providence Home Rule Charter, which allows us to collect 1,000 signatures to bring an ordinance to the City Council. If the City Council does not approve it, the Charter allows us to collect more signatures to put it on the ballot.”

The same Providence process allowed hotel housekeepers last spring to put on the ballot a $15 an hour minimum wage for that industry but the idea was squelched when the General Assembly passed a law forbidding municipal minimum wages that differ from state law.

Bell said the anti-stadium “initiative forbids the stadium from being built on the part of the I-195 land designated a public park, and it forbids Providence from providing any special financial treatment for the stadium, including tax breaks.”

He said the formal campaign against the downtown stadium began collecting signatures 8 days ago and has already amassed more than 500. There is no deadline for reaching the requisite 1,000, he said.

“Providence residents are incredibly opposed to the stadium deal, but popular sentiment is not always heard in the back rooms of the State House and City Hall,” Bell said. “What makes us so excited about this campaign is that it gives the power back to the people. We hope to win the support of the City Council and the Mayor in our campaign to stop the stadium deal. If not, we will stop it at the ballot box.”

May 27, 2015May 28, 2015

Elorza on students’ insistence he keep campaign promise about school busing

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Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza says he hasn’t broken a campaign promise to provide bus passes for local students who live more than two miles from school. He just hasn’t made good on it yet.

“I remain committed to reducing the walk-to-school radius and fixing the school assignment process so fewer students are facing long commutes,” Elorza said in a statement. “I have walked with these kids, I understand the difficulty they face, and I look forward to working together to address this issue.”

The Providence Student Union and other local high school students held a rally at City Hall Tuesday to hold Mayor Elorza accountable for a campaign pledge he made to provide bus passes for students who live more than 2 miles from school.

“This is a matter of priorities, not cash,” Elorza said in February, according to to RI Future, when he was first running for office.

But now that he is mayor, it seems to have become a matter of cash. The roughly $1 million expenditure to expand the number of students who get bus passes for their school commute was not included in his budget. As a candidate, Elorza said, “With a total city budget of $662 million, we must make it a priority to find the $1.35 million to fund passes for the 2,100 students who live between 2 and 3 miles from school.”

Elorza spokesman Evan England said today, “It’s not something we don’t want to do. There are a lot of difficult decisions right now.”

England added, “It’s not necessarily off the table for next school year,” noting the mayor may approach RIPTA about partnering on the costs, and looks forward to meeting with PSU members to talk about other potential solutions.

But when asked if the issue was an imperative to solve before next school year, England said, “I don’t know. I know it’s something the mayor feels very strongly about and something he wants to see get done.”

Most Rhode Island and many regional urban school districts provide public transportation to school when students live greater than two miles from school, according to this RI Future post. Providence provides public transportation when students live greater than 2.5 miles from school, reduced from 3 miles in September.

“Last year, a clear and simple promise was made by the City, the School Department and most of all by then-candidate for mayor Jorge Elorza to set this issue right,” said PSU member Roselin Trinidad, a senior at Central High School, in a statement about the group’s rally yesterday at City Hall. “Mayor Elorza pledged that the City would put money in next year’s budget to lower the walking distance for Providence high school students down to 2 miles. Yet his proposed budget does not direct a single dollar toward keeping this promise. It is unacceptable for Mayor Elorza to value our ability to access education before an election, but not after, and we will not quiet down until this wrong has been righted.”

Said PSU member Diane Gonzalez, a junior at Central High, “I am here today because I live 2.4 miles away from my school. That means I don’t qualify for a free monthly bus pass. My family cannot afford to spare $60 each month for a pass, so I have to walk halfway across the city every single day just to get to school, and then back again to get home. While that walk can be a pain in any weather, it can be downright dangerous when the poorly plowed streets are covered in ice or when the temperature hits 95 degrees. That’s why I hope Mayor Elorza is listening, and why I plan to come back here every day until he does.”

PSU created this video (which utilizes RI Future footage of Elorza pledging to address the situation) to draw attention to the matter.

Update: the original version of this post said Providence provides school busing at 3 miles. Last year, the city reduced that to 2.5 miles. The post was corrected.

May 27, 2015

Big banks escape meaningful punishment again

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Do you really believe we are all equal before the law? Do you really believe that “justice is blind”? Do you really believe we are all entitled to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness? Do you really believe we have a “democracy” here in the United States? If you answered yes to all, you must certainly also believe in the Easter Bunny.

The giant banks last week pled guilty to innumerable crimes that ruined the lives of millions of people in this country and around the world, but because they are “too big to fail” they have become “too big to prosecute” in court, and therefore no one individual or groups of individuals will be held accountable for their horrific crimes against society. Their crimes are far to numerous to list here, but they did things like money laundering to drug cartels, did business with countries who are labeled “enemies” of the US, massive fraud, cornered commodities like gold and controlled the prices, sold investors stocks and bonds that they knew were failing, then bought into companies and investments that were betting on those failures. The crimes and those who committed them were immoral, reprehensible, had worldwide ramifications, and ruined lives, but not one person will be held accountable.

Instead, our “Injustice” Department chose to hold a press conference and make the announcement that the large banks who have pled guilty to innumerable serious crimes will be “fined.” The “Injustice” Department makes it appear as if the banks are being hammered by its power and might, but in reality they have given the large banks the mildest slap on the wrist possible.

The fines might seem large to the public, but these banks are so large the fines are inconsequential, and will be paid by bank customers in raised rates and fees. In addition, most of the fines levied by the Department of Injustice can be written off as tax losses in a tax code cleverly written to be gracious to the banks and the wealthy. So the fines are, in effect, meaningless. Meanwhile in Iceland big bank leaders who committed similar crimes have been imprisoned.

While large bank executives can commit the most serious of crimes and skate, we have 360 California inmates serving life sentences for “shoplifting.” And you think we have a democracy where we are all equal before the law? Here comes Santa Claus!!

May 27, 2015May 27, 2015

Another $815 million for the Narragansett Bay Commission?

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Besides the $120 million taxpayer ballpark subsidy and the $100 million streetcar to hardly anywhere, another elephant in the room is the Narragansett Bay Commission’s (NBC) $815 million Phase 3 stormwater project.

This is not paid for by the entire state, but largely by the 118,000 households in the NBC district – Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, North Providence, Johnston, Cumberland, Lincoln and the northern part of East Providence – almost $7,000 per household.

The NBC wants to proceed with this despite concerns about “affordability” – recognized by the EPA as legitimate, despite the potential of alternative “green infrastructure,” despite concerns about the fairness of who pays, and despite not having the time to assess the results of phase 2, just recently completed. Also, though there is some flexibility in meeting federal clean water standards, it seems the NBC goal is to go beyond the minimum, even as Phase 1 and 2 has already cost about $547 million and has approximately quadrupled sewer bills for residents, whether they rent or own.

The problem the NBC is addressing is the combination of our sewage with stormwater runoff overwhelms the treatment plant after a storm and untreated sewage get into Narragansett Bay. Phase 1 constructed the tunnels, pipes and pump stations to temporarily store the stormwater, phase 2 involved interceptors, drains and catch basin improvements. Phase 3 is apparently more tunnels.

Roughly 80 percent of the flow after storms is due to runoff from roads, parking lots and other impervious surfaces, but the cost is almost all born by those contributing the 20 percent of sewage. This is another subsidy to drivers from all over who use the roads and parking lots at stores, offices, state government, hospitals, colleges etc. A big beneficiary of the spending are shoreline property owners who pay nothing, shellfishermen and other Bay users. There is a possible social justice issue here.

There are few checks and balances. There was a “stakeholder” review process that few know about. The PUC rubber stamps what the NBC wants, even allowing monthly billing which tripled postage and processing costs compared to the previous quarterly billing, perhaps hiding the scope of the increases. Local politicians don’t much care, they are not blamed as the sewer bills are not collected through their tax system. The state’s environmental community understandably just wants the Bay cleaned up and is little concerned with who pays, even if the metro area becomes increasingly unaffordable. And though Transport Providence and others have tried to call attention to the role of parking lots and the auto culture that underlies a lot of this problem, and others on the problem of runoff from fertilized lawns, the issue, unlike the ballpark or trolley, is too complex to get easy attention.

While no expert on this, I do recommend attention to this issue and I wonder what the progressive community thinks about this project. Visit www.narrabay.com for the NBC viewpoint and plenty of information.