Progressive News, Opinion, and Analysis
It was a first for Providence. The mayor’s office live tweeted Angel Taveras’ State of the City speech last night. To mark the occasion, I collected some of the more interesting tweets from the speech, both from the mayor and some of the people who were following along at home and in the audience.
As expected, Mayor Angel Taveras said the state of the city is not so good.
“Providence is in peril,” said the mayor of the capital city to lead into the annual State of the City speech. And, as he reiterated throughout his 20 minute address, it’s up to retirees and tax-exempt landowners to save it.
The city is still $22.5 million short of being fiscally solvent this year and – short of raising property taxes, which Taveras said was an option of absolute last resort – the only place left to turn is retiree benefits and the colleges and hospitals in the city. The retirees already pay taxes, the hospitals and colleges don’t.
Brown University is willing to pay more than the $2 million they already give to the city, and perhaps the big news of the speech was that a deal with Johnson and Wales is imminent.
“I am hopeful that this week we will announce a new agreement with Johnson & Wales University, reaffirming the University’s strong commitment to our city,” Taveras said.
No word on whether or not the six hospitals in the city are willing to step up.
“Our tax-exempts cannot stand quietly on the sidelines any longer,” he said. “If they refuse to compromise, we will hold them accountable by other means.”
The “other means” may be the legislative package the city prepared for the General Assembly. After his speech. Senator Rhoda Perry said the Providence caucus will begin to consider the package later this week.
Still, Taveras is looking for more from the retirees than he is from the tax-exempt institutions in the city. He is hoping to get $7.1 million from the nonprofits and promised to get at least twice that from retirees.
“This must stop now,” Taveras intoned. In the written version of his speech, distributed to members of the media, there was an exclamation mark, to drive the point home.
He was speaking about retirees who receive 5 and 6 percent annual increases to their pension benefits. We hear a lot about the unsustainable 5 and 6 percent increases, but what you rarely hear is that this accounts for only about 20 percent of retirees.
That said, the vast majority of the mayor’s speech was dedicated to thanking the municipal workers who have already sacrificed for the city. When Taveras inherited Providence’s fiscal woes, there was a $110 million structural deficit. He cut it to a fraction of that, in part, by shrinking the size of city payroll by some 200 employees.
We owe a debt of gratitude to our city workers from Laborers Local 1033 who keep this city running every day and were the first to agree to significant concessions to help the City,” Taveras said. He also thanked the police and fire unions, who made significant concessions in their contract negotiations.
While employees, retirees and nonprofits are being asked to help, there is one constituent group the mayor said he would like to avoid tapping into: the taxpayer. While he didn’t say a tax increase was off the table, he did call it “untenable.”
Update: An earlier version of this story indicated that Taveras wants retirees to contribute $8 million to help the city out of its deficit. In fact, that is only the health care portion of retiree benefits that Taveras hopes to save.
Everyone knows what the state of the city is. Providence Mayor Angel Taveras has already sounded the alarm loudly. But nonetheless, he’ll still deliver the annual speech tonight at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall.
The state of the city is, of course, disastrous. Rhode Island’s capital city is on the brink of bankruptcy and could literally run out of operating funds by June. Taveras, a progressive Democrat, has trimmed the deficit by shrinking the city staff and through tough contract negotiations with employees, but he’s still some $22 million in the hole.
Certainly in his speech tonight Taveras will reiterate that retired employees and tax-exempt non-profit landowners need to pony up in order for Providence to remain fiscally solvent, but it will be interesting to see which group he reserves the stronger rhetoric for.
To date, Taveras has had harsher words for the retirees, but there’s a reason for that. With them he has a lever by which he can compel the needed capital, namely receivership and the city’s new relationship with Bob ‘Scissor or Guillotine’ Flanders.
However, the real money is with the nonprofits.
Brown University already pays Providence more than $2.2 million a year. But the Ivy League school owns property that would be net $38 million if it weren’t exempt from paying property taxes and is sitting on an endowment of more than $2 billion and just approved another tuition increase. Brown can afford to pay the city more, and likely will. Same with Johnson and Wales. It’d be nice if RISD and PC would follow suit.
The hospitals, the other big tax exempt entities in the city, are another story. Together, the six profitable medical institutions in Providence own property that would be taxed at more than $44 million. They pay the city nothing.
And it’s not because they are hurting for cash. Lifespan, which runs four of those hospitals, paid its nine highest-earning executives more than $9 million in salary and bonuses. Their CEO alone made $2.9 million. And according to the nurses union at the hospitals, Lifespan has made $320 million in profits over the past six years.
Providence needs a share to share in the financial success of Brown and Lifespan. If it doesn’t, no matter how much Taveras and Flanders are able to wrestle away from retirees, it won’t make the state of the city any less ruinous.
Note: The mayor’s office plans to live tweet his speech. The mayor tweets using @angel_taveras and you can follow the tweets and add your own using the hashtag #pvdsotc.
Everyone is certain to remember the controversy surrounding the 38 Studios $75 million loan guarantee deal. I, for one, was concerned about the tepid clawback provisions in the deal that would let 38 Studios off with a $400,000 fine if it didn’t create 400 jobs in the state. In any case, Kingdoms of Amalur was released this week, and it has been receiving stellar reviews from all over the country. Case in point is this glowing review from the New York Times.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning isn’t just good. It sings with infectious, engaging excellence. This is a game that knows exactly what it wants to be, what it wants to provide and what its players will enjoy. Then it delivers with confidence, style and, not least, fun in abundance. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is one of the finest action role-playing games yet made.
I am very excited to play this game (although it’s something I’ll have to do after the semester ends). And my hope is that the placement of 38 Studios downtown, and the co-location of Hasbro’s children’s video games division right next to it, could result (with some significant collaboration and organizing at the state level) a new business cluster in Rhode Island.
One of the most important things the state needs to remember is that cluster development takes a long time to form and grow – there are no quick fixes to the state’s economy. But the state can help in broader economic development trends by making strong connections among related and supporting businesses. For instance, while the packaging was designed by 38 Studios, it needed to be created. The manufacturing sector is still the 4th largest industry in Rhode Island, and it’s likely that there are plenty of manufacturers that have the capacity to produce the packaging. Likewise, the actual disks needed to be pressed. Was there a local disk maker that could have been used? Then there is the shipping and logistics, warehousing, etc., all of which is possible in RI with connections to air and rail freight.
I’m sure that all of these additional support businesses can be found locally in the state, keeping more of the wealth created by 38 Studios in Rhode Island. We have amazing artists and designers coming out of RISD every year. And it wasn’t an accident that New England Tech created a Video Game Design program. It would be nice to leverage these incredible assets to promote further economic development in the state, rather than just complaining about taxes and unemployment. Of course the patience and deliberation required for long-term growth runs counter to our political system and national culture of immediacy. Thinking about this as a 20 year strategy doesn’t come easy, but wouldn’t it be awesome if, in 2032, we can celebrate Rhode Island as the video game capital of America?
A group of students attending Brown University are publicly calling on the Brown Corporation to increase its monetary contributions to the City of Providence. Tomorrow morning at 10 a.m., students will speak in front of the University’s historic Van Wickle Gates, announcing the beginning of their campaign to convince Brown to reconsider its current fiscal relationship with the Providence community.
“We’re doing this because Brown’s part of this community, too,” said Becca Rast, a sophomore. “As such, we need to step up and do our part to help make Providence the city we all want it to be.”
Brown and the City of Providence have been in negotiations for over a year about increasing the University’s payment in lieu of taxes, but recently talks fell apart when the Brown Corporation refused to pass part of an agreement in which the University would pay an additional four million dollars per year to the City, of which half would be earmarked for the Providence public schools and half for taxes on land in the newly-opened I-95 corridor. Following this breakdown, Mayor Angel Taveras recently announced that the City may run out of funds before the year is out.
“To me, it’d be different if Brown were the only entity being asked to pay more,” said Saski Brechenmacher, class of 2012. “But in the last year, Providence students and families have lost their schools, taxpayers have had their taxes raised yet again, and union members have given up benefits. As students, we are not willing to sit back and watch our university refuse to share in the sacrifices being made by so many other Providence stakeholders.”
“We love our school. That’s why we want it to do the right thing,” said Zack Mezera, a junior at Brown. “And it’s why we are calling on the Corporation to agree to contribute at least the $4 million amount that President Simmons endorsed earlier this year, as well as to begin an open and transparent review process of Brown’s fiscal relationship to the city, with participation and feedback from the student body and the Providence community about what a truly engaging and productive city-university connection should look like.”
Students made clear that they understand the many ways Brown contributes to Providence already, and say they do not think this is about the city becoming dependent on the University. “We’re not here today to in any way imply that Brown is the cause of Providence’s fiscal crisis or the answer to it,” said senior Tara Kane. “What we are saying is that Brown has a responsibility to step up and be part of the answer. Because that’s what good neighbors do.”
From the Educate Providence website:
Providence, like the rest of the country, faces significant challenges in ensuring that all of its children and youth have access to educational options that enable them to succeed in school and life. With shrinking budgets for school systems, increasing economic hardships and a fragmentation of the public and private systems that support children and families, we need new models and strategies to prepare children for their futures. A new consensus is emerging about educational excellence: It comes from a focus from cradle to career; requires academic, social and emotional supports and preparation; involves both integrated in- and out-of school approaches; and calls for all types of schools and academic strategies to meet the needs and interests of diverse learners.
In Providence, previous reforms, initiatives and efforts have brought glimpses of change, but none have translated into the fundamental educational improvements that our children and youth deserve. It is time to take significant and swift action to deliver quality education and programming that better prepares and enables our children to succeed in life.
Mayor Taveras formed the Education Opportunity Working Group (EOWG) in June 2011 to assess the Providence educational and community landscapes for strengths, weaknesses and opportunities by examining quantitative data and having qualitative discussions with a range of stakeholders. From this data-gathering and analysis, the EOWG was responsible for recommending goals, strategies and related indicators in alignment with the Mayor’s overall goals for reform implementation, both in and out of schools. Members of the EOWG, representing a diverse set of constituencies, include:
- Bill Bryan, senior project executive, Gilbane, Inc.
- Dawn Clifton, leader, Providence Public School Department Parent Advisory Council
- Lee Keizler, leader, Providence Public School Department Parent Advisory Council
- Nicole Mathis, principal, Nathanael Greene Middle School
- Elizabeth Melendez, Spanish teacher, E-Cubed Academy High School
- Keith Oliveira, member, Providence School Board
- Angela Romans, senior advisor on education, Mayor’s Office, EOWG chair
- Warren Simmons, director, Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
- Andrew Snyder, director, Rhode Island College Education Leadership Program
- Kenneth Wong, chair, Brown University Education Department
The EOWG was formed as a committee of the Children and Youth Cabinet (CYC,) a stakeholder group formed in early 2010 and convened by Mayor Taveras in early 2011, comprised of City officials, school department staff and community organizations. A key focus of the CYC is to improve collaboration in and out of school and across a variety of stakeholders in order to improve outcomes for children and youth in Providence. Numerous community organizations, many of which have participated in the CYC, are committed to lending their resources and talents to improving outcomes from “cradle to career.
One of the first things I did in Providence, even before the boxes were unpacked, was fish Roger Williams Park. People are sometimes surprised to hear how many fish there are in the ponds… largemouth bass, bluegill, crappy, white perch, and carp (considered invasive but real fun to catch). The ponds are truly a treasure for the urban angler but have long been plagued by poor water quality. That’s why I was so excited to learn of the plan for a multiphase project to improve the ponds’ water quality, habitat, and biodiversity (lot’s of additional info here). Unfortunately, I learned of it just after the initial meeting last fall. In any case, I don’t plan to miss the next one:
2nd Public Meeting to Restore Roger Williams Park Ponds
Where: Roger Williams Park Casino
When: Tuesday, February 7th, at 7PM
The plan itself is comprised of the following phases:
Phase 1: “Best Management Practices,” Community Engagement and Restoration Design.
Included in this phase, shoreline planting, wetland construction and waterfowl control to reduce water pollution in the Park, as well as development of a plan and cost estimates for restoration of the entire ponds system.
Phase 2: Full-scale Restoration
Included in this phase, further reductions of on-site pollution and reduction of off-site impacts, continued restoration of biodiversity including control of invasive fish (sorry carp anglers). Of particular importance in this phase will be the planning of ways to address upstream sources of pollution, the watersheds surrounding Mashapaug and Spectacle Ponds.
Phase 3: Migratory Fish Restoration
Included in this phase, restoration of the stream continuity and migratory fish passage along Belafonte Brook (*love it*).
If you can’t make the meeting, volunteers can get involved by contacting the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program (NBEP).
Mayor Angel Taveras will induct three leaders whose actions have had a significant impact on the lives of Providence residents into the 2012 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall of Fame on Wednesday, February 1 at 7 pm in the City Council Chambers at Providence City Hall.
Leo DiMaio, founder of the College Readiness program and the Talent Development program at the University of Rhode Island, the late Providence Councilman Miguel C. Luna, and the late community activist William “Billy” Taylor have been selected as the 2012 MLK Hall of Fame inductees.
They’re being honored for their demonstrated efforts to carry on the legacy of the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by making substantial contributions to acceptance, social justice, civil rights and equality. Mayor Taveras selected the honorees from a list of nominees submitted to the Mayor by the Providence Human Relations Commission.
The recipients’ names will be permanently inscribed in a plaque in Providence City Hall. The program will also include a spoken word performance by Franny Choi of PrSYM and performances by John Britto, RPM Voices, and the Eastern Medicine Singers. There will also be an American Sign Language interpreter.
PROVIDENCE, RI – Click on the image above to hear a short podcast with Dr. Angela Davis. It is from a brief interview I conducted with her after a keynote address she gave on Monday, June 23, 2012 at Rhode Island School of Design. More information about her talk is below; in the podcast/interview, I ask Davis more about the history of race relations within the labor movement. She replied with an abbreviated timeline of when and why Blacks were excluded, but went on to discuss the benefits of integration in the Labor movement, citing one group in particular – the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (the ILWU). A labor union that primarily represents workers on the West Coast, the ILWU accepted Black workers as members as early as the 1930′s.
Later in the century, explained Davis, Black workers within the ILWU helped introduce new “radical” ideas into the labor union movement, including during the global campaign to dismantle Apartheid South Africa.
The podcast is produced by me Reza Clifton (Reza Rites / Venus Sings / DJ Reza Wreckage). Music by (and played with permission from) The Blest Energy Band ft. Tem Blessed & The Empress. The song, “The Struggle,” comes from their album ”Re-Energized,” which was released January 20, 2012. The podcast and article written below are also available on www.IsisStorm.com.
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(PROVIDENCE, RI) – Imagination, collective struggle, and the inclusion of ordinary and disenfranchised people. These were among the themes and lessons shared on Monday, January 23, 2012, when famed scholar, activist, and former prisoner (acquitted of charges including murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy), Dr. Angela Davis, spoke at RI School of Design. Part of a week of service dedicated to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Davis’ keynote address covered the topic of “Building Communities of Activism.”
Her talk included a discussion of King’s belief in collective action despite the memorializing of him as the face of the Civil Rights Movement; an examination of the New Deal from the perspective of the protests and direct actions that prompted the policies that emerged after the 1930′s era Depression; and an analysis of the “prison abolition movement” as an important part of the worldwide struggle for social justice, workers rights, and economic equality.
Davis also talked about and periodically referenced the Occupy (Wall Street) Movement throughout her talk, including the site here in Providence. At times, she was thoughtfully critical about what many have documented as the movement’s absence or sparsity of space for discussions about race, class, and the “intersectionality” of these and other issues in the Occupy encampments, as well as concerns associating the US occupy movements with traditional American occupation narratives of Native lands, Puerto Rico, Iraq, and other sites associated with the rise (and ills) of “global capitalism.” Davis displayed this same kind of caring admonition in reference to the exclusion of prison labor union issues in spaces created by the “free union movement,” expressing pride in the advancements but honesty in the historical tendency to leave certain groups out (ie. women, people of color, and prisoners).
Overall, though, Davis expressed an unbridled show of support and enthusiasm for Occupy activities (and the labor movement), citing Occupy as the main reason why a climate exists again in this country for discussions on economic inequalities and the failures of capitalism. Notably, she also inserted occupy in her speech, reframing the syntax and lexicons usually used in historical texts about Civil Rights and Worker movements, where terms and phrases like “sit-ins” and “street demonstrations” became sites or examples of people who “occupied” spaces.
Conscious of her audience and the origins of the invitation – RISD, an art school – and in response to a question from a student, Davis encouraged artists to continue making their art. Harkening back to the ordinary people who joined because of their collective abilities to imagine a world without segregation, racism, jails, etc. Davis says that artists are in the practice of imagining the impossible, and that alone is a gift to the world – and contribution to the movement.
Was with Occupy Providence to the City Council meeting on Thursday night and the City Council distributed the following flier about how the wealthy Brown University refuses to pay their fair share in Providence — even after teachers, firefighters, police officers and city workers did their fair share, the taxpayers did theirs and even after lots of public schools were closed.
The Facts on Brown University and their “commitment” to Providence
Facts about Brown University and their real estate holding companies:
- Brown owns 203 properties in Providence.
- Assessed value of properties is $1,042,111,400 or $1 Billion.
- Taxes that should have been paid is $38,186,481 or $38.2 Million.
- Payment Brown made pursuant to 2003 MoU: $1.2 Million.
- Taxes Brown actually paid: $2,283,987 or $2.3 Million.
- Brown’s Budget is $834 Million.
- Brown’s Endowment is $2.5 Billion.
If fully taxed, Brown would pay $38.2 Million.
Brown currently pays $3.5 Million.
- 25% of Brown taxes due (Carnevale bill) would be $9.5 Million
- 22% of Brown taxes due (Revenue commission report) would be $8.4 Million
- Deal reached with Mayor would have total Brown payments as follows: $3.5 Million + $4 Million = 7.5 Million.
- Deal offered by Brown after they reneged on deal with Mayor: $3.5 Million + $2 Million = $5.5 Million.
Facts about Yale University:
- Yale University is New Haven’s largest contributor to the City budget beside the state. Each year, Yale pays the City more than $15 million in taxes, voluntary payments, and fees – money that helps fund schools, safety, and other citizen services. Yale pays for its own police force, pays the City for fire services, and pays full property taxes on all its commercial properties. The City receives further millions in state PILOT payments because of Yale’s academic property.
- Over 920 Yale employees – most of them first-time homeowners and half African-American and Latino – have taken advantage of the Yale Homebuyer Program, which provides a $30,000 incentive for staff and faculty who purchase homes in New Haven neighborhoods. Through this program, Yale has invested more than $22 million to leverage nearly $150 million in home sales.
- Yale’s leadership commitment to establish the New Haven Promise program with $4 Million will offer a powerful incentive to academic success for New Haven Public School students living in the city. Promise scholars will receive up to full tuition for in-state public colleges and up to $2,500 per year for tuition at in-state independent, non-profit colleges.
Facts on Tax Exempts in Providence:
- Over 50% of the city’s land is tax exempt.
- 41% of the assessed property in Providence is tax exempt.
- Major Tax Exempts own ¼ of city’s non-public land.
- Costs of Direct City Services to Tax Exempts (Revenue Commission Report): $36,234,000 Million.
Councilman John Igliozzi is right. So is Journal columnist Ed Fitzpatrick (cant’ find his column online). And so is Ted Nesi. Theyre all right. Brown needs to step up and pay their fair share.
(RHODE ISLAND, MASSACHUSETTS) – If I were to describe some of the events I have coming up as political, I’m sure someone would ask me, “hey Reza, what is political about an event featuring spoken word poetry and world rhythms?” This is the type of question I love to answer, though, sadly, few seem to find the courage to ask it. Still, I think I want to spend a little time breaking it down for you.
Now, I hate to make this sound clichéd or ultra familiar in terms of the African-American experience, but, really, it’s not clichéd; the transatlantic slave trade and American chattel slavery is where it begins. Remember, this was (is?) a system and a series of policies that made reading and using native languages illegal; made breaking up families, forced breeding, and forced sterilization standard during different periods; and made identity and self-determination a muddled concept at best. Family stories, national heroes, indigenous recipes – banned, marginalized, or high-jacked. From these conditions, a people fought onward and moved forward, often in the form of Negro spirituals, blues music, and later hip hop. In essence, if personhood, pride, and goal-setting could not be achieved through homeownership, the right to vote, or access to living wages, then it was through music, oral storytelling, and creating new (creole) sounds within which people of African-descent found courage and voice.
Today, we see challenges and struggles such as low high school graduation rates, exorbitant prison/probation rates, and disparities in healthcare access, treatment, and mortality rates – again, caused or condoned by this country and state’s systems and leaders. Therefore it is in the tradition of our ancestors, activists, and cultural rebels before us that “The Rhythm Heard Round the World” event happening tonight is, in fact, a political gathering. There will be new spaces, new sounds, and new ways to communicate our stories and build community – strategies we are forced to return to again and again; a recipe that calls for a dash of politics and a sprinkle of art.
That is one of the reasons I’m so excited about another event I have coming up: Soul Rebels Unite: An Empower Communities Event and Reggae Bashment. Don’t tell me that a genre of music known for a song called “Legalize It” is not a place to discuss or engage in political conversations. As I’ve explained to some: it is one thing to perform about smoking weed; it is another thing to write and sing a song asking people to mobilize, advocate and change laws. This song, for instance, alongside others about unifying as a people to fight illegitimate governance are the subjects that make up the content of the reggae songs that launched the international appeal the genre has today.
So as I get ready to go out to do this musical-political work that I’m regularly engaged in, I ask those working on political and social change to take a peek at the events I have listed, and reconsider your stance about who and where you will or will not engage audiences. Try analyzing things similarly to how I did above – tracing the historical perspective to trends we see today. For the event on Saturday with Girls Rock! RI and Sojourner House, remember how long before women were granted the right to vote, observe the lack of women holding office today, and investigate the dismal number of women making decisions within the entertainment and communications fields. Then tell me that there is no room for art in politics or no reason to mix the two topics.
If you still feel that same way – well, as Mr. T used to say, I pity the fool. If you’re open, or just want to debate me, I hope you’ll join me over the next few days.
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1) “The Rhythm Heard Round the World”
A Night Of Spoken Word Poetry, World Rhythms & An Open Mic
Thursday, January 19, 2012
7:30 – 10:00 PM
Roots Cultural Center
276 Westminster Street
Providence, RI
Price: $5.00
Presented by VenusSings.com, Isis Storm & Funda Fest 14, the event features Singer-Songwriter and Recording Artist, The Dubber; Pecussionist Kera Washington and Bassist Joanna Maria of the band, Zili Misik and performers from the women’s art collective, Isis Storm. The event also includes talent from the RI Black Storytellers’ Funda Fest.
To sign up ahead of time for the open mic, email singsvenus@gmail.com or leave a comment here.
FB EVENT / MORE INFO: https://www.facebook.com/events/243212192414449/
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2) VenusSings.com, rhymeCulture, Isis Storm & La Soul Renaissance Present
Soul Rebels Unite:
An Empower Communities Event and Reggae Bashment
Friday, January 20, 2012
Black Watch Pub
266 Dartmouth Street
New Bedford, MA
Confirmed Artists:
Tem Blessed & Blest Energy ft. the Empress, aka Cita-Light ~ Isis Storm ~ The Dubber ~ King-I ~ Erik Andrade ~ The AS220 Criss Cross Orchestra ~ DJ Blade Mon ~ Rebel International ~ and more.
12-2 PM:
Empower Communities Youth Workshop with YouthBuild New Bedford
7-9PM:
“People of Culture Mixer and Marketplace” with local, regional and national activists, entrepreneurs, poets and musicians
9PM-2AM:
Hip Hop and Reggae Performances, DJ’s, and Sound Systems. PLUS album release party for “Re-Energized” by Tem Blessed & Blest Energy ft. the Empress, aka Cita-Light.
FB EVENT / MORE INFO: https://www.facebook.com/events/224041467674515/
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3) GIRLS ROCK THE SOJOURNER HOUSE: A JOINT BENEFIT FOR:
Girls Rock Camp Alliance & Sojourner House
And A Gathering for Empowerment
Saturday, January 21, 2012
7:00 PM – 1:00 AM
Roots Cultural Center
276 Westminster Street
Providence, RI
FEATURING:
-> Me Jane
-> Simple Etiquette
-> The Bookmarks
-> 5th Elament (CO-FOUNDER OF ISIS STORM)
-> ROUTE .44
-> JERI AND THE JEEPSTERS
FB EVENT / MORE INFO:
https://www.facebook.com/events/226863584050679/
Wednesday, January 18th, 2011, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook
Tonight, Providence based StudyEgg…
With educational costs soaring and performance…ummm…not, e-learning is heating up to become what many believe will be a trillion (yes, with a T) dollar worldwide industry. Providence-based StudyEgg is gearing up to take a bite of that apple.
StudyEgg aims to replace 18th century pedagogy with personalized, interactive learning tools – think study guides on steroids.
At the January Geek Dinner, Co-Founder & CEO Josh Silverman – backed up by Co-Founders Jason Urton (CTO) and Bill DeRusha (CMO) – will give an overview of StudyEgg including its short, but interesting history to date (pivots!), and the first public look at its new product (already producing revenue!)
by Reza Rites / Venus Sings
Click here to listen to a podcast of Brian Hull talking to me, Reza Clifton, (Reza Rites / Venus Sings) on Sonic Watermelons, a show I produce weekly on Brown Student and Community Radio (www.bsrlive.com).
(PROVIDENCE, RI) RIFuture.org, which was once RI’s number 1 political blog, has relaunched and re-entered the state’s blogosphere (with new voices including mine). Learn more here in a podcast of my interview with the blog’s Senior Editor, Brian Hull, from my January 11, 2012 episode of Sonic Watermelons on BSR, a show presented by Venus Sings and Isis Storm “because the world is a big place, with with big ideas and lots and lots of music.” Sonic Watermelons airs every Wednesday from 6:00-8:00 PM on Brown Student and Community Radio. Hear it live or archived at www.bsrlive.com, and follow updates at www.VenusSings.com and www.IsisStorm.com.
Click here to listen to my Interview with Brian Hull
Sonic watermelons 1.11.12 bhull interview by Rezaclif
EcoRI reported while we were gone that Save The Bay has delivered a letter to the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) about “persistent violations of the federal Clean Water Act by Rhode Island Recycled Metals.”
“The scrap metals recycling industry is growing rapidly along the Providence waterfront — and with it a serious and ongoing threat to the Providence River,” [Save The Bay director Jonathon] Stone wrote in the letter. A lack of enforcement and regulation “sets bad precedent and sends a message to other businesses on the water that’s [sic] it’s OK to illegally discharge in Rhode Island.”
Some of you will remember the earlier promises of a green industrial future for Providence’s hospital adjacent waterfront… wind turbines, short-sea shipping, frolicking puppies (OK, not the puppies). Those promises were used by lobbyists to torpedo zoning changes that would have allowed for non-industrial uses to be mixed in with the few existing businesses. With higher density uses no longer in consideration, what we’ve seen instead is the proliferation of waterfront junkyards, to date the only new businesses to relocate to that section of the waterfront and a far cry from the green-washed promises of the polluting special interests.
Of particular concern for residents is the continued lack of action from the city and state.
“In the 18 months since the first violation was reported nothing has been done to fix the problems, [Stone] said. “I think one of the interesting questions is why DEM and CRMC haven’t enforced their own permits? I don’t have an answer to that”…
Save The Bay is calling for construction of a drainage system, a concrete pad for heavy equipment, and a fully enclosed plastic cover to control dust and keep rain off the scrap piles. The environmental group also expressed concern about the lack of public information about a temporary dredging permit for dismantling the aforementioned submarine that has “mushroomed” into other uses. [my emphasis]
Recall that the Mayor Taveras championed his role in bringing in these industrial uses, calling one earlier this year “a very welcome addition to Providence’s working waterfront” (note – working waterfront is the lobbyist preferred term for the polluting special interests). But with this news and with the exposed “Mt. Taveras” scrap pile at Sims Metal Management growing every day, one has to wonder why these environmental questions and the health of local residents weren’t first and foremost among the city’s concerns.
PBN reports this week on the high cost to the city of the recent sale of Promet Marine Services to the newest member of Providence’s polluting waterfront, Sims Metal Management. Six years before it was part of a $16.8 million sale to an international metal recycler, the Promet Marine Services pier on Allens Avenue was nearly sold to the city of Providence for a more modest price of just over $1 million.
But that deal was struck down by the R.I. Supreme Court in a decision that supporters of waterfront development point to with dismay as a key reversal that helped stymie proposals to rezone the area and open it up for nonindustrial uses.
“The city got screwed,” said Providence Ward 10 City Councilor Luis Aponte, the most vocal advocate for waterfront rezoning on the council… “I think now it is clear why the Cohens fought any changes down on Allens Avenue,” Aponte said about the amount Sims paid for the property. At issue for the court was this section of the purchase agreement with Promet: Not withstanding anything contained herein to the contrary, this Contract is conditional upon the City of Providence waiving its right to purchase this property under the same terms and conditions contained herein in accordance with R.I. General Laws Section 37-7-3. Said required notice to City was made by certified mail on May 18, 2005. If the City of Providence chooses to exercise its rights as provided in R.I. General Laws Section 37-7-3, then this contract will terminate and be deemed null and void.Sounds reasonable enough. After all, state taxpayers had maintained the property since the site was condemned in 1911 and quite obviously had an interest in ensuring the next use of that property be in the best interests of the people of the City of Providence. Again from the PBN:In Superior Court, the sale to the city was upheld, but after the Cohens appealed, the state Supreme Court in 2008 struck down the sale on the grounds that the Providence Redevelopment Authority was only authorized to buy “blighted” land, which the pier was not.I guess blight is in the eye of the beholder. Promet was never exactly an environmental poster child, but that’s not the standard applied. What the ruling says to me is that with enough money and the right attorneys, corporations can void whatever sections they no longer like of contracts signed with the people of the state. The result? You guessed it, a nice payout for the corporate interests and their attorneys and even more environmental harm for residents.
There is some good news. The next time the city has a chance to buy the property, the case for declaring the property blighted will be a lot easier.
ABC6 reports that the progressive community based organization – the George Wiley Center – has first-hand experience of the kind of “staggering mismanagement” that has led Mayor Angel Taveras and Council President Michael Solomon to call for the resignation of director Frank Corbishley and the State of Rhode Island to announce that its cutting off all funding to ProCap:
One of the Programs effected by the Agency’s issues is the George Wiley Center in Pawtucket. The center is the middle man between people that need help paying their utilities and programs like ProCAP that provide those services. For the past year, workers at the George Wiley Center say they can’t do their job, because ProCAP hasn’t been doing theirs.
Drawers of files at George Wiley Center show just how many Rhode Islanders come seeking help for paying their utility bills. It’s part of Debbie Clark’s job to refer them to programs like ProCAP.
“They’re the focal point of where everything starts, they’re where people can move on to the next step,” Clark says.
Clark says working with ProCAP has become a battle over the last year, hindering her from helping others.
“People are calling they’re not getting treated properly, I just think the whole thing needs to be revamped.”
(…)Clark says her program has had communication problems with ProCAP for a while and is hoping for change.
“Our hands are tied, we can’t change what’s happening at ProCAP, we can’t affect what’s happening at ProCAP, and all we can do is help these people on what to do moving forward.”
Good news via the mayor’s Web site:
The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), founded 25 years ago by renowned educator Theodore R. Sizer, is moving into its new offices on 325 Public Street, co-located with Big Picture Learning at the Met School’s Public Street campus in South Providence.
“The Coalition of Essential Schools is a great resource for educators who are committed to thoughtful teaching and learning practices—not just for Providence but throughout the country. We are thrilled to have the CES establish new headquarters in the Capital City, and we look forward to their partnership in improving the education of all of our students,” said Mayor Angel Taveras.
That’s a positive sign, but I’m left wondering how much of the progressive education model is actually being embraced.
Last weekend the Coalition hosted its annual Fall Forum. Speakers discussed the problems with current education policy, such as that being promoted by Education Commissioner Gist. What concerns Providence parents is that a focus on high-stakes test taking turns schools into what Fall Forum speaker, Alfie Kohn called “glorified test taking centers.” The question for parents is not so much reform as it is which reform and by which method. Here’s Kohn (“Speakers decry test-taking factories,” Projo 11/13/2011 – not available online):
“Education has become like the old Listerine commercial,” Kohn said. “If it tastes bad, you know it’s working. Traditional education is as unproductive as it [is] unappealing”…
“These types of schools,” Kohn said, “squeeze the intellectual life out of the classroom and victimize the very kids who most need an education that is engaging.”Kohn may be what Projo calls an “education contrarian,” but he’s in good company in the continuous improvement world. Process improvement guru, W. Edwards Deming was once interviewed by a group of educators who asked him, what to measure to improve student performance?. So what was his response?Dr. Deiming: Don’t measure. For heaven’s sake, I’ve been trying to say, “DON’T MEASURE.” Whatever you can measure is inconsequential.What’s important according to Deming is to “restore and nurture the yearning for learning that the child is born with” (for more I encourage you to read this section of “The New Economics For Industry, Government & Education”). That’s exactly the type of reform Kohn is talking about. Let’s just hope the mayor is listening.
While other cities – from Oakland to New York City to St. Louis to Boston to Portland to even, yes, Burlington – have evicted or disbanded Occupy Wall St. encampments, Providence has seen another approach led by Public Safety Commissioner Col. Steven Pare and Mayor Angel Taveras. Instead of using police action, they have used a “communications-first” strategy that has permitted the Occupy Providence encampment to happen peacefully for the last month since it started on October 15th.
Jim Baron at the Pawtucket Times takes note of the successful city/protest relationship in Providence:
Who says Rhode Island can’t do anything right?
As the various “Occupy” movements across the country have degenerated into violent disarray, the politicians, cops and protesters involved with Occupy Providence have shown the way.
Providence Mayor Angel Tavares has wisely avoided the kind of chest-thumping, get-tough ultimatums that have limited the options of macho mayors in other communities. Likewise, Public Safety Director Steven Pare has taken an accommodating, tolerant and cooperative tone with the demonstrators that — Surprise! Surprise! — has been 100 percent effective in protecting public safety. Tavares and Pare have shown real leadership instead of the knee-jerk, panicked response we have seen in other cities.
And the Occupiers, well they just have to be the most polite darned bunch of antiestablishment radicals I have ever encountered. They have shown absolutely no inclination to engage in angry confrontation and are not spoiling for a fight, so they are not getting either.
As a result, tear gas is not swirling in the air over the streets of Providence, the glass is still in all the store windows downtown, no vehicles have been overturned and no cops or protesters have been injured. That seems to be a pretty good definition of an all-around success.
Indeed. Thank you Commissioner Pare and Mayor Taveras for leading the way on this issue.
Join YouthBuild Providence at their first annual Meet and Greet – “Picture A School @ Gallery Z” – on Thursday, November 17th, from 5-8pm at Gallery Z, 259 Atwells Avenue, Providence, RI. This event is to benefit YouthBuild Providence, a fantastic organization that helps out-of-school youth gain the academic, job readiness, and work skills necessary to make the jump into high growth, high demand occupations and careers. Please consider coming to celebrate the amazing work YouthBuild has done in the past by supporting its future! RSVP on Facebook.
As an added bonus, Broadway Bistro is catering (yum), and the Max Cudworth Trio is performing.
For more information, contact Hillary Sorin @ 401.499.4352.
That’s right, RIFuture knew Joey before he was famous. (You can check out the viral YouTube video here.) Everybody should go see him and the What Cheer Brigade next Saturday, November 19, 2011 at Firehouse 13 (fh13.com) 8:00pm. More details at bottom.
DS: From what I’ve seen of the press you’ve gotten, people are really psyched about your quitting the way you did, because it was indeed awesome. But they’re treating it like you guys made a cameo in a Dilbert cartoon: “Work sucks, so it’s sweet that you told your boss to shove it. Period.” But there’s a much more interesting political underpinning to what you did.
JD: There’s a big history to the video. You can sense in the manager’s face that we’ve had a rough relationship for a long time. I started work at the Renaissance in 2008 and quickly learned how bad it was there. Many people ask, “Why did you stay there if it was so bad?” Well, I had to. I was paying for school and this was at the bottom point of the recession–there were no other jobs in Providence.
Since I had to stay, I decided to fight to make the place better. My co-workers and I fought managers informally, confronting them with groups if they were doing something terrible or simply sticking up for ourselves in meetings. We also fought more formally, though, by organizing a union.
We went public with the union in January 2010, presenting the hotel with about 85% of workers signed up on union cards. The union had a card-check agreement with the hotel so we expected to quickly enter into negotiations. We did immediately win many concessions from the hotel–they were so scared of us having a formal union that they tried to appease us. Suddenly hey had all this money to go around they always denied they had! We got raises across the board, new uniforms, many of the worst managers were fired, and so on.
But they also began a vicious anti-union campaign. They quickly began giving me fewer shifts and less lucrative shifts. They held large captive-audience meetings where they spread lies about the union. Managers held private conversations with employees where they made statements like, “If the union comes in, we’ll have to fire half of the workers here.” The hotel even targeted and fired pro-union workers for fabricated reasons. My good friend, a strongly pro-union bartender who had worked at the place since it opened, was fired for supposedly giving away a shot for free. There were no witnesses, the security cameras were conveniently turned off that night, and they provided zero evidence other than the word of a single manager.
This is still going on. The hotel refuses to negotiate and they continue their anti-union campaign.
I was one of the leaders of the union campaign, and so these managers really didn’t like me. I knew that if I was going to give them the pleasure of me quitting that I would have to go out in a big way, and I did.
DS: Do you have a sense of what effects “Joey Quits” is having on your former colleagues? Is morale up? Are the bosses on edge — and does that make them meaner or nicer?
JD: I’ve spoken with a lot of workers who are still at the hotel and a lot of workers who were fired or left the hotel. All my friends who were fired for made up reasons–often directly by the manager in the video–are obviously thrilled about the whole thing. We all agree we’ve gotten back at them 3 million times over.
From everything I hear, the video is a big hit with workers still at the hotel. It became so popular that the hotel had to ban youtube from the hotel’s computers and they’ve had to instruct the phone operators to reject any media inquiries. I think it’s helped to instill a general attitude of rejecting the authority of the managers. I’ve heard the manager in the video has been extremely nice as of late, expect for one or two epic outbursts.
Several people have told me that the hotel has started telling workers that they should hate me for taking business away from the hotel. I don’t think I need to explain why that’s ridiculous–and it doesn’t seem anyone there is buying it. I’m sure in the long run that all this public attention has shame the hotel–and hopefully Marriott as a whole just a little bit–into treating their workers better.
DS: Did you guys have any allies in management?
JD: Some. It is important to note that low-level managers in the service industry often get exploited more than anyone. They are made to work 60 hours a week and kiss-ass all day for maybe a $30000 salary. I know that’s better than what a lot of people are pulling, but it still isn’t glamorous. We actually have an amazing post of our website from a former housekeeping manager at the Renaissance. He always respected the workers and stood up for people, and he was fired for it. His story is great though because he got to see all the disgusting stuff managers said about workers behind closed-doors.
DS: Do you think the conditions at the Renaissance are endemic to hotel work, or does it vary shop by shop? Is having a union vs not having a union the big difference?
JD: The conditions at the Renaissance are typical of hotels in the US. I’d actually say many hotels are worse because they haven’t scared the company with a union. There are cities where working conditions are decent because there is such a high density of unionized hotels. New York, for example, has something like 85% union density, and the workers at those hotels generally get treated very well. And there are unionized hotels all over where things are much better than at the Renaissance. Right down the street at the Biltmore and the Westin workers have all sorts of protections that they don’t have at the Renaissance. It’s not perfect there, but it’s much better.
DS: My sense is that the foreign press gets the labor organizing angle more. Is that your sense too? Why do you think it’s that way?
JD: Some domestic press gets the labor angle. The Huffington Post, for example, wrote a really amazing article. Our local Channel 10 did a good story, too. In general, though, the foreign press is much more interested into the labor angle. I did an interview for a big German paper and all we talked about was the US labor movement. The US is unique in the first world in it’s harsh anti-labor attitude. You could see that come over most viciously in the fights in Wisconsin and elsewhere over the past year. You can see it in our pathetic labor laws. And you can see it in the fact that we have the starkest inequality in the first world. The domestic press’ indifference to labor issues is just a reflection of the larger problem in the US. And I think the international press is so interested because they’re excited to see that there are people fighting for workers rights here.
DS: What do you want to do with all the attention and acclaim that’s followed from this?
JD: I’m trying to channel it all into the fight for hotel workers’ rights. We’ve just launched a website, www.joeyquits.com, where hotel workers from all over the country can post their stories of being mistreated in the hotel industry. I know my video has deterred my managers and maybe even Marriott as a whole from exploiting workers. As we collect stories from workers in hotels everywhere, we can hold the entire industry accountable. We already have a bunch of amazing posts and there will be more put up everyday. Visitors will be able to search by hotel name or city, so they can look up working conditions in the city they’re in or a city they’re visiting. There’s also a resources page that directs workers to organizations fighting for workers’ rights and tells non-workers how they can assist in the fight.
DS: Highlights and lowlights from the tour so far? There are rumors you got offered a pilot — are they true?
JD: I’ve really just been very busy–trying to get word out about the issues and setting up this website. It has been great getting to see all these shows, but there hasn’t been any of the celebrity fun you imagine would just appear. No pilot yet. Maybe the pilots’ union will get behind me though.
DS: Why have you already sold out? I mean, you wore a “f*** Nazi skinheads” shirt the last time What Cheer played one of my fundraisers, but you’re so prim and proper when you appear on GMA and Access Hollywood. What gives?
JD: Do you think that hurt your campaign? I’d like to sell out more–no real money from any of this! The band actually got in a lot of trouble on Good Morning America. We got yelled at multiple times for being too loud backstage and they even threatened to cut our segment to get us to shut up and stay in our room. I also got to say “union” of Access Hollywood. So don’t worry, we’re still keeping it real.
And, the details on next Saturday’s show:Saturday, November 19, 2011
Firehouse 13 (fh13.com)
8:00pm
$7
All Ages
Presenting:
What Cheer? Brigade – Providence’s own 19-piece brass mayhem party.
whatcheerbrigade.com
Brunt Of It – Evil sounding punk and ska from RI and Boston.
facebook.com/bruntofit
DJ Schleifdog spinning hip-hop, 80’s, booty bass and the most
tastefully selected out-of-leftfield pop hits.
PLUS a special guest, to be announced the day before the show!
