east greenwich – RI Future

September 21, 2015September 21, 2015

Black Lives Matter, even in East Greenwich

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The March for Racial Justice head down Main Street in East Greenwich, on Sunday, Sept. 20.

First came the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, ensuing protests and videos of other unarmed black people around the country dying at the hands of police.

Then came white supremacist flyers delivered to some driveways in East Greenwich in June (“Earth’s most endangered species: the white race”).

Then came Sunday’s March for Racial Justice, which literally made a loop around my East Greenwich neighborhood.

This stuff is getting close to home!

East Greenwich is 92 percent white. That’s pretty pale. It’s easy to feel like we are not racist – maybe because we don’t have any race to bump up against. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned in the past 14 months, racism isn’t just white supremacist flyers. In fact, the most dangerous racism is living in a bubble where you don’t see there’s a problem.

Most of us moved to East Greenwich to live in that bubble, whether we did it overtly or not. We moved for the schools, we moved for the nice neighborhoods … we moved to be removed from the other. That’s the American way, the human way even. But it’s not the best way to live as one nation, united.

So it was good when, on Sunday in East Greenwich, about 200 people – mainly white – gathered at the Westminster Unitarian Church and marched down to Main Street and back (about 2 miles) chanting things like “What will we do for racial justice? Today we speak for racial justice.”

On Main Street. In my town.

Most of the marchers came from other places, but it was great to see many East Greenwich residents. Maybe a quarter of the marchers were from EG. That’s not a triumph. But it is a start.

March 10, 2015March 11, 2015

RhodeMapRI and preventing future Fergusons

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A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) by Richard Rothstein titled The Making of Ferguson: Public Policies at the Root of its Troubles puts some of the recent brouhaha over RhodeMap RI into keen perspective. We all know the story of the police murder of Mike Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, MO, the high profile demonstrations from the black community in response, and the heavy handed, militarized police reaction. The US Department of Justice released a shocking report of systemic racism and economic exploitation of the black citizens of Ferguson, but the report from the EPI provides insight into how a racially segregated, predominantly low income African-American community like Ferguson can develop in the first place.

Rothstein begins by blaming racial prejudice and racist public policy. “No doubt, private prejudice and suburbanites’ desire for homogenous affluent environments contributed to segregation in St. Louis and other metropolitan areas. But these explanations are too partial, and too conveniently excuse public policy from responsibility. A more powerful cause of metropolitan segregation in St. Louis and nationwide has been the explicit intents of federal, state, and local governments to create racially segregated metropolises.”

It’s important to understand that the policies Rothstein exposes in his report are not located only in the immediate area of St. Louis, these policies existed across the nation, and even where such policies no longer officially exist, their effects can still be felt today. These policies, according to Rothstein, include:

Government subsidies for white suburban developments that excluded blacks, depriving African Americans of the 20th century home-equity driven wealth gains reaped by whites;
Denial of adequate municipal services in ghettos, leading to slum conditions in black neighborhoods that reinforced whites’ conviction that “blacks” and “slums” were synonymous;
Boundary, annexation, spot zoning, and municipal incorporation policies designed to remove African Americans from residence near white neighborhoods, or to prevent them from establishing residence near white neighborhoods;
Urban renewal and redevelopment programs to shift ghetto locations, in the guise of cleaning up those slums.

RhodeMap RI was developed with an understanding of many of the problems Rothstein cites. The public review draft of RhodeMap has a section at the end concentrating on social equity that explicitly called on the plan to “implement a new economic model based on equity, fairness, and opportunity.” It is this part of the plan, the part that seeks to undo the kind of problems that plague communities of color like Ferguson, that seems to most bother RhodeMap opponents.

Rothstein takes a shot at offering possible solutions towards the end of his report, writing, “Many practical programs and regulatory strategies can address problems of Ferguson and similar communities nationwide.” For instance, governments might “require even outer-ring suburbs to repeal zoning ordinances that prohibit construction of housing that lower- or moderate-income residents – white or black – can afford. Going further, we could require every community to permit development of housing to accommodate a ‘fair share’ of its region’s low-income and minority populations…”

Rhode Island has something of a fair share law (as part of the Rhode Island Comprehensive Housing Production and Rehabilitation Act of 2004 and Rhode Island Low and Moderate Income Housing Act (Rhode Island General Laws 45-53)) which sets a 10% goal for each of the state’s cities and town to meet—the goal being that 10% of the units in a town are “affordable.”

Most of the pushback against RhodeMap comes from communities that have very little affordable rental housing and are predominantly White. Legislation to undermine existing laws requiring cities and towns to plan for affordable housing is part of that pushback , such as House Bill 5643, which would “eliminate the mandate requiring cities and towns to include an affordable housing program in their comprehensive plans” or House Bill 5644 which “would remove the mandate requiring cities and towns to include an affordable housing program in their comprehensive plans and would provide an opt-out provision regarding any provision in the state guide plan regarding affordable housing and any related land use provisions” are naked attempts to keep affordable housing, and those who need it, out of their communities.

The legislators who are introducing and supporting the bills are all Republicans, or in one case an “Independent” representing primarily suburban and rural communities like Richmond (Note: part of Rep. Justin Price’s district), West Greenwich (part of Rep. Sherry Robert’s district) Coventry, Hopkinton, Charlestown, Portsmouth, Exeter and East Greenwich. Note that Richmond and West Greenwich have made “no progress” and East Greenwich has made “no significant progress” in meeting the 10% goal.

Undoing the damage of decades of racist housing policy and preventing future Fergusons requires a plan. RhodeMap RI isn’t quite that plan, it’s more a collection of guidelines to help communities develop a plan, but it’s a good step in the right direction. Those opposed to RhodeMap like to put on their “free market” hats and declare that any government intervention into housing is some sort of fascist violation of property rights. However, racially segregated housing is the product of just the kind of government sponsored social engineering that RhodeMap opponents complain of, and many of those opponents have also waged fights to prevent construction of affordable rental units in places such as Barrington and East Greenwich.

To be consistent these defenders of the free market should be calling for a repeal of all zoning restrictions in their communities, but of course they will not. Instead, they will zealously guard the status quo by defending zoning laws that the prevent construction of low income housing too close to their safe suburban enclaves. Opponents of RhodeMap object to being called racists, but when their claims of defending property rights are not equally applied to property owners who want to build affordable housing on their land, what else are we to think?

February 23, 2015

EG mulls moratorium on medical marijuana compassion centers

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Beth Comery is a former Providence police officer who has become an advocate for taxing and regulating marijuana in her retirement. — Beth Comery is a former Providence police officer who has become an advocate for taxing and regulating marijuana.

The East Greenwich Town Council is considering implementing a moratorium on medical marijuana compassion centers at a meeting tonight to which Steve Brown, executive director of the RI ACLU, said “I do not believe municipalities have the authority to essentially halt the implementation of the law at their borders.”

The formal Town Council agenda is broadly worded. It says under new business, “A moratorium on marijuana compassion centers, hookah bars and the growth, sale or distribution of marijuana.” But Council President Michael Isaacs said in an interview that a moratorium is only intended to apply to medical marijuana dispensaries, where patients can legally obtain medical marijuana.

“It was supposed to be narrowly focused,” Isaacs said, noting he hasn’t yet seen the language – but he said he expects the council will vote on it tonight. The Council decided to consider this because of “articles in law review journals about potential zoning conflicts,” he said. “Zoning has to do with the appropriateness of an activity in the community or in a particular part of a community.”

Brown, longtime director of the RI ACLU, said the town can’t decide which state laws it wants to follow. “State law establishes a very detailed scheme for the medical marijuana program and compassion centers,” he said. “It completely undermines state policy as reflected in the Medical Marijuana Act.”

Brown said there exists procedures for municipalities to weigh in if a compassion center applies to locate there, which none have done, according to the state Department of Health.

“Regarding compassion centers,” Brown said, “it is important to note that exclusive jurisdiction is vested in the Department of Health to issue compassion center permits. One of the criteria to be used by the Department is to consider is “the interests of the city or town where the dispensary would be located.” Other than providing that input, a municipality should not be able to then undermine the detailed regulatory analysis the Department has undertaken, in accordance with the law, in making its decision as to whom — and where — to grant a compassion center license.”

Brown said there are different issues if the Council were to try to ban individual care providers who grow medical marijuana.

“The problem is just as acute for medical marijuana users,” Brown said, “They have the right under state law to cultivate medical marijuana for their own use. A municipal attempt to bar medical marijuana users from growing the medicine is a direct attack on the right the Medical Marijuana Act gives them and cannot be lawfully imposed. As a practical matter, a moratorium would have the ironic effect of actually encouraging legitimate medical marijuana users to obtain their marijuana illegally.”

Jared Moffat, director of Regulate RI, a group pushing to tax and regulate marijuana in Rhode Island, echoed Brown’s concerns.

“Banning state-sanctioned compassion centers and licensed caregivers from cultivating marijuana will only reduce access to an important medicine for chronically ill patients and might force more patients to turn to the illicit market,” he said. “Outright prohibition is the worst possible policy for marijuana, and it is disappointing to see East Greenwich potentially going down that road.”

March 12, 2014March 13, 2014

Is equal equitable on state education funding?

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Is equal equitable with regard to state education funding? As it happens, even a progressive state funding formula isn’t equitable when it comes to helping Rhode Island’s economically diverse cities and towns provide an adequate education to all.

That’s what Pawtucket and Woonsocket are arguing before the state Supreme Court in a case that claims the state is unconstitutionally depriving these two school districts of its ability to properly educate its children.

The Department of Education says that the state constitution doesn’t obligate it to provide an adequate, equal or equitable education – only that it “promote” public education. Furthermore, many suburban school committee members, policy analysts and small government activists have pointed out that Rhode Island already imposes a progressive (i.e. not regressive) formula for funding local school districts based on need.

Comparing per-pupil spending between some of Rhode Island’s richest suburbs and poorest cities, it seems they are correct. Barrington and East Greenwich get about 10 percent of their per-pupil education budget from the state and Woonsocket and Pawtucket get more than 60 percent per pupil from the state. In 2014, the state will pay $8,562 per pupil in Woonsocket and $8,270 in Pawtucket. Conversely, the state will pay $1,056 per pupil in Barrington and $987 in East Greenwich. (Ed. note: RIDE does not keep per pupil state aid data, according to RIDE spokesman Elliot Krieger, but you can do the math by dividing column H of this spreadsheet by column A of this spreadsheet, according to RIDE’s Office of Statewide Efficiencies Director Cynthia Brown.)

“At an order of magnitude difference Rhode Island’s funding formula sure does a lot of work to equalize spending,” said Jason Becker, who helped author the 2010 funding formula that Woonsocket and Pawtucket are challenging in court. “I don’t see how the state could do more without dramatically increasing the amount of state funding for education. With our budget and revenue issues I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”

But even with a progressive funding formula (the previous formula was not dramatically different for the richest and poorest communities) the results have been unequivocally regressive.

Take NECAP test results, for example. Barrington and East Greenwich 11th graders both scored 70 percent proficient on their math NECAP while Woonsocket 11th graders were 21 percent proficient and in Pawtucket 20 percent were proficient.

Perhaps the answer lies not within how much the aid the state gives each district, but how much aid each district needs. As Becker notes, the state funding formula equalizes spending. Even though Woonsocket and Pawtucket students have vastly different educational needs than East Greenwich and Barrington students, all four educations cost roughly the same.

In 2011, the most recent year I was able to find data on RIDE’s website, (Ed. note: still waiting to hear from RIDE Statewide Effeciencies Office if there is more recent data elsewhere), the average Woonsocket student cost $13,485 to educate and the average Pawtucket student cost $13,007. Meanwhile, the average East Greenwich student cost $13,973 and the average Barrington student cost $12,708. UPDATE: 2012 comparison here, courtesy of Elliot Krieger.

That may be equal. But considering the affluent suburbs seem to be able to do much more with a similar amount of money, it doesn’t seem equitable. Not even close.

East Greenwich recently built a brand new, “state-of-the-art” middle school building and also completed three major construction projects at the high school including an astroturf football stadium, a new entrance facade and new science labs. And next year, the EG School Committee plans to give every high school student their own laptop computer and add a staff member to facilitate the new program.

Meanwhile, this is what Providence City Councilor Sam Zurier, who is litigating the equitable funding lawsuit on behalf of Pawtucket and Woonsocket, said about the situation in Pawtucket:

“Pawtucket cannot afford to issue a separate text book for every child in some of its schools. You have laboratories with mold in them, the plumbing doesn’t work. You have classes in the elementary school that has two grades being taught by the same teacher. It’s often the case that schools run out of paper this time of year.”

January 27, 2014September 23, 2015

EG Town Council might shut down a 50 year old Main St small business

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Here’s the story of a man who has run a small business in downtown East Greenwich for more than 50 years who may lose his livelihood – a local institution and one of the hallmark properties on Main Street – because he fell behind on his sewer bill.

Norman Harris owns a dive bar/greasy spoon diner right in the heart of historic downtown East Greenwich and he is three-years delinquent on his sewer bills to the tune of $32,000. Some of that debt belongs to his business but the bulk of it comes from the five apartments connected to the restaurant that are occupied by family members.

The Town Council is threatening to revoke his liquor license if he can’t pay the debt in one lump sum.

Sharon Hazard, who runs the restaurant for her elderly father, told the Town Council that tough economic times plus a major money setback as a result of identity theft has left the family finances in shambles – and that they are even willing to remortgage their property to make the town whole. Still, she was berated by two of the elected officials.

Councilor Mark Gee lectured Hazard about how he too had faced hard times and never fell behind on his taxes. “To me it’s almost a little abusive to the town,” he said to her at a public meeting two weeks ago. Councilor Jeff Cianciolo forced Hazard to come back in two weeks with a title search, even though she told the Council she had already paid for one to be completed within the next two months. He wants the debt paid off in one lump sum. Council President Michael Isaacs was more understanding. He said, “We should exhibit some flexibility on this. I think they do need some time to work this out.”

Some see the Harris’ plight as just the cold, harsh realities of an unfriendly economy, and the delinquent sewer bill is the straw that broke the Harris’ business model. Others, like Councilor Gee, see it as a fairness issue; if you don’t have enough money to pay the town for your real property, you don’t get to keep your real property (unless you might turn it into a science center someday, more on this coming up).

And in the parts of town where Norman’s customers still live, a world away from the expensive track homes that constitute most of East Greenwich’s affluence, there are those who think it’s latent racism, class intolerance and a blatant attempt to socially engineer the Harris family off of Main Street.

The Harris’ are known locally as “the only black family in East Greenwich.” Of course this isn’t true, but it can certainly seem that way in lily white suburbia. As a point of fact, the Harris’ are bi-racial, and trace their roots back to the pre-Columbus Narragansett Tribe. (And other black people do live in town.) Perhaps more relevant than their skin color is their style. Many of the Harris’ just don’t look like modern day East Greenwich: think Swamp Yankee rather than soccer mom.

And their business attracts a rough crowd to an otherwise very gentrified center of commerce and community. I’d even go so far as to say the Harris’ can be a rough bunch themselves, and their tavern can be downright dangerous late at night. There’s a pool table, an ashtray out front and it serves cheap beer right across the street from a hotel that rents rooms by the week and/or month. People down on their luck get a room at the Greenwich Hotel, and find some friends across the street at Norman’s Tap. But that tale doesn’t always end well. The police are there frequently on Friday nights to break up fights.

It’s well worth noting that while Norman’s is a rough bar, it is not the roughest one in town. Some of the newer upscale bars and restaurants also draw a police presence on the weekends. The waterfront bars, which attract more affluent out-of-towners than the crowd that stay at the Greenwich Hotel, require multiple officers be stationed there throughout the evening (for parking and crowd control). And the only assault with a deadly weapon in recent years, a stabbing with a fork, happened in one of Main Street’s more posh eateries.

And as far as their debt is concerned, or it being some sort of affront to the community that they have let it fester for so long, I was personally more offended when Don Carcieri left vacant for 12 years (and counting) a piece of prime real estate the town gave him because he said he would turn it into a science center. No public lecture for the Republican former governor from the all GOP Town Council though.

So why do the Harris’ receive such harsh treatment from some on the town council and many more on the internet? Why would the Town Council consider destroying a local business that has been operating on Main Street for 50 years because of the three years of debt? What public good would be accomplished by taking away their liquor license?

There is absolutely a number of very influential local conservatives who think Main Street and the downtown economy would be well served if Norman’s Tap would just go away. Whether or not they are right is beside the point. A delinquent sewer bill should not be used as a tool to take away someone’s livelihood simply because some influential Republicans think more gentrification will make for a better community.

November 8, 2013November 11, 2013

Does privatization of school services put students at risk?

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I’ll never forget when the East Greenwich School Committee considered outsourcing its custodians. It was as bitter a political battle as you’ll ever see in this high-brow suburban enclave. Conservatives claimed they needed to save money any way they could in order to offer the best education possible while local liberals said it was unfair to transfer wealth from working class janitors to the wealthy taxpayers of East Greenwich.

Another reason offered for not jobbing out public school staff to the private sector is many residents feared that private industry would place profits over safety and wouldn’t be as diligent in doing background checks on employees.

Three years later, the .

We will never know if the community could have been avoided this situation if employment was subject to greater public scrutiny, but we do know that this exact situation that is often the greatest fear of many who fight against privatization of public school services.

I sincerely hope no child is ever harmed in the name of saving taxpayers money.

September 19, 2013

EG students not happy about NECAPs either

It’s not just inner city kids like the members of the Providence Student Union who are speaking out against the NECAP test. East Greenwich High School Principal Michael Podraza tweeted a picture today of a school notice about the high stakes test that he suspects a student added some choice words.

“I am an individual,” was written on the Principal Podraza’s note about the NECAP requirement. “I am not defined by a number. Stop pigeonholing us. What about the others.”

Podraza tweeted: “Dear #EGHSRI student who left this behind, I would love to talk to you & discuss b/c you & #EGHSMatters pic.twitter.com/NBlqyWF2Nz”

And here’s the picture of the handout, which says, “As you know, the NECAP has become even more important, in that all students are required to demonstrate at least partial proficiency on the Math and Reading portions of the exam in order o graduate from high school.”

May 9, 2013May 9, 2013

DePetro, Carcieri, Healey at Odeum: Two thumbs down

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That's Anthony Gemma working the crowd before the John DePetro event at the Odeum Theater in downtown East Greenwich. (Photo by Bob Plain) — That’s Anthony Gemma working the crowd before the John DePetro event at the Odeum Theater in downtown East Greenwich. (Photo by Bob Plain)

Yesterday I thought it would be hard to put together a group of people who have been worse for Rhode Island than John DePetro, Don Carcieri and Bernie Healey. But Anthony Gemma proved me wildly off base by showing up as well.

If you missed my live-tweeting of conservative Catholic night at the Odeum Theater on Main Street, East Greenwich last night, don’t worry. You didn’t miss much.

The most exciting moments included DePetro probing Father Healey about whether or not people chew gum in church, Feroce scrolling through his smart phone to read aloud from his email or Carcieri talking about 38 Studios. Oh, that’s right, DePetro didn’t ask Carcieri about 38 Studios; instead they talked about how idyllic life was back in the days when Thanks Don was growing up.

I’m pretty sure Charlie Rose’s job is safe.

It was really more of a fundraiser for the struggling local theater than actual entertainment. Many, if not most, of the attendees were dyed-in-the-wool conservatives and more than a few were friends and/or relatives of the headliners. DePetro made more references to the local restaurant that sponsored the evening than he did to leadership, which was supposed to be the focus of the event. Local celebrity appearances were limited to former state Senator Frank Maher and Anthony Gemma.

Here’s a Storify of most of my tweets from last night and many of the responses I got.

April 12, 2013April 13, 2013

On Stage Together: Carcieri, DePetro, Healey

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odeum george reed — The inside of the Odeum Theater before it was renovated. (Photo by George Reed, courtesy of EG Patch)

What do former Governor Don Carcieri, Rev. Bernard Healey and John DePetro all have in common? The three biggest enemies of civil liberties in Rhode Island? Three people only popular on WPRO? Three people who progressives wish kept to themselves?

Even more precisely, these three pillars of Ocean State conservatism will be appearing together, on stage, Wednesday, May 8 at the Odeum Theater in the most infamously Republican town in Rhode Island, East Greenwich. (Ed. note: also RI Future headquarters) They’ll be joined by Alex and Ani CEO Giovanni “John” Feroce – who you may have known was a Republican state senator on Smith Hill from 1992 to 1994.

It’s part of the newly-renovated theater’s “mission of providing a variety of social, cultural and educational opportunities,” according to a press release sent by former Providence Journal and PBN editor Frank Prosnitz, who did not mention exactly which category this trio falls into.

It did say it was the first of a three part lecture series at the Odeum Theater for hometown boy John DePetro. Future guests will be unveiled by DePetro at a press conference today at 1 p.m. at the Odeum, 59 Main St.

March 4, 2013March 4, 2013

Gist On Public Education Disparity In Rhode Island

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gist in eg — Education Commissioner Deborah Gist at Archie R. Cole Middle School in East Greenwich.

I went to an East Greenwich school this morning to interview state Education Commissioner Deborah Gist about the education disparity between the affluent suburbs in Rhode Island and the poorer inner cities. While I was waiting for her a 7th grade student came into the office to report finding a diamond.

This pretty much sums up public education in Rhode Island. In Central Falls, seven of ten students are in danger of not graduating. In East Greenwich, students literally find precious gems on the floor.

East Greenwich and Barrington offer better public education than Central Falls, Woonsocket, Providence and Pawtucket not because they have better students or better teachers or better test scores. It’s because they have more money.

It’s true that the state spends more on the average student from impoverished school districts than it does on the affluent ones, but even still it’s very hard to argue that kids in East Greenwich aren’t getting a much better education than kids from Central Falls are. In this clip, Gist admits that by her own metrics, EG students do get a better education than Central Falls students.

In fact, if resources were doled out by a school’s need rather than the public sector’s willingness to pay, students in Central Falls would get way more tax dollars than would students in East Greenwich. But we only use those metrics to decide who fails, not where to apply our resources. The state is implementing a new funding formula that will help, but it is not enough and it is being phased in very slowly to mitigate the hit to taxpayers.

In the meantime, the haves are getting a good public education in Rhode Island while the have-nots are not. The question is not whether we are doing more for the have-nots, the question is are we doing enough.

This is the single most important issue in local public education. Not whether we use test scores or grades to measure performance, and not whether we focus our resources on the many in traditional public schools or the few in pilot program charter schools, but how do we make sure kids in every corner of the state get good educations. Is it by giving them more tests, or is it by appropriating more resources? The right answer might not be the easiest or cheapest answer. It rarely is.

Here’s my full 7 minute interview with Gist.

February 20, 2013February 20, 2013

Why Leaving RI To Save Tax Dollars Is A Bad Investment

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Anyone who leaves Rhode Island for a better life, god bless. Anyone who leaves to save money, good riddance. And to anyone who would confuse the two, get real.

As the progressive left in the Ocean State calls on the General Assembly to reverse the Carcieri-era tax breaks for the rich, the best defense the right has come up with is that the affluent will move away if we ask them to pay their fair share. While I’m fairly confident most folks are smart enough not to make such life-altering decisions based on the singular factor of tax rates, for those of you who aren’t, here’s a personal story for you:

When I was in elementary school, my parents split up and my dad lost his job. My mom, who worked at Bostitch, could no longer afford our big fancy house and our affluent lifestyle in the suburbs of East Greenwich. So she had a choice: she could either move us to a different community, where her meager salary would go much farther, or we could continue to struggle to get by in EG.

My mom, easily the wisest social scientist I have ever known, decided to keep us here. We moved to a smaller house but stayed in town. From our new home, I could almost see Warwick from the back yard, it was right there on the other side of Post Road less than a half mile away.

We could have moved there, too, and at a fraction of the cost. But my mom wanted to keep us in East Greenwich schools, which were already regarded as head and shoulders better than our neighboring communities. (This was the first generation in 100 years of Bostitch employees who didn’t by and large live in East Greenwich … now the manufacturing plant is still here but is virtually devoid of jobs.)

I’m quite pleased with my mom’s decision to keep us in East Greenwich even though it cost her more A LOT more to do so. So is she, as are my brother and sister. Interestingly, the four of us are pretty socially, politically and economically diverse, and perhaps the one thing we all agree on is that staying here was well worth the investment.

Now, you can argue that East Greenwich to Warwick isn’t the same as Rhode Island to Massachusetts. But you can’t argue that it’s cheaper to live in East Greenwich than it is in Warwick – and that is the argument conservatives are making on migration; not that wealth will cross state lines because it is better elsewhere, but because it is cheaper.

If wealth is moving to neighboring states because it is better there, then Rhode Island has a problem. But if we’re losing wealthy residents because it’s cheaper there, that’s not as bad … Ask anyone in my family and they will tell you those who would make such a short-sighted decision might not be destined to be wealthy forever…

January 27, 2013January 28, 2013

Bald Eagle, Hawks Over a Frozen Greenwich Cove

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frozen cove1 — A frozen Greenwich Cove. (Photo by Jeff Sevens)

One of the things I love most about these sustained deep freezes is my neighbor Jeff Stevens and I have a tradition of going for a walk across Greenwich Cove when the ice permits.

The Cove – the EG Riviera, as locals sometimes call it because of the confluence of working waterfront, high end bars and yacht clubs with a forested state park on the other side – might just be the stillest water on Narragansett Bay. Hence the best place for ice. It’s only a about a mile long and never more than a 1,000 yards across and I don’t know any part of it to be more than 10 or 12 feet deep.

frozen boat copy — This sailor isn’t going anywhere soon. (Photo by Jeff Stevens)

This little spit of water hidden by Goddard Park freezes hard. As recently as 1979, according to Ray Huling’s “Harvesting the Bay” shellfishermen cut through the ice with chainsaws, under DEM supervision, to rake up the quahogs from beneath the frozen surface.

On Friday, I tweeted that it was getting solid. Stevens wrote back, “Fools rush in.” Prophetic, in that by Sunday morning we headed down to the town dock to walk across the water.

bob ice cove — Me taking a picture before my phone froze. (Photo by Jeff Stevens)

The ice could hardly have been more solid. Jeff jumped right from the dock onto the snow-covered Cove and its ice budged not at all. It was plenty cold enough to keep the brackish water solid. In fact, my iPhone froze after just one crummy picture!

We headed south towards the mouth of the Maskerchugg River when Jeff pointed out to me when he at first thought was a hawk. Then he said, “wait a minute.” And I chimed in with, “Is that a…??”

We both knew it was. A bald eagle. The avian symbol of our nation has returned to Rhode Island, and a specimen was flying over our tiny little corner of Narragansett Bay.

eagle2 — A Bald Eagle flying over Greenwich Cove. (Photo by Jeff Stevens)

Bald eagles, once completely gone from the northeast, are actually being seen all over the Ocean State recently. The Sierra Club had an outing to East Providence to eagle spot today, and I saw a picture of a bald eagle (perhaps the same one Jeff and I saw) on Hundred Acre Pond in Barrington.

They have been spotted in Scituate, Tiverton and even Warwick. Last winter, I just missed seeing one at Trustom Pond near Matunuck.

eagle3 — Another view of the bald eagle flying over Greenwich Cove. (Photo by Jeff Stevens)

If you’re going to be a bird in Rhode Island, there are plenty worse places to do so than Greenwich Cove. There are a gorgeous variety of ducks this time of year and both Jeff and I see the same couple hawks almost every day, along with almost every other kind of bird that enjoys salt water and dense forests (though I have never seen any owls here, disappointingly enough). The Cove is overrun with ospreys and kingfishers in the summer – and we even saw one of the latter today!

coopers hawk jeff — A Cooper’s hawk, perhaps? (Photo by Jeff Stevens)

When Jeff and I got off the water and were walking back up towards his side door, I saw this guy fly into a tree in his yard. Jeff thinks it is a Cooper’s hawk, but I’m not so sure. He was hardly bigger than a blue jay!

Then we went inside, stoked up his wood stove and made a pot of coffee.

From his kitchen window, we watched our third raptor of the morning – one of the neighborhood red tail hawks – sit in a tree in the Stevens’ back yard for about an hour as we warmed up by the fire.

November 30, 2012November 30, 2012

In EG, DePetro, RI Future’s Hometown, It’s a Holiday Tree

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The decorated tree in front of East Greenwich Town Hall, like the one on the State House rotunda, is called a holiday tree, reports East Greenwich Patch.

“Was this a Christmas Tree lighting?” wrote editor Elizabeth McNamara. “Not according to the notation on the town’s calendar, which referred to a ‘holiday tree lighting.'”

Ironically enough, East Greenwich is the hometown of both John DePetro, who has repeatedly attacked Gov. Chafee for continuing the tradition of terming the State House decoration with a secular monicker, and me, who has defended the governor for doing so.

Who would have thought East Greenwich, with its all-GOP Town Council, would side with progressive RI Future over conservative WPRO!?!

Well me, actually … not only did I tip off EG Patch to this last night, but also as was reported in Patch earlier in the week, East Greenwich is actually a lot more liberal than the local elected officials would have people believe. This dynamic is evident on this very issue: the town calls it a holiday tree but Council President Michael Isaacs says it’s a Christmas tree after the fact.

It will be telling if this goes unreported on WPRO today as that would lend credence to the criticism that the station is using the issue to beat up on Chafee, who generally snubs WPRO talk show hosts.

Maybe the holiday tree issue has something to do with the 02818 zip code area. Not only do DePetro and I live here, but Chafee lives in nearby Potowmut, which is technically part of Warwick but closer in geography and demographics to East Greenwich. Former Governor Don Carcieri lived here in East Greenwich when he called it a holiday tree as governor, too.

It’s also interesting that this issue would bubble up at the municipal level here in the 02818 zip code, as Chafee is also a neighbor of me and DePetro. He lives in the Potowomut section of Warwick that is actually closer to East Greenwich than Warwick.

September 28, 2012September 28, 2012

Progress Report: Rent, Wages and Econ 101; Community Foreclosure Study, EG Ordinance Violates 1st Amendment

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You don’t need to a degree in economics to understand why rent is skyrocketing while wages are stagnant. As the middle class is squeezed, fewer can afford the American dream of home ownership. So they rent instead. Demand then has its way with supply and the landlords win while the working class loses. Yet another failure of the trickle down theory.

Meanwhile one constantly hears, from Republicans and Democrats alike, that something needs to be done about our outrageously high unemployment rate. But no one really said much when the state Department of Labor and training laid off 65 employees earlier this year. Their jobs, by the way, were to help unemployed people get back into the workforce. Now, thanks to a federal grant, we’ll hire back about 20 percent of the laid-off DLT employees. It’s not enough.

Speaking of the war on the working class in Rhode Island, GoLocal has a list of the communities with the most – and least – home foreclosures.

And speaking of GoLocal, Dan McGowan makes a great point about former Governor Don Carcieri: “…the fact that URI’s funding was nearly cut in half between 2002 and 2010 is a black eye for the former Governor. One of the biggest complaints from business owners is that the state’s doesn’t have a prepared workforce and cutting funding to the state’s largest college certainly doesn’t help matters.”

East Greenwich Town Council President Michael Isaacs admits the town’s restrictions against political signs violate the First Amendment. Unfortunately, simply not enforcing unconstitutional laws isn’t sufficient. The Council should rescind the ordinance.

The irony in Scott Brown attacking Elizabeth Warren for her Native American heritage is he accuses her of using her roots for professional advancement … while the Washington Post refutes that claim, Brown is pretty clearly using Warren’s Native American heritage to advance his career!

No one should ever want to see another Supreme Court, state or federal, determine another election but there are so many reasons to doubt the veracity of the results in the William San Bento vs. Carlos Tobon Pawtucket Democratic primary for a House seat that we’re glad the ACLU stepped in. San Bento is a solid liberal on economic issues but he isn’t all that healthy and some doubt he can successfully fulfill his commitment to the district.

A little bit of Rhode Island’s rich history with pirates, privateers and the slave trade, also the Cranston Herald explains the difference between pirates and privateers.

Today in 1960, Ted Williams hits a home run in his final at bat at that “lyric little bandbox of a ballpark.” Here’s on the event aptly titled “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.”

August 31, 2012August 31, 2012

EG Church Kicks Out Cub Scouts For Discrimination

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An Episcopal church in East Greenwich told a local Cub Scout group it can’t use its facilities to meet because it doesn’t agree with the Boy Scouts of America decision to discriminate against gay people, according to East Greenwich Patch.

Tim Rich, the priest at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, told EG Patch that the decision to not let local Cub Scouts to use its facilities to meet was a “unanimous conclusion.”

He said, “From the lens of faith, which is how I view things, it rejects that certain of God’s children are unworthy to be included. It’s quite the modern-day representation of everything I think Jesus fought against. So, from a faith standpoint I just really reject their decision.”

Rich is new to the church in June. The congregation is somewhat liberal, but has many conservative members as well. It will be interesting to see how the “unanimous” decision will play with parishioners and with East Greenwich residents, who aren’t known for their commitment to social justice.

The Episcopal Church is the largest denomination in the United States to sanction same sex relationships, though it has a tiered system not unlike Rhode Island’s marriage for heterosexual couples and civil unions for same sex couples. In the Episcopal Church same sex marriages are called: “The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant,” according to NPR and the AP.

July 31, 2012

Taveras Impresses Even Conservative EG Rotary

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taveras netroots — Providence Mayor Angel Taveras at Netroots Nation. (Photo by Bob Plain)

At first blush one might guess the East Greenwich Rotary Club wouldn’t be the easiest audience for a progressive mayor of Providence to impress. But this, remember, is Angel Taveras, and I’ve honestly never known a politician with such a gift to win over various constituencies and to influence positive outcomes.

Angel inherited a cash-strapped city and handled it by getting the three-headed hydra of Providence politics – taxpayers, public sector unions and tax-exempt non-profits – to fork over their hard-earned money almost without so much as a debate. He also negotiated a peaceful and mutually beneficial outcome with the local Occupy crowd, a feat I believe to be unmatched in America.

Last week, he traveled downstate to the most conservative town around to talk to a group of business-backing Rotarians, and how do they greet him?

“You should run for governor!” he was told, according to East Greenwich Patch.

It’s easy to understand why Angel is so popular … he’s got an uncanny ability to level with both friends and foes, to tackle problems head-on and to date he’s proven he’s utterly unafraid of reaching consensus on any issue regardless of where a solution may fall on the political spectrum. That is exactly the set of skills Rhode Island needs most in a statewide leader.

He even explained to the group why it is that folks in East Greenwich ought to care more about the plight of Providence:

“We’re all co-dependent … Providence is the heart of the state. If your heart’s not healthy, the rest of your body isn’t. We’re all in this thing together.”

Taveras has already done wonders in healing the state’s heart … here’s hoping he the EG Rotarians, and many others, will get their wish and Angel will apply his considerable political acumen to the rest of the state via a run for governor in 2014.

May 22, 2012May 22, 2012

EG Wants iPads, CF Wants Enough Textbooks

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It’s another sign of the increasing education disparity between Rhode Island’s affluent suburban towns and its economically challenged inner cities: the East Greenwich School Committee is considering getting every student at the high school an iPad, while in Central Falls, Pawtucket and Woonsocket students sometimes share textbooks, taking turns getting to take them home for assignments.

“I don’t disagree with you that there should be a better statewide technology funding program,” said East Greenwich School Committee Chairwoman Deidre Gifford.

Elliot Krieger, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education agreed. In a statement he said, “We are aware that at present not all students have equal access to technology; one goal of the Funding Formula for aid to education is to ensure that all school districts receive adequate funding to educate all students. The formula is phasing in over a ten-year span.”

EG Supt. Victor Mercurio pitched the idea to the school committee last week after a visit to a school district in Burlington, VT that had successfully used iPads as educational tools. “We tried to show the school committee that students would engage more deeply than they would with a book,” Mercurio told me.

The high school, recently named to Newsweek’s list of top 1,000 in the nation, already has about 60 iPads for students to use and the middle school has about 20, Mercurio said.

But in inner-city school districts such as Central Falls, Woonsocket and Pawtucket they still rely on the old-fashioned textbooks. And sometimes there aren’t enough of those to go around.

Central Falls Supt. Fran Gallo said in some instances students from multiple classes will share the same text books. Teachers, she said, will stagger homework assignments so that each class can take the textbooks home at different times during the semester.

“Is that an ideal situation, no,” said Anna Cano Morales, the chairwoman of the board of trustees, the state-appointed school committee for Central Falls. “But … it allows us to be a little more creative in how we teach our students.”

Woonsocket and Pawtucket implement similar textbook-sharing programs, said Stephen Robinson, an education lawyer who represents all three districts as well as Portsmouth and Tiverton.

“I would suggest to you that this is the poster child for why what Commissioner Gist calls the best funding formula in the world is a fraud,” he said. “If it were equitable, every school district could, if not give every students an iPad, at least give them each textbooks.”

While RIDE says it is attempting to remedy such inequities through the new funding formula, Woonsocket and Pawtucket, represented by Robinson, are suing the state. Robinson said ten years is too long to fix the funding formula that RIDE has already said didn’t adequately compensate those and other communities.

“The problem with the funding formula,” said Robinson, “is it’s not fair to the poor urban districts. The reality is Woonsocket does not have fiscal capacity to fund [education].”

Central Falls has not had the fiscal capacity to fund education since the early 1990’s when the state was forced to take over. Meanwhile, in upscale East Greenwich, the school committee is also considering offering Chinese and Arabic classes. Across the Bay in equally affluent Barrington, the school committee there is considering selling slots at its high performing public schools to those who can afford to pay tuition.

While districts like East Greenwich and Barrington, where property taxes can support high quality education, thrive and adapt and even perhaps profit, schools in the inner cities in between the suburbs aren’t making ends meet. Providence has closed schools, and in Central Falls schools are under state control. Woonsocket identified a $10 million deficit in its school budget.

May 21, 2012May 21, 2012

RI Progress Report: Who Still Supports Carcieri?

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Former Gov. Don Carcieri seems to have lost all his political allies because of his historic blunder in giving his friend and political ally curt Schilling $75 million to make a video game in Rhode Island. It will be interesting to see if Brendan Doherty and Mitt Romney – the two candidates Carcieri is really pushing for this cycle – remain loyal to him…

The issue with Rhode Island’s instantly-infamously loan guarantee program is not that the public sector is helping the private sector, it’s that former Carcieri and former EDC chief Keith Stokes made a monumentally awful decision to give one company a huge sum of taxpayer money, not even to mention that it was a video game company run by an ex-baseball player.

Even ask House Minority Leader Brian Newberry, a fiscal conservative who told the Projo, he eventually voted for the loan program because he assumed the addition $75 million would be spread out around the free market. “Nobody anticipated the EDC would give away the store to one company,” he told the Projo. “Who does that?”

Scott MacKay of RIPR has a great op-ed today on how Gov. Chafee has to again clean up a mess left by Carcieri.

Massachusetts has better funded public schools than Rhode Island, they beat us to the casino punch and knew better than us to avoid financing Schilling’s pipe dream … here’s another way our neighbor to the northeast is serving its citizenry better.

File this one under education inequality in the Ocean State: At high schools in Woonsocket, Central Falls and Pawtucket students sometimes have to share textbooks because there aren’t enough to go around, while in East Greenwich the school committee is considering getting every high school student an iPad.

Did you know the Southside Community Land Trust operates about 40 community gardens on vacant lots all over the city? How cool is that!

Good for Congressman David Cicilline for taking issue with some of the often-oversimplified opinions of Projo columnist Ed Achorn … we keep wondering how Achorn will manage to blame the 38 Studios debacle on Stephen Iannazzi and public sector unions (just wait, it’ll probably happen!).

Congrats to Maureen Martin, who GoLocal Prov honors as a “Power Player” this week.

May 14, 2012May 14, 2012

RI Progress Report: Education Disparity, Homeless Bill of Rights, Brendan Doherty, Citizens United, the Ocean Mist

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What you’ll notice when you look at GoLocal’s annual list of best high schools is the ones at the top of the list are in affluent towns and the ones near the bottom are in poorer urban areas. It’s that simple: we have a tiered education system in this state. Rich kids, and those lucky enough to live in upscale suburbs, get great educations and poor kids don’t.

An in-depth look at Rhode Island’s Homeless Bill of Rights, and why we would want to become the first state in the nation to adopt such a proposal.

The US Chamber of Commerce’s TV ad for Brendan Doherty signals that Citizens United is now having an effect on local elections in Rhode Island … not sure how the unions feel about this, but I know I don’t want the US Chamber to have an outsized role in selecting our senators and congressmen.

Scott MacKay says URI professors have a strong case if they go to the state labor relations board that the state engaged in bad faith negotiations … the two sides pretty much had a deal until the governor stepped in.

We predicted it would be there and then Sunday morning it was … the New York Times put together a great story on the plan to stop beach erosion in Matunuck, and how it could affect the legendary RI beach bar the Ocean Mist. For a local perspective, read Matunuck resident Tracey O’Neill’s story that scooped the Times on Saturday. And, really, this picture I took on Friday night of the surf creeping up close to the back deck tells the whole story. Full disclosure: I do not want to live in Rhode Island without an Ocean Mist.

My piece on Rhode Island being the Democrat in name only state really seems to have riled up the right. Justin Katz countered it with a post based on a study that claims the legislature is actually one of the most liberal in the country and on Saturday Travis Rowley gave it his normal fire and brimstone treatment. Rowley is entitled to his opinion. Katz’s piece, on the other hand, is simply intellectually dishonest – no one really thinks our state legislature is particularly liberal except those trying to manipulate facts for their own benefit.

Watch this video to see why venture capital firms like Bain Capital are bad for the economy.

A new masterplan for the heart of Providence … read this if you’ve always loved the idea of living and working downtown.

May 7, 2012May 7, 2012

RI Progress Report: Austerity, URI Contracts, Police Unions

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The Board of Governors for Higher Education meet tonight to decide whether or not to give raises to URI professors, and two other faculty unions, as tuition continues to skyrocket for students. The meeting is at 5:30 tonight, at CCRI’s Warwick campus, and according to the Projo, the professor’s union plans to bus faculty to the meeting. Gov. Chafee has lobbied against the raises. Tom Sgouros wrote an in-depth analysis of the debate back in early April.

The Providence Police Union plans to protest future fundrasiers for Mayor Angel Taveras. In an email obtained by WPRI, they write: “Be prepared to participate and stand your ground as this is going to be the biggest fight ever.”

Understatement of the day: “Rhode Island manufacturing may face uncertain future”. This is the headline on RI Public Radio’s brief announcing the series its launching this week on the the decline of manufacturing in the Ocean State.

It’s an austerity effort that would only make sense in East Greenwich. The proposed town budget would cut money to the Teen Center, a Friday night tradition (since, at least, I was in high school some 20 years ago) where local youths are offered an athletic alternative to the even longer local tradition of binge drinking. The budget protects taxpayer funding for the annual Summer’s End concert – the recently-started tradition of having the RI Philharmonic play a downtown concert. The former happens every Friday night and helps local teens avoid drinking and driving. The latter happens one Friday night of the year and offers adults (and others?) an opportunity to bring their own booze to a downtown party accompanied by classical music.

And in an austerity protest that would only make sense to Rep. Dan Gordon, he ended his tax protest on April 20 and filed his income taxes … the self-proclaimed libertarian reports he got a $331 refund from the state.

As Samuel G. Howard predicted yesterday, austerity will no longer be the de facto policy of European nations. According to the New York Times this morning: “After elections in France and Greece punished leaders advocating austerity, Europeans on Monday contemplated a new and untested political landscape shaped by competing demands for austerity on one hand to counter the debt crisis and growth on the other to avert further deprivation.

Vice President Joe Biden endorsed marriage equality on Sunday … though the White House wishes he hadn’t.