Letter to the Editor – Build The Park!

Note: this Letter to the Editor was submitted to the Providence Journal earlier this week. Since then, amidst unprecedented grassroots opposition and numerous damning news pieces about that make it look like Lucchino &Co.'s grand plans are taking on water from all sides, I've received only crickets in response from the ProJo. I am left with the impression that their editorial powers-that-be (i.e. editorial pages head Ed Achorn, author of "acclaimed" baseball books, and others who probably live in the suburbs and never go to parks) are rooting for a subsidized stadium on what should be our new riverside park. Therefore, I'm sharing the letter on new media rather than old and will be pushing it out via social media as well as The Coalition Blog.

I spent one of the last afternoons of a fading, glorious Rhode Island summer in India Point Park this past Saturday. My wife and I pushed our six-week old daughter in her stroller along the water, enjoyed some Del’s, and unwound. There were dozens of other families, couples, and groups of friends, picnicking, fishing, playing soccer, kayaking, biking, and playing music. We left smiling, having savored a few hours of sunshine in this gem of a park. Folks from all over, not just the nearby neighborhoods, come to India Point to relax and play. Some parks just have that special pull. Therefore, I took issue with architect Friedrich St. Florian’s letter (“City Should Include New Ballpark”, Providence Journal, August 30, 2015), in which he asserts that we should make a special deal for a stadium on Parcel 4 of the I-195 land instead of a long-planned riverside park because, “We all know that public parks don't really work unless they are densely surrounded by residential neighborhoods….” India Point Park, separated from neighborhoods by a highway, was “working” beautifully this past Saturday, and the planned riverside park would, too. Unlike a subsidized for-profit stadium, the public park and its pedestrian bridge would honor and continue the decades of effort that has gone into revitalizing downtown Providence. I hope my daughter can look back in 30 years and be glad that we made thee choice to value public parks, and that we said no to a special deal for a stadium.

A federal judge sentenced Gordon Fox to three years in prison yesterday, a mere 15 months after his home and office were searched by U.S. Attorneys, the FBI, the IRS, and the Rhode Island State Police. Fox resigned as Speaker the very next day. In March of this year, Fox plead guilty to wire fraud, bribery and filing a false tax return. He admitted he used $108,000 from his campaign account for personal expenses, accepted $52,000 in skid-greasing cash from a local bar that wanted a liquor license, and failed to declare these illegal sources of income on his tax returns.

Rhode Islanders are rightly angered, but few who have lived here long are surprised. “Just another corrupt pol. They’re all the same,” they say knowingly. Prior to the Fox fiasco, I had thought the days of the Old Rhode Island were over; that we’d entered the second decade of the 21st century and were on the path toward better representation in the halls of power. 

The FBI and IRS raid smacked that hope out of my system. After all, he wasn’t just the “most powerful person in Rhode Island,” the Speaker of the House. He was my state representative. I said that day to my wife, “why stay here if we’ve been wrong and things aren’t getting better?” Why live here in frustration when our leaders continue to serve so shoddily? Opportunity was certainly better elsewhere, and jobs wouldn’t be as hard to come by. I stewed on this for weeks, grew sickened with it, and realized that I didn’t want to back away from my home so easily. I felt I had to get out there, to at least try to make a positive difference before giving up. 

Perhaps it was idealism, unencumbered by the jaded outlook of lifelong residents, but Fox’s outrageous ethical failings motivated me to make a foray into the local public arena. In 15 months, I’ve been an independent candidate for his abandoned seat, joined Common Cause, served on the Providence mayor-elect’s transition committees, been appointed to the new Providence Ethics Commission, and engaged on local issues.

Now the judicial process has run its course, and Fox will serve hard time for his mistakes. But how can we prevent such infuriating and embarrassing failures from happening again? We didn’t even have the policy resources in place to root out Fox’s writ-large malfeasance - Uncle Sam had to ride into town to do it. How can we shine light on the petty breaches if we can’t stop the big ones? The General Assembly could make great strides in ethics policy, transparency, and campaign finance reporting reform immediately, if it chose to make some simple changes. Instead, laughably well-insulated from the threat of losing an election, they’ve suffocated reform again and again.

There are many people, inside and outside of the legislature, who have been tireless advocates for change, year after year, and seen some victories since the smoke-filled room days of the 80s. But it’s not been enough to spare us the stain of corruption. Even after Fox’s downfall, a ripe time for righting the ship, House leadership squelched this year’s efforts to restore the full jurisdiction of the state Ethics Commission.

The honorable officials who make a stand for reform and the good government advocates who lobby on our behalf need the full-throated, energetic, and ceaseless backing of Rhode Islanders. They simply can’t make enough noise on their own. Ultimately, Rhode Islanders must also give teeth to their outcry by stating loudly that they’re willing to vote out incumbents who hamper reform.

We can’t accept that politicians are inevitably corrupt. They’re not. We can’t accept that it’s just “the way it is” in Rhode Island.” It doesn’t have to be this way. I hope that thousands of other Rhode Islanders will break through the jadedness, find their voice, and tell their elected officials that they demand real reform and won’t accept the old, failed status quo.