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A Letter To The Editor ... 

9/4/2015

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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.
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Ethics, Transparency, and the Old Rhode Island Way

6/12/2015

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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.


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Baltimore, USA, 2015

5/1/2015

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I do not want to talk about race.

I have always had a deep-seated feeling that to discuss another person’s race is verging on taboo. I was taught respect, and the worth of every kind of person. I grew up believing that civil rights for all had been achieved, and we are an equal opportunity nation. I hear of white privilege, black struggle, and I chafe at it. I want to believe that no one’s skin color holds them back in America in 2015.

I am white. I grew up in a comfortable working-class home, in a 97% white town in a 94% white state. The university I attended was over 90% white.

I’ve had friends from many economic backgrounds; poor, rich, and in between. I’ve had the chance to travel more than most. I’ve made my home in a diverse city. But my family, educational, social, and professional experience is as a white person, surrounded mostly by other white people.

I
 like to think about fixable problems; things that can be solved. It is hard to for me to think about race, and racism, because I do not want to believe that there is still a problem; one that is so difficult. I will go out of my way to find other explanations for societal ills to avoid considering race and racism as a factor. I view poverty, education, culture, and economics as preferable to pondering race. 

I
sincerely want...or wanted...to believe that race is a non-issue; that it is history.

Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray are changing my mind.

I can’t deny that three black men and two black boys were killed unjustifiably, and I can’t deny that the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore represent the rage of a wronged people who have reached their limit. I don’t know whether race or racism is the root cause of these events, but I know of no white boys shot on sight in a park or walking home with candy and iced tea. I know of no white men whose spines were severed in the back of a police van, or strangled on a sidewalk, pleading for air.

Many white people seem to have arrived at simple, confident opinions about Ferguson, Baltimore, justice, and race. Social media is rife with convenient conclusions.

I see cloying faux solidarity and holier-than-thou expressions of guilt:

The rioters are right and I stand with them.
It’s all you unenlightened *other* white people who are the problem.

We need to check our privilege.
This is white America's fault for centuries of oppression.


I see reductive bloviating and dehumanizing disregard:

The rioters are criminal thugs.
Send in the National Guard, and shoot anyone who damages property.
Black people need to pick themselves up and take responsibility.
We have a black president. Racism is not an excuse anymore.


I don’t know how people can come to these conclusions. They are too quick and too simple. But I can’t stay in the middle; the quiet majority, who see but do and say nothing.

It is not fashionable to say, but I have no suggestions to cure this ill. I am trying to acknowledge that I have certain blind spots. I am trying to start to listen, think, and read about race and racism without putting up a defensive wall in my mind.

I only know a cure is needed. This is the United States of America, and it’s 2015.

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Skeffington's Immodest Proposal

4/21/2015

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As the seasons change and the weather warms, so too does Hope spring eternal in Rhode Island. Project Hope, that is. That’s the name of the report issued by a consulting firm for Jim Skeffington and his fellow new co-owners of the Pawtucket Red Sox. 

Skeffington and company would like us to imagine the report to be a hard, impartial analysis of the economic benefits of uprooting Pawtucket’s pride to a new riverside baseball park in Providence. The report boasts that the new ballpark would bring millions in indirect benefits to the area as fans crowd hotels and restaurants, and new businesses pop up in the bright glow of a revitalized neighborhood. In reality, these numbers are happy math marketing carefully crafted to “Project” the sensation of “Hope” all over the public. We are meant to gaze into Mr. Skeffington’s crystal ball and see a lovely ballpark, imagine the crack of the bat, the city skyline, and thousands flocking downtown to enjoy. 

We are also meant to open our collective thin wallet, and open it very wide.

Mr. Skeffington is a businessman and attorney, but more accurately, he is a professional dealmaker. He has made a living navigating government and corporate waters and influencing those who control the public purse strings. Some of us build things. Some of us create art. Some of us teach. Skeffington makes deals, and deal-making in Rhode Island has been very good to him. He and his colleagues have the project and they want state and city officials to like it, so happy math and gauzy renderings are to be expected to win over those government goodies. After all, we’re told that tax stabilization agreements are a ‘necessity’ for large projects in cities around the country. On top of that, there is 195 land to be doled out, and those responsible for doling it are probably a little worried at their lack of success thus far. So we could also reasonably expect that Skeffington and Co. see a ripe opportunity and would try to get free land from the 195 redevelopment. With that knowledge, we waited through the late winter, wondering.

While we shoveled, plowed, and blew snow into ever growing piles, Skeffington and Co. huddled and drafted a proposal. “What can we get,” they asked themselves? The finishing touches came with the crocuses. 

On April 15, he released their galling proposal to the public. How fitting that Skeffington’s heart-stopping numbers were released on tax day, because we are expected to pay dearly. Four million taxpayer dollars annually. No city property taxes for an entire generation. A $1 lease on the land the stadium would sit upon — essentially free real estate. A net total of $120 million dollars pouring out of the public coffers in a city and state with taxes already pushed to the searing limit, bone-rattling roads, unfunded pensions, and schools that are literally coming apart at the seams. All for those happy math benefits laid out in “Project Hope.” Oh, and those rousing “home runs falling into the river!”

It is laughable that Skeffington and his colleagues proudly proclaim they will pay for the construction with their own funds. It’s akin to a carpenter paying to build a house on his own dime. Unfortunately,  it’s on your property, he’s going to live in it, you pay the taxes, cut him a paycheck each year, and then listen to him say, “It’s all good! My being here really improves the neighborhood!”

Even more maddening is the fact that Skeffington and Co. purposefully fan the flames of fear. He’s made sure to let us all know that he’s received inquiries from “four cities” out of state that are interested. Their implication and our inference are one and the  same here;  they will rip our team right out of Rhode Island if we reject his proposal. 

As a Providence resident, I hope — and  we should all be hoping — that our elected leaders have the fortitude to stand up to this economic and emotional extortion. Tell Skeffington and his colleagues that we the public are walking away from the bargaining table, Worcester Red Sox be damned. Tell them that we won’t just tweak the deal a little for show and proclaim victory. Tell them that we won’t melt and acquiesce to another crippling financial commitment on the taxpayers behalf. Tell them that we reject the happy math and have had enough of crony capitalism. If your proposal is to take our dollars and give none back, Mr. Skeffington, we’ll keep our little riverside public park, thank you very much.

I know I’m far from alone. Social media has exploded over this, galvanizing and uniting Rhode Islanders of all stripes in a way I haven’t seen before. If this project is to continue, we should demand that it provide a concrete revenue stream for city and state taxpayers in return for any public dollars invested — not just warm and fuzzy predictions. This is baseball we’re talking about, after all, so let’s tell our officials to play hardball with Skeffington and Co. Then maybe a fair development deal — one much more tolerable to the public — could be reached. If so, we might even be able to call it Project Hope with a straight face.

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    Ethan Gyles is a resident of Providence's East Side.

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