Economic Development: Cicilline described how transparency in government is so important to businesses and developers wanting to move and build in your city. He said that the improvements since the previous administration in that regard have led to business investment in the Westin, the Holiday Inn, and several large residential towers in Downcity. He described these as a "turning point" for Providence, not only because of the way these projects will generate construction jobs and eventually be important factors for bringing people back to downcity, but also because of the huge tax base (and unlike previous projects, they are not subject to tax stabilization) these projects will generate for the city when they are built.

Crime: The Mayor cited lower statistics, improved trust in police since the previous administration, the introduction of community policing, substations, and foot patrols, and said that the police (Both Police Chief Esserman and Lt. Kohen were there today) are now going to turn the focus on to "quality of life crimes", such as burglaries, car break-ins, and graffiti.

Roads: Mayor Cicilline recalled how he was shocked when he came into office and found that the Department of Public Works (DPW), a "multimillion dollar city agency" did not own a single computer to help it keep track of all the road surfacing issues. He described how he has been working on modernizing the DPW by making sure they develop a "road resurfacing system" to address the road problems.

Another point he made was that Providence is shafted (see Press Release) when it comes to state money for maintaining and plowing main roads in town. All the other cities in the state receive 100% of the funding they need for plowing and maintaining their main arterial roads from the state. On the other hand, Providence is unfairly required to pay 60%. In other words the City dips into its own budget to pay for maintaining N. Main St., for example, but once it turns into Pawtucket Ave. or Main St. on the Pawtucket side, Pawtucket doesn't have to pay anything to maintain the road. Correction: Pawtucket actually pays about the same as Providence to maintain its roads. Most municipalities, however, such as North Providence (Douglas Ave. was actually the Mayor's example) have their major arterial road maintenance paid for by the state.

Parks: The Parks Department has undergone a major reorganization under Parks Superintendent Alix R. Ogden to bring the focus onto neighborhood parks. We've written about it previously in our Parks section of our blog.

Affordable Housing: The mayor only mentioned that affordable housing has doubled (we have the feeling that double a small amount is still a small amount) in the last few years, and acknowledged that there was a long way to go.

Education: Finally, the Mayor came to his biggest topic of the night which was education. School achievement statistics are going up somewhat, and Providence has now received important funding from the Wallace Foundation for a new initiative called the Providence After School Alliance (ProJo Article); however, the financing of public education in Providence is in dire need of help. First, Providence has had to demonstrate to the State that it can be trusted with money (unlike, as the mayor said, the previous administration) in order to get funding. This has meant $22 million in "tight budget cuts" that have cut our public school system "almost to the bone".

Secondly, two statistics were brought up - that no other state but Hawaii relies more on property taxes to fund public education than Rhode Island, and that only in 6 states does public education have less support from the State than in Rhode Island.

What does this mean? Because (1) property taxes are a big source of funding for schools, (2) schools don't get enough funding from the State, and (3) Providence's schools serve an urban environment with all its intrinsic problems, the citizens of Providence end up paying property taxes that are prohibitively high. Because of the high rate of property taxation, senior citizens are priced out of homes they've owned, residents who can't afford to live in Providence move out of the city and contribute to suburban sprawl and traffic jams on I-95, and businesses don't want to build or relocate.

His solution is to transfer more of the burden of public education funding to the State. Michigan is a great example of where this has worked, after people there voted on a referendum to pay 1% more in income taxes in order to save on property taxes. Guess how much property taxes went down in Michigan? Because of the economies of scale involved in public schools buying materials (books, etc.) in bulk as a State, residents were able to save 30%!

The governor and legislators from other communities, however, are reluctant to support it. The mayor called on Providence citizens and citizens of other communities to try to put pressure on legislators (especially the non-Providence legislators) to support and pass this tax/financing reform, and has hired Stacey Jordan (Email: sjordan@providenceri.com) to coordinate the effort. The Mayor also talked about being successful in getting a formula for school funding passed last year which will help the financing situation in the long term. This topic was a big item of discussion during the question and answer session as well, and most people in the audience seemed supportive of the Mayor on this.

Question and Answer Session
Besides the items above, here were some of the issues that people had on their minds:
Waterfront industry: A woman representing Sprague Energy expressed her company's fear that the Allens Ave waterfront might be redeveloped, and Cicilline eloquently described how he respected the opinions and needs of industries on the waterfront. However, he couldn't help thinking about that for the greater good of the city, the prime location of the waterfront could be a potential opportunity for redevelopment for public use and recreation, helping to bring up the neighborhoods around it. He stressed that it was just a thought and that discussions with all stakeholders would be an important step before that happened.

Neighborhood Planning: In response to a question from Summit Neighborhood Association President John Howard, Cicilline described how the city is developing, with citizen input, 25 Neighborhood Plans for each of the 25 neighborhoods in Providence. To go along with it is a zoning revision process. This can be found in more detail at the Zoning Commission Website.

Snow removal and Parking bans: It seems that Parking Bans need to be better communicated and better enforced (other City News as well). In addition, GCCC's own Al Martin brought up how, years ago, a grandmother was hurt and a baby killed on the corner of Doyle and N. Main because a car couldn't see around a pile of snow, and that it could happen again because the big piles of snow are there again today. He also called on the mayor to fix the sidewalks for the sake of senior citizens and the blind (the mayor referred him to MONS director Rita Murphy) and to teach the "taxman down at City Hall" some customer service skills.

More education: It is no secret that federal support for education and community block grants has dwindled in favor of anti-terrorism spending and the war in Iraq, and it is no secret that it is a big reason that the states are squeezed for cash as well. Cicilline agreed, but said that getting reform through President Bush and the Republican Congress would probably be a lot more difficult than convincing the State first. Also, Cicilline was confident that talent was lining up for Supt. Melody Johnson's position and that Providence would easily get a talented replacement.