Lead On?
House rental-prop rally for lead law
At a State House rally State Rep. Joseph A. Trillo claimed that less than 50 children statewide were affected by lead poisoning. According to ProJo’s article by Katherine Gregg, Trillo claimed that misinformation about the actual number of children affected by lead poisoning led to the adoption of the new Lead Hazard Mitigation Law.
Trillo proposes introducing legislation that will limit state intervention to buildings where a child has actually tested positive for lead, instead of mandatory testing for the state’s 145,000 rental units.
Information and statements like Mr. Trillo's lead me to ask, was it panic, hysteria, and hyperbole, along with resume building that led to the passage of the new Lead Hazard Mitigation Law?
Who has the accurate numbers that reflect the extent of the problem in Rhode Island? Is there really an epidemic of lead poisoning in Rhode Island?
Accurate statistics for the actual number of lead poisonings medically treated statewide should be available on a year by year basis to clarify the extent of the problem.
We need accurate numbers not numbers with "spin" on them.
You can read Ms. Gregg’s article in ProJo or below.
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John
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Landlords protest lead-inspection law
The new requirements will be unnecessarily costly for rental-property owners, say those in attendance at the State House rally.
01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, January 18, 2006
BY KATHERINE GREGG
Journal State House Bureau
PROVIDENCE -- Close to four dozen rental-property owners -- and their lobbyist -- rallied at the State House yesterday for changes in the state's new mandatory lead-inspection law to relieve scores of "innocent landlords" of what they characterized as an unjustified and unnecessary expense.
"There is no logical reason," said the leader of the rally, state Rep. Joseph A. Trillo. "No other state does this."
Trillo was the Warwick Republican -- and investment property owner -- who filed the court challenge that led Superior Court Judge Stephen J. Fortunato Jr. to declare portions of the state's new Lead Hazard Mitigation Law unconstitutional last week.
More specifially, the judge aimed his ruling at the exemption the law provided two- and three-unit owner-occupied buildings from key requirements, among them: a requirement that landlords take a three-hour lead awareness class and prove their properties meet state health department standards by having them certified as lead-safe at least once every two years, or each time a new tenant moves in.
The lawsuit was filed on Oct. 4, less than a month before the new law was scheduled to take effect.
Trillo yesterday repeated his accusations that the law was adopted based on "misinformation" suggesting there were many more lead-poisoned children in the state than there are.
He said there is "no logical reason to go after" the owners of 145,000 rental units, and exacerbate a "housing crisis," to cure a problem affecting less than 50 children, according to his own research.
Trillo said he will soon introduce legislation that limits intervention and enforcement to pre-1978 properties "where a child has tested positive for lead poisoning . . . in two consecutive tests, at least 30 days apart."
"The requirement of mandatory frequent inspections, potential costly renovations and obtaining a certificate of compliance . . . would not apply to properties where no child had been poisoned."
Trillo yesterday said that he owns eight pieces of property, all commercial except for one 10-unit, single-room-only apartment house in Warwick that was cleansed of any potential hazards when it was gutted and refurbished in 1980.
Also present yesterday was the lobbyist for the landlords' group, Thomas Hanley, a onetime top aide in the House Democratic ranks.
kgregg@projo.com / (401) 277-7078
Online at: http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20060118_thelaw18.12e2c238.html
Posted at 12:32 PM | Politics | Comments (0)
Lead Law Unconstitutional!
A Ruling Favorable for Fairness
The Providence Journal reported Wednesday that Superior Court Judge Stephan J. Fortunato ruled the state’s new Lead Hazard Mitigation Law unconstitutional because the exemption given to owner-occupied two and three family buildings violates landlords' guarantee to equal protection under the state constitution.
Confusingly enough for a layperson unschooled in constitutional law the judge did not restrict the state's right to enforce the law. That sounds to me like the judge left the door open for further court challenge on the constitutionality of enforcing the law. At any rate, expect the law to go back to the legislature for revising.
Get more details below from the article by Brandie Jefferson, Journal Environmental Writer, or in ProJo.com.
Judge rules lead-hazard law violates Constitution
But Judge Stephen J. Fortunato Jr. doesn't strip the state's ability to require that landlords' properties are certified as lead-safe every two years.
01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, January 11, 2006
BY BRANDIE JEFFERSON
Journal Environment Writer
A Superior Court judge has ruled the Lead Hazard Mitigation Law unconstitutional, but did not restrict the state's ability to enforce the law.
Judge Stephen J. Fortunato Jr. said there was "no rational basis" for the exemption of two- and three-unit owner-occupied buildings in the state's new law.
Although the law still stood, Fortunato wrote, "It is the hope of the court that the legislators will promptly revisit" the issue.
The Lead Hazard Mitigation Law, which went into effect in November, requires landlords to take a three-hour lead-hazard awareness class and prove that their properties are up to state Health Department requirements by having them certified as lead-safe every two years, or each time a new tenant moves in.
The law exempts owner-occupied two- and three-unit properties, housing legally restricted to people 62 and older, temporary housing and housing certified as lead-safe or lead-free.
A lawsuit filed by a landlords' association founded by Rep. Joseph A. Trillo, R-Warwick, claims that the two- and three-unit owner-occupied exemption violates landlords' guarantees to equal protection under the state Constitution.
"This is pretty much what we hoped would happen," Trillo said in response to the decision, "that [Fortunato] would rule but wouldn't necessarily try to stop the law."
The lawsuit was filed Oct. 4, less than a month before the law was scheduled to take effect. Although the plaintiffs had asked for an injunction to stop the law from going into effect, Fortunato denied the request and it became law Nov. 1.
Roberta Hazen Aaronson, executive director of the Childhood Lead Action Project, had mixed feelings about the decision.
"The law has been retained for the time being, that's good news," she said, and added "the future is uncertain."
The law was passed in 2002 and initially scheduled to go into effect in June 2004. It was delayed twice while stakeholders such as Hazen Aaronson and Trillo worked toward a compromise.
"We have to figure out what our next step will be," Hazen Aaronson said, speculating that she will likely find herself back in the legislative arena.
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch's spokesman Michael Healey said Lynch will have to wait to hear from legislators before he takes action. Russell Cole, vice president of RI Lead Technicians Inc. isn't concerned about the decision. Cole is a landlord, teaches the landlord class and does home inspections.
Required lead-safe standards for landlords have been in place since the 1991 Lead Poisoning Prevention Act.
Landlords that are exempt from the new law, he said, "just don't have to prove that they have adhered to prior laws."
Brandie Jefferson has a fellowship with the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting.
bjeffers@projo.com / (401) 277-7133
Posted at 12:27 PM | Politics | Comments (0)
Trickle Down Corruption
Legislative Corruption & the Trickle Down Effect
I remember reading something, somewhere, some years ago, about the results of a study of political corruption: the state ranked number one in PC (political corruption) at that time was Arkansas. Number two? Rhode Island. Well, they produced, Bubba, Bill Clinton: who did we produce: Buddy? No contest! If ya know what I mean.
Now, we have Celona (see article below) on the state level and Delay and Abramoff on the federal level. How does this trickle down to us on the local scene? For one thing it is demoralizing. For another it negates our vote. Politicians selling influence to the highest bidder create tilted playing fields; it’s like fixing a ball game by buying the referees, who are supposed to be fair and impartial. Of course it is always our tax dollars being traded, bought, sold and stolen.
I, by no means, think I have the last word on this; I can barely articulate what I think are the implications of this type of corruption and the effect it has on the populace. I'm sure others could articulate it in more depth, more fully, and in more detail than I ever could.
Like the blues song says,
“It’s a mean ol’ world, child, to try an' live in all by yourself.”Or as the Celts say in Carrickfergus,
“But I’m old, now, and rarely sober, so I’ll sing no more until I get a drink.”Or as good old Robert Zimmerman said, in a line he stole,
“Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings, steal a little and they’ll throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king.”And let us not forget that vagabond, Woody Guthrie, who sang,
"As thru this world I travel, I meet lot’s of funny men, some rob you with a six gun and some with a fountain pen.”
Am I jaded and cynical: you bet.
John Twomey
You can read the ProJo report on Celona’s corruption copied below.
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Roger Williams Medical Center indicted in corruption case
Also charged are the hospital's longtime president, its former vice president and the former head of a Providence assisted-living home.
09:25 AM EST on Friday, January 6, 2006
BY MIKE STANTON
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Roger Williams Medical Center yesterday became the first nonprofit institution in Rhode Island ever to face federal corruption charges when a grand jury issued a 38-count indictment against the hospital, its president Robert A. Urciuoli and two others.
The institution is charged with conspiracy and mail fraud for allegedly hiring John Celona to use his position as a state senator to champion legislation that benefited Roger Williams, defeat legislation that would harm it, persuade communities to increase ambulance runs to the hospital and pressure health insurers to increase their payments.
The indictment, charging conspiracy and mail fraud, alleges that Roger Williams and its representatives stole the "honest services" of a Rhode Island senator, John A. Celona, by putting him on the payroll to do their bidding at the State House.
Also charged were Peter J. Sangermano Jr., the former president of The Village at Elmhurst assisted-living center; and Frances P. Driscoll, a former Roger Williams vice president.
The indictment alleges that Roger Williams Medical Center and the others hired Celona as a consultant to The Village at Elmhurst, which is partially owned by the hospital, but that Celona's real work was using his public office to influence legislation and perform favors.
The hospital, Urciuoli and Sangermano were each charged with 37 counts -- 1 of conspiracy and 36 of honest services mail fraud. Driscoll was charged with two counts -- one of conspiracy and one of honest services mail fraud.
A conviction for conspiracy carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Mail fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The hospital, if convicted, could be fined up to $500,000 per count and receive five years' probation.
Celona, who pleaded guilty last year to selling his office, is cooperating in the investigation of Roger Williams and his financial dealings with two other companies: the CVS drugstore chain and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island.
People familiar with the investigation say the focus will now shift to CVS and Blue Cross.
"This remains an extremely active investigation, one to which my office, along with the FBI and the Rhode Island State Police have devoted very extensive resources," said U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente. "We are continuing to move forward on a number of fronts."
Corrente said that he is aware of other cases where nonprofits have been charged, but none in Rhode Island.
The directors of Roger Williams Medical Center said in a statement that they were "shocked and deeply disturbed" by the hospital's indictment.
"This decision has threatened a respected 128-year-old institution that employs more than 1,400 people and provides millions of dollars of free care annually to Rhode Islanders who can't afford to pay for care," the hospital's statement said. "Hundreds of nurses, doctors and other dedicated caregivers devote themselves to caring for patients on a daily basis at Roger Williams. Their livelihood is now at risk."
Urciuoli's lawyer, Robert G. Flanders Jr., attacked the indictment as "a one-sided baloney sandwich, served up by John Celona. This is a conspiracy of one."
Urciuoli, 58, who has served as president of Roger Williams since 1988, said in a statement: "I have spent my entire career fighting to advance what I know to be one of the best hospitals in the region. Now, to see it put at risk for no apparent reason, really saddens me."
At a glance
Roger Williams Medical Center
Founded in 1878
Located at 825 Chalkstone Ave., Providence
Inpatient and outpatient services, and long-term care at The Village at Elmhurst and Elmhurst Extended Care
Affiliated with Brown University School of Medicine and Boston University School of Medicine
Unique to Rhode Island -- the state's only bone-marrow transplant unit, at The Adele R. Decof Cancer Center, and the only Center for Stem Cell Biology
* 1,396 employees
* 220 licensed beds
* In 2004, the emergency department logged 24,729 patients and 8,556 admissions to the hospital
* Total patient revenue in 2004 was $117.9 million
* Uncompensated care was $10 million in 2004
Source: Hospital Association of Rhode Island 2005 report and Roger Williams Medical Center Web site
The board at Roger Williams placed Urciuoli on paid leave last month. He earned $419,000 in 2002, the most recent year for which figures were available.
Sangermano was "disappointed" by the indictment and "denies engaging in any criminal conduct," said a statement issued by his lawyer, Thomas G. Briody. Sangermano and Roger Williams sold The Village at Elmhurst about a year ago to Benchmark Assisted Living.
Driscoll, who left Roger Williams in 2000, said through her lawyer, Kevin J. Bristow, said that she will assert "her factual innocence to these allegations."
No date has yet been set for the defendants' arraignment.
THE 30-PAGE indictment charges that the defendants conspired to hire Celona as a consultant in 1998, and that the senator was paid more than $260,000 over the next six years "to cause him to use his influence, power and authority as a state senator to benefit the political and financial interests" of Roger Williams.
Corrente said that the theft-of-honest-services law presumes that citizens "have the right to the honest services of their public officials. Everybody should be on a level playing field. Nobody should have a special advantage."
As part of the alleged conspiracy, the indictment says, the hospital disguised the true nature of Celona's work and deceived the state Ethics Commission when it sought an advisory opinion regarding the senator.
The hospital has maintained that Celona, a longtime North Providence politician, was hired to tap his extensive contacts among the elderly to recruit residents to The Village at Elmhurst.
Asked yesterday if Celona did any work for the assisted-living facility, Corrente replied, "Some." Corrente added that "a large part" of Celona's work was for Roger Williams.
According to the indictment, Celona asked Urciuoli for a job in August 1997, after the senator supported the hospital in a heated State House battle over approving a merger with Columbia/HCA.
The indictment chronicles a litany of actions that Celona allegedly performed at the direction of Urciuoli, Sangermano or Driscoll, from seeking to influence legislation to using his political muscle and powers of persuasion.
At Urciuoli's direction, the indictment charges, Celona pressured Blue Cross and UnitedHealthcare to increase their insurance reimbursements to Roger Williams.
After a 2001 meeting with a Blue Cross executive, the indictment says, Celona e-mailed Urciuoli: "I hope I didn't lay it on [the executive] too much yesterday. But it was done in a systematic fashion in order to get them 'in line' for us. Needless to say, I'll keep up the pressure."
Urciuoli allegedly responded that the Blue Cross executive "deserved to get cranked around."
After a 2003 meeting with a UnitedHealthcare representative, Celona wrote Urciuoli that someone from United had called the senator "to up the United figure. Did he contact you and do you want me to keep pressing."
Four days later, Urciuoli reported to the hospital's finance committee that a United executive had called him and agreed to a 25-percent increase for one year.
The indictment alleges that when Roger Williams was seeking a merger with a for-profit corporation, Urciuoli and Driscoll informed Celona that they opposed a Senate bill prohibiting hospital officials from serving on the board of a converted hospital.
Celona subsequently faxed Driscoll a note saying that he was making calls to "kill the bill in committee."
The indictment also accuses Urciuoli and Driscoll of telling Celona to oppose a 1999 bill creating a Rhode Island Cancer Council, to coordinate research and treatment, because it could hurt hospital finances and because they expected it would be led by a former Roger Williams doctor for whom they "felt animosity."
Driscoll subsequently directed Celona to threaten an unidentified state representative, the indictment says, "and advise her that she would suffer negative political ramifications if she supported the Cancer Council."
The legislator "agreed to do nothing to support the bill," Celona later wrote Driscoll. The indictment says that Celona also arranged for himself and Driscoll to have lunch with the lawmaker to lobby against the Cancer Council.
Urciuoli and Driscoll were also accused of directing Celona to attempt to influence municipalities to increase ambulance runs to Roger Williams.
According to the indictment, Urciuoli told Driscoll and others that ambulance runs were a source of revenue, but that the hospital was not getting its "fair share" from certain communities. Urciuoli also allegedly advised that he was "going to have Celona take care of the rescue run problem politically."
Celona met with local officials regarding ambulance runs, the indictment says.
Driscoll was charged with directing Celona to amend legislation to reimburse Roger Williams for a bone-marrow donation program. She was also accused of directing Celona to work to kill a bill to require nonprofit corporations in Providence to make payments in lieu of taxes.
In 2000, the indictment says, Driscoll directed Celona to oppose a proposed merger between Lifespan and Care New England, "because the merger could have an adverse financial impact" on Roger Williams.
In 1998, Driscoll and Sangermano allegedly directed Celona to work against a bill prohibiting health facilities, including The Village at Elmhurst, from offering care for Alzheimer's disease.
Sangermano was also accused of asking Celona to work behind the scenes to extend a moratorium on new nursing-home beds in Rhode Island, to help The Village at Elmhurst's finances.
LAWYERS FOR Roger Williams had negotiated intensively with federal prosecutors to strike a deal that would have avoided the hospital's indictment.
They argued that the hospital made every effort to ensure that Celona's hiring was proper, including seeking an advisory opinion from the Ethics Commission. And when a former federal prosecutor in 1998 conducted an internal review of various allegations against Urciuoli, he found "no basis for concluding that the [Celona] contract was illegal or unethical."
The lawyer, F. Dennis Saylor IV, is now a federal judge in Worcester -- and is now a potential defense witness, lawyers for the hospital have said.
In November, prosecutors offered the hospital a deferred prosecution agreement to avoid indictment. Under the agreement, the hospital would have admitted criminal wrongdoing and cooperated with the investigation, paid a fine, and implemented internal reforms.
But talks about a deal that would have averted yesterday's indictment collapsed this week, according to people familiar with the situation.
In 1998 -- the year that Celona was hired -- Urciuoli survived despite an internal review that concluded he had spent thousands in hospital funds on family dinners, golf trips and stays in luxurious hotels.
A Sunday Journal story detailing those expenses, and the board's decision to keep Urciuoli, has provoked outrage and prompted Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty to call for legislation imposing a strict code of ethics on directors of Rhode Island hospitals.
Disclosures about the largess of another health-care executive, former Blue Cross President Ronald A. Battista, surfaced in the months after The Journal first began reporting on Celona's health-care dealings.
Battista, whose former company's dealings with Celona will also come under grand-jury scrutiny this year, resigned under fire in 2004, amid public outrage over his extravagant lifestyle.
Urciuoli has not been seen around Roger Williams Medical Center since the hospital put him on paid leave last month. When the indictment came down yesterday, he was with his family in Florida. Last summer, his wife bought a house on a golf course, the Country Club at Mirasol, in Palm Beach Gardens, for $939,000, according to Florida land records.
The house is just down the street from a $545,000 condo purchased two years ago by the former Rhode Island Blue Cross chief, Ron Battista.
mstanton@projo.com / (401) 277-7724
READ the full text of the federal grand jury's indictment against Roger Williams Medical Center and three others, at:
http://projo.com/rwuindict.pdf
Posted at 11:26 PM | Politics | Comments (0)
Right to Privacy II
Learning on the fly
More on the right to privacy in Wednesday’s NYTs, Can I Get a Little Privacy? By Dan Savage
Interestingly, in a Texas case, Lawrence v. Texas, where the SC knocked down a Texas law banning sodomy, gay and straight, Judge Anthony Scalia wrote a dissenting opinion questioning state’s laws against masturbation, adultery, and fornication. So all you wankers and tinker belles out there, you cheaters, and Sunday copulators, praise the lord and pass the right to privacy. (There is a song, Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.)
Mr. Savage points out that the three recent nominees, Roberts, Miers, and Alito all seem to have problems with the privacy issue, and it is widely believed that the conservative right will attack the right to privacy through the Griswold v Connecticut ruling.
In his piece, Mr. Savage explains a little about Ms. Griswold.
Mr. Savage proposes an amendment to the constitution spelling out the right to privacy so that this right is no longer open to ambiguous interpretation. But he admits that not even that will stop an assault on Roe v Wade.
His op-ed piece Can I Get a Little Privacy? below.
John
November 16, 2005
Op-Ed Contributor
Can I Get a Little Privacy?
By DAN SAVAGE
WILL Estelle Griswold ever be able to rest in peace? Although she died in 1981, the poor woman gets kicked up and down the block whenever someone is nominated to a seat on the United States Supreme Court. But few people remember who Griswold was or what she did.
In 1961, Griswold, the executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, opened a birth-control clinic in New Haven. She was promptly arrested for dispensing contraceptives to a married couple and was eventually convicted and fined $100. She appealed, and when her case reached the Supreme Court in 1965, seven of nine justices voted to overturn the conviction, striking down Connecticut's law against selling birth control (effectively overturning similar laws in other states). Americans, the court ruled, had a fundamental right to privacy.
Much of American jurisprudence since then flows from Griswold - including Roe v. Wade, which found that women had a right to abortion, and Lawrence v. Texas of 2003, which found that the right to privacy prevents the government from banning sodomy, gay and straight.
Problematically, however, a right to privacy is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution. The majority in Griswold held that it was among the unenumerated rights implied by the Constitution's "penumbras" (which sound like something a sodomy law might keep you away from). The Griswold case didn't settle the matter, and the right to privacy quickly became the Tinkerbell of constitutional rights: clap your hands if you believe.
Liberals clap. We love the right to privacy because we believe adults should have access to birth control, abortion services and pornography as well as the right to engage in gay sex. Social conservatives hate the right to privacy for the very same reason, as they seek to regulate private behaviors from access to birth control to masturbation. (Think I'm kidding about masturbation? In Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, he wrote that the majority's decision called into question the legality of state laws against "masturbation, adultery, fornication.")
And now, with three Supreme Court nominees in three months, the issue is again on the front burner. In the 1980's, Chief Justice John Roberts was a Reagan administration aide who wrote a memo questioning the "so-called" right to privacy. During his confirmation hearings the press-release brigade at People for the American Way warned that these documents suggested that he believed that the Constitution did not guarantee a right to privacy.
In his hearings, when asked if he could a locate a right to privacy in the Constitution, Judge Roberts said that he could - but he was vague about what it actually covered. Heterosexual married couples have a right to use birth control, he conceded, but that was about as far as he was willing to go.
During her brief but thoroughly entertaining tenure as a Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers bumbled into a "he said, she said" dispute with the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Arlen Specter. According to Senator Specter, Ms. Miers told him in a private meeting that the Griswold case was "rightly decided." The White House, however, denied that Ms. Miers had said any such thing, and later she said that Senator Specter had misunderstood her.
Now it is Samuel Alito's turn. Senator Specter says he believes the nominee accepts the idea of a constitutional right to privacy. But we can still count on Judge Alito to be grilled about Griswold during his confirmation hearings next month. Does he believe in a right to privacy or not? Can he locate it in the Constitution or not?
Well, if the right to privacy is so difficult for some people to locate in the Constitution, why don't we just stick it in there?
Wouldn't that make it easier to find?
If the Republicans can propose a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, why can't the Democrats propose a right to privacy amendment? Making this implicit right explicit would forever end the debate about whether there is a right to privacy. And the debate over the bill would force Republicans who opposed it to explain why they don't think Americans deserve a right to privacy - which would alienate not only moderates, but also those libertarian, small-government conservatives who survive only in isolated pockets on the Eastern Seaboard and the American West.
Of course, passing a right to privacy amendment wouldn't end the debate over abortion - that argument would shift to the question of whether abortion fell under the amendment. But given the precedent of Roe, abortion rights would be on firmer ground than they are now.
So, come on, Democrats, go on the offensive - start working on a bill. Not only would enshrining the right to privacy in the Constitution secure a right that most Americans rightly believe they are already entitled to, it would also allow Estelle Griswold to finally rest in peace.
Dan Savage is the editor of The Stranger, a Seattle newsweekly.
Posted at 12:58 PM | Politics | Comments (0)
The Right to Privacy
Bedrock or Shifting Sand?
Current Events & Constitutional Law
I have been thinking about the” right to privacy” since the GCCC meeting of September 22, where during the wine & cheese reception the discussion came around to video surveillance in the cause of crime fighting. Someone suggested that video cameras be used to counter the outbreak of graffiti vandalism, since the city was considering using cameras for recording traffic violations at intersections. I vividly recall one member being visibly shocked that a member of GCCC would advocate such an invasive and reactionary tactic, and I myself piped up, with something like, “That would be an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, wouldn’t it? Isn’t the ACLU” (of which I’m a card carrying member) “fighting traffic surveillance cameras on just such legal grounds? Doesn’t it violate our constitutional right to privacy?”
A few weeks ago I read an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe, by Jeff Jacoby, Privacy by decree, that shed some light on this issue. I set it aside in the “idea” pile on my desk thinking that it would make a good, informative, thought provoking post for the blog, along with the other partly written posts that pile up waiting for the free time to actually finish the writing. Well, I worked on it in bits and pieces as time allowed, saving the essay, copying and pasting it into Word and typing a few thoughts to keep the slim thread of an idea alive. By the way, I figured out there is no “free” time.
Now, with the news of President Bush’s nomination of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court being prominent in the news, especially the revelation of Alito’s background as a partisan and deeply conservative republican who seemingly opposes abortion rights on ideological grounds, I dug back though that pile on my desk and then found the computer file where I’d begun writing this post in early November.
What struck me about Jacoby’s op-ed piece was the opening line: “Nowhere does the Constitution guarantee the right to privacy.” Jacoby goes on to explain how Justice William O. Douglas, in 1965, discerned “zones of privacy” in “the penumbras, formed by emanations” pertaining to the Bill of Rights in his ruling on the case, Griswold v Connecticut, which struck down a Connecticut law banning the sale and use of contraceptives. This same perceived privacy right was again used in 1972 in a Supreme Court ruling on a Massachusetts case, Eisenstadt v Baird, giving the unmarried the same right to access contraception as the married. In 1973, this perceived right to privacy became the bedrock for the Roe v Wade ruling that guaranteed women the right to choose abortion, as well as the basis for the recent Massachusetts state ruling allowing same sex marriage.
But as bedrock, it may be less than firm, if I read Jacoby correctly. The conservative right in our country sees the chance to overturn Roe V Wade and make abortion illegal by the appointment of a conservative, partisan, ideologue to the Supreme Court bench: in Alito, have they found their man?
Maybe they will ban the teaching of evolution and ban abortion in one fell swoop.
At any rate, it pays to be well informed. I’m no legal scholar -- I don’t even play one on TV -- is there a legal scholar in the house?
I’ve provided the complete text of Jacoby’s, Privacy by Decree, below.
John Twomey
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Privacy by decree
NOWHERE DOES the Constitution guarantee the right to privacy. The word ''privacy" isn't even mentioned in the text. But if all you had to go by was the obsessive interest in the subject whenever there is a Supreme Court vacancy, you might imagine that privacy is the very bedrock of American constitutional law.
Few legal cows today are more sacred. A judicial nominee who referred dismissively to the ''so-called right to privacy" or insisted that courts should not ''discern such an abstraction in the Constitution" would stand no chance of winning confirmation. That is why John Roberts, who wrote those words as a Reagan administration lawyer in 1981, smoothly disavowed them during his confirmation hearings in September. It is why Samuel Alito's nomination to the court was no sooner announced than his most important Senate ally -- the Judiciary Committee's chairman, Arlen Specter -- called a press conference to say the nominee had assured him that ''there is a right to privacy in the Constitution" and that Griswold v. Connecticut was ''good law."
Griswold was the 1965 case in which Justice William O. Douglas, writing for a 7-2 majority, discovered ''zones of privacy" lurking in the ''penumbras, formed by emanations" from the Bill of Rights. On the strength of that gaseous finding, the court struck down a Connecticut law banning the sale and use of contraceptives. The ''privacy surrounding the marriage relationship," Douglas wrote, was one of those ''penumbral rights" that lawmakers had no power to infringe.
In 1972 the court decided that this newly minted right to contraception wasn't connected to marriage after all. ''Whatever the rights of the individual to access contraceptives may be," Justice William Brennan wrote in Eisenstadt v. Baird, a Massachusetts case, ''the rights must be the same for the unmarried and the married alike."
A year later, Roe v. Wade expanded the ''right of personal privacy" to encompass abortion. In a 17,000-word opinion, Justice Harry Blackmun surveyed the history of abortion from the ancient Persians to modern times, detouring along the way to hold forth on the Hippocratic Oath, English common law, and the views of the American Medical Association.
But when the flood of rhetoric subsided and he finally got around to constitutional law, Blackmun had nothing more to offer on than the airy penumbra privacy that Griswold had unveiled eight years earlier. Even some liberal supporters of abortion rights were appalled by the decision's flaccid reasoning. In a withering critique, the legal scholar John Hart Ely wrote in the Yale Law Review that Roe ''is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be."
Yet Roe lives on, and so does the right to privacy, which is now said to be located not only in those emanating penumbras but in the 14th Amendment's guarantee of liberty as well. In 1992, Justice Anthony Kennedy cobbled the two together, upholding Roe in a decision that rhapsodized about how the Constitution protects ''the most intimate and personal choices a person may make" and how ''at the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." In Lawrence v. Texas 11 years later, Kennedy invoked that language in striking down a Texas law that made homosexual sodomy illegal. Soon after, in a decision citing Lawrence and the Supreme Court's pronouncements on privacy, the highest court in Massachusetts ruled that same-sex marriage must be permitted as a matter of state law.
From contraceptives to same-sex marriage is a distance that no one 40 years ago could have imagined the courts would travel. The thread connecting them is Griswold's judicially concocted ''right to privacy" -- amorphous, free-floating, and wonderfully handy for writing judges' personal opinions into constitutional law.
''I think this is an uncommonly silly law," wrote Justice Potter Stewart, one of the two dissenters in Griswold of Connecticut's ban on contraception. But it is not the job of judges ''to say whether we think this law is unwise, or even asinine." A statute can be foolish and unfair without being unconstitutional.
The other dissenter was Hugo Black, a champion of freedom who saw what was coming. He, too, found Connecticut's contraception ban absurd. But it is not the court's role to be ''a day-to-day constitutional convention," he warned, and adopting a standard as loose as the ''right to privacy" would set in motion ''a great unconstitutional shift of power to the courts which . . . will be bad for the courts, and worse for the country."
He was right. Griswold was wrongly decided, and its effects still poison American law and politics. But no Supreme Court nominee is prepared to say so. The last one who tried was Robert Bork.
From the Boston globe:
By Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe Columnist.
Posted at 11:13 PM | Politics | Comments (10)
A Tale of the City
CLANDESTINE OPS THWARTS GRAFFITIERS
A battle for the soul of Mt. Hope.
As you know from the October 27th, post, Graffiti in Mt. Hope, vandals again defaced the Cypress Street Walkway overpass tunnel and sidewall. Around the time I made that post I received a call from Alec McLeod, a long time GCCC member, about the graffiti. Mr. McLeod had taken the initiative to call the City about the graffiti’s return, and he'd spoken to Mr. Al Buco, of the Public Property and Buildings Department, who runs the Graffiti Removal operation for the city. As GCCC member Jessica Stein learned when she called the Graffiti removal hotline, Alec also learned that this department is vastly understaffed has only two people assigned to graffiti removal and that that is only one of their duties.
Rather than wait for them to ". . .get around to it", Mr. McLeod convinced Mr. Buco to send a crew out to paint over the Graffiti on the underpass and to leave the remaining paint with Mr. McLeod in case (if & when) the graffiti returns.
Sure enough, late last week Mr. Buco’s crew came out and put a very nice coat of grey paint over the graffiti and left the remaining paint with Mr. McLeod. All was well.
Until this morning when I saw newly minted graffiti defacing the wall again, right over the fresh paint! The vandals must have struck the night of the 8th or the morning of the 9th. But this graffiti was to be short lived.
An Anonymous MHGRT caught in the act of graffiti "removal"!
I phoned Mr. McLeod and informed him of the defacement. He in turn placed a call to the Mt. Hope Graffiti Removal Technicians, a newly formed clandestine citizen’s organization. Their response was swift and merciless. In a flash of paint and rollers the graffiti had been “removed” and the MHGRTs had blended back into the day.
MHGRTs -- Protecting the Innocent
Only one problem: the city crew had left Mr. McLeod the wrong colour paint. They left him a container of Urban Tan instead of the grey that had been used on the wall.
An MHGRT Stands at "Attention".
Another call to Mr. Al Buco and a short time later a container of the correct grey colour had been delivered and again the MHGRTs appeared (this time with a slender, bespectacled, female, field commander), and a colour correction was applied.
Graffiti Gone -- Urban Tan on Grey (before colour correction)
That makes Mr. Al Buco a F.O.M.H. (friend of Mt. Hope). Thank you Mr. Buco, thank you Mr.McLeod .
When citizens take action, things get done.
After all, it's a battle for the soul of Mt. Hope!
John
Posted at 12:13 PM | Politics | Comments (2)
In Memorium
Rosa Parks: 1913 -- 2005
In 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress, sat down in the front of a Montgomery City bus, in Alabama, and refused to give up her seat on that bus to a white man and refused to move to the back of the bus as was required of black people by law at that time, Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation.
For her offense, she was arrested and convicted, fined $10.00, and $4.00, in court costs.
Ms. Parks action, her refusal to be a second class citizen, helped spark the Civil Rights Movement and helped bring an end to American apartheid. Her simple, courageous action has come to symbloize a universal message of courage, dignity, and equality.
Rosa Parks funeral was held today in Detroit, her adopted home town.
Montgomery Advertiser, via Associated Press
John Twomey
Posted at 10:52 AM | Politics | Comments (0)
VITAL CITY LINKS A Resource
Our Onsite Links -- Easy and effective -- Government & Media
Nada's decisive action on graffiti, calling Councilman Jackson, made me wonder if our sites visitors are aware of the direct links to city officials right here on the website, such as our Vital City Links.
Like, how easy it is from here to click on Office of Neighborhood Services to get them involved in Graffiti removal.
A phone call and an e-mail, mentioning gang graffiti and the East Side Boyz -- South Side feud, might spur quick action. It's worth a shot.
A two or three pronged approach would be the most effictive approach I think. Jess called the Graffiti Hotline, Nada's calling the Councilperson, and we need someone to call and send an effective e-mail to the ONS.
The ONS' Director has a directline to the Mayor and thus is important in keeping the Mayor's finger on the pulse of the city's neighborhoods. We should use the Office of Neighborhood Services often. It's a good way of keeping the City informed of our concerns.
Follow through and follow up and be persistant and relentless: it's the only way to succeed in this community work.
Explore Our Links
Click on our link Vital city Links found at the top left of the blog page or the top right of the Home page, and you will find useful information for contacting city officials without even leaving the website.
It is worth while to browse around the site to see what information is available. The Links we put onsite are useful and easy to access.
Vital city Links for instance connects you with contact info for the the Councilman, the Mayor, the Ofice of Neighborhood Services and Rity Murphy, its Director, the City Council President, and the Chief of Police.
Clicking on Government Websites give you three most useful websites, The City, The State, and Providence Plan.
Clicking on Providence City Hall opens ProvidenceRI.com. Our city has quite a good website. From it you can find contact info for almost any level of city government. This site is worth studying. Very useful and very informative.
Media Websites connects you to all the major media outlets.
Explore these resources and use them wisely.
The well written personal letter
Nothing is more effective than a peronal letter, an open letter to the mayor, the chief, the councilman, etc. etc. and a copy cc'd for publication to the Providnece Journal, the East side Monthly.
If we want to succeed we need to get our message out. And to get the message out to the people and institutions who matter and who can affect policy.
Posted at 12:46 PM | Politics | Comments (1)
Poem of the Week
The Thin People
They are always with us, the thin people
Meager of dimension as the grey peopleOn a movie screen. They
Are unreal, we say:It was only in a movie, it was only
In a war making evil headlines when weWere small that they famished and
Grew so lean and would not roundOut their stalky limbs again though
peace
Plumbed the bellies of the miceUnder the meanest table.
It was during the long hunger-battleThey found their talent to persevere
In thinness, to come later,Into our bad dreams, their menance
Not guns, not abuses,But a thin silence.
Wrapped in flea-ridden donkey skins,Empty of complaint, forever
Drinking vinegar from tin cups: they
woreThe insufferable nimbus of the lot-drawn
Scapegoat. But so thin,So weedy a race could not remain in
dreams,
Could not remain outlandish victimsIn the contracted country of the head
Any more than the old woman in her
mud hut couldKeep from cutting the fat meat
Out of the side of the generous moon
when itSet foot nightly in her yard
Until her knife had paredThe moon to a rind of little light.
Now the thin people do not obliterateThemselves as the dawn
Greyness blues, reddens, and the outlineOf the world comes clear and fills with
color,
They persist in the sunlit room: the wall-
paperFrieze of cabbage-roses and cornflowers
pales
Under their thin-lipped smiles,Their withering kingship.
How they prop each other up!We own no wilderness rich and deep
enough
For stronghold against their stiffBattalions. See, how the tree boles flatten
And lose their good brownsIf the thin people simply stand in the
forest,
Making the world go thin as a wasp’s
nestAnd greyer; not even moving their bones.
Sylvia Plath
Posted at 12:10 AM | Politics | Comments (0)
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
strong>"Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio . . .
Manny Being Manny -- Globe photo
Red Sox Nation that is, turned its eyes to Manny, as the longest running soap opera in baseball chalked up another weekend of banner ratings.
Whew! The trading dealine is past, and the team is intact.
Manny will remain in red sox for a while, bloated contract, Manny Moments, and all, as well as the best hitter and run producer in the big leagues.
Some people will never get why baseball is such an integeral part of American culture, to those people, one can only say, "I'm sorry."
Posted at 12:05 AM | Politics | Comments (0)
Trade Deadline Nears
What if we could trade politicians?
This is the time of year when trade talks heat up in the world of Major League Baseball. The trade deadline is July 31st. Our own World Champion Red Sox may be making moves, and it is always difficult to say goodbye to players you may have grown to like but easy to say good riddance to those who were a burden or who didn’t hustle or come through for the team. Maybe Bill Mueller or Bronson Arroyo will have to be traded to shore up the shaky pitching staff. They would be missed. But maybe we can unload Manny Ramirez and his huge salary and lazy, disrespect for the game. His bat will be missed, but good riddance to your attitude, dude!
Wouldn’t it be cool if we could trade politicians the way MLB trades players.
We could send Dean Esserman to LA for Bill Bratton. That way Esserman could have the Bill Bratton type career he wants, and Bratton could bail out of LA where he is largely striking out. Esserman’s good at getting guns off the street, and I hear LA has guns galore to keep him busy, plus they have larger numbers of stats to manipulate. Bratton could come to Providence and concentrate on quality of life issues as he did in New York when he brought crime under control and made Manhattan livable again. That trade would be a win/win situation for both cities.
We could trade our Mayor, David Cicilline, for Martin O’Malley, the Mayor of Baltimore. Remember Prov Stat, where we were going to be able to assess the performance of City Departments; well that was the brainchild of O’Malley who called it City Stat in Baltimore, where it really works. O’Malley could come here and show us how Prov Stat should work. Cicilline could go to Baltimore where drug dealing and violent crime are out of control, and he would have no choice but to pay attention to it and to develop a “get tough on crime approach." After Baltimore, cleaning up Providence would be child’s play for O’Malley.
When he’s not mayoring, O’Malley plays and sings in an Irish Band. He could save us money by playing free concerts in Waterplace Park as part of his Mayoral duties. Why pay musicians when you can have one as Mayor?
Would you engineer a trade of Harold Metts for Bill Cosby. I would.
Would you package Fox and Jackson together for some good prospects and a politician to be named later?
As the trade deadline approaches I’m trying to trade myself, but not too surprisingly, I’m not getting any takers: who would have me and what could you get in return. Who would you trade and who would you want?
Ok, ok, guys, just kiddin’. We wouldn’t trade any of you guys for all the tea in China.
You just better get your On-Base-Percentage up there with the league leaders.
Posted at 10:13 AM | Politics | Comments (0)
Acadian Driftwood, Gypsy Tailwind
It was 250 years ago today. . .
It was on July 28th, 250 years ago that the English expelled the French Acadians from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, an area then called L’Acadie. The Acadians drifted down along the Eastern United States coast, settling where they could, till the remainder of them made it, eventually, to the bayous of Louisiana.
Today, I'm cookin' Cajun: let us celebrate the Acadians.
The music group “The Band” performed a beautiful song about this migration, written by their guitarist, Canadian songwriter Robbie Robertson, titled Acadian Driftwood. Here are the song's lyrics.
Acadian DriftwoodThe war was over and the spirit was broken,
The hills were smokin' as the men withdrew.
We stood on the cliffs, oh, and we watched the ships
Slowly sinking to their rendezvous.They signed a treaty and our homes were taken,
Loved ones forsaken, they didn't give a damn.
Trying to raise a family, end up the enemy,
Over what went down on the plains of Abraham.Acadian driftwood,
Gypsy tailwind,
They call my home
The land of snow,
Canadian cold front
Movin' in,
What a way to ride,
Oh, what a way to go.Then some returned to the motherland,
The high command had them cast away,
And some stayed on to finish what they started,
They never parted, they're just built that way.We had kin livin' south of the border,
They're a little older and they've been around.
They wrote a letter life is a whole lot better,
So pull up your stakes, children and come on down.Acadian driftwood,
Gypsy tailwind,
They call my home
The land of snow.
Canadian cold front
Movin' in,
What a way to ride,
Oh, what a way to go.Fifteen under zero when the day became a threat,
My clothes were wet and I was drenched to the bone.
Been out ice fishing, too much repetition
Make a man want to leave the only home he's known.Sailing out of the gulf headin' for Saint Pierre,
Nothin' to declare, all we had was gone.
Broke down along the coast, but what hurt the most,
When the people there said "You better keep movin' on."Acadian driftwood,
Gypsy tailwind,
They call my home
The land of snow.
Canadian cold front
Movin' in,
What a way to ride,
Oh, what a way to go.Everlasting summer filled with ill-content,
This government had us walkin' in chains.
This isn't my turf, this ain't my season,
Can't think of one good reason to remain.I've worked in the sugar fields up from New Orleans,
It was ever green up until the floods.
You could call it an omen, points you where you're goin',
Set my compass north, I got winter in my blood.Acadian driftwood,
Gypsy tailwind,
They call my home
The land of snow.
Canadian cold front,
Movin' in,
What a way to ride,
Oh, what a way to go.Sais tu, Acadie, j'ai le mal du pays
Ta neige, Acadie, fait des larmes au soleil
J'arrive Acadie
--
--
Last week in the Boston Globe I read William Fowler's essay about the role Massachusetts played the in Acadian expulsion, and I include it here for your interest.
A dark chapter in Mass. history
By William Fowler | July 23, 2005
IT IS TIME for Massachusetts to recognize a great wrong. Two hundred and fifty years ago this summer, Massachusetts helped launch a brutal campaign of ''ethnic cleansing" against the Acadians of modern day New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
In the early part of the 17th century hundreds of French peasant families migrated from France and settled in a region they called L'Acadie (modern day New Brunswick and Nova Scotia). These families diked and farmed the rich marshlands bordering the Bay of Fundy. Isolated from the principal French settlements in the Saint Lawrence River Valley, the Acadians evolved a distinct culture, one that drew heavily upon their native Micmac neighbors with whom they often intermarried.
Unfortunately for the Acadians, their homeland was contested ground as the world's two superpowers, France and England, struggled to dominate North America. In 1713, at the end of one of the many wars fought between these two nations, France ceded Acadia to England and with it sovereignty over the native Acadians. However, customs, language, and religion divided these people from their new English rulers. In neighboring Massachusetts, ministers and politicians railed against the Acadians. Venomous attacks on the ''perfidious" French filled newspapers while from their pulpits ministers damned the ''papists."
Behind the violent rhetoric venal land speculators, led by William Shirley, royal governor of the Massachusetts, schemed to seize Acadian lands. Nova Scotia's lieutenant governor, Charles Lawrence, along with Jonathan Belcher, chief justice of the colony, Robert Monckton, an army officer, and John Winslow of Marshfield, an officer in the Massachusetts militia, joined Shirley and laid plans to expel the Acadians and seize their lands.
At a meeting on July 28, 1755, Lawrence ordered Monckton ''to send all the French Inhabitants out of the Province." Monckton realized that he would have to move quickly before the Acadians discovered their fate. He turned to Winslow and the Massachusetts militia to help him.
On the morning of Aug. 6, 1755, Monckton summoned Winslow to his headquarters at Fort Cumberland near the northern end of the Bay of Fundy. He told Winslow that he planned to order all the male Acadians to the fort. Once they were inside, Winslow's men would surround and confine them. Unaware of their peril on Sunday, Aug. 10, more than 400 Acadian men entered the fort. All went according to plan. And as soon as the men were locked up, messengers were sent to their families telling them to report to the fort lest the men suffer. Those who fled would be hunted down and killed.
Less than a week later at the village of Grand Pre, Winslow pulled the same maneuver and several hundred more men were seized. Within weeks several thousand Acadians were taken up and the expulsion began. Thousands of Acadians were herded aboard transport vessels. Families were often separated and no one was told their destination. Some escaped and fled to French Canada, but most did not and they were shipped off to distant places including Louisiana where they became known as Cajuns. Nearly 10,000 Acadians died in this Grand Derangement.
Having successfully removed the Acadians Governor Lawrence published a proclamation in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia announcing that there was now ''a favourable Opportunity for the peopling and cultivating of the Lands vacated by the French." Over the next decade 10,000 Yankee farmers took up the ''vacated" lands.
In the early 1840s Horace Connolly, the rector of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Boston, heard the story of the expulsion from his Acadian housekeeper. He shared her tale with his friend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and in 1847 Longfellow published ''Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie." The epic poem begins ''This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks."
Although highly romanticized, ''Evangeline" helped keep the story of the Acadian expulsion alive. Over the last 250 years descendants of those Acadians who either eluded Winslow's troops or managed to return to their homes at a later time, have kept alive a vibrant Acadian culture in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Determined to gain an acknowledgement of the injustice done to their ancestors these modern Acadians brought pressure on the Canadian government. In December 2003, the governor general of Canada, on behalf of the queen, issued a royal proclamation acknowledging this ''dark chapter" and declared that henceforth July 28, the day on which the expulsion was ordered be every year observed as ''A Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval," commencing on July 28, 2005."
This year marks the first commemoration in Canada. Perhaps on July 28 we, too, should take a moment to reflect on this dark chapter of our own history.
William Fowler is director of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Boston Globe article
Posted at 12:01 AM | Politics | Comments (0)
The Big Lie of Crime Stats
How the Big Lie Lies
Crime stats lie. They get right up in your face and lie. But the numbers themselves don’t offend: they simply get used and abused by someone or some organization who usually wishes to put a positive spin on those numbers.
How do they lie? Say you go to the fridge to get some chocolate ice cream and discover just a tiny tablespoon in the bottom of the box, so you turn to your pie-eyed, all innocent looking ten year old, the one with chocolate ringing their mouth, and ask, “Did you eat all the ice cream?”. “No, no, I didn’t eat all the ice cream.” says the ten year old, speaking with all the weight and conviction of truth.
Well, technically that is not a lie, since a lonely tablespoon of ice cream still remains in the box, but it is not the whole story either. It is a partial truth or a “spin” on the truth. It is a manipulation of the facts so that they appear to tell the story that the speaker wants you to hear. So it is with crime stats.
Statistics are easily manipulated to mislead the public.
I bring this up because I read a Boston Globe article titled Major Crime down 13%, through the first 5 months of the year, and that drew a chuckle from me because I understand the spin, and I fully expect to read or hear the same kind of spin coming out of our City Hall sometime in the not so distant future.
Once you get past the headline with the big bold Major crime down 13%, you get into the nitty-gritty of the stats, which community leaders living in crime ridden areas of Boston greeted with derision.
Most of the 13% decrease came in only 2 areas, Vehicle Theft, and Larceny. Larceny includes theft not fear inducing, such as car radio thefts.
Murders stayed the same, did not go down, but the headline did not read “Murder rate stays the same for period as City fails to reduce murder rate for another year!": that also would have been an accurate headline.
Rapes went down by a total of 5. No mention of how rapes usually go unreported
But the real news is that Burglary, thefts from residences, increased by 7% and that Robbery, often involving the use of force, jumped by 8%.
The Globe could have used a headline that read, "Home Invasions and Robberies up 15%", and that would have been just as accurate as "Major crime down 13%", but it would have given the reader a much different impression. Manipulation!
But all that involves manipulating the numbers. The numbers gathered themselves lie, because they are not accurate. How do crime stats deceive us?
Many crimes go unreported, and some are under-reported, such as rapes, robberies, theft from motor vehicles, and assaults.
If the police do not generate an incident report number the crime does not make the stats. Say you report an incident of vandalism and property damage, and the police who come and view the damage say “we will keep an eye on your property if we can and try to catch the perps.” But unless you ask for an incident report number, they usually will not offer you one, and they usually won’t write one up and submit it. So that crime will never be used to calculate the crime stats. It’s like it never happened.
Now in whose interest would it be to encourage police to write a minimum number of incident reports?
Some crimes are miscategorized, put in a less serious category. Another manipulation.
A GCCC member had a stolen car abandoned in her drive and had to pay to have it towed. It was never reported stolen, yet she was a victim of crime: will she show up in the crime stats? No.
So the next time this City Administration trots out its Good News Crime Stats, have a good laugh.
Just look around you and what you see and hear is what you get: Car thefts, drug dealing, home invasions.
I’m hearing that this administration is soft on crime for various reasons having to do with politics. They should be protecting the electorate not pandering to criminals for political gain. I don’t think it ever pays politically to be soft on crime. Look at what happened to Mike Dukakis, he lost a presidential election on the issue.
This City Administration needs to empower the police to do their job and protect the citizenry from criminals. No more political pandering. Get tough!
John Twomey
Posted at 11:20 AM | Politics | Comments (0)
Bold Daytime Forced Entry Attempt by Three Masked Intruders Thwarted
A bold daytime break in attempt took place this afternoon around 4:00pm at 14 Locust Street, a SouthLawn unit. Three young, masked men attempted a forced entry through the back door of the building. The tenant came to the door and called the police and building management who arrived there in minutes. The perpetrators ran away past the public garden and towards the Knowles and Abbott street area. The police have no idea who they were, they said. The tenant could give no description beyond the fact that they were masked.
Crack heads and junkies committ petty crime to support their habit. When will the people of Mt. Hope say enough is enough and divest themselves of their investement in the drug business.
When will our City government say enough is enough, let's stop these criminals from running roughshod over our decent taxpaying citizens.
Posted at 04:58 PM | Politics | Comments (2)
Customer Service Training: Why not Police Dispatchers
Metro Digest: From the Metro Edition of the Providence Journal, 7-12-05.
A long overdue move to provide customer service training to city employees is underway. According to the Journal, Mayor Cicilline said that the goal was to improve interpersonal skills and skill in dealing with difficult situations in order to deliver better service. The DPW, Tax Collector’s Office, and the ONS were among the departments participating.
The public applauds this move to recognize a long overdue and needed correction.
However, the Police Dispatchers remain the city personnel who exhibit the direst need for customer service training. The way some of them speak to the public is an insult and embarrassment to the City of Providence.
They still try to give the impression that they are police officers when in fact they are civilians who answer the phone and pass the calls on to the police department.
Essentially they function as an in-bound tele-marketing operation, much as a customer service center does for any private business operation. No private sector company would tolerate the level of rudeness and ineptitude exhibited on a daily basis by some of these dispatchers.
And if you think we are unhappy with these dispatchers, you should speak with some of the police officers who have to deal with them as part of their job.
I hesitate to paint them all with the same broad brush, for I’ve spoken with some who are top notch professionals, but all in all the department needs a serious overhaul.
The taxpayers of Providence deserve courtesy and respect when dealing with City Employees.
John Twomey
Posted at 09:31 AM | Politics | Comments (0)
Mayor's Entourage Walks Camp Street
From a Third Floor Window
I spied Mayor Cicilline, Chief Dean Esserman, Director of ONS Rita Murphy, Councilman Kevin Jackson, Lt. Schiavulli, and unidentified others walking down Camp Street toward Jenkins Street and back.
What a hot sweaty day to be walking Camp Street.
My guess as to what brought this motely parade out on such a dismal day is that, although according to the Providence Journal, the Mayor's office had no comment on Ms. Baver's letter that was published in the Letters to the Editor section on the back page of the Metro Edition section of Friday's paper, the Mayor did wish to make a statement.
Although why he was walking this section of Camp Street remains a mystery when Ms. Baver's letter clearly indicted the section of Camp Street that lies between Rochambeau and Cypress, especially the section between Grand View and Cypress, as being problematic.
Whatever. I guess Ms. Baver's letter got the Mayor's attention, and if he takes her plea to heart, that can only be a good thing. City officials need to hear from Mt. Hope citizens.
I urge other Mt. Hope residents and especially GCCC members to write to the Mayor and to Pro Jo and support Ellen's courage in speaking out about the problems in Mt. Hope.
It will be interesting to learn Mayor Cicilline's and Councilman Jackson's response.
Will they deny that Mt. Hope has a problem with drug dealing?
Will they deny that there has been a rash of car break-ins and home invasions?
Will they claim that Camp Street is a lovely street with no urban blight in the block where the Men's Pride banner hangs and the Ministry's cast-offs block the sidewalk?
I hope that it will not be the usual stonewalling, denial of obvious facts, the pandering to political correctness that is traditionally used to cover up inaction.
I hope it will not be business as usual.
We live in a new Mt. Hope and the old rhetoric will not be acceptable to Mt. Hope's current electorate.
This is a time for action.
Irene Twomey
Posted at 09:10 PM | Politics | Comments (2)
Pro Jo Editorials = Two of a Kind -- Does Mayor Get It?
Brussat & Baver in Thursday's and Friday's Providence Journal
Interesting stuff on this weeks Providence Journal’s editorial pages concerning two different neighborhoods facing similar issues, and our City Officials (i.e. the Cicilline administration) still don’t get it: on Thursday a commentary titled, Downtown’s droogs: Book’em!, by David Brussat, of the Journal’s Editorial Board and on Friday, a Letter to the Editor, by Ellen Baver, a property tax paying citizen of Mt. Hope and a proud GCCC member.
The point Brussat’s Pro Jo Commentary makes is that the downtown area, while being pushed as a high end residential district called “Downcity”, suffers from lax enforcement of the law and the city ordinances that make for a good quality of life for residents. Rowdiness is the rule and drunken louts ruin the quality of life for residents who are expected to pay beyond half a million bucks to live in beautiful “Downcity”.
Brussat uses many words to make his case elegantly, but one quote boils it down nicely, “. . . it is the job of City Hall to make sure that the police have the authority, the will, and the power to do the job.”
Ms Baver’s letter, addressed to Mayor Cicilline, takes us on a walk down seedy Camp Street with her and her kids, past the addicts and dealers and garbage, to Billy Taylor Park where her young children ask about the “Drug Mural” on the retaining wall there.
She asks, “Why are good, tax paying homeowners being victimized by home and car break-ins and having to live in fear in their own homes and neighborhood? We feel like hostages to addicts, dealers, thieves and other criminals. Drive a few blocks away, to any other East Side neighborhood, and everything is clean and quiet.”
Ms. Baver goes on to question the understanding of Mt. Hope residents that the City has an unwritten hands-off directive for Mt. Hope drug dealing, containing it and its attendant crime to the Mt. Hope neighborhood. Bravo, Ellen Baver.
Both of these editorials deal with the same issue. City officials failure to get tough on the criminals, louts, and “droogs” who negatively affect the quality of life for residents and thus ruin entire city neighborhoods.
What is it the Cicilline administration does not get? Just this. That property tax paying residents are fed up with the Cicilline administration’s pandering to nefarious forces instead of protecting the interests of the property tax paying citizens who shoulder the burden of the City’s finances and who make up the strong backbone of the city’s character.
It seems that the Mayor is so worried about losing a single vote by being strong on crime and quality of life issues that he is willing to lose property tax paying voters en masse.
I like both these pieces and I intend to write to the Journal to voice my support for both Brussat’s and Baver’s point of view and just to throw in my two cents.
John Twomey
Posted at 11:10 AM | Politics | Comments (6)
Politics & Action
The Politics of Nuance and of Competing Constituencies
If the above title sounds like political double-speak to you, then you have a lot to learn.
There exists in circulation an old expression: You get more with sugar than you do with salt. And like all such proverbs and aphorisms, there probably exists one that expresses an equal and opposite wisdom. But one that comes to my mind at this time is of Irish origin: Don’t say everything you want to say, lest you hear something you don’t want to hear.
I applaud the activism evident in our community and in our organization as evident in the discussion on this website about getting a more appropriate mural in Billy Taylor Park, one that reflects more truly the rich diversity of our neighborhood and one that also reflects more positive family values. This activism brings to my mind the expression, Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it!
There are many ways of asking for what one wants. You can demand, you can beg, you can ask politely, you can give ultimatums. Considering your position is crucial in deciding how to ask for what you want. Your position will determine the effectiveness of your means of negotiating.
I counsel nuance and political savvy in asking the City for better services, in helping us improve the quality of life for all Mt. Hopeans. We should feel no rush. We have all the time in the world to iron out the intricacies of how, why, and when.
I also counsel against any and all forms of vigilantism. I believe it would serve no purpose but to give our organization a bad name, and it will preclude any cooperation from City Hall. I counsel against any one painting over the mural without City permission. I think it would set our cause back.
I have long counseled new members and new residents to learn as much as they can about the history of Mt. Hope and the history of GCCC and to ask the deep questions about why things are the way they are in Mt. Hope and to seek a deep understanding of each issue: for instance, Who was Billy Taylor, and why was a park named after him; who painted that mural and why, what does it mean?
Of course I’m just a lonely voice crying out of the wilderness, albeit, a voice of 8 years experience doing community action in Mt. Hope.
I know many of our members and residents feel fed up with the way things are in Mt. Hope. It can be an emotional roller-coaster between negative and positive feelings depending on the level of crime and vandalism and nuisances in and around you at any given time. But change takes time and is a gradual thing. We have the time.
I’m impressed and thrilled that members are stepping up and taking initiative to ask the City for change. But let’s get all on the same page, dot all of our i’s, cross all of our t’s, and look for the political nuances and think of the competing constituencies at work in Mt. Hope. Let us form a plan of action and then forge ahead. Cohesively.
John Twomey
Posted at 10:11 PM | Politics | Comments (2)
What's up with Metts?
Unbelieveable gerrymandering: Guns for felons -- no marriage for gays?
I've had it. After some unbelieveable gerrymandering last year we've got Metts as our state senator, and there's never a time I read about something he's doing that doesn't horrify me. For months he's been on a crusade to have people's criminal records wiped clean after five years (does this mean they can buy guns legally after that??) but then in today's paper he speaks out against gay rights, saying a comparison to the civil rights movement is unfounded because Martin Luther King Jr. would never have married a gay couple.
So, it's wrong to hold felons accountable for their actions but it's ok to stomp on the rights of law-abiding cititzens based on their sexual orientation? Give me a break.
Posted by Katie
Read about it in Projo.com .
Posted at 09:55 AM | Politics | Comments (2)
Mt. hope Housing Meeting
A meeting of significant importance will be taking place Wednesday night, March 30th, 6:30 pm, at the Rochambeau Branch Library.
The topic discussed and the actions proposed may have an impact on Mt. Hope for many years to come.
Mt. Hop-ing for Healthy Affordable Housing
Someone is “ready to devise an Action Plan for the Mt. Hope neighborhood.”
And they say "We want YOU to be involved in taking the next steps towards making Mt. Hope the neighborhood you want it to be!"
Have all the taxpayers and residents been consulted?
Attend this meeting and learn who wishes to bring more affordable housing to the Mt. Hope neighborhood and why.
Read more on this topic by reading the March 18th blog/thread, titled, Call for Position Papers which outlines some pertinent questions, and the March 10th blog/thread HOUSING: Mt. Hope-ing You Get Involved! Residents brought up some good points and raised some good questions. Read even more on the March 10th blog/thread and on the February 13th. Be sure to read all the "Comments" on these threads. That is where the action is.
Below is the announcement for the meeting:
Hello,
Thank you so much for joining us in the "Mount Hope-ing for Healthy Affordable Housing" series at the Providence Public Library, Rochambeau Branch. We have learned a lot from community members and policy makers during the three sessions, and are ready to design an action plan for the Mount Hope neighborhood. We want YOU to be involved in taking the next steps towards making Mt. Hope the neighborhood you want it to be!
Come to an Action Planning meeting on Wednesday, March 30th at 6:30 p.m. at the Rochambeau Branch Library, 708 Hope Street, Providence. We will be providing pizza for dinner. Please RSVP by replying to this email or calling Sarah Weed at (401) 455-8111 so we know how much food to purchase. If you will need child care or a translator please let Sarah Weed (455-8111) know by Friday, March 25th. Thanks! We look forward to
seeing you on the 30th.
Sincerely,
Ruth Lindberg
Outreach and Education Coordinator
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program
RI Department of Health
3 Capitol Hill, Room 302, Providence RI 02908
Phone: (401) 222-7681
Fax: (401) 222-1442
I believe that all Mt. Hope homeowners, renters, and residents should make it their business to attend this meeting and let their opinion be heard.
Posted at 02:03 PM | Politics | Comments (0)
Mayor Cicilline's Newsletter
Want to keep abreast with city politics and what our Mayor is doing (at least what he wants us to know about, :) then sign up for his Newsletter that will be delivered to you by e-mail each week.
Visit City News and scroll through the news and at the bottom of the page there will be an option to subsrcibe.
It's on http://www.providenceri.com/ under Public Notices.
If you want to know a little about what's going on in the City Council check the City Council Press Releases or download the entire council meeting at City Council Meeting Dockets.
Vedy interestink.
Posted by John Twomey
Posted at 01:40 PM | Politics | Comments (0)
Mayor Cicilline's State of Your City
Report
I've just come back from Mayor Cicilline's "State of Your City" forum which was held tonight at MLK Elementary in our neighborhood. At the forum, Cicilline set out to highlight for the 60 or so attendees some of the improvements he's seen in the City since his election, as well as some of the big challenges to come in Economic Development, Crime, Road Maintenance, Parks, Affordable Housing, and most importantly for him, Education and Property Taxes. Some of the important members of his administration also came out to show their support. At the end, citizens were able to ask questions directly of the Mayor.
I've summarized the issues brought up at the forum below:
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.
Posted at 01:23 PM | Politics | Comments (0)
Providence Survey Results
The complete tally: Providence Residents Survey Results
Mayor Cicilline commissioned the ETC Institute, (Press Release) a market research firm, to conduct a statistical survey measuring resident satisfaction and to analyze the resulting data from surveys filled out by randomly-chosen residents of Providence. The results are in now.
Some of the more interesting results revealed that residents felt a bit less safe, but had a little better opinion of the police. A good number saw improvement in police visibility. Nevertheless, as always, the results showed much room for improvement.
The survey revealed 3 areas that Providence residents feel most concerned with and in most need of improvement:
1) Street maintenance, including snow removal, remains the city service in most need of improvement;
2) traffic management (including enforcement of existing laws);
3) and fostering economic development in the city, for job growth.
Wouldn't it be nice to see how, specifically, Mt. Hope residents weighed in on these city issues. We could even do our own survey. In fact, be on the lookout.
Update: Stay tuned for more analysis from John Twomey, who went to the Mayor's presentation of the survey on Monday.
John's update: Irene and I, as representitives of GCCC, recieved an invitation from Mayor Cicilline to attend a meeting at the Rodger Williams Park Casino. At the meeting, the Mayor, and an analyst from ETC, presented the results of the first ever Providence Residents Survey. In addition the Mayor went over the City's legislative package for 2005, a package that stresses property tax relief by asking the state to assume more of the financial burden for education.
On the survey, Mayor Cicilline stressed that because this is the first survey, its greatest value will be to serve as a baseline on which to compare future survey results. Because no previous survey reslults exist, it is important to understand that some areas of improvement won't be apparent. Read here, the Executive Summary.
Here are a few results from the survey:
City Services
Percent of respondents who were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" (as opposed to "neutral" or "dissatisfied") with...
water and wastewater services: 68%
public safety services: 66%
the stormwater runoff system: 51%
parks programs/facilities: 51%
customer service from the City: 41%
services for seniors: 40%
city code enforcement: 40%
city communication: 38%
the city's efforts to promote economic development and jobs: 36%
traffic flow management on city streets: 31%
street and infrastructure maintenance: 28%
In fact, a majority (52%) were dissatisfied with the maintenance of streets and infrastructure. It was chosen by 58% percent of residents as one of the top 3 most important city services to improve over the next two years, followed by economic development (42%), public safety services (30%), and traffic flow (30%).
Quality of Life
Percent who were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with...
Overall quality of life in Providence: 60%
overall image of life in your neighborhood: 56%
image and appearance of the City: 53%
value you receive for city tax dollars: 23%
Providence as a place to live: 64%
Providence as a place to work: 54%
Providence as a place to raise kids: 38%
Public Safety
Percent of respondents who were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" (as opposed to "neutral" or "dissatisfied") with...
fire protection: 79%
local ambulance service: 75%
response times: 63%
assistance from fire inspection: 62%
local police protection: 56%
visibility of police in retail areas: 44%
neighborhood police visibility: 43%
traffic enforcement: 41%
homeland security efforts: 39%
The most dissatisfaction was with the (lack of) visibility of police in neighborhoods (31% were dissatisfied), and police protection in the neighborhoods topped the list of the most important and immediate items. When it comes to safety, most people feel about the same as they did one year ago (61%), but there are more people who feel less safe (20%) than those who feel safer (14%) than they did one year ago. At the same time there were more people who had a better opinion of the Providence Police (18%) compared to one year ago, than those who had a lower opinion (14%). Most felt about the same. Also, 33% thought that police were more visible compared with the 12% who felt that the police were less visible.
There is much more detail about Parks and Recreation, Public Works, Public Safety, the Arts, City Ordinances, Customer Service and Communication, and Demographics. The complete results can be found here.
I found an interesting Rhode Island political site, BlackWhiteLeftRight blog), which also contains links to several other interesting Rhode Island political blog sites.
Posted at 01:14 PM | Politics | Comments (0)
