Midway thru 1st term, how would you grade Providence Mayor Elorza? (best cities, 2014)
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Mayor Jorge Elorza has served two years. I think it is time to have a performance review. Here are some areas to consider, but don't limit yourself to these questions.
How effective has he been as the leader of Providence?
Where has he failed?
What has he accomplished?
With the major caveat that I don't live in Providence and therefore don't have a good POV on what he's done for the lives of residents, from the outside looking in, it seems like he's doing a fine job.
Downcity has achieved a vibrancy that wasn't quite there when I first moved to the area three years ago. Don't get me wrong, it's got a ways to go. But there's an excitement and an energy there that suggests it's come into its own at least as a nightlife destination. I was there Friday night to go to dinner at Red Fin Crudo, an excellent restaurant that wasn't open when Elorza took office. Then I went for drinks at the Magdalenae Room, a spectacular bar staffed by hipper-than-thou bartenders that was bustling -- it's slightly pre-Elorza, but it's certainly not doing any worse during his administration. On the way between the two, I passed several new bars and restaurants, including a "workers' cooperative and wine bar" (I looked it up when I got home and confirmed this was meant completely unironically).
I realize that all of this sounds like a lot of white-privilege, Volvo-driving claptrap, and I suppose it is, but what I'm trying to demonstrate is that things are happening. These new businesses are employers, and they attract people downtown, and a lot of those people are young tastemakers who are going to want to live nearby if they don't already. They will, in turn, add to the tax base and start their own businesses and employ more people. That's part of how it works. I don't follow Providence politics close enough to tell you how Elorza has inspired this sort of development, but the fact of the matter is that it's being inspired and people are noticing.
Back to that restaurant, Red Fin Crudo -- I talked to one of the owners. She's a former Miss Delaware USA who won MasterChef on Fox a few years ago. Her husband and co-owner was a finalist on Food Network's Chopped. The two of them had no connection to Rhode Island, but they moved here because they heard the culinary scene was booming and wanted to be part of it.
Over the couple of years that Elorza's been in office, you've seen an increase in the kind of publicity that brought Red Fin Crudo's owners here. Providence regularly makes lists of best cities for this and that. Are these lists meaningless? Of course they are, but who cares? They're important, and something Elorza is doing is encouraging the writers to include Providence, whether it's an active effort or is just a byproduct of other actions.
The "Providence as a culinary city", etc precedes Elorza by years. The I195 development precedes Elorza.
His sanctuary city stand is controversial. According to a recent study there are 30,000+ illegal immigrants in the city and he proposes risking Providence's federal funding to protect illegals if the withdrawal of funding idea gains traction. They are still arresting criminals with ICE records, but ignoring illegal status and proposing issuing driver's licenses. Providence (and indeed the state) cannot survive without federal funding. No one has had the opportunity to vote on this action by our mayor.
I would have liked to have seen a referendum on this issue.
Other than that, not a great deal comes to mind that is better than what we have had over the past several mayoral terms. He did finally, after 5 yrs, come to terms with the firefighters. However, the city auditor says the claim of money savings is off by millions of dollars. Our sidewalks (a city responsibility) and our roads are still crap- although the lead pipes are slowly being replaced. He put paid parking meters on Thayer St and in other locations much to the dismay of the businesses there (also no public vote or input).
Last edited by Hollytree; 01-09-2017 at 11:44 AM..
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
3,730 posts, read 2,670,438 times
Reputation: 1580
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hollytree
The "Providence as a culinary city", etc precedes Elorza by years. The I195 development precedes Elorza.
His sanctuary city stand is controversial. According to a recent study there are 30,000+ illegal immigrants in the city and he proposes risking Providence's federal funding to protect illegals if the withdrawal of funding idea gains traction. They are still arresting criminals with ICE records, but ignoring illegal status and proposing issuing driver's licenses. Providence (and indeed the state) cannot survive without federal funding. No one has had the opportunity to vote on this action by our mayor.
I would have liked to have seen a referendum on this issue.
Other than that, not a great deal comes to mind that is better than what we have had over the past several mayoral terms. He did finally, after 5 yrs, come to terms with the firefighters. However, the city auditor says the claim of money savings is off by millions of dollars. Our sidewalks (a city responsibility) and our roads are still crap- although the lead pipes are slowly being replaced. He put paid parking meters on Thayer St and in other locations much to the dismay of the businesses there (also no public vote or input).
While it is true that the strength of Providence's culinary scene predates Elorza by a lot, I think BoulevardofDef has a point; new restaurants continue to open, which suggests that Elorza hasn't meddled with the desirability of being part of the "Silicon Valley of Food". BTW, who comes up with this clunky branding, anyway???
Elorza's leadership/grandstanding on the "sanctuary city" issue, promising sanctuary and risking sorely needed federal dollars, would see him tossed out onto the street if it ever came to pass. While I get his knee-jerk reaction to the presidential election results, his job is to make sure the fundamental functions of city government get done without bankrupting the city. And incidentally he has rejected calls to place the city in bankruptcy. He can't have his cake and eat it too.
On the firefighter problem, I give Elorza credit for trying to brave that hornet's nest, but low marks for his execution. His clumsy three platoon gambit still hasn't been paid for, the minimum manning numbers still aren't low enough, and I don't believe that he managed any tangible reform of pensions moving forward. We still pay an unsustainable amount of money for PFD. Perhaps we should look at privatizing a portion of it; while I am generally against privitization of essential city services, it might be the only way to make it sustainable.
It's true that many sidewalks are in rough shape, as are roads. Sidewalks inexplicably get paid for through Community Development Block Grants, and if you follow the money it is difficult to see where it goes. The city doesn't seem to have enough wiggle room in the budget to do much with the roads beyond the annual pothole patching. As a result, we ended up with Elorza's mismanaged attempt to go to the voters for a bond to pave the roads. Of course the bond measure passed, though it can't be acted on because Elorza seemed to put the plan together at the last minute, and he and City Council President Aponte battled over who got control of the slush fund. So the money isn't there.
I have talked with several residents about his progress on the issues above, and others facing the city, and the general sense is that his leadership, where the rubber hits the road, has no traction. He's spinning the tires but going nowhere. I had hope for him, but now I am wondering if there is somebody waiting in the wings. There aren't easy answers for the issues the city faces, which means the problems can't be solved overnight, but the communication I have heard from the mayor does not instill confidence that he has what it takes to solve the problems given adequate time. He needs to move up that learning curve rapidly if he wants to take this bus somewhere good.
Providence is on course to morph into being another Detroit, albeit a smaller city.
I dunno, that doesn't really seem to be the trend, with all the positive attention and major corporations moving in.
For what it's worth, Detroit is improving, too. I visited this past summer. Don't get me wrong, it's got a very long way to go, but there were clear signs of a revival. Their riverwalk is spectacular and they've got a newish downtown park that could be in the middle of any of the most-beloved cities in America. Also saw a neighborhood outside of downtown that still looks a little like the Red Army just rolled through and I had to turn down perhaps the most rough-looking panhandler I'd ever seen, but they also had a new leather-goods store with a artisanal coffee bar and $200 belts.
Providence is on course to morph into being another Detroit, albeit a smaller city.
Total nonsense- zero basis in fact. Elorza will be voted out next election. We are on the upswing. We have no major industries moving out- unlike what happened to Detroit.
Total nonsense- zero basis in fact. Elorza will be voted out next election. We are on the upswing. We have no major industries moving out- unlike what happened to Detroit.
Not so; RI is getting deeper into financial difficulties.
Last edited by QuilterChick; 01-13-2017 at 01:55 PM..
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