Ward 2 boasts some of the finest homes in the city: Blackstone, Wayland, and College Hill neighborhoods. Shopping and restaurants in the Elmgrove Plaza, Thayer Street, Hope Street, and a fraction of Wayland Square. Public amenities include Blackstone Boulevard, Blackstone Park, Gladys Potter Baby Park, Brown Street Park, and Hope Fields. Moses Brown, Lincoln, Wheeler, School One, and a sliver of RISD and Brown. Butler Hospital and Swan Point Cemetery. There are roughly 13,000 residents and maybe 4,000 voters. (There are another 40,000 souls in Swan Point, but they only vote in presidential years!)
A substantial portion of property taxes that the city collects comes from Ward 2. The average property value increased by 33 percent, to an average of $1,269,784 in the current tax year.
Yet, there is no fire station. No police sub-station. No public school. Limited street cleaning. Public Works fixes potholes if you’re lucky, and Parks does as much as they can. All of the traffic signals are regularly out of sync. (The DOT keeps adjusting them for the “bridge” and the city can’t keep up with readjusting them.)
The city council desperately needs new leadership that won’t roll over on every questionable proposal that is presented. The city is still in very bad financial condition, yet the city council has greatly increased its own overhead. Social and micro-issues are important, but they shouldn’t dominate national news, and they can’t overshadow the major structural issues.
The latest of those is a housing study that reads like a foregone conclusion. It fails to acknowledge that Providence has a well-aged housing stock and that rent-controlled housing may suffer from further deterioration in quality because landlords will have reduced incentives to invest in maintenance and
improvements. It will also reduce the supply of rental units, which is likely to lead to higher rents in the unregulated market. And while it might help some residents of controlled units, it doesn’t solve the broader problem of high housing costs throughout the city.
Ward 2 has been the home of Buddy Cianci, Bruce Sundlun, Gina Raimondo, Jeff Pine, Sam Zurier, and many more political and business leaders. This is why the Ward 2 seat is so important. Constituent requests are the fewest on the council, and the councilor can take a “big” picture approach to the job.
City Council member Helen Anthony is stepping down early to continue her recovery from a serious accident in 2023. She will be missed, and we wish her a full recovery. The whole council turns over in two years, and there are already signs that there will be a number of major changes. So, this is a short-term head start to be in a position to run as an incumbent with a record. All four candidates are running as Democrats and there are no announced Republicans seeking a position.
We encourage readers to meet the candidates and vote for the one who will be a leader in the city. Also, watch the money as special interest groups are already drooling over this race. The election will be held on November 4.
David Caldwell has a particularly diverse background. He is the owner of the residential construction company Caldwell & Johnson, which emphasizes green, environmentally friendly technology. He is the president of the Audubon Society of RI. He takes particular pride in his eight years as a commissioned officer in the Marine Corps, where he specialized in managing million-dollar budgets, purchasing, negotiations, and financial planning. He moved to the East Side in 2017 when his two daughters enrolled in the Lincoln School. He and his wife, Tina, live on Blackstone Boulevard.
Jill Davidson is a longtime resident of the East Side with a history of activism in educational and environmental issues. She is the communications and development director of the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council and has been an educational advocate with extensive leadership involvement in our public schools, including serving as an education columnist at East Side Monthly for six years. She is a proponent for environmental reform, sustainable energy, and recycling. She lives on Elmway Street with her husband, Kevin, and has three children who attend Providence public schools.
Jeff Levy is a partner in the law firm of Levy and Blackman, which specializes in real estate and small business litigation. A resident of the East Side for over two decades, he has been heavily involved in local activities, particularly as a coach in the East Side-Fox Point Little League and as president of Temple Emanuel. His wife, Gayle Goldin, was a state senator representing the entire East Side before taking a job as the deputy director of the Women’s Bureau in the Biden administration. They live on Brown Street.
Matt McDermott is a democratic pollster and strategist who works at Whitman Insight Strategies where he advises progressive candidates, advocacy groups, and non-profits on political strategies and messaging. He served as co-chair of the national LGBTQ+ Victory Fund Campaign and worked on the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign. A trustee of the Providence Public Library, he and his partner, Dillon, live on Angell Court.
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