Mayor Jorge O. Elorza has been in office since 2015, but after being reelected in 2018, he is now term-limited and cannot run for mayor of Providence again in 2022. City residents and businesses have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, Providence has been wrestling with fixing a failing school system and addressing a rekindled racial-justice movement.
What have been the biggest challenges faced by your administration as a result of the pandemic? What has been the city’s responses to those challenges? As the center of commerce and activity for the state with an extremely dense population, we knew we were at higher risk of becoming a virus hot spot. Because of that, we have been aggressive and proactive in enacting restrictions to mitigate spread. We prioritized testing in the hardest-hit communities, and we are supporting our community with basic needs such as food and housing supports.
How can your administration help the city recover, particularly economically, once the pandemic crisis has passed? What are the biggest obstacles the city will face? In any crisis, the best time to begin the recovery process is immediately. And that is exactly what we are doing in the city by waiving tangible taxes below $10,000; approving over $1 million in loans at zero percent interest for the first year to our businesses; and doing everything we can to help small businesses and restaurants adapt and stay afloat. Even with all these programs, we need national leadership to help our people and businesses get to the other side. I am hopeful that the Biden administration will advance the national relief packages and stimulus programs our communities desperately need.
There’s been some disagreement about the size and the role of the Providence Police Department. What are your thoughts about the police force in a post-COVID-19 era? About 20 years ago, the city of Providence made a decision to go all-in on community policing. It was derided and resisted by some folks at the time, but sticking with that approach has helped us achieve record-low levels of crime over the past few years. We were on the forefront of policing 20 years ago, and I want us to be on the forefront of policing 20 years from now. That means that we must do two things: build off of what has made us successful and further strengthen the culture of continuous improvement. Most of the challenges we face are best addressed by developing deeper relationships between police officers and the communities they serve. And in order to allow officers to build those relationships, we need to both invest in services, such as for mental health, that will free up valuable police time, and we need to address, through training and continued accountability, instances of insensitivity and racism in policing.
Over the summer, you signed an executive order to start a truth-telling and reparations process in the city. Where does the process stand? If reparations are recommended, what would they look like? And with the city under fiscal pressure, can taxpayers afford them? The wounds of racial injustice run deep and in order to address them, we have to go to the source. That is why we launched a three-phase process that will entail truth telling, reconciliation and reparations. We are currently in the first phase and have engaged local researchers to compile the history of the Black community in our city. Once we complete this phase, we will work with the African American Ambassador Group to engage the community in a process of racial reconciliation. And once that second phase is underway, we will then ask the community to make recommendations on the shape that reparations should take.
The Providence Public School District was troubled even before COVID-19. How can the city, in partnership with the state, help it to improve? The reality is that in spite of the efforts of myself and previous mayors, our schools were simply not making the grade. That is why I brought the state in to invoke the Crowley Act [which authorizes the R.I. Department of Education to take over failing schools and school districts] and help us turn around our school district. Although I no longer oversee the day-to-day operations of the schools, I am playing five separate roles: 1) investing $300 million in our school buildings, 2) investing in out-of-school learning supports, 3) lifting the voice of the community in this process, 4) being a thought-partner with ... [R.I. Education] Commissioner [Angélica Infante-Green], and 5) supporting ... Superintendent [of Schools Harrison Peters] in any way I can. In addition, I am strongly advocating for the expansion of high-achieving charter schools such as Achievement First and Excel Academy.
