I write today with good news from Rhode Island Elections, and difficult news about the continuing rise of white supremacy and hate and violence. I also have a nice opinion piece about transportation that appeared in the Boston Globe this week, which I will paste below.
First, the good election news. Thank you for your continued support, and your votes. I am grateful to be able to have been reelected to serve as your State Representative for two more years. I am also glad that Tina Spears, Megan Cotter, Cherie Cruz, Jen Boylan and Jennifer Stewart will be joining me in the state house. Megan Cotter had a very close race against a Republican who was in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2020. The recount was on Friday, and Megan is officially a Rep-Elect. We are electing more women to the State House, and our government will be better for it.
Seth Magaziner won in RI02, keeping both of our congressional seats in Democratic hands. There is a runoff campaign in Georgia for the US Senate, and opportunities to volunteer here.
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I’m not really sure how best to denounce violence and threats of violence against targeted communities without amplifying the terror, but also need to scream about another shooting at an LGBTQ club in CO & people stopped in NY with weapons wanting to shoot up a synagogue. This is one day in 2022 in the US. We have to figure out how to stop the hate, and come together to build stronger and welcoming communities where the hate has absolutely no place.
Hate, plus easy access to guns, is creating a very unsafe place for many of us. I struggle as a human and a public official with figuring out the right balance of talking about hate as it happens, without amplifying it. For example, I did not amplify images of hateful antisemitic fliers left together with rat poison on some doorsteps in Warwick this week. I didn't retweet this because I don't want to help the hate group behind it reach my Twitter followers which include some people who follow me just because they hate me/what I stand for, and I suspect that the fliers were meant not only to amplify fear but also to recruit more members. I don't know what the right balance is, and will continue to try to figure it out. I think all of us get it right sometimes and wrong sometimes and I hope we can keep talking about it and fighting hate together. Maybe we'll figure it out, come up with a plan together and isolate those who hate as well as their hateful ideas and the fear and danger they bring.
I think it is important for us to talk about what is happening. I am not including links to any of these news articles; they are easy to find.
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I will close out this e-mail with my gratitude for all of you. I am looking forward to continuing to build community together with you, and hopeful that this is the best way we, together, can build the world we want to live in. As always, please let me know what you think, by e-mail, phone or at my community conversation tomorrow at noon (see link above). Also, please follow me on Twitter orFacebook, or write to me at info@rebeccakislak.com. I am newly on Mastodon @RebeccaKislak@mstdn.social. You can also call or text me at 401-400-2338. I look forward to hearing from you!
I grew up in suburban Miami. I lived 2 miles from my school, and drove every single day. There was never a minute when anyone thought it would be OK to get there any other way. That’s how the streets were designed. For cars. Not to walk, not to bike. And I never imagined anything else. As a child in the 1970s and 80s, in the suburbs, streets and cars were for getting places; cul-de-sacs and neighborhood streets were the places for kids to bike. There was also a longer bike path for recreation, if we could get dropped off there in a car.
I’ve lived in Providence for 20 years now, and live not far from North Main Street. It has always been a functional and busy street for cars, a way to get from Pawtucket to downtown Providence and back again, or to get to or from the highway. There are a lot of empty lots and storefronts. There are some great places there – sandwich shops, a place to buy my sneakers, a new old-fashioned pharmacy, a few gyms. But North Main Street is scary as a pedestrian, and
I regret the one time I accidentally ended up there on my bicycle. Recently, a pedestrian, crossing with the light and in
daylight, was struck by a car and injured.
I couldn’t imagine North Main any other way – until I started attending community meetings hosted by Councilwoman Nirva LaFortune and the Providence Planning Department. I have now seen designs for possible new infrastructure. North Main Street could have a dedicated bus lane, protected bike paths, and better intersections for pedestrians. There is a park that fronts the cemetery, but is behind the cemetery gates – we could move the gates and have better access to our park. There are so many possibilities. It doesn’t have to be the way it always has been. My imagination is expanding.
I’ve started riding the bus more. The 1 and the (now free) R lines go where I want and need to go. The 1 isn’t quite frequent enough; the R is a hike down or up the hill for me. And now we have a driver shortage, so sometimes a scheduled bus never arrives. But I can imagine more frequent service here and around the state. I can imagine buses coming when we want and need them and taking us where we want to go. I’ve also experienced the convenience of free – I don’t need to make sure I have cash in my pocket or an app on my phone. I just need to hop on the bus.
We recently had a one-week trial bike trail on Hope Street. I hadn’t experienced many protected bike lanes, but the protected bike lane for the uphill climb on Olney Street has changed my commute whenever I have meetings downtown. It has made it possible for me to ride without worrying about the cars almost hitting me as I struggle to ride up the big hill. The South Water Street protected bike lane is such a pleasure to connect India Point Park with downtown. We may or may not end up with a protected bike lane on Hope Street, but now that I’ve seen it and experienced it, I can’t unsee it. My imagination has grown. I had nearly completely protected rides downtown. I can imagine more lanes, and connecting them too. It would be great if my kid could safely ride from the East Side to his high school on Westminster Street. My younger child enjoyed riding on Hope Street – “No hills on the way to school!” – for the first time ever.
I don’t have all the answers, but I’m glad I understand that we don’t have to replicate the same problematic roads we currently have. We can redesign North Main Street, and all our streets, to be better for all of us – cars, bicycles, pedestrians. Let’s imagine something better together.
Rhode Island state Representative Rebecca Kislak lives in Providence and represents District 4.
