Issue No. 257  l   September 11, 2008   l   Providence, Rhode Island

 

Grand opening of $10 Million SouthSide Gateway Mixed-Use Development

Mayor David N. Cicilline joined SWAP (Stop Wasting Abandoned Property) in celebrating the grand opening of the new SouthSide Gateways Building at 500 Broad Street in South Providence. The $10 million development features modern but moderately-priced business condominiums in a variety of floor plans and high quality affordable apartments for rent.

“This is a milestone for SWAP and for the South Side, a thriving, multicultural
business district,” said Mayor Cicilline. “Thanks to this great development, those entrepreneurs who qualify can purchase their own business condo, acquire an asset and build equity upon which they can grow their business”.

Designed in the same New England style architecture that dominates the surrounding south side neighborhoods, the three-story building with apartments on the upper floors and storefronts on the ground level evokes images of two and three family houses that once dominated Broad Street. The building’s design by local architect Robert Stillings features a variety of materials, colors, textures and window styles to visually differentiate the spaces. The sidewalk level business, office and retail spaces are open and inviting to passers by who arrive by foot, bike, bus or car. The building is barrier free for handicap accessibility.

Residents of the thirty-five one and two bedroom apartments will enjoy spacious, natural light filed homes with central air-conditioning, high tech security systems, high speed internet access, on-site laundry, parking and on-sight management. They will be able to park their bikes in a secure bike garage. They can walk out the front door to a RIPTA bus stop or enjoy a short walk DownCity, to the medical reseach area or surrounding neighborhoods.

Business owners of the ten condominiums can open their doors on move-in day with the spaces finished and ready to go. Businesses will also have the benefit of on-site management.

Construction began in March 2007 and was completed last month. The first residents moved in last week and the first commercial opening is slated for the fall.

SWAP is a non-profit community development organization that has built or renovated more than 1,400 affordable homes throughout Providence over the past 35 years.

 

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Colonel Dean Esserman Testified Before U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse presented Colonel Esserman, who was the only police chief in America invited to testify at hearing focusing on New Strategies for Combating Violent Crime

Providence Police Colonel Dean M. Esserman was invited to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on New Strategies for Combating Violent Crime: Drawing Lessons from Recent Experience on Wednesday, September 10th.

Chief Esserman testified about Providence’s community policing program, which has resulted in a 30% reduction in crime over the past five years and is widely considered a national model for law enforcement agencies across the nation.  

“The single most important crime-fighting tool for police officers is trust,” said Colonel Esserman.  “The police department does not do the job alone.  Creating safe neighborhoods requires building strong relationships with residents and community partners and that’s what we’re focused on in Providence.”

The Colonel also shared his experience with an innovative program launched in Providence, and modeled after “The Highpoint Initiative,” a successful crime-fighting strategy used by High Point, North Carolina police to eliminate open-air drug markets.  The formula is designed to reduce drug-related crime and violence in neighborhoods by targeting street dealers.  When Providence Police launched a similar initiative in the Lockwood Plaza neighborhood in partnership with community groups, religious leaders, and the Urban League of Rhode Island, the sting operation resulted in the arrest of dozens of drug dealers and caused a few criminals to change their ways.  

Other witnesses who testified at the Senate hearing include Dr. Alfred Blumstein, Professor, H. John Heinz III School of Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University; Jeremy Travis, President, John Jay College of Criminal Justice at City University of New York, Dr. George L. Kelling, Professor, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University; and Reverend James Summey, English Road Baptist Church, High Point, North Carolina.

 

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Mayor Reminds Residents to Take Precautions After DEM Tests Confirm the Presence of West Nile in Providence

Mayor David N. Cicilline is urging residents to take the necessary precautions to protect themselves against disease-carrying mosquitoes.  The reminder is in response to an announcement today by the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) that test results from three mosquito samples in Providence and Pawtucket reveal the presence of West Nile Virus. 

The City’s Department of Public Works has taken aggressive steps to control the mosquito population by treating approximately12,000 catch basins with a larvicide that prevents mosquitoes from hatching.  However, health officials stress the way to reduce the risk of infection from West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) is to take the following precautions:

• Use insect repellent containing 30% Deet (do not use on infants)
• Wear long-sleeved shirts and pants at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active
• Avoid leaving standing water on your property to reduce the area where mosquitoes can breed
• Place mosquito netting over infant carriers when mosquito-biting activity is high
• Install or repair window and door screens to keep mosquitoes out

“As we continue to work closely with state officials to reduce risk of West Nile in our community, we know that the best line of defense is to ensure that every single resident takes the necessary steps to protect themselves against virus-carrying mosquitoes,” said Mayor Cicilline.

For more information on mosquito-borne diseases, visit the DEM’s website, or visit the Rhode Department of Health’s website.

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Mayor Urges PUC to Show Compassion to Struggling Families

Rising fuel prices, growing unemployment rate and foreclosure crisis have the potential to create “the perfect storm,” warned Mayor Cicilline

Mayor David N. Cicilline today urged the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to reduce the amount of the down payment required to restore electricity and gas service for low-income customers.  In letters to PUC Chairman Elia Germani and several commissioners, Mayor Cicilline warned of the challenges the current economic climate poses to thousands of struggling families who are forced to choose between heating their home, paying their mortgage, putting gas in their car or food on their table.  

“With fuel prices continuing at an all time high, a growing unemployment rate and many Providence residents feeling the serious consequences of the foreclosure crisis, this winter has the potential to become ‘the perfect storm’ that could have devastating and long term impacts on families living in the capital city and throughout Rhode Island,” said Mayor Cicilline.  “In such difficult economic times, we must do everything possible to assist low income families struggling to make ends meet.”

The Mayor told the PUC that he “strongly supports” the current proposal to allow low-income customers to pay 10-percent of their overdue balance in order to have their electricity and gas turned back on.  Over the past year in Providence alone, more than 7,000 residents received heating assistance through the LIHEAP Program and 2,408 residents received shut-off assistance through the Providence Community Action Agency.   

“These people are the most at-risk and their numbers will undoubtedly grow in the coming winter months.”

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Feature: My School

Providence Cobras Keep Kids on the Right Track
 

Seven thousand miles away from the Beijing Olympic Village, where American track stars like Allyson Felix and LaShawn Merritt have etched their names on the world record books, Providence, too, is taking strides on the home turf.

Founded in 1978 by Councilman and Coach Kevin Jackson, the Providence Cobras continues to work with our city’s youth to develop their talents on the track.  Together with a team of coaches, Jackson has been nurturing the dreams and building the self-confidence of thousands of aspiring young local track stars for the past three decades. 

Back in the 80s, Jackson teamed up with Tom Spann, the current director of the Mount Hope Rec Center, to build an independent team geared towards elementary to middle school students.  Later on, high school track athletes were welcomed into the mix.  Thirty years later, former young Cobras - many who’ve gone on to be successful college athletes - have now begun to return to Providence as coaches and mentors to today’s Cobras. 

City News caught up with Coach Jackson to get a running start on how he and others have worked to keep Providence kids on the right track. 

Who are the Providence Cobras, and when and how did this team form in Providence?
The team formed here in the City of Providence in 1978.  I was a college student at Rhode Island College working at the East Side YMCA and they had a total sports program and they asked me to staff the track team.  They already had a swim team, a basketball team, and a wrestling and boxing program.  It just was a natural fit seeing that I was a high school and college track athlete that they asked me to start the team back then.  In 1983, the YMCA decided they would no longer be in the sports program business anymore so then we went out on our own. 

At that time, Tom Spann, who’s now the director of the Mount Hope Recreation Center, was the director of the Chad Brown Rec Center.  He came on board and we got our 501(c)(3) together and started our own program from there. 

Back then, the Cobras were geared towards younger athletes, from elementary to middle school.  The reason we did that is because we didn’t have connections yet to high schools.

Why is it important that kids today have the opportunity to play in sports and belong to a team like the Cobras?
There are a number of reasons.  The big one today is when I was kid growing up we weren’t into video games or computers.  I think too many kids today aren’t getting enough exercise.  They aren’t getting the proper health and wellness that they need and I think we see that in young adults today, not being able to walk or run a mile.  So I think it’s important to the health and wellness of our young people. 

I think it’s also important because sports, to me, build self-discipline, self-confidence, build all positive things that can relate to the things you need to do in the classroom.  I think that you find that those kids who participate in any sport are less involved in crime, in teenage pregnancy, in drug use.  I think all those social positive reasons of why we need to continue to have opportunities for our children, particularly in sports, are important. 

The other thing that it does too is that it gives our kids exposure.  When you have a team of this caliber that’s going to travel outside of the City of Providence, they get exposed to places beyond what they’re used to.  These kids get to travel to places like North Carolina every summer, and they’re going to New York – so they’re getting exposed, especially the high schoolers, to college coaches that may recruit them.  So their horizons of where they’re thinking about going to college will expand. 

In all of the years I have coached, I have now seen grown-up families that are living in places all over the United States.  I’m constantly getting sweatshirts from the colleges that the Cobras have gone to.  I have sweatshirts from Oklahoma and USC, St. John’s and all over.  These are places that many kids in Providence never even think about until they’re involved in things that get them that exposure.   

When is the Cobra season?
We do year-round.  We do cross-country in the fall, indoor track in the winter, and outdoor track in the summer time.  It’s expanded now to the high school kids because both Tom and I became high school coaches at Hope.  Tom continues to coach there and I left to coach today at Rhode Island College.  We also bring kids from all over the state now as well, especially during the summertime, because we want them to run track for their own high schools during the school year.

And kids from outside of the Mount Hope neighborhood are now also playing for the Cobras?
Yes, kids from all over come in to the program, even kids from out of state from Massachusetts – Swansea, Seekonk, and places like that.  So it’s really evolved into a national caliber type program.  We’re the only program in the state that runs year-round.  You have some programs that might do cross-country, some that might do outdoor track, but we do the whole gamut. 

Where do they play and practice?
Our home field is at the Hope High School track.  Originally before Hope’s track was redone, we would run our indoor track at Brown University’s old Marvel gym and would run our outdoor program at Brown Stadium.  Once Hope got redone, we moved all our focus there because again, we wanted to be neighborhood-centered and we wanted people to feel welcome, not that people didn’t feel welcomed at Brown but a lot of times people assumed there’s a cost if you’re at a private institution as opposed to a public one.

So there are no fees to join the team?
No, there are none, never have been.  We’ve kept to that since 1978, that it will cost your child absolutely positively nothing to be involved with us. 

And how do they join?
Usually, many just show up.  We tell them to show up to a practice, stay there with your child, watch what’s going on, and see if it’s something that you think your child would enjoy because it is intense.  We’re not in the business of babysitting while parents go out shopping! The Cobras is an intense and competitive track program.  We had a young man who went on to compete in two Olympics.  We had another one who competed at the Junior Panamanian Games.  All our kids go to college.  Most of them continue to participate in track and field in college.   It’s that kind of intense, competitive program. 
 
As you mentioned, many of the Cobras have moved on to enter college and become successful young adults.  So you agree that their involvement in this team has impacted their educational decisions, can you elaborate more on that?
Absolutely.  It definitely does impact their decisions – in any sport.  Again, it goes back to self-discipline, self-awareness, self-esteem.  All that is built positively in athletic activities. 

They also build friendships.  We feel that having a team sport like this breaks down a lot of barriers.  In the summertime, we have young men and women from Mount Pleasant, Central, Hope, Classical – the four major high schools, and some of the smaller ones too – that gets together and works together.  We have a lot of barriers in this City sometimes, where people from this side of town don’t get along with that side of town.  But we really feel that sports is a great way to relieve the pressure off those barriers, of that mentality of ‘I can’t hang around with those people because I’m from another side of town.’  It clearly does impact them, in my opinion, in a positive way.  It opens up their eyes to many more opportunities. 

Unless these kids have mentors or people they look up who have gone to college or become successful beyond our city or state, many of them limit themselves to looking at schools like Providence College, RIC, or CCRI.  And there’s nothing wrong with any of those three colleges at all.  I work for RIC as a coach.  But, when they get involved in sports, they have many more opportunities and options.  They would never think that a coach from Oklahoma or USC would write them a letter.  It’s not even in their wildest dreams and that has happened to our kids in the Cobras!

So what does the future look like for the Providence Cobras?
I think the next 30 years, God-willing I’ll still be involved.  I don’t think I’ll be coaching as much because that would put me in the 80-year old bracket! The next years, our goal is to make sure that we have former Cobras who are now adults in the community, in their late 20s, early 30s, coming back to coach for us. 

We have 4 other coaches now with us who have come through the program, or participated in track in some way.  One of them is the track coach at Central High School,  Dan Okleasky.  We have Jackie Robinson who was a Cobra and went to college out in California.  George Porter who ran at Hope High School and came to the Cobras.  Peter Gbaa who also went to Hope, then to URI, graduated, and is back with the Cobras.  And Ernest Fernell, who also went to Hope, ran for them, and came back to us as well to coach.  That’s what I mean.  I think that this is the future of the Providence Cobras.  It’s our next building block, making sure that those young men and women will take over the coaching reign and I could concentrate on the fundraising part and management.  That’s what we’d like to see happen. 

It’s tough running a non-profit program and not to charge the kids anything.  It’s always the challenge.  We’re constantly raising money, looking for supporters, looking for donations, looking for help, even in-kind like people who want to donate shoes or uniforms to us.  We’ve stayed the philosophy for 30 years that we’re not going to charge the kids a penny. 

To learn more, or to get your young athlete off to a good running start, log on to www.providencecobras.com or call Coach/Councilman Kevin Jackson at 286-4223.

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