After first serving the city as a State Representative, Roberto DaSilva became the first elected mayor of East Providence in 2018. Since that time, he’s focused on a number of issues, including improving the city’s finances, increasing diversity in the city’s workforce, and reviving the waterfront district.
DaSilva is currently serving his second term as East Providence mayor. He sat down with Ocean State Media political reporter Ian Donnis to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the state’s fifth-largest city.
On the city’s recent tax increase
Roberto DaSilva: Well, I thank the residents for taking the position that they wanted to invest in our school department. We passed two bonds. The voters passed two bonds that amount to $339 million of borrowing to build a new high school and to build the Martin Middle School and a new pre-K, which is something that was much needed for our community. The people voted on it. We borrowed the money, now we have to pay the debt service. What drove that increase was mostly debt service, pension contributions to the police and fire – we make sure that we contribute what’s required by the annual required contribution – and additional contractual obligations.
We, as a city, face the same challenges that everybody else does in our community. But what we try to do is expand the tax base so that it doesn’t affect those taxpayers as much as possible. By the way, that 4% tax levy does not represent a 4% tax increase. It’s 4% over the last year’s levy. So it had to get done. Unfortunately, I know people are not always happy, but I’ve spoken to a lot of residents who say that the impact was not as significant as they thought it would be because we had also gone through a revaluation. So a lot of properties that had been undervalued were brought to their proper value. A lot of properties that had been overvalued were brought down to their proper value. So the actual impact to most taxpayers was not as significant as we thought it might be.
On the housing crisis
DaSilva: I don’t have an exact number for you, but I can tell you that the East Point development, 339 units, will be developed. We have permits across the city that are under consideration now on Broadway; a couple of different developments that are happening there. People are looking at other available sites where they can transform old, abandoned buildings like the Rose Furniture building. They’re looking at transforming that into also some type of mixed-use housing. So we see a lot of interest in East Providence. We see a lot of people coming in.
The reality is, I get people coming into my office all the time, older folks, who can no longer afford to stay in their home. They live in what’s called naturally-occurring affordable housing, a house that’s been owned by the same landlord for the last 30-some-odd years. They’re paying that low, low rent. [Then] the property changes hands. The new owner has to borrow at today’s interest rates and purchase the property at today’s market rate. That turns that new owner into somebody that needs to raise the rent.
What we do is we work with nonprofits throughout the state to create more affordable housing. We have an incredible relationship with One Neighborhood Builders. They’re building Center City Apartments on Taunton Avenue; 149 affordable deed-restricted apartments that go down as low as 30% (of) the median income. Those are people who really need a place to live. [We’re] working with Foster Forward, another incredible East Providence organization, that has previously helped develop an old industrial site into housing where all of the units are going to be restricted to children aging out of foster care.
On the impact of the Washington Bridge closure
DaSilva: I think we were the ones that were most impacted by the bridge closure. A lot of our small businesses, immediately in the weeks before they were able to open up the third lane going over the bridge; they were suffering. But we are at a point now where we just drove over here at 10:30 in the morning on a weekday (and) traffic flow is smooth.
What happens on that bridge, unfortunately, is when you have an accident or a breakdown on the bridge, then you get some severe backup. Prior to the bridge closing, as a parent driving my child to East Providence High School on Pawtucket Avenue over the I-195 highway, every morning there’d be a backup as far as I could see into Seekonk. That traffic has always been a point of contention on that stretch of road. What I can tell the people is, based on the new design and based on some of the new features, you’ll have something that’s going to be transformative. The traffic going through that area – once it gets repaired, once it gets fixed – will be better than it’s ever been.
