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Rhode Island
Life Index survey finds it’s getting harder to live in RI. Here’s why
A partnership between Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and Brown University’s School of Public Health, the RI Life Index measures the “lived realities” of Rhode Islanders
Accessory Dwelling Units Bill Coming Back With Help of AARP and RISD
As support for measures to ease Rhode Island’s housing crunch built again in the General Assembly, AARP and RISD collaborated in a “granny flat” design contest.
PROVIDENCE – If you ask Rhode Islanders what they think about the state of the economy, employment, food security, health care and housing, a few trends begin to emerge.
For example, positive perceptions about the affordability of housing, cost of living and employment have gone down – in some instances sharply – in recent years. Yet Latino and Black residents feel better about their access to health care, while white residents feel about the same as they did a year ago.
Perceptions on food security are more complicated. Overall, white Rhode Islanders feel relatively good about it, but Latino and Black residents, especially in cities with high percentages of child poverty, have a much stronger negative perception on food security. Among Latino residents over 55 years old, the negative perception is even stronger.
These are some of the findings from the RI Life Index, an annual survey that measures the “lived realities” of residents in the Ocean State (the measures are also known as social determinants of health). The index, released on Wednesday, is a partnership between Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and Brown University’s School of Public Health. Nearly 2,000 Rhode Islanders participated in this year’s survey.
Overall, the index’s score was 57 on a scale of 0 to 100, a point below last year (higher scores indicate more positive perceptions). Some scores, such as the cost of living (21) and affordable housing (31), have been steadily declining since 2020. While others, such as access to health care (68), seem to be rebounding after a dip.
Food insecurity a rising concern
Of particular salience to this year’s index was access to nutritious food (64), which was down two points from last year and nine points since 2021. The areas with the lowest scores for food insecurity were Central Falls, Block Island and Woonsocket.
Melissa Clark, a professor at Brown University’s School of Public Health and the principal investigator for the index, noted that one out of five households is making trade-offs between paying for food or something else.
The index’s results buttress the findings of a recent report from the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, which found that nearly two out of five households in the state struggle to afford food. This has led to a record demand at food banks in the state.
A panel discussion followed the launch of the index at South Street Landing, an office and academic building for Brown University. It featured Andrew Schiff, CEO of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, along with Kathleen Gorman, professor of psychology and director of the Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America at the University of Rhode Island; Teddi Jallow, executive director of the Refugee Dream Center; and Alison Tovar, an associate professor and interim director of the Center for Health Promotion and Health Equity at the Brown University School of Public Health.
The panel highlighted the challenges many families face in accessing quality food. Jallow noted, for example, that refugees only get a $1,350 stipend from the government to secure an apartment, get health care and afford food – a paltry sum given the cost of rent and other services in the state. The panel also noted that lawful permanent residents – also known as green card holders – have to wait five years before they can qualify for SNAP benefits. For 20% of respondents, transportation was a barrier to accessing food.
Many of the problems with food insecurity are inextricably tied to other issues such as housing and health care, the panelists said.
“No one is ever just hungry,” Schiff said. “The people who experience food insecurity are also having difficulty affording most of their other bills.”
Policy recommendations were also discussed, such as implementing a program to bridge people out of SNAP benefits, but overall systemic change is needed to address food insecurity in Rhode Island, according to the panelists.
“We don’t have a system in place where we are making it easy for people to get help,” Gorman said.
New East Bay Bike Path bridges are open and ready for bikes
What’s it like to ride over the new East Bay Bike Path bridges? We sent a reporter to try them out.
I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.
We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.
It’s clearly a priority.
At least I thought it was.
But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.
The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.
There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.
Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.
The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.
But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.
To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.
That totally sounds worthy.
But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.
Especially for a particular reason in this case.
They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.
When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.
It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.
The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.
But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.
So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.
Too bad.
We were so close.
Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.
Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.
You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.
The PawSox.
The Washington Bridge.
But they’ve done great with bike paths.
And especially, linking many of them together.
Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.
But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.
That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.
We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.
But it’s now apparently dead.
Online commenters aren’t happy about it.
On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.
And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”
Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.
A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”
Hopefully not.
The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.
What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.
It doesn’t have to happen.
Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.
There’s got to be.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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Watch 12 News Now on WPRI.com or with the free WPRI 12+ TV app.
A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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