Dear Neighbors,
One year ago, I had the privilege of taking the oath of office as your Mayor inside of the beautiful Providence Public Library. As I reflect on my first year in office, I am overwhelmed with gratitude and proud to be delivering on the promises we made. I am excited to share with you the highlights of our collective achievements over the past year.
Together we made Providence a safer city for us all. We started the year by swearing in a new Chief of Police and the first Chief of Fire to serve in this role in the last eight years. Under the leadership of our new Chief of Police, Colonel Perez, the Providence Police hit the ground running, making our neighborhoods safer by seizing over 161 ATVs and 295 guns. Chief of Fire Derek Silva immediately worked on modernizing our fire department and launched our EMS bicycle unit, helping some of our most vulnerable residents.
As promised, my Administration got back to the basics and has worked hard to improve city infrastructure. Over the last year, we’ve allocated $13 million in investments to improve and revitalize parks and greenspaces in every neighborhood. Together with our partners, we made improvements to dozens of childcare providers so that they could improve their spaces and welcome more children. We have prioritized sidewalk repairs, completing over 570 repairs this year and proposing $26 million in capital improvements to our sidewalks beginning next year. I’m also proud to say we’ve invested $3 million in improving and repairing the city’s hurricane barriers to ensure Providence is protected from storm surges. This is part of the Administration’s larger efforts to invest in green infrastructure, improve stormwater management and make Providence more climate resilient.
And because Providence has been disproportionately impacted by the housing crisis in Rhode Island, we have invested over $29 million in the Providence Affordable Housing Trust, which will go towards encouraging and supporting the successful development of affordable housing. We’ve also worked to provide more than $4 million in emergency shelter beds, helping folks find immediate housing when needed.
Lastly, and possibly most important, we negotiated an historic $223 million PILOT agreement with our colleges and universities that more than doubles the financial contributions from the last agreement. This new agreement will put us in a better financial position for years to come.
It has been an incredible year and we are just getting started. I want to express my deepest appreciation for the support, guidance and engagement our residents have shown over the last year. Thank you for placing your trust in me as your mayor. We have already achieved remarkable milestones and together we are on our wto making Providence the best-run city in the country.
Brett