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Segal Says Green Candidate David Segal is sick and tired of paying ten dollars to park overnight on the streets of Providence by Nick Horton [Photo by Alexis Arieff] Most political careers take as long to start as filibusters do to end. Neither can hold the attention of typical college undergraduates, even the most die-hard CNN fans. Politics has not been youthful since 1780, when Pitt the younger won a seat in the British Parliament. |
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David Segal is a 22-year-old Columbia graduate now running for the Ward 1 City Council seat as the Green Party candidate. Ward 1 encompasses all of Fox Point and all of College Hill south of Angell Street. In his attempt to be the first Green on Providence's City Council, Segal has made the race Brown-oriented. He and the student group the Brown Greens have registered approximately three-hundred voters and knocked on almost every door in the neighborhood. Segal hopes to be buoyed by the large contingent of progressive-minded young voters on College Hill in what has become a four-way race. In the November 5 general election, he will face Democrat Kyle Diggins, the nephew of the former Ward 1 Councilman Robert Clarkin; Independent Harrison Bilodeau, former president of the Fox Point Citizens' Association and prominent property manager; and Republican Bill Miller, painting teacher at RISD, in the general election.
Four years ago, Josh Mandelbaum B'01 won 23 percent of the vote as a Green Party candidate in a bid for Rhode Island Senate. Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign, aside from inciting finger-pointing, helped put Green Party delegations across the country on the map. Segal's humble race here on College Hill could be the next step. A victory would make Providence the second largest US city, just behind Minneapolis, with a Green on its city council. And while two months ago not even Segal thought he had a chance, last week's progressive victories in the Democratic primaries, including David Cicilline for mayor, Miguel Luna for city council, and Myrth York for governor, are strong indicators otherwise. THE INDEPENDENT: At 22, you're the age of many a college student. You graduated with a degree in mathematics from Columbia magna cum laude at 21. When did you get interested in politics? DAVID SEGAL: I ran John McCain's youth campaign in New York, which is something I would not do again. I was raised pretty conservatively and he was my last good conservative outlet. I liked him for his campaign finance reform, and I sort of tricked myself into thinking he was more liberal than he was because I was definitely to his left by then. Then I sort of leapfrogged over mainstream Democrats and became leftist. I: You then repatriated to a new college town, becoming almost a surrogate Brown student, a Peter Pan of the Ivy League. What went on between graduating from college and deciding to run for city council? DS: Having fun, I guess. There was not any real vision, which was really kind of depressing sometimes but really exhilarating at others. I did not have any grand plans. I figured it would involve journalism or politics. I: Bright-eyed liberal graduates tend to head in the direction of non-profits, activism, community service, and apathy. Do you think politics can be proactive? DS: I hope so. Under certain circumstances it can. I don't know if it can in Providence. I do not really have a great sense of what the inside of Providence politics is like at all. The two big movements I have been following, the living wage and PERA [The Police External Review Authority], gained some support but have not passed yet. I: What attracted you to politics here? DS: Growing up outside DC you are always pretty attuned to the political climate. After I got out of college I started paying attention to politics here right away: I started going to council meetings, I started reading the Providence Journal daily, and was also studying economics on my own time and reading into other issues. It became clear that Ward 1 was pretty poorly represented. I guess the particular instant, if there is one, that I decided to run, was when Robert Clarkin voted against the External Review Authority for the police department. That was kind of the last straw and I decided that someone needed to challenge him. It came out that Clarkin was just hoping that his nephew would take the seat. I decided that that was too in line with what has been going on here and decided to jump in. Then so did a couple of other people and now it's a four-way race, and I've got a shot because of that. I: What role do you envision Brown playing in your race? DS: I imagine the vast majority will be voting for me. My month of September is dedicated to registering students. I think I need about equivalent numbers of people from Brown and from the community. One thousand votes total would do it definitely. Fewer people than I hoped are registering to vote here, but everyone is very supportive - at least philosophically. I wish more of those people would register here, because I think it would make a huge difference for Providence, for Rhode Island, for the Green Party. It would be a pretty big deal if I pulled it off, and I could, if I got those four or five hundred Brown votes. I: You have just released a statement in regard to the city's overnight parking laws. What do you suggest? DS: There was talk of increasing the fines from $10 to $25 or more. Even without that I think the law is pretty stupid. I would like a permit-based system by which residents could purchase permits - people with in-state registrations for something negligible and people with out-of-state registrations for something on the order of $250 [per year]. Those students that live off campus would be eligible. I: What has your impression of Providence politics been since you entered the local political forum? DS: There is a tremendous political machine at work. A lot of people will vote blindly for the Democrats. It is not probably what it once was, but it is still really, really strong. You see it in that the council is occupied entirely by Democrats and all of Providence's delegates to the statehouse are Democratic. The Republican gubernatorial candidates aren't even bothering to campaign in Providence. I: Crime in the Brown vicinity seems to have sky-rocketed over the past year. What could the city of Providence do to ameliorate the situation? DS: In the short term we could bring back community policing, which used to exist in some small capacity-police officers whose beat is only in that community. There were once community officers in each neighborhood, which the city has since done away with so they could come out with a more comprehensive plan, which has not really manifested. Also, I recommend more police facilitation of neighborhood watches. They are matters of reorganization, rather than increased funding. A lot is predicated on finding better funding. Ideally we could put more officers on the street, something in which the universities could become involved. Yale provides New Haven with 75 sworn officers that are not its own security force. I would also push for around-the-clock shuttle service, and a shuttle service that goes all the way out to Governor and Gano streets. In the long term both more affordable housing and a living wage would reverse the conditions that lead to crime. I: How would you suggest solving the problem of affordable housing on the East Side? DS: I talked to quite a few people who anticipate this year's round of rent increases being too much for them: anywhere from between $50 to $200 rent increases monthly per year, plus upping security deposits and non-refundable service fees of three or four hundred dollars up front. Plenty of long-term residents are getting kicked out. To stop the hikes you can mandate linkages between rights to development projects, specifically projects for which we are going to be giving tax breaks to the developers, to the provision of affordable housing. It's done in plenty of cities across the country-you say, "If you are going to build this luxury apartment you have to build these affordable units too." The University should also be providing more housing to its students, definitely, because students can afford to pay higher rents than the people that are getting driven out. At the very least Brown should build another dorm. I: Currently the largest property owner in your ward, Brown University, pays no property taxes. Several mayoral candidates have mentioned scapegoating Brown to solve Providence's budget problems. What do you think should be done to improve the city's finances? DS: Brown should be doing more, RISD should be doing more, Providence College should be doing more. There is ten billion dollars of property in Providence four billion of it is not taxable. 1.5 billion of that is owned by schools and hospitals, so if you could tax them in full that would be an extra fifty or sixty million dollars-a-year that the city would be making. The precedent has been set by other schools. Yale's relationship with New Haven is pretty good these days. Yale donates two million dollars directly to the city and tens of thousands of New Haven students take classes at Yale for free each year. They have home ownership programs for their employees, they give twenty five grand to employees towards purchasing homes. Five hundred people have taken them up on it and 80 percent of them are first time homeowners. They do a lot, and they give on the order of $10 million in total per year to New Haven. Brown gives nothing to Providence. I: What is it like having your identity turned into a political image? DS: I don't think I've changed too much. There are times that I watch what I say, there are some issues you focus on around certain people. I've probably tried here and there but failed. I slouch. I still fumble over my words. I slouch. Nick Horton B'04 appreciates this opportunity to tell you about himself. |