Rhode Island Public Transit Authority

The Power Place Summit.

And- There's been pretty consistent, almost tied into general displeasure with the Rhode Island Department of Transportation or attitudes that the DOT is inept or something like that, and DOT obviously and RIPTA are very different, but there are overlaps there in terms of personnel and so on and so forth.

We don't have to go into the details right now, but...

Generally, the candidates have said, look, there should be more transparency with Repta.

Whereas Ken Block, he says, make ripped affairs free for a year, but all of the money to fund transit already exists in the state budget and can be found elsewhere.

So in order to grow our transit, do we need to grow our budget for transit?

I think we do, but I think we also can find some efficiencies in the RIDOT budget that can help to augment RIPTA's budget.

So I think it's an all-in kind of strategy.

He wasn't, those weren't just followers that he'd accumulated, but he wasn't very active.

He was constantly on Instagram making videos about, you know, RIPTA, about the best places to eat in Rhode Island, about, you know, actions against ICE, about, you housing affordability, about what was going on in his district, whatever the case may be, he had following and he was tapped into it.

And I think, you know, one of the first things strategic debates that David and I had, and I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this anecdote, is, you know, he was dead set on doing a press conference to announce his campaign, because that's the way that it's always been done in Providence.

If somebody's going to run for office, particularly for an executive seat like mayor or governor, they host a press conference, they call the media together,

He wasn't, those weren't just followers that he'd accumulated, but he wasn't very active.

He was constantly on Instagram making videos about, you know, RIPTA, about the best places to eat in Rhode Island, about, you know, actions against ICE, about, you housing affordability, about what was going on in his district, whatever the case may be, he had following and he was tapped into it.

And I think, you know, one of the first things strategic debates that David and I had, and I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this anecdote, is, you know, he was dead set on doing a press conference to announce his campaign, because that's the way that it's always been done in Providence.

If somebody's going to run for office, particularly for an executive seat like mayor or governor, they host a press conference, they call the media together,

And then really earlier this year, I'm sorry, early last year is when you started to hear Helena's name again and you started to see her taking selfies online.

on the RIPTA bus, or at this community event, or that community event, or with Joe Palacena Jr., the mayor in Johnston, Rhode Island, right? She clearly got the message that there has to be a lot more institutional grassroots connectivity made, number one, from a strategy standpoint, and that's also going to boost your name recognition, because then people are going to talk about you, right? So that exercise was happening at the same time as the obvious.

Dan McKee by the Washington Bridge.

And in particular, because whether or not you're out there saying, geez, the state did a terrible job with the oversight of this bridge.

And he spent $4.5 million with two permanent— tow trucks on that bridge, four and a half million.

And he couldn't find 10 million for Ripta.

And I went to a whole bunch of RIPTA listening sessions where people were passionate.

They showed up.