by Tara Granahan, WPRO
“Why can Rudy Giuliani clean up Times Square in New York City and we can’t, in this small city of ours, clean up Kennedy Plaza? Oh my God, if that’s not a failure, nothing is.”
That’s what former Providence Mayor Joseph Paolino is asking of current Mayor Jorge Elorza. He’s calling out Elorza for acknowledging the capitol city’s panhandling problems, but refusing to come to the table and fix it. Paolino tells WPRO’s Tara Granahan that he tried to handle this privately, but got nowhere. This comes after Elorza announced back in February that the city would stop enforcement of an anti-panhandling ordinance, and agreed with the ACLU it was more of harassment of the homeless.
Paolino also called on other business owners to speak out and not be afraid of retaliation from the Elorza administration. “I’m sure he doesn’t like it that I’m speaking out against him, but somebody has to do it. And sure… there could be retribution, I don’t know, maybe they don’t approve some application that I have in the city. But, damn it, I’m gonna have to speak out because I know what I’m talking about and I’m not happy with what they’re doing until they fix the problem. Don’t say that there’s a problem, and that it’s broken, unless you have a solution to try and fix it.”
Hear Tara’s entire interview with Paolino below:
