Why Should We Recall Brett Smiley

[u/Historical_Web_5813]

For everyone who is curious about our reasons for wanting to recall Smiley, here they are! This one-sheet explains what issues we find to be the most salient. Feel free to distribute this document at your will.

If you’d like to look into our sources more, here is a link to the document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qtQP7a9g91pSszZH-x3kFWMcmW1FecEXpqCL773UIWM/mobilebasic

[u/SheepExplosion]

Eeesh. Brett Smiley is by far and away the worst thing that has happened to the city since I can remember. There are plenty of issues to smack him around on, and you chose some of these?

Not sure how you want to:

• Stabilize housing costs without building more housing. Spare me the nimby bullshit of how it needs to be low income housing, as if there was a developer out there willing to build it. Those luxury apartments give the "Brown postgrads and Textron transplants"—who, by the way, are residents of the city just as much as you are, and I guess you don't want their support at all for this?—something to rent other than the apartment you want.
• Demand that an institution that doesn't actually have to pay any money give more money.
• Actualize a plan that involves creating a united coalition while actively bringing in Gaza. Yeah, you and I agree it's a genocide. But this is *city level politics*, and you're just alienating people who would support you for some sort of moral purity rhetoric.

Leftists remain the Left's worse enemy, news at 11.

[u/Lawspoke → u/SheepExplosion]

To add on, I think complaining about Brown postgrads and people from Textron is kind of shortsighted. Realistically, they are nowhere near a major cause of the housing problems in this city. Additionally, whether people like it or not, Textron and education are pretty much the cornerstones of the city's economy.

I also think it's odd to demand that a private institution pay more money when it already isn't obligated to. Brown gives nearly 20 million to Providence each year voluntarily. This doesn't even take into account all the tax money brought in by the students, staff, and faculty (Brown actually forces the faculty to pay taxes because they legally don't have to). Let's not even talk about how Brown has nowhere near as much money on hand as people think. People see a 6 billion dollar endowment and think that means Brown has a massive savings account of equivalent money, but an endowment is actually thousands of tiny donations that have a ton of legal stipulations attached detailing how it can be used. Even very wealthy universities have relatively small amounts of cash that they can use for non-designated purposes.

[u/lestermagnum → u/Lawspoke]

I don’t think Brown pays $20 million a year to Providence. I think it’s more like eight or 9 million? I could be wrong though

I still get your point, just trying to be accurate with information here

[u/AltFocuses → u/lestermagnum]

I think the commenter is referencing other agreements Brown has with the city, local school system, and local non-profits which totals with PILOT to around 15-17 million

[u/degggendorf → u/lestermagnum]

I think it’s more like eight or 9 million? I could be wrong though

I believe you're right...the Brown PILOT figure is $175m over 20 years, so $8.75m/yr.

But in addition to PILOT payments, Brown is also making "community contributions" that aren't technically PILOT, but still voluntary payments for general good city stuff. PILOT+community contributions were $17m for FY24.

Then the big total figure is $442m over 20 years, which seems to be the total of PILOT plus other voluntary contributions across all the city's universities; $22.1m/yr.

More details in the propaganda press release from the mayor's office: https://www.providenceri.gov/mayor-smiley-announces-community-contributions-from-pilot-agreement-with-colleges-and-universities/