Mark Zaccaria on Federal Money and a Federal Rep's Role in Telling You When It Will Impact Your Neighborhood

Second District Congressional Candidate Mark Zaccaria held a press conference yesterday, where he questioned why incumbent Congressman James Langevin had "ignored the concerns of his constituents, by not communicating with local residents and business owners about locating an ACI (Adult Correctional Institution) out-processing center in the Silver Lake District of Providence". According to Mr. Zaccaria, many local residents and business owners did not learn about the project until ground was broken earlier this summer.

The permanent supportive housing facility is being funded, in part, by Federal stimulus money. Mr. Zaccaria believes that Congressman Langevin should have taken a more active role in presenting the project to the community, in his role as the Congressman representing the neighborhood where the facility is being built,

According to Karen Lee Ziner of the Projo, Congressman Langevin's office had this response to the issues raised by Mr. Zaccaria...

As with many federally assisted projects, this was a collaboration between a federal agency and various state and local entities. While Congressman Langevin had no direct involvement in this project, he supports the goals behind it.

Mr. Zaccaria explains his concerns in the audio segments below...

"Mr. Langevin, the current incumbent, has basically ignored the concerns of his constituents by not communicating with local residents and business owners about locating an ACI outplacement facility, a processing center and halfway house, here in the Silver Lake district..." (Audio 1 min 4 sec)

"It has been said that Langevin is completely unaware of the 1.8 million dollar grant that was made to Rhode Island Housing in order to [transition] through to Open doors, which is the non-profit in charge of this development project. If that's true, that itself is an indictment..." (Audio 1 min 1 sec)

"Open doors does wonderful things with the prison population and those who are leaving prison. This facility needs to be put someplace. It may very well need to be put here. Even if that's the case, it has now been delayed..." (Audio 0 min 53 sec)

"There's a daycare center for children on the other side of the property. There are old age facilities. There's a public pool down the street. This is in the middle of a working neighborhood, and it's a nice vibrant neighborhood..." (Audio 0 min 36 sec)

I also asked Mr. Zaccaria about the challenges of representing a city, where even the lowest level of government encompass a large number of people...

"Well, first of all, you decide you're going to do it. I come from a manufacturing background. The first and foremost thing that anyone in manufacturing does is customer service. When the phone rings, everything stops...That's one of the circuit breakers that we see with Mr. Langevin, who obviously comes from a culture of government, where he decides what can and cannot be done and then proceeds..."(Audio 1 min 59 sec)