Infrastructure

Rising tide floods a city

Politics This Week: High Tide for Special Interests

By Justin Katz | February 19, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss unions, immigration, infrastructure, borrowing, and other ways special interests profit from government.

Government insiders play in a snowfall of cash

Politics This Week: Snowfall of Favors

By Justin Katz | February 14, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz trace the disconnect between what Rhode Island needs and what its politicians keep supplying.

A road inspector sleeps on his car

In Rhode Island, government is a natural disaster.

By Justin Katz | February 7, 2024 |

Yes, yes, words get thrown around in state-level politics, but there’s an important lesson in East Providence City Council President Bob Rodericks’s letter asking Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee to declare a state of emergency over the closure of the Washington Bridge between East Providence and Providence: … East Providence is impacted more than any…

An old man contemplates a pit expanding to consume a city

Politics This Week: Distracted by Disaster

By Justin Katz | February 5, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz lament the lack of focus on the basics in RI government and media.

Children dance near a burning RI State House

Politics This Week: RI Bridges Falling Down

By Justin Katz | January 29, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz wonder whether Rhode Island can withstand deterioration with its current leadership.

A visual representative of bureaucracy blocks access to a highway

Johnston’s unreachable neighborhood illustrates the problem with insider-ocracy.

By Justin Katz | January 28, 2024 |

Johnston’s challenge gaining access to a neighborhood during emergencies exposes several problems of RI’s way of doing things.

A 1950s coach has a bad idea

Politics This Week: RI Pols Put the Exploitation in “Team”

By Justin Katz | January 22, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz review the ways in which RI’s self-appointed “coach” and self-presumed captains manipulate the “team” of Rhode Islanders.

A water drop and ripples

The predictable costliness of an unused ferry.

By Justin Katz | January 9, 2024 |

The state has announced the end of the sparsely used ferry from Bristol to alleviate traffic on the Washington Bridge. Amanda Milkovits has some of the details: Since its inception on Dec. 21, when just 162 passengers boarded the ferries, ridership on the ferries between Bristol and Providence has reached 2,814, through Sunday, Dec. 31.…

RIDOT About Bridge Inspections: Psych! You Need a Data Key

By Monique Chartier | January 7, 2024 |

The featured image is by RIDOT of a broken steel rod on the Washington Bridge Westbound, one of the critically failed components that caused the sudden closure of Interstate 195 west on December 11. How these components went critical between July, its most recent inspection (link to report) until December 8, when they were purportedly…

Dan McKee as a cartoon fantasy knight

Politics This Week: Living the Fantasies of the Powerful

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2023 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss various fantasies of the ruling class in RI and the U.S.