Jeff Levy is running in the special election for Providence City Council, Ward 2

"The biggest thing facing the city right now is Trump. There are other important issues... but the fact is that Trump’s policies are affecting the city now."

Jeff Levy, an attorney with over three decades of experience, is running for the open Ward 2 seat on the Providence City Council, recently vacated by Helen Anthony. He raised his children in Ward 2 with his spouse, former State Senator Gayle Goldin. He serves as a volunteer lawyer for the ACLU of Rhode Island and a voter protection attorney for the Florida Democratic Party. I interviewed him in his Wayland Square law office on Monday. Levy recently earned an endorsement from State Representative Edith Ajello.¹

Steve Ahlquist: I’m going to start right in on questions. What made you want to run for city council?

Jeff Levy: Like everyone, I have been frustrated by what’s going on in DC - Trump, the international world order - and realistically, I can’t do anything about those things. It seemed to me that jumping into this race and getting on the city council was a way to make things better, a little closer to home, and feel like I was having an effect somewhere because I can’t affect the things driving me nuts in Washington.

Steve Ahlquist: That’s why I concentrate on local issues in my work.

Jeff Levy: Yeah, because there’s only so much you can do.

Steve Ahlquist: I can affect the mayor and the governor. I can’t really affect Trump.

Jeff Levy: I read Meditations for Mortals earlier this year. It’s a Zen time management book by Oliver Burkeman. Burkeman has a concept called “Living in the News.” He says we spend too much time living in the news, and that creates anxiety. The way to alleviate anxiety is to spend more time doing things you care about in the present, like running for office or planting a garden— things that make the world a little better and that you can do.

Steve Ahlquist: I stopped listening to political podcasts because the national news is emotionally overwhelming. I’m listening to a podcast about the history of old Hollywood now.

Jeff Levy: That’s great. We need ways to deal with it.

Steve Ahlquist: Next question: Why are you the best choice for Ward 2?

Jeff Levy: I’m the best choice for a couple of reasons. One is I’m a lawyer, and there are no lawyers in the council right now. Helen Anthony was the only lawyer. I wouldn’t want the whole council to be lawyers; that would be bad, but one or two lawyers is good. Helen could use her experience and skills as a lawyer to lead the other counselors at times and help them understand what was in an ordinance. It helped her be a leader, and it could help me be a leader. I’m also the person in the race who’s been fighting these fights the longest. I’ve been out there doing pro bono cases for the ACLU. I represented Jessica Purcell down Richmond. I’ve been volunteering as a voter protection attorney in Florida since 2004. I’ve been fighting these fights for 25 years, and I’m the only one in the race who can say that.

Steve Ahlquist: Can you give me a sense of the city’s two or three biggest issues right now, and how these issues impact Ward 2?

Jeff Levy: The biggest thing facing the city right now is Trump. There are other important issues that people have been working on for a long time, like the schools and housing, and we have to keep working on those, but the fact is that Trump’s policies are affecting the city now. We’ve got nonprofits losing funding, which affects the delivery of essential services to vulnerable residents of the city. The Butler strike lasted too long, partly because there are no NLRB [National Labor Relations Board] mediators. They all got fired so that we couldn’t get a mediator here. There’s a lawsuit against the schools about the loan forgiveness program for teachers of color - these are things impacting the city now, and we could do a better job addressing them. The city could be more proactive.

We could bring together people like the Council, the Mayor, maybe the Rhode Island Foundation, or the Jewish Alliance, who have both funding and the ability to bring other resources to the table and say, “Okay, we know that this nonprofit is losing its funding. How can we address that? How can we help those served by that get the services they need?”

As far as I can tell, nobody’s doing that now, and that’s critical. Running for any office in 2025 is very different from running for office last year because we’re facing this stuff daily, and it overshadows almost everything. But having said that, the other candidates would probably say housing is critical. We obviously have a housing crisis and need to figure out how to address it. We need to keep working on the schools, which is frustrating because we’ve been trying to improve the schools for as long as I’ve lived in Providence - 27 years or longer.

We haven’t made as much progress as anyone would like. We need to think outside the box and take ideas from new sources. I’ll listen to any good idea from anybody who proposes it, regardless of whether it’s a union, somebody outside the union, or the mayor - if somebody’s got a good idea, we should consider and listen to it.

Steve Ahlquist: We get the schools back, theoretically, next year, maybe just before the 2025 election. What does that look like? What is the city council’s involvement in that process, given we now have an untested school board?

Jeff Levy: Part of the problem is that because we have the school board, and nobody knows exactly what its role is, it’s easy to relinquish responsibility and for the council to say, “Well, the school board’s working on that.” I don’t get the sense that the council is doing that, though. Mostly, they want to have an active role in this.

The state has not done a good job with the schools, but we didn’t do a good job with the schools before that. We need to take them back so we can get ready for next summer, and the state’s not helping us out here.

Steve Ahlquist: I was opposed to the takeover when it happened. I had read the book and knew that takeovers never work.

Jeff Levy: It didn’t work; part of that is leadership. We need to find a really good superintendent for the schools. And I worry that our curriculum, our way of teaching, has not changed much over the last 30 years. The world is changing fast. The jobs available to these students after they graduate high school will vastly differ from the jobs available 5, 10, or 20 years ago. We need to start thinking about how we can change our teaching methods, curriculum, and goals to prepare these kids for what they’ll be doing after school. Maybe we can think about that in a way that benefits the city’s economy, too, learning what businesses we want to bring here and how we can provide them with a skilled workforce.

Steve Ahlquist: Let’s move on to housing, homelessness, and gentrification. Those issues are intertwined, and the big discussion will be about rent control (or rent stabilization). What are your thoughts on all this?

Jeff Levy: I read the city council’s report that just came out last week. It’s long, but it does a good job of describing the problem. It stumbles a bit when it comes to the answers because it lays out pretty much every tool in the progressive toolkit to deal with the housing crisis. I don’t think it answers how we should bring these tools together, or which ones we should use. I remember, because it stuck in my head, that page 33 is where they talk about rent control, and it’s just a series of questions. What kind of a cap will we use? How will we deal with it if landlords need variances? The devil’s in the details when it comes to rent control. You said you read the book about state takeovers of schools. I’ve been reading up on rent control. I like the concept because I understand that city renters, particularly low- and middle-income renters, need relief. We need to find the tools to help them afford to stay in their homes.

Rent control is difficult to execute in a way that doesn’t result in unintended consequences, like pushing developers away or ending investment in existing properties. If we’re going to do it, we need to do it in conjunction with zoning changes and incentives to build affordable housing.

I’ve learned some interesting things by talking to people on the doors. I talked to a doctor over the weekend who goes out and treats unhoused people on the streets, and he said, “Rent control is great for the people who already have homes, but what do we do about the people who don’t have homes, who can’t even afford homes at the lowest level?”

Steve Ahlquist: The idea is to prevent people from becoming people who can’t afford homes at the lowest level.

Jeff Levy: We have to do both. I’m not opposed to rent control; given the council’s makeup, it will probably happen. The ordinance will pass no matter what, and the mayor will veto it.

Steve Ahlquist: They’re looking for 10 votes to be veto-proof.

Jeff Levy: They’ll get it.

That being the case, I would like to be there to work on that. Ordinance is another area where being a lawyer helps because I don’t want to pass rent control to be able to say we did it. We need to be thoughtful about developing policies that work together to help with the crisis.

The housing crisis is regional. It’s statewide. We tend to lose sight of that when talking about the city council election because people are asking the candidates what they will do. I get that - we’re running for office, but a lot of the problem is that we’re such a small state with a small metro area. We need to be thinking about this in terms of the larger picture. People should be able to live across the border in Cranston or Pawtucket and work in Providence. For that, we need better public transportation. RIPTA has to be improved. That’s part of the housing issue, too, because if you can find a less expensive apartment that works for you five miles away from work but can’t take it because you can’t get to work, that’s problematic. It’s all tied together.

Steve Ahlquist: I agree. Housing and RIPTA are intertwined, although, as you noted, the city council has limited power over RIPTA.

Jeff Levy: That’s right. But we can advocate for it. One of the frustrations about the city council, and the city generally, is that so much depends on what the state does. We need to have good relationships with the General Assembly and the governor. We also need aggressive relationships when we push them to get what the city needs.

It’s just a fact that we can’t solve all the problems in the city without help from the state. Our only source of revenue is property taxes. And we need to pass a millionaire tax—at the state level—on people earning more than a million dollars a year. We need to pass a surtax on people earning more than a million dollars a year, and some of that money could trickle down to the cities and towns for programs like housing.

Steve Ahlquist: $195 million in revenue is the last estimate I saw.

Jeff Levy: A lot of money there. Canvassing Ward 2, the wealthiest ward in the city, I haven’t met anybody who’s opposed to it yet.

Steve Ahlquist: That’s interesting.

Jeff Levy: I was knocking at some multimillion-dollar houses, very wealthy people, and maybe not always as progressive as the folks in other parts of the East Side. But they still get it. They know that we have to do something.

Steve Ahlquist: I’ve seen similar polling numbers.

Jeff Levy [Joking]: It may be that the people slamming the door in my face are opposed to it.

Steve Ahlquist: You get a lot of that?

Jeff Levy: No. Not really.

Steve Ahlquist: People are generally polite.

Jeff Levy: Yeah. Even if they don’t want to talk, they’re polite. But I’ve found that the people want to talk. If they’re home, they want to spend some time talking to me.

Steve Ahlquist: I want to talk about immigration, ICE, and policing. This came up when Mayor Smiley signed a new executive order, and then when David Morales hit the mayor on that executive order², pointing out that since signing that executive order, many Providence residents have been taken by ICE.

What are your thoughts?

Jeff Levy: It’s difficult because we have only so much control over ICE. I sympathize with the mayor on that.

What he did with the executive order was correct, even though it affirmed what the police had already said. But it has to be a hard and fast rule. The police cannot be helping ICE. They can’t, because aside from the fact that what ICE is doing is wrong, it also undermines community policing. If people in the community can’t trust the police to help them, as opposed to hurt them, then people will not call the police when they need them. It’s critical that we follow that rule and that we keep pressure on the city and the police to make sure that they follow it. As far as ICE in general, I talk about Trump and dealing with Trump’s policies. ICE is one of the things I don’t think there’s a whole lot we can do about. We don’t have our own military force in the city. I wish there were a way. We can protect some people. We can protect students and make sure that our schools, childcare centers, and other sensitive locations have the resources they need to say to ICE, “You can’t come in here.” Some schools are doing that. Childcare centers are difficult. I don’t know if that’s happened in Providence. It’s happened in other places where ICE has gone into childcare centers. We need to do what we can to help people who are at risk. But if ICE is going to come in, ICE will come in.

Steve Ahlquist: Did you see that video from July of the Providence Police interacting with ICE?

Jeff Levy: I did. I know they explained that there was a car accident in the mix, and they had to come. I don’t know what to make of it. The review board [PERA] probably was right. Anytime that the police union comes out and says, “You’re full of shit,” maybe they aren’t full of shit.

Steve Ahlquist: PERA doesn’t make a lot of extraordinary claims, so to have come out so strongly on this made me think my instincts were right.

Jeff Levy: I’m sure that most police want to do the right thing, but it all depends on who’s at the scene and the situation. We need to be certain that the police understand that they cannot do that.

Steve Ahlquist: We mentioned Trump earlier. Providence has invested a lot, politically and financially, into the Port - converting it to wind energy instead of fossil fuels. But Trump’s attacks on wind have pushed Governor McKee to adopt an “all of the above” strategy. We will increase pipeline capacity in Rhode Island and other states that Trump wants so that he may lay off on wind. Maybe.

Your thoughts on that?

Jeff Levy: That’s a difficult one. It’s another area where, if the city were more proactive, if we had the kind of working group I’m talking about to deal with the effects of the Trump policies, we could get experts in that area and figure out how to do it. I don’t think history has shown, in the last nine months, that capitulating to Trump gets you what you want. The governor is making a mistake if he thinks that he will get what he wants by giving Trump something. It doesn’t work that way with Trump.

We must keep pushing the notion of Providence and wind energy as an energy source and economic driver. Honestly, it’s popular across the board. It’s popular with Republicans, too. I’m not an expert on how to beat Trump. If I were, I would not be sitting here talking to you. Over the last several months, people, universities, and law firms have capitulated to Trump, and it’s turned out in hindsight to have been a mistake, and unnecessary, because Trump has such a short span of attention. It’s wind energy today, and he will have forgotten about wind a month from now. We need to keep plugging ahead and not change course to appease Trump.

Steve Ahlquist: Next, I want to discuss food shortages, healthcare access, and the cost of living. Nearly one in three Rhode Island households cannot afford adequate food. Healthcare access is going to get a lot worse depending on what happens in Washington in the following days and weeks.

You talked about helping our nonprofits, but we have limited resources, right? I don’t think the city will do another big tax increase.

Jeff Levy: Well, I wish I could say that was true. We have limited resources, and that’s one of the frustrations here. That’s one of the reasons I say we need to work with the state. Also, you may notice that I threw the Rhode Island Foundation into my answer, so David Cicillini, if you’re reading this, we need some help. Some of these problems are going to be harder than others. The healthcare access problem will be hard because we obviously already have a healthcare access problem in the state, which will worsen. I don’t have a quick answer, but we need one.

That’s why we need to prioritize dealing with the effects of these Trump policies. The schools and housing are consistent problems that we need to keep plugging away on. But in the meantime, we’re under assault. If we pretend it’s still 2014 and we’re arguing about charter schools, then we’re going to have a lot more problems. So, hopefully, we can do a little better with food and healthcare access. The Rhode Island Food Bank has been effective.

Steve Ahlquist: They’re an amazing organization that is doing a lot with very little.

Have any other issues occurred to you while we were talking?

Jeff Levy: I hear from folks on the east side who are concerned that when we talk about housing - and everyone understands we need more housing in the abstract - but people are concerned about historic preservation and preserving the character of the neighborhoods in Ward 2. I understand that. We’re going to have to strike a balance on that. The fact of the matter is that we need denser zoning in the city to fix the housing problem. We’re going to have to change the zoning. The comprehensive plan did some of that - and not everybody’s thrilled about it. We have to find ways to allow for more construction, even here in Ward 2, while preserving the character of the neighborhoods, making sure that we don’t end up with traffic and parking problems, and other things people are worried about in their neighborhoods.

These are quality-of-life issues. Generally, we have a good quality of life on the east side. We’re very fortunate. I had an email from someone complaining the other day, saying, “It’s terrible here in Providence. I can’t wait to move away.” And I thought, “Well, I hope you find someplace you like as much as I like living here; it is a great place to live.” Through all of this, housing development in particular, we need to keep an eye on what makes Ward 2, the east side, and the city a great place to live.

Steve Ahlquist: This city is worth fighting for.

Jeff Levy: Agree.

Steve Ahlquist: Moving on, how do you rate Mayor Smiley’s performance?

Jeff Levy [Joking]: Pass.

Steve Ahlquist: Do you get a pass? I didn’t expect that from you.

Jeff Levy: No. I probably should pass, but...

Steve Ahlquist: The next question is about the city council...

Jeff Levy: Okay, that’s fair.

Look, Brett - Mayor Smiley - is a good manager. He’s managed the city well. He’s a good COO (Chief Operating Officer). He was a great COO of the city under Mayor Elorza, a good head of the Department of Administration under Governor Raimondo, and he’s running the city well. As I beat the drum, 2025 is not 2024, 2022, or 2015; we need to be upfront about dealing with these Trump-related problems. The United States is changing, not in all good ways, and mostly in bad ways. We need to address that and envision how the city can address it. The mayor could do more on that front. I respect him. I’ve known him a long time. He’s largely a good mayor. What I’ve heard from people is, “Where is he?” He’s not a flashy guy. He’s not a guy who wants to have press conferences every day. But people are hungry for leadership and would like to see more of him, and he can do that.

Steve Ahlquist: Step up to the bully pulpit.

Jeff Levy: Exactly. That’s the basis of my campaign in a lot of ways. Somebody has to do that. I don’t think one city counselor is going to change everything. I can’t be the guy who takes that bully pulpit for the whole city, but I can try to push us in that direction. Look at what Mayor Wu’s doing in Boston. She’s done a fantastic job of using her position to not just effect change in legislation, but also a change in mindset. She’s leading, and I would like to see more of that here.

Steve Ahlquist: She’s bringing a vision.

Jeff Levy: That’s right. Exactly. We need that vision here. The council is a mixed bag, and I don’t want to criticize, but I sometimes worry that the council focuses on things that are - I guess I want to say performative - that there are steps they take and resolutions they pass that aren’t affecting anything. The council needs to focus on what we can do to improve the city. Look, I really respect that the people on the council are mostly there for the right reasons. They want to help their wards and the city. It’s the nature of a 15-person council that it can sometimes be a little dysfunctional. I’d like to see the council step up more on the vision front, maybe in a more unified way. They’ve done that on the housing. We need to do it more consistently.

Steve Ahlquist: The housing report was a very serious document.

Jeff Levy: Yes, it was.

People in Ward 2 are really, and hopefully in the rest of the city, but definitely in Ward 2, appreciate that things are complicated and that there’s no easy solution. And so yeah, it’s a long report with many proposals thrown in there, and we need to go a lot deeper than that. I mean, rent control - there are books on rent control…

Steve Ahlquist: The public developer was another part of that, right?

Jeff Levy: Like the social housing and land bank piece? I don’t understand those well enough.

Steve Ahlquist: The state has put aside $5 million to experiment with the public developer model. But I was talking to Mike Chippendale…

Jeff Levy: Republican. Interesting.

Steve Ahlquist: …and he’s not super into state public development, but he thinks municipalities could do it. I think I understand the politics of wanting to do it that way. In the report, the public developer model is touched on.

Jeff Levy: We can’t escape the fact that we’re a small state, that Providence is almost a city-state, and the health of Rhode Island is directly tied to the health of Providence. If Providence fails, the state fails, and because of the limited sources of revenue that we have in the city, we have to look to the state for some of these answers. And part of the job of the mayor and the council should be to deliver that vision to the state and work with the General Assembly and the governor to develop the solutions we need.

Steve Ahlquist: I wish the General Assembly writ large thought that way about Providence.

Jeff Levy: Part of the problem is that what Providence gets from the state depends too much on the mayor’s relationship with the Speaker, the Senate president, and the governor. It was Mayor Elorza and Governor McKee who really fought…

Steve Ahlquist: Literally.

Jeff Levy: And that doesn’t help the city. We need people at the city and state levels to look at this professionally and say, “Look, we all have a common interest in making Providence a better place. Let’s work together on that, even if we have differences on other issues.”

Steve Ahlquist: Last question: What’s your final, short pitch to voters?

Jeff Levy: It’s a critical time for the city, more than ever, because of what’s going on with Trump. I could be a counselor who takes my skill and expertise as a lawyer who’s been fighting around these issues for decades, and be a leader on the council to address some of the critical issues facing the city. And of course, we need to work on everything. We need to work on housing in schools, but if we can’t protect the city from the worst effects of the Trump administration, the housing and schools will become less critical.

Steve Ahlquist: We’ll see if National Guard troops are sent here.

Jeff Levy: Right. I mean, the thing is, every time you think, “Oh, he wouldn’t do that, he does it.”

Steve Ahlquist: Portland, of all places. I would’ve thought it was going to be Boston.

Jeff Levy: Yes. I would’ve thought it would be Boston, too.

One thing I didn’t talk about are the great things about the city. As we’re running for office, we talk about the problems and how to fix the issues. The other day, I was talking to a voter who said, “I wish the candidates would talk more about the arts and the benefits that they bring to the city.” I’ve been thinking about that a lot because we don’t just need to fix the problems. We need to help protect and enhance what makes the city great. As she pointed out, if you add up the visual arts, theater, and culinary arts, it’s a huge economic driver for the city. Tourism is a huge economic driver, partly driven by the arts. While all of this other stuff is going on, we need to look at the things that make the city a great place to live, ensure that we protect those, and find ways to enhance them.

Steve Ahlquist: Atlantic Mills made me very cognizant of that. We’ve chased our artists out of the city. There’s no more cheap space. We have a great and thriving art culture here is because of those cheap spaces.

Jeff Levy: Not all the great artists are at RISD.

Steve Ahlquist: And not to poke the mayor, but PVD Fest is a lost opportunity. Changing the date and downsizing were mistakes. I’d love to see us get back to the original vision. I know it’s expensive, but I think it’s an investment.

Jeff Levy: Things like that are an investment. And like you said at the beginning, the small businesses benefit from things like that that bring people into the city.

Steve Ahlquist: Right. I mean, nobody lost more than the bars and restaurants downtown, which used to clean up during PVD Fest.

Alright, cool. That’s it.

1. State Representative Edith Ajello Endorses Jeff Levy for Providence City Council in Special Election for Ward 2

State Representative Edith Ajello (D, Providence) has endorsed Jeff Levy in the upcoming special election to fill the seat on the Providence City Council for the city’s 2nd ward. Rep Ajello represents the RI state house district 1, which includes roughly 80% of Ward 2.

“In the special election for Providence City Council in Ward 2, I am proud to support Jeff Levy. I trust him to be the principled leader and strong advocate for our city’s needs right now.

“With the threats posed by the Trump administration, Providence needs a councilor who has gone up against powerful interests and won. Jeff has done just that—whether advising tenants facing eviction during COVID, challenging unfair laws with the ACLU, or blocking MAGA election theft attempts in Rhode Island. For him, fighting for what’s right isn’t theoretical—it’s something he’s done consistently over his life and career.

“Jeff has been deeply engaged in our community and politics for decades, and I’ve seen his consistent willingness to stand up for marginalized voices and to ensure strong representation for all of Providence’s diverse communities. At this critical moment, we need leaders like Jeff who can both fight for our future and make city policies work in practice.

“I strongly encourage you to vote for Jeff Levy for Providence City Council, on or before November 4th.”

In response to the endorsement, Jeff shared, “I am honored to have the support of Rep Ajello, who has represented the East Side with integrity and a deep commitment to social justice throughout her career. In particular, I look forward to working collaboratively with her on the council to ensure the city is doing everything it can to protect our most vulnerable neighbors from the worst effects of the Trump administration.

”Right now, countless nonprofits and organizations across the city are having federal funding cut, or untenable and/or discriminatory compliance requirements placed upon that funding, and the net effect is that many of our city’s homeless people, trans youth, and low-income residents will face further burdens and challenges in the coming months as those cuts take effect. I am ready to work collaboratively with our state leaders, like Edie, to do everything we can to help.”

2. Statement from David Morales on continued ICE activity in Providence

On September 22, Mayor Smiley signed a performative Executive Order which repeats our city’s already existing ‘sanctuary policy’ that he has been failing to enforce.

The very next day, masked ICE agents detained a neighbor outside the RI Superior Court in front of his son. It took less than 24 hours for the mayor to fall flat on his promise to protect our immigrant neighbors in Providence as he stayed silent.

That same week, a second masked ICE incident occurred on Cranston Street.

While the mayor remains silent as ICE continues to terrorize our communities, I encourage all our neighbors to stay vigilant and call the Deportation Defense Network regarding any suspected ICE activity in Providence.

Every Providence neighbor deserves to feel safe in our city.