SUPERMAN CAN’T SAVE US

Superman Can't Save Us

The super-bad deal behind the Superman building renovation

content warning: description of police violence

The Industrial National Bank Building, known as the “Superman” building, looms over Kennedy Plaza, the heart of Providence’s understaffed public transportation system on which many Rhode Islanders rely. After nine years of vacancy, the Superman building is now at the center of a political firestorm: a planned redevelopment of the building, greenlit by city officials, is facing backlash from housing advocates over its lavish use of public funds and its lack of affordable housing.

Rhode Islanders’ right to shelter has not been a governmental priority for a long time— the state was home to the largest housing crisis in New England even before COVID-19. The pandemic brought a new level of economic devastation to the entire country, leaving housing insecurity at an all-time high. According to the Rhode Island Homeless Management and Information System, at least 42 people experiencing homelessness died in the past year. As we move into a brutal winter, there are at least 461 Rhode Islanders currently living on the streets. And around 22 percent of renters are facing eviction.

But rather than build more affordable housing, government officials voted on October 17 to fund a redevelopment that will convert the Superman building into luxury condos and business offices. While politicians and union leaders praised the project for its economic and developmental foresight, other politicians, housing justice advocates, and low-income residents are adamant that it will aggravate the existing housing crisis. These concerns have been ignored by the building’s redevelopment approval process.

In an interview with the College Hill Independent, Democratic State Senator Samuel Bell called the project “a net loss to the city—it’s a net loss in terms of tax revenue, economic development, affordable housing, historic preservation, and it’s a net loss in terms of downtown vitality.”

Protesting Superman

“A lot of this plan is about luring rich people in, and pushing poor people out of the city,” Terri Wright, a leader at Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), said at the September 1 “Superman Can’t Save Us” protest. “They take our money when we come down here and shop, they take our dollars, but we can’t afford to live down here.” In addition to condemning the Superman project, Wright and other activists reiterated their longstanding demands for the city to put public funds toward immediate shelter for homeless people. State officials recently unveiled a new $166 million investment in affordable housing—but this new housing will not be available for at least six months, and expensive Superman units will count as ‘affordable,’ according to UpriseRI.

In mid-October the City Council approved the usage of millions of dollars in public funds for the Superman redevelopment. These millions include: $10 million taken from the city’s Housing Trust Fund, which is intended to fund housing for its lowest-income residents; a $5 million direct appropriation in the city budget; and a $29 million, 30-year tax break for High Rock Development, the building’s out-of-state developer since 2008.

Advocates have called for at least 30 percent of the building’s units to be permanently affordable to low-income households. Low-income households earn under 30 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), or $20,300/year for an individual and $29,000/year for a four-person household. This demand has been ignored. High Rock Development instead plans to allocate 20 percent of the new lofts as ‘affordable’ units, with prices ranging from $1,384 to $2,076 a month. Dwayne Keys, president of the South Providence Neighborhood Association, told the College Hill Independent that labeling these units ‘affordable’ is “blatantly disrespectful,” given that they are affordable only for residents making 80–120 percent of the AMI.

“If the state wants to ‘breathe life back into this city’ then those tax credits need to be directed towards infrastructure that will support those that need it,” Kendra, a member of DARE’s Tenant and Homeowners Association, said at the September protest, referencing Providence City Councilman John Goncalves’ promise that the redevelopment would “breathe life back into Downtown Providence.”

DARE advocate Brandon Hong bluntly asked: “where the fuck is ‘we the people’s’ tax break?”

“Revitalization” or “extremely risky”?

One key supporter of the Superman project is the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council, an influential labor union. This union supported recently re-elected Governor Dan McKee largely because of his promise to “revitalize and reinvigorate [Rhode Island] toward socio-economic recovery and vitality for all.” In an interview with the Indy, Michael Sabitoni, the union’s president, cast the Superman redevelopment as the socio-economic boost Providence needs.

“I think it’s a good investment for the state, a good investment for the city, and a good investment for the overall economy, not only in downtown Providence, but the state of RI as a whole,” Sabitoni said. With regard to the demands of housing justice advocates, he said that more affordable housing would have made the project “unfinanceable and unfeasible.”

Some progressive state politicians disagreed. “[The redevelopment plan] is financially extremely risky and could be one of the things that pushes Providence into bankruptcy,” Senator Bell said. The lack of affordable housing was due not to some abstract “unfinanceable” nature of affordable housing, he said, but to the city’s improper disbursal of funds and High Rock’s inefficient usage of a structure not outfitted for housing units. In particular, the Providence Housing Trust Fund was intended for low-income housing projects—but $10 million from the fund is going toward a relatively tiny number of units, which are unaffordable for most. He argued that the same sum could have built a much higher number of affordable housing units, if allocated to better projects.

Bell also accused the city of failing to financially incentivize High Rock to develop earlier by refusing to levy a vacancy tax. High Rock, in turn, was able to hold off on developing the building for years—creating a burgeoning sense of urgency over its future and ultimately cornering the state into funding its plan. “If the city were run by people who were competent or cared or both,” Bell said, “they would have applied the vacancy tax and assessed it at the real value and forced the developers to do their job.”

Keys said that those who can afford to rent out units at $1,500–$2,000/month are going to be looking for properties in nearby areas with more economic opportunities, like Boston. DARE’s Hong sounded a similar note, arguing that because Providence residents largely can’t afford High Rock’s rent rates, the units will continue to be vacant—only now with millions of public dollars sunk into them.

Waiting in line for the Superman hearing

On October 17, the Providence City Council held a public hearing in which they approved the Superman project. Before the hearing, the line outside of Providence’s City Hall was a sprawling mass of union members in neon shirts. Given the promise of over 1,600 new construction jobs, it’s no wonder that they were excited about the passing of the redevelopment plan as it stood. The line was also filled with community members hoping to get a chance to protest the tax break.

One of the union members, who did not give his name, told the Indy that union workers had been asked to show up because their unions needed them, no questions asked. And show up they did. The line wrapped around the side of the building, and union workers overtook the hearing.

The hearing was scheduled to start at 5 p.m, but by 5:30 p.m. the line of citizens trying to get in remained frozen, while court officials began their discussion inside. By 6 p.m., it was clear that most people in line wouldn’t have a chance to attend. Anyone lucky enough to make it to the front of the line encountered yet another hold up: police officers were directing people into single-file lines, while a woman behind a desk asked each attendee for their email, phone number, and first and last name. However, the woman told the Indy that none of that information was actually required to gain entry. People started stepping out of line and giving up on making the hearing in time.

Inside the hearing

The meeting took place on the top floor of Providence City Hall, overlooking the Superman building. The panel of judges sat with their backs to a large window, framed by Downtown Providence, as men in suits spoke about how the development would benefit Rhode Island laborers by creating more construction jobs.

Keys told the Indy that he was unsettled by the demographic of union workers attending the hearing. “I was at the hearing, I was in line with the union workers, and here’s my observation, which I’m not saying is reflective of the truth: [the line] was very white and male,” he said. Keys’ reflection, alongside Providence’s history of excluding Black residents from employment opportunities, led Keys to ask: Are these job opportunities going to be available to all Rhode Islanders? What is the makeup of the state’s unions? Are Black and brown workers going to benefit? Keys’ concerns fall into a history of anti-Blackness in U.S. trade unions, some of which continue to reserve for white laborers the only well-paying jobs one can access without a college degree.

“We need to make sure we’re having minority contractors on that building. We need to make sure that the workforce is diverse, and we need to make sure that everybody has the opportunity for quality of life,” Anita Bruno, an activist for equity in the workforce, said at the September 1 protest. Many activists, including Bruno and Keys, have in the past rebuked Providence officials for not requiring businesses to hire locally (as dictated by Rhode Island’s First Source mandate) and for not supporting the city’s Minority Business Enterprise and Women Business Enterprise programs.

Some supporters of the redevelopment plan appealed to a fabricated collective memory. They cast the once-operational Superman building as a towering symbol of Providence’s lucrative history, arguing that despite its upfront cost, the deal will pay itself off by bringing Providence back to its days of prosperity. One speaker asked the Council Finance Committee members to look at the Superman building outlined in the window and experience its grandeur alongside him.

After the hearing, Sabitoni told the Indy, “The downside of seeing this building deteriorate would be really, really unfortunate; it’s an iconic structure, it’s who we are. We identify ourselves as Rhode Islanders oftentimes alongside a picture of that structure.”

Lamentations over the Superman building’s years of emptiness fell flat with housing justice advocates, who have made a similar argument for years: Why is a massive building in the middle of downtown Providence being kept empty while people sleep on the streets?

Called on to give her testimony, Wright said, “So High Rock can take our money, and they can’t house us. We can’t live there.” While speakers in favor of the development spoke in measured tones, debating the pros of the project with a calculated distance, Wright, Hong, and some other protestors at the event spoke forcefully, angrily. “This is not only a bad deal, this is bad politics,” Wright said. “Our neighborhoods are getting gentrified again. Our downtown has no culture in it. All it has is bars, banks, and privilege. This is segregation and gentrification all over again ... And I don’t know which one packs a bigger punch.” The council panel made sure to cut Wright off at two minutes exactly, a time limit they did not enforce with any of the speakers before her.

Enrique Sanchez, a member-elect of the state’s House of Representatives, also spoke out against the plan. “I’m not here opposing our unions, our union leadership, I’m not here opposing these projects and housing developments, but we need to rethink and re-strategize,” he said. “Who is this going to benefit in the future—working people or wealthy elites from Boston and New York?” (In response to his public opposition to the tax break, the executive board of the RI American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization decided to rescind its endorsement of Sanchez. “Unions should be fighting for their workers, not wealthy developers,” Sanchez told the Indy.)

Later, after Scott Duhamel, secretary-treasurer of the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council, gave a speech about the significance of Superman to Providence’s history and community, DARE’s Hong criticized him. Duhamel proceeded to threaten Hong, daring him, according to Hong, “to take the conversation outside.” A police officer walked over and told them to stay quiet. Hong was adamant about having been the one threatened, and questioned why the cop was directing blame toward him.

The cop got close to Hong, angrily ordering him to stay silent and not talk back. When Hong continued, the cop brought in reinforcements, and proceeded to drag him out of the courtroom. Two cops tried to escort him into an elevator (there was a single flight of stairs), which Hong refused.

“Who knows what they could possibly do once they got you onto the elevator,” he told the Indy. “They’d find any excuse to put you in cuffs.”

The cops escorted him all the way out of City Hall, along with three other protestors who came to his defense when one of the cops became physically aggressive. A physical altercation broke out between the cops and one of the protestors, and he was all but shoved out of the courthouse. All the way out, Hong chanted “House the homeless, not the rich!”

HANNA ABOUEID B’24 encourages you to attend RIHAP’s protest Monday at noon at the statehouse, where we will be demanding the reopening of hotels to house the homeless now.