Our Land, Our Rights, Our Local Government
The American Dream once meant ownership of land and a home, with a white picket fence around the yard, as a symbol of independence and a step toward prosperity. To others today, that dream is being reduced to living in a multi-use tenement building, with a rail around a small balcony, in a socially-engineered collectivist society. RhodeMap RI is not an economic development plan. It is a ruse … that can put our state’s fragile economy at further risk. Learn more below.
The OpEd that sparked the statewide debate …
Protection of Private Property Rights – The American Policy Center (2015 testimony to Maine state legislature)
The “Sustainable Development” Ruse: Center Challenges Chafee Administration to a Major Debate on the Topic
MUST SEE VIDEOS: Stenhouses Gives Overview of RhodeMapRI scheme & at RhodeMap RI Planning Council Meeting
In information provided to the Center, ZERO dollars of RhodeMap funds were spent on economics.
The Westchester County debacle by County Commissioner, Rob Astorino.
TV VIDEOS: Center Debates GrowSmart RI on Dan Yorke’s State of Mind show; Stenhouse on NBC-10 with Frank Colletta
RELATED ARTICLES & OPINIONS: Statement form RI Senator Marc Cote (Dem. D24): Richards: Watchdog.org – Orwell’s 1984 Coming to RI? Brussat: GoLocalProv – RhodeMap or Road Rage? Ryder: ProJo – Deja Vu w failed Greenhouse Compact ; Investors Business Daily reports on HUD’s extreme agenda
How international NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) are influencing local policies.
AUDIO: Click here for a full 40-minute on-air interview or click the “play” button below to hear 95-second clip of Mike Stenhouse’s summary, both from the Dan Yorke radio show (630-WPRO, Nov. 14, 2014)
READ MORE RESEARCH AND PERSPECTIVES BY CLICKING HERE …
This little-known plan was advanced through all levels of government in Rhode Island, under the guise of economic development, bypassing the traditional General Assembly process and without virtually no public debate.
1) It is not an economic development plan, but rather vaguely defined, cozily-worded goals based on a radical social-equity and extreme environmentalist agenda.
2) The rights of every property owner in our state – private and commercial – may be at risk
3) The sovereignty of locally-elected governments will be superseded by mandates from un-elected bureaucrats in Washington, DC.
Stenhouse discusses RhodeMapRI on Dan Yorke’s State of Mind TV show …
Gary Morse: Affordable Housing on Steroids?
MEDIA STATEMENTS:
Center Renews Call for More Public Debate Following un-Substantiated Racial Accusations
Consortium Ignores Calls from Leading RI Groups to Postpone Adoption
November 13, 2014; Providence, RI – Despite calls from the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, the RI Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC), and the Property Rights Alliance of Rhode Island (PRARI) to postpone adoption until further public debate is held, the RhodeMap RI consortium nonetheless decided to ignore overwhelming public opposition and send its controversial plan to the lame-duck Governor and the new legislature as part of the official economic guide for the state.
RhodeMap RI Following the debacle of a meeting yesterday afternoon in Providence, the Center renews its challenge to openly debate the plan to determine if there is broad public support. For example, are Rhode Island residents ready to accept new property tax increases to fund a “build it and they will come” growth-center strategy, based on dubious social-justice principles?
Citing a dearth of economic figures or projections, the Center maintains that RhodeMapRI is not a real economic development plan, but rather a loose collection of fuzzy and cozily-worded goals.
With consortium members resorting to slinging repeated un-substantiated racial slurs at the large group of citizens who opposed the plan, the meeting of about 50-60 people often turned raucous. An NBC-10 news report captured the most egregious example where one consortium member went so far as to refer to plan opponents as the Ku Klux Klan.
“Sadly, supporters of this radical social-equity plan revealed their true agenda yesterday,” commented Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center, who has an economics degree from Harvard University. “Our concerns, conversely, are centered around the issue of un-elected federal bureaucrats in Washington, DC, usurping the sovereignty of locally-elected officials when it comes to city and town housing and land-use decisions.”
John Simmons, Executive Director of RIPEC, also called for a halt to the plan stating, among other reasons, that RhodeMap RI would cause an undue burden on employers.
Multiple members of the newly formed PRARI citizens group also pleaded with consortium members to allow more time for public scrutiny about a plan that they believe will infringe on the rights of private and commercial property owners.
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