Family Values

The CCA needs to explain its “War on Families with Children”

By Will Collette

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) has just intensified its attack on families with the creation of its new “Development Cost Calculator.” The biggest factor in the calculator is the cost to the town for educating children in the Chariho school system.

The CCA’s War on Children has been simmering for a long time, but now the CCA seems to have come completely out of the closet against families with children in a manner that has dismayed many long-time Charlestown residents.

Since November, the CCA’s three top elected town officials have each expressed their contempt toward Charlestown families with children.

Council Prez Gentz attacking Chariho Superintendent Ricci

Town Council President Tom Gentz created the spectacle of brow-beating Chariho School Superintendent Barry Ricci at the February Town Council meeting. He demanded that the Chariho system cut at least $250,000 from Charlestown’s share when the Chariho budget had already been cut to the bone.

Later that same meeting, Gentz cheerfully voted to spend $475,000 of town funds on a worthless conservation easement that will enable the Charlestown Land Trust to buy the grossly over-priced YMCA campground so it can be turned into open space.

"You don't DESERVE help"

Council Vice-President Deputy Dan Slattery was not content to just scornfully dismiss the proposal at the December Town Council meeting by town Democrats to create a $1000 Homestead Tax Credit for Charlestown residents. He felt the need to follow up at both the January and February Town Council meetings to say that the town had no reason to help struggling working families in Charlestown.

Besides, Slattery said, who is to know whether there even are any struggling working families in Charlestown who are “truly deserving.” Slattery too has engaged in his own jihad against the Chariho school system.

This brings us to Ruth Platner, head of the Charlestown Planning Commission. Platner was one of CCA’s founders and runs their web site. Much of CCA’s public communications come from and through Platner.

Charlestown's original Comprehensive Plan

Platner has also been on the Planning Commission for a very, very long time – since back when the Town Charter and Comprehensive Plan were written on papyrus. For nearly all of that time, Platner has crusaded against children. 

I’m not sure if she started out hating kids – I’m sure that in the beginning, it had more to do with hating development. By hating development, she began to express her animus toward the people that development attracted. I can’t pinpoint the moment when her animus toward development evolved into a full-blown animus against children, but it did.

Surely there must be treatment for this malady. You don't HAVE to hate kids and hate development. There must be a way to be anti-development and be pro-kids. 

And this new “Development Cost Calculator” is evidence of how ingrained this anti-children attitude has become, not just in Platner, but in the CCA.

Interestingly, the CCA message about this new “tool” also displayed the kind of anti-neighbor attitude that CCA supporters have often accused Progressive Charlestown for promoting. Check out this recommended CCA use: “You might want to try the calculator on your own existing neighborhood or just your own house. Does your neighborhood represent net revenue or a net cost to the town?” 

I wish I had the kind of imagination to make this up.

I think their point is that if your immediate neighborhood contains children, your neighborhood is a parasite. CCA’s unvoiced message is that if you or your neighbors have kids, you need to either get rid of the kids or get out of town.

The 2010 census showed a marked drop in the number of children in Charlestown and a marked increase in the average age of Charlestown residents. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of children under 18 dropped by 206 (-12%), while the median age in Charlestown is now 47, an increase of 6.2 years since 2000. 

I am sure this was cause for celebration in the secret lair of the CCA Steering Committee, which is comprised mostly of people of advanced age (average age 70 years old – I'm not making this up).

But this new Development Cost Calculator makes it plain that the CCA is not content with the pace of its children-removal program.

"Go home, kids. The CCA says no sports for you."

Just in the past year, we have seen several CCA anti-family initiatives played out by the town leaders they elected to office. Some prime examples:

• Rejection of a $1000 Homestead Property Tax Credit that would have meant the most to middle-class families
• Expressed indifference to the plight of working families hurt by current economic conditions
• Attacks against affordable housing that might attract families with children
• Attacks against funding the Chariho Schools according to the formula Charlestown has long accepted
• The effort to block installing new toilet and sanitary facilities at the town beaches
• Efforts by the Planning Commission to impose a limit on the number of bedrooms in new homes to one bedroom only
• Opposition to lighting at Ninigret to allow kids to get a couple of extra hours of practice time.

So what comes next? Logically, continued CCA control of town government leads inexorably toward regulations such as those employed by places like Sun City, Arizona. Sun City was the nation’s first planned “adults only” community. By law, you must be 55 or older to live in Sun City. Children under 19 may not live in Sun City, although they are allowed to visit for up to 90 days.   

Sun City was able to put its age restrictions in place because the city was planned that way. It will be more complicated for an established town like Charlestown to go that same route.

Our CCA town leaders are already doing a pretty good job of making it clear to families with children that they are not welcome here. But what else can they do?

Welcome to Charlestown. Now get out.

Planning Commissioner Linda Fabre has already suggested giving vouchers to families who need affordable housing so they could move to Westerly. That’s one way.

Pulling out of the Chariho School District and then not building any new schools would be another pretty decisive signal, although the state might have a problem with that.

Establishing a curfew for anyone under 18 to start at sunset would cut down on crime as well as lights on the roads. And it would send a message.

At every town business, restaurant and beach, we could install “You must be this tall” portals like they had at Rocky Point rides. If the height is pegged somewhere around 5’0’ to 5’6”, that would weed out a lot of the urchins. It would also block many “height-challenged” adults, but you have to break a few eggs, etc., etc.

If you've never eaten here, you're too damned young!
Or not from around here, which is worse.

Enact an ordinance that every document and every conversation in town must contain at least one reference to something that no longer exists or analogy that is recognizable only by persons of a certain age. References to Rocky Point Park are an example. Also Almacs. Or the Wickford Rotary. Or the UFO Lab that used to be in Richmond. Such a measure should make those under 50 feel uncomfortable if not unwelcome.

Through the Planning Commission, Charlestown already fights against any new housing that might attract families with children. Perhaps one of the CCA’s next steps should be to push for use of town Open Space-Recreation money to buy up houses with two or more bedrooms. Then they can be torn down for open space. If the town targets homeowners who are in distress, that would stretch our open space dollars further.

We also need to do something about births. Charlestown turned a corner in 2007 when deaths started to out-pace births. From 2007 to 2010, Charlestown had 250 deaths, but only 224 births. In 2011, the trend changed when there were two more births than there were deaths. 

I’m sure this set off alarm bells in the CCA lair.

So that brings us to the deployment of a Charlestown version of China’s One-Child policy, also known as  计划生育政策, that restricts all married couples to one child. Yes, I know, I can hear the CCA's hand-picked Planning Commissioners saying, “why allow even ONE child?”

Save that one for later. In the meantime, the CCA can see if its current policies, and perhaps some of my suggestions, can push Charlestown’s median age up to 55 by the 2020 census.