This episode is all about Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Shawn Kelly is a life-long Pawtucket resident and he thinks it's time for a leadership change. Between rising crime and the back-door deal to build the Tidewater stadium, Shawn has had enough! He's running for councilman of district 4. Have a listen and get out and vote for Shawn on Primary day!
This episode is all about Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Shawn Kelly is a life-long Pawtucket resident and he thinks it's time for a leadership change. Between rising crime and the back-door deal to build the Tidewater stadium, Shawn has had enough! He's running for councilman of district 4. Have a listen and get out and vote for Shawn on Primary day!
I think it was John thing. I'm like, oh, alright, whatever.
Bobby:Yeah.
Bento:oh, de pre show. Yeah. God Rhode islands, Rhode islands. Wanna be Alex Jones.
Shawn:Yeah.
Bento:Rhode. Island's flat.
Bobby:Oh my God. He is crazy. What's up back with another episode of teach, do dumb dudes as always. I'm Bobby with my boy bento this week, we're talking to Sean Kelly who is running for council seat in district four of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. This is more of just a local episode. We wanted to talk to, uh, somebody about the new Tidewater landing site that's being built in new soccer stadium, uh, and just really, you know, what has changed in paw and, uh, what he would like to see for the future.
Bento:And it's a boy bento here to let you know, I need you guys to go over. And like our Facebook page Facebook is teach two dumb dudes. The number two, teach two dumb dudes. This is a local episode. We're local hosts. We got a local guest. So get on over to our Facebook, give us some likes and boost our number up What's up, Sean?
Bobby:What's up. So Sean, I'm, Rob's nice to meet you. Thank you so much for, uh, for coming on here and, and joining us. So we always like to, you know, kind of start these off with just like a little bit of background about, you know, who you are and what you got going on. Uh, and, and, you know, obviously from my conversation with bento, he let me know that you were running for city council.
Shawn:Right.
Bobby:So, uh, yeah. So just tell us a little bit about that, how you got involved and, uh, you know, kind of what the road forward looks like.
Shawn:All right. So I've been involved in other local elections in the city before in the past couple, since 18, I guess. And, uh, the current counselor here in my district decided another run. So it was an open seat.
Bobby:Hmm.
Shawn:So I said, all right, maybe it's my time now. And not help everybody.
Bobby:Yeah. Right, right, right. Instead of
Shawn:Out's
Bobby:else that's help myself.
Shawn:jobless job.
Bobby:Yeah. I
Bento:Yeah, sure.
Bobby:I bet. So, so I mean, what makes you wanna get into this? Right. Even yourself say it's a thankless job.
Shawn:I just turned 50 and I've been living in this district for most of my life, about 40 some ideas. It's time for me to give back. I mean, I, this district was my childhood, gave me a great childhood and met lifetime friends. I still talk her down. It just needs to continue. Go on.
Bobby:Hm,
Shawn:And the, uh, the elephant in the room, tide water
Bento:Right.
Bobby:So, uh, so in, in the 40, some odd years that you've lived there, you know, tell us a little bit about Pawtucket, right? I mean, so, I'll give you a little background. I know Pawtucket fairly well. My, my family grew up on, grand Ave and, DGA a right. And the, Boulevard area. Yep, yep. Darlington area. And so my whole, you know, mother's side of the family grew up there and they went to St. Ray's and, and a bunch of schools around there. I love puck it personally. Uh, there's just something about it that I like.
Bento:Isn't your aunt store in Pawtucket, too.
Bobby:Yep. Yep. Yep. A little bit of everything she owns that.
Shawn:It's all the one way. It's all the one way
Bobby:Yeah. Yeah. The one way is gonna be challenging. It can be challenging for sure. Especially on the, uh, the west side there, uh, on the other side of 95. But so, you know, I, I've seen a little bit of the city changing over over the time, but, but as somebody who lives there constantly, you know, what are some of the biggest changes you've seen in puck in 40 years?
Shawn:it's not good.
Bobby:right. I understand that. Yeah.
Shawn:It's not, it's just like the downtown area. I'm gen X. I'm probably the last generation that remembers it. Being a thriving area. You go down there now you may see four or five shops and then they're closing in six weeks.
Bobby:Yeah. Hey, there's, there's that good empanada shop over there in the, uh, little arcade on main
Shawn:no, no, no, they're close.
Bobby:No way. Really?
Shawn:Alright. Yeah.
Bobby:That was a great little place.
Shawn:Yeah. It's just, yeah, nothing's survives downtown. And that's now part of my district and I'm trying to work with business owners down there to do something
Bobby:What's the, what's the
Bento:what are they? Yeah. What are they saying is a problem over there?
Shawn:there's no, they just can't get people in there. There's no attraction of it.
Bobby:Hmm,
Shawn:The one way street doesn't help either.
Bobby:right? Yeah. That, that one way in and out on main street.
Shawn:I mean, if you go to downtown, you don't know it. You take a wrong turn. You're deep into central falls and you
Bento:Hmm.
Bobby:Right, right. Yeah. And, and you're, you know, you end up stopping off at Stanley's before you get into central falls. Yeah, forget it.
Shawn:are.
Bento:I feel like over, I feel like overall, you see the, the decline of the main street in every little town, you know, like, I mean, probably with the exception of like east Grimm, you know, that's always a big, popular area, but like you think about like west war and Arctic, like that, that used to be thriving and bustling and you know, any, any little town that you see, is it, is it a tax problem? Is it, you know, like what, what are the, some of the other issues besides traffic pattern?
Shawn:I don't have an answer to that. I don't, I just know that nothing survives on there and it's terrible and it's sad. My mom grew in be, and I, she showed me pitches back in the day. You couldn't fit enough people on the sidewalk. And I, and I understand retails pretty much, but you know, there's a, there's a coffee shop down there. Pizza place just opened up. Uh, there's a black lives matter and. Bank, no bank calls. So I don't know
Bobby:And the pawn shops over there.
Shawn:shop. Yeah.
Bobby:yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That, that pawn shop is actually very interesting. Uh, I helped them make a website one time stuck at pawn brokers. And, uh, they're interesting because that building that they're in is actually an old bank. And so the vault that existed in that bank still exists today. Cuz they could never move. It could never get rid of it. Couldn't do anything with it. And so now they use it as storage and it is this.
Shawn:a bad idea.
Bobby:This massive, massive vault. Like, I, I can't even explain to you, like this guy had over 10 motorcycles in here in this vault and it has like that, that giant big wheel on it that you spin. And like, it was crazy. But I mean, to me, I love that area of talking, especially because it is so historical it's, you know, the, the, the mouth of the Blackstone valley Slater mill is right over there. There are a lot of unique features to that area. And like you said, nothing stays there. Right. And so we've seen businesses come and go throughout the years. Right. So it's not an issue of learning businesses. There, it's an issue of learning patrons there. Right? How do we get people there to spend money there?
Shawn:Yeah. I, I, I don't know. I mean,
Bobby:Yeah.
Shawn:and it's like that it's so confusing that traffic pattern down there, like I said earlier, you take a wrong turn. You're lost.
Bobby:Yeah, right, right. And it's like, you need some sort of, some sort of signage cuz you know, they're not changing the traffic pattern, so
Shawn:I grew up in the same neighborhood most of my life. And yeah, I know it like the back of my hand,
Bobby:Right, exactly.
Shawn:oven trees credits comes down there. Like I don't wanna bucket figure out.
Bobby:Yeah.
Bento:That's why I don't go to the bucket. I'm a, I'm a bum from Coventry.
Shawn:Yeah. People like you.
Bento:I hate the bucket. No, I just
Bobby:Oh, I
Bento:Uh
Bobby:I love, I love going there to spend money though. Cause it's all small businesses. So pops kind of places. Like I feel better about spending my money there than I do on RTU Warwick where it's just franchise up.
Shawn:Yeah, no, thanks.
Bento:it's kind of like what you said though, too. Like, I'm just saying, like, I don't go to Pawtucket for a whole hell of a lot. I mean, I just don't see a reason to, so it, it is, you know, would benefit that city to put things in there that would attract me there. I mean, I, they got
Bobby:number one thing they had was McCoy.
Bento:that.
Bobby:The number one thing they had was McCoy.
Bento:Yeah. And that's probably one of the few times I went to the bucket, but that brings us to the soccer stadium. Right. Like I. Bobby. And I we've been following this thing since there was whisper that it might, that it might happen. I mean, we've probably followed this for what, three years now, maybe even longer
Bobby:ever since we heard that guy was trying to get funding to, to bring one here. Cuz we were at, we were identified at the time, us in like two other cities in, in America were identified by his group.
Bento:right. So like, that's, that's a big deal for me. I would totally go to, to Pawtucket for that. And on the surface, it seemed like a great idea first. And then as you know, time passed, they blame inflation for extra costs, and now they're trying to pay for it with taxpayer dollars, which, you know, as much as I want that stadium there, I am definitely not for taxpayer dollars going towards a stadium that's built by, you know, millionaires and billionaires. So tell us a little bit about that. You know, tell us the origin of it. And, you know, were you also excited at first, you know, when they would come, gonna come in and, and build this and kind of, kind of take us to where we are now.
Shawn:Yes. I was at the, uh, the announcement in December 19 before COVID and it was a big announcement. Downtown target, no taxpayer money. All the money that was allocated to the poor Sox was going toward this Tidewater project. Not a soccer fan, nothing against it. I like all it's something.
Bobby:Yeah. Yeah. And, and it's supposed to, you know, it's, it is not just soccer, right. It was supposed to be music and, and other events as well. And retail shops. Right.
Shawn:So the inflation thing comes up and I'm like, I'm like this back in 19. I'm like, sounds so awesome. Don't trust it. They're gonna come back for somebody
Bobby:Right,
Shawn:and the inflation thinking. Tell me why millionaires don't have investors knocking down their door. If this is such a great project. And why has the state and the city for money
Bobby:right.
Shawn:that tells me
Bobby:That's a good point. Yeah. If the ROI is gonna be so good, he'd have people running an
Shawn:Should be banging down the,
Bobby:right? Yeah. That's a really good point.
Shawn:and they're not. And it's like, and this administration in Uck, you know, they put up threat, we may have to pull out blah, blah, blah, blah. And they caved and they got thee involved. And I dunno, any, if you guys watched a commerce vote, it was
Bento:Yeah. And it ended being what, a tie and then McKee broke it right in favor of it.
Shawn:two people abs. And was the hybrid. I mean, if you want. If you wanna blueprint on how backdoor politics works,
Bobby:Yeah, right.
Shawn:that was it.
Bento:sure. And so, why was McKee in favor of that? You know, it it's, it. It seems like it's not a good deal. WP, I put out an article that said, you know, the first year of revenue for that stadium, isn't even gonna be a quarter of the loan repayment that's supposed to pay back. I think the loan repayment is 2.1 million. I think that play it's projected to make like 560,000. I think it said,
Shawn:Yeah. He's touting, uh, all these jobs. Well, those jobs aren't gonna be the construction jobs and I forget the. Number during the season, but it's like 200 like concession workers and field maintenance. And this is I, this is absurd to me. It just completely absurd to me and the people on the Oak hill area, which is part of my district. They none too happy
Bento:Sure.
Shawn:and it is not. And then's the TIFF area?
Bobby:Oh, I'm sorry. Oak Oak hill is right near that Tidewater landing there.
Shawn:Yes.
Bobby:Okay.
Shawn:So my district is, uh, Oak hill, which would be the stadium site
Bobby:Mm-hmm
Shawn:and up in the Hills, which waters, uh, black stumble.
Bobby:yes. Okay. Yep.
Shawn:And the other side of the river school street, quality hill prospect street.
Bobby:Got it.
Shawn:That's basically my,
Bobby:Okay.
Shawn:and. The fascinating thing about this deal that went on with commerce, how they push the stadium. That's not even the money making side, the money making side. Would've been the other side of the river with the housing,
Bobby:Yeah,
Shawn:the retail,
Bobby:was the big piece that was supposed to make this work was that they were gonna have the sky bridge, which led to condominiums and a full retail shopping center of, they said like 10 plus stores.
Shawn:right. And often space.
Bobby:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And office that's right.
Shawn:So the money on the school street side allocated to that got pushed over to the stadium side.
Bento:Oh, so are they not even doing the retail and the, and the condos now?
Shawn:We'll see. I
Bento:Oh, wow. I didn't realize that part of it got canceled.
Bobby:if they don't do that, they're gonna have the same exact problem McCoy had.
Shawn:exactly. And, uh, the, uh,
Bento:it's amazing
Shawn:and what's gonna happen,
Bento:It's amazing that they scrapped that massive part of the project, and yet still needed all that money to build half of what they were gonna build.
Bobby:But if they, but if you're not even gonna build it in the first place, what's the point of giving money for the stadium? Who cares about the stadium? It's all the other shit we want.
Shawn:they threaten to pull up. And so the money making side is, you know, the piggy bank's empty. It makes no sense to me. like, what? You know, I was
Bobby:Yeah, that's a, and granted too, you know, you know, I know the inflation period that we're in, uh, is tough, but in the same sense, you know, if you are putting together the, the projection behind a build like this, how are you not taking things like inflation into account for one? And for two, if, I mean, they asked for 60 million and they are still not building any other side. Like that means you were off by like 160 million. Like that's
Shawn:Which also mean, okay, the stadium's gonna get built. If I get into office, there's nothing I can do to stop.
Bento:Yeah, I was gonna be my next question. Is there any kind of restitution that you have now to stop this? Or is, is that.
Shawn:it's pretty much done. I it hasn't gone through the council yet,
Bento:And, and who's on the hook. Who's on the hook for this, is it, is it Pawtucket residence? Is it Rhode Island residence or is it, is it both
Shawn:of its from.
Bento:10 of us from Pawtucket. Okay.
Shawn:You Coventry people will be part of than 60 million, the other 50 for soccer. And I know, I know you love soccer, Joe, and for a minor league soccer team where revolution don't pack, it's 17 home games a year, and then they keep promoting concerts and I'm like, do you think a major act is gonna skip Xfinity and go, oh, let's play with talk. No, they're
Bobby:No. Yeah. Right. Not many.
Bento:get the same kind of bands that, you know, east Providence gets, you know, they do that summer cards series over there. So nothing, nothing too crazy. But yeah, I mean, and again, like I'm not for the stadium, if it's taxpayer money, regardless of how much I love soccer. I mean, I have season tickets to the revolution, you know, it's, uh, 17 home games a year. I mean, honestly, like the quality kind of sucks, like the MLS isn't that great. So, and now we're talking
Bobby:this is gonna be even less than that.
Bento:the MLS, so it's, you know, it's, it's like triple a baseball.
Bobby:Which again, I, I
Shawn:you could, I'm sorry, Joe, you could answer it this for me. So is this like triple a or double.
Bento:I mean, it's probably more like double a, to be
Bobby:it's more like double a, because technically you have the MLS and then what's the other one? Bento. The cuz you have the NSL
Bento:a S L. Yeah.
Bobby:NASL is
Bento:But those are the, I think those are the same, they're on the
Bobby:Oh, is it? Oh,
Bento:honest with you, like when you're talking soccer, there's European soccer, that would be like professional. Then the MLS is like triple a and then this would be like double a cause that the, you know, the MLS isn't even on par with the rest of the world as far, you know, as of right now, maybe
Bobby:another, in another 30 years,
Bento:30 years. Yeah.
Bobby:another 30.
Bento:Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I totally feel ya. So what can, I mean, what can anything be done about it?
Shawn:No, it's pretty much a done deal.
Bento:That's it. Yeah. And they already, they already broke ground, right?
Shawn:We had a groundbreaking and we, it was a cute deal. I mean, cute little showing, but.
Bento:Yeah. Right now they'll set up the orange cones and leave those there for another three years.
Shawn:Yeah, I, I was down in that area yesterday. There's a couple, uh, tractors and claws down there, but what's gonna happen. They're gonna start building and go. Well, we can't stop now.
Bento:right.
Bobby:Yeah. And ask for more money.
Shawn:Oh, there's no, there's
Bento:oh, I'm sure. Yeah.
Shawn:Now when the general assembly comes back in January, they're gonna be looking for more money for the school street side for the retail on the housing side.
Bento:Right.
Shawn:I mean, the writing's on a wall. I mean, I'm not being a conspiracy. There's, I'm just a guy with common sense from the bucket.
Bento:Right. Yeah. Yeah. We, we all, we've all been in this state long enough to know how politics go. Like, you know, when I found out about that tie vote and McKee breaking it with a, yes, it wasn't surprising at all. You know what I mean?
Bobby:Oh, that video, right?
Bento:course, man.
Bobby:That video.
Shawn:it pat for, uh, chased Solomon?
Bobby:Solomon that's who it was. I couldn't think of the name Solomon. Yeah. And he was like, oh yeah, I reviewed it. No,
Bento:Right.
Bobby:you only 20 before this vote.
Shawn:his first meeting.
Bobby:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Read it. I'm sure he
Shawn:I know, I read it.
Bobby:Yeah. There, there was somebody. And, and what was the deal with the two people who abstained that, uh, somebody had conflict of interest.
Shawn:Well, the vote was on a Monday and they all got package. Wait, set an email with all the details on a Saturday night, I find it very odd that these people didn't. I dunno, this just seemed textbook backdoor politics.
Bento:sure.
Bobby:Yeah, it does seem odd that that was held until the last minute
Bento:So what's the deal with McCoy? Any plans for that
Shawn:Is a referendum on the November ballot to turn it into a unified high school.
Bento:high school? Huh?
Bobby:unified.
Shawn:There's two high schools in the Shane told
Bobby:Right.
Shawn:they would put all together kind of like the new Providence high school.
Bobby:Wow. And you're gonna drop Toman and drop the other one.
Bento:Is a plan to tear down the stadium and just build a whole new high school there.
Bobby:isn't
Bento:God speaking, talk about a lot of taxpayer dollars there.
Bobby:there's a high school right across the street.
Shawn:up, which one?
Bobby:What's the high school right across the street from McCoy.
Shawn:That's the junior high
Bobby:Oh, is the junior high. Okay.
Shawn:Jen, uh, JM, w.
Bobby:That's right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I mean, it, it makes sense to put another school there, but like benzo say, you know, with, in terms of cost, and it's always interesting to see how towns and cities manage education budgets. Right? The education budget is already super, super short. So they think by combining resources that they'll be better off, but really you've just created budget shrink.
Shawn:Yeah, the init, uh, the, uh, ballot initiative is 330 million bond. The voters have to pay on, excuse me, vote on right in November.
Bobby:Wow.
Shawn:I'm not necessarily against the idea because I went to Toman and
Bobby:Yeah, my mother, my mother graduated from Toman.
Shawn:could. My problem is traffic flow. There's been no traffic center, which goes through my district.
Bobby:Mm. Right. How is that bust? Especially on all those one way roads back there, as you're trying to get from McCoy to the highway,
Shawn:an old neighborhood that the streets are narrows parking on one side where there shouldn't be. And there's fucking where there should be. It it's gonna cripple the area here in the morning in my area. I, I just don't. There's no, no traffic study. And I, I just don't understand that to rush into a ballot.
Bento:What, what would you prefer to be done with the stadium?
Shawn:I don't, I'm not against the, the high school at all, there's gotta be a traffic plan and I'm not an engineer. So I, you know, I don't, I, I don't have an idea, but you. There's two entrances from the west side. If you came from the fair lawn area of, uh, Tucket, you have two options, you go through the division street bridge, or you get up to school street and that's it. And they're all tiny small streets. And they're gonna cripple the area in the mornings, in the afternoons.
Bobby:Yeah. And it's true, you know, in that area. Right. I didn't even think about like, trying to get school buses around those corners and things like that. Like they're
Shawn:They're all planning old street.
Bobby:That's funny. I mean, what, what are the impacts now with the junior high? How big is that school?
Shawn:Jens,
Bobby:Yeah. I mean, do you really
Shawn:I mean, I mean,
Bobby:much more? Or of course it would. Right. Cause it would be the entire high school across the entire city.
Shawn:it's the entire city coming into this little area every morning and not to mention St. Ray fields.
Bobby:Yeah.
Shawn:they might as well take the speed cameras down cause no, one's gonna be speeding.
Bento:Right. So you fucking bumper to bumper every.
Bobby:Every day. Yeah. St. Ray's traffic is tough in the morning by itself.
Shawn:I live right down street from
Bobby:Yeah. That's tough all in itself cuz every, all the parents stop and drop the kids off. And so it's like one car after another, after another two to long there.
Shawn:the street and they're not paying attention on the phones and
Bobby:Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. So in, in terms of, you know, what else you've seen kind of deteriorate throughout the, I mean, what are the big things that stand out to you? Is crime. Drastically higher. Are we seeing things like that? I, I mean, I've heard, I've heard some semblance of, of, you know, more issues in Pawtucket, but I don't necessarily think it was more, you know, like a drastic increase, like we've been hearing across the country
Shawn:I don't know, there's a PR I story today. One of the guys from the block island ferry was in a tugging house. Well, that was a directly across street for me. And I watched the whole thing Friday night. Yeah.
Bobby:what happened there?
Shawn:Stolen truck pulled into the street for me, ran into the house. Next thing I know cops are on arm Boulevard, guns drawn.
Bento:Jesus.
Shawn:One told me, get it back in the house. I'm like what? I'm Kelly. I live with his name almost my whole life.
Bobby:I'm just.
Shawn:And then they're coming out with their assault rifles and I'm like, oh shit,
Bobby:oh my God.
Shawn:great. Crazy as.
Bobby:so you would say though that it's gotten worse across the city.
Shawn:Yes. I mean, in the downtown area, I don't know if you know, but there's been a couple clubs, one had problems, downtown
Bobby:Yes.
Shawn:shootings and
Bobby:Yeah. Unfortunately, unfortunately to say, I mean, at least in Rhode rely on, you know, those types of things happen fairly often or across the entire state at any type of those places. But I mean, like, you know, especially post COVID, you know, we've seen even more rural type places having a higher crime statistic, whether it's break-ins and stealing very, because nationally as people go on harder times,
Shawn:yeah.
Bobby:Crimes escalate. And so, I mean, you know, besides the, the heavy areas, uh, it sounds like you're saying though that, that the everyday petty crime has increased as well.
Shawn:Yeah, definitely. I mean, I mean, I live in a nice neighborhood.
Bobby:Yeah.
Shawn:I've never seen cops with guns in this.
Bento:Right.
Bobby:Never minus assault rifles. Right? Yeah. And that, and that's the thing, especially around arm Boulevard too, though. I mean, that is such a nice little area, you know, slate park, all that. I mean, I, I love that area. It's such a shame to hear. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right, right.
Shawn:get back the house.
Bento:Should have gave a first amendment audit, break your phone out, you know,
Shawn:Those are useful.
Bento:streaming YouTube live
Bobby:Oh, my God. I hate how people do that. Now, the, the, the immediate, like, as soon as something is happening, they pull out the phone and, and start recording. Like,
Bento:They'll watch, they'll watch an old lady. Get this shit beat out of
Bobby:what I mean,
Bento:before they stop in and help
Bobby:like go help the situation. Jesus. What's wrong with you people.
Shawn:Listen, there's something in Warwick where some guy got beat up with a golf club last weekend.
Bobby:Oh, I missed that
Bento:remember that one.
Shawn:Somebody at Oakland beach. I dunno. Somebody sent me a,
Bobby:right.
Shawn:I think it was John thing. I'm like, oh, alright, whatever.
Bobby:Yeah.
Bento:oh, de pre show. Yeah. God Rhode islands, Rhode islands. Wanna be Alex Jones.
Shawn:Yeah.
Bento:Rhode. Island's flat.
Bobby:Oh my God. He is crazy.
Bento:yeah. So good stuff, Sean. It was, uh, definitely cool. Talking about with taco with ya. Why don't you let everybody know, you know, where you're running, how we can, how we can support you. You know, when the vote is all that good.
Shawn:All right. The primaries on September th. In me, I'm in district four, which is the Oak hill, uh, quality hill and the Riverview on school street in prospect street area. We district four, you can find me on Facebook at Kelly, four F O R then the number. And if you need to contact me 4 0 1 6 1 7 3 3 4 4.
Bento:Awesome man. Yeah. So if anybody wants to just like hit you up and talk about soccer and teams and championships just hit, hit up.
Bobby:start texting him.
Bento:nice. Awesome, Sean. Really thank you for coming on and telling us about Pawtucket.
Bobby:Thanks, Sean. Nice to meet you. And best of luck.
Bento:yeah. Say camera.