Candidate for City Council Ward 2: Jeff Levy

Candidate for City Council Ward 2: Jeff Levy

Jeff Levy is a Democratic candidate for the Providence City Council's Second Ward seat.

GoLocal interviewed him this past week. Learn more about his campaign HERE.

 

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GoLocal: Where did you grow up?

Levy: Wellesley, Massachusetts

 

 

GoLocal: When did you move into the Ward?

Levy: We bought our house that we're still living in, since 1998.

 

 

GoLocal: What is the City of Providence’s budget?

Levy: Wow. I know the number. I have known the number, but I can't spit it out right now. EDITOR'S NOTE: Later in the call, he provided the correct answer, $624 million.

 

 

GoLocal: How would you describe your politics?

Levy: I used to say progressive. Now I'm tempted to say liberal. That's what I'll say. I'll say liberal. And I also will say that I don't actually think that words like that, labels matter anymore, because I think everything's upended in the world, so nothing really matters in terms of labels.

 

 

GoLocal: Are you a Smiley or a Morales supporter?

Levy: I'm not making a choice right now. First of all, I don't know if anybody else might get into the race. And secondly, although generally I will say that my preference is Smiley, but also I want to be able to hold his feet to the fire on some things. I think it is way too early to endorse.

 

 

GoLocal: Why does this election — the Second Ward — matter?

Levy: Well, in the grand scheme of things, I think it matters because it determines the control of the city council.  Jill Davidson is supported by the council president, Rachel Miller, and if Jill wins, she becomes the super majority vote for Councilwoman Miller, and the council majority would then be able to override any veto by the mayor. EDITOR'S NOTE: Davidson disputes that she has endorsed Miller or Miller endorsed her.

 

 

GoLocal: How are you different from your opponents?

Levy: I think primarily, in my experience, I'm the only lawyer in the race. There are no lawyers on the council right now, so if I win, I will be the only lawyer on the council. I think that matters in terms of being able to be effective.  I think the others are largely running as subject matter experts on education or on housing, and what I'm saying is that I'm a subject matter expert on the law. I know a lot about politics. I know a lot about Providence and Rhode Island politics, and I know how to solve problems, and I think that's more important on the council than being a subject matter expert on education.

 

 

GoLocal: Do you think the City Council has gone too far left — Palestinian Flag, attending American Democratic Socialist events?

Levy: I'll go back to the notion that labels don't mean anything anymore. So I think, you know...everybody in the council can have whatever views they want. And, I think that what matters at the council level at the city level is doing stuff that works, regardless of your ideology, and, you know, more, more so even than other levels of government, it has...just got to work, you have to be pragmatic. And my concern is that often the council does not appear to be pragmatic and, you know, the Palestinian flag issue was a ridiculous distraction from the real issues facing the city and the council should never have done that.

 

 

GoLocal: Providence has among the highest rent in the country (fastest increasing too), clearly the market is not providing enough inventory — should the city implement rent control?

Levy: I will tell you that when I started off in this race, I didn't know a lot about rent control and I was open to it because I understand that people need rent relief, particularly at the lower and middle income levels.  But I have done a lot of reading on rent control since I started in the race. I've read a lot of academic papers, other newspaper articles talked to experts in the field, and my conclusion is that rent control is very unlikely to work and is actually likely to cause more problems than it solves. I think the answer to the problem is to build a lot of housing. It's a supply and demand issue. I think you build more housing at every level, every price level, and rents will come down.