Mr. Speaker: Joe Shekarchi named Speaker of the House Rep. Joe Shekarchi is officially the new Speaker of the House in Rhode Island. The state’s House of Representatives met today for the first meeting of the new legislative session. Shekarchi became speaker-presumptive last fall, shortly after then-Speaker Nicholas Mattiello lost his race to Barbara Fenton-Fung in District 16. “The COVID crisis has dealt a crippling blow to our communities and our state,” said Shekarchi in his first speech to the assembly as Speaker, also promising that his approach in office would be different in a clear nod to his predecessor’s prickly personality. Shekrachi was a prime mover in getting the budget passed for the current fiscal year in the lame duck session. In the days leading up to the new session, he also came under fire for his background as an evictions lawyer and comments concerning the minimum wage and progressive members of the house. Shekrachi was nominated by Rep. Mary Messier and seconded by Rep. Katherine Kazarian. Both spoke highly of Shekarchi’s willingness to listen to the representatives, stressing that he does not impose his viewpoints on others. “A vote for Joe Shekrachi today is an affirmation to our constituents that we are ready to get to work on their behalf.” Mike Chippendale (District 40) on the Republican side nominated Minority Leader Blake Fillipi for Speaker, speaking favorably of Fillipi’s willingness to work across the aisle, as well as his passion for the U.S. Constitution and libertarian causes. Fillipi’s nomination was seconded by Brian Newberry, who promised if given the votes for House leadership and budget, the budget would look radically different under Fillipi leadership. Final vote tally was 59 votes for Shekarchi, 9 for Fillipi, and four abstentions. Reps. Cassar, Morales, McGaw and Henries abstained from the House leadership vote. Cassar announced a run for Speaker originally when Mattiello held the position. The other three reps made a point of abstaining from the leadership vote. The Rhode Island Political Cooperative, rapidly becoming the state’s preeminent progressive politic organization, called last week for House representatives to abstain from today’s leadership vote. The Co-op in a statement said, “Joe Shekarchi represents nothing more than a continuation of the corruption we have seen under past Speakers.” The statement goes on to claim that Shekarchi has taken more than 300 donations from lobbyists. Notably absent was Barbara Fenton-Fung, not attending for reasons related to COVID-19. While her vote did not count in absentia, in a prepared statement from her read by the clerk, Fenton-Fung stated that had she been there, she would have voted for Shekarchi, officially breaking with her party. Also absent with messages read by the clerk were Grace Diaz (out with a serious bout of COVID-19) and Art Handy. Both stated they would have voted for Shekarchi. Shekarchi appointed Rep. Arthur Corvese to chair the rules committee, with Reps. Michael O’Brien and Camille Vella-Wilkinson serving as vice chairs. Other reps on the committee include Samuel Azzinaro, Julie Casimiro, Grace Diaz, Katherine Kazarian, Brian Kennedy, Alex Marszalkowski, Joe McNamara, Brian Newberry, Robert Phillips, David Place, Pat Serpa, Evan Shanley, Scott Slater and Anastasia Williams. The next meeting of the Rhode Island House of Representatives will be on January 19. The Wanderer: Rediscovering home through urban wandering A few weeks ago I went to a virtual screening of PechaKucha (look it up, you won’t regret it) and stumbled across a wonderful initiative in Rhode Island, an Instagram account called the_hidden_worlds_of_pvd, which chronicles the adventures of Justin Foster, who has dubbed himself an “urban wanderer.” Foster defines it simply: “Urban wandering is the deliberate act of taking the time to explore an urban setting. I mean for me, now it’s a little more intense because I am looking for places and things I haven’t seen before. Trying to catch a moment in the city where things just bloom. It’s not hard. It’s just a mindset, but certainly the challenge of finding something wicked cool, some place or view that no one has really seen before, is there. There doesn’t have to be a plan or a pre-established amount of time (although that can certainly help since it is very easy to lose track of time in the city), but it should be a deliberate and active choice to take yourself on an adventure, to look at the city and accept what you will find.” For Foster, it started at a young age when he could bike to Rocky Point Park during the wintertime. Its abandoned façade, that had once been so busy and bustling, had him in awe, and he was hooked. He’s come back to his urban wandering many times throughout his life, but said that it’s become incredibly therapeutic during the pandemic. Not only is urban wandering socially distanced, but it allows us to see the city we love in a new light, and it allows those of us mourning for the adventures we lost this year to find solace in an element of magic in the day-to-day. Foster appears to fall in love with many things he finds on his adventures, and it’s one of the reasons I love seeing Providence through his eyes. A few of my favorites on his Instagram include a broken fire hydrant, placed so simply you wouldn’t have noticed it. Or if you did, maybe it made you consider calling Mayor Elorza to complain, but through his eyes you see how the city appears behind it, and there’s something there you hadn’t seen. Or, a door to what appears to be nowhere, that I assure you I plan on finding as soon as I don’t need a jacket to go outside. Files encourages people to get outside, find themselves amongst the noise, and slow down. See the world around them. Appreciate where they are and see if there’s something they haven’t seen before. Of course, Foster has found weird stuff. Lots of graffiti, some of which led him through a visual maze leading to a series of pornographic images. “You find weird stuff in Providence, I mean, you find weird stuff in any city if you are willing to look,” he says. “I found a pile of 12 pairs of shoes laying outside a 7-11 once. That was pretty strange because they were all different kinds of shoes, old and new, vintage converse, dusty work boots, shiny black patent leather ones all just sitting there.” Foster is not the only one who wanders. There is an online community that posts pictures of their adventures. The great thing about urban wandering and searching for abandoned places is that it’s typically guerilla and doesn’t suit linking to websites, but search for urban wandering, urban exploration, and yes, the phrase ‘abandoned porn,’ and you’ll find some results, but maybe don’t search that on your work computer. the_hidden_worlds_of_pvd was initially meant to be just like these guerilla sites for wandering, but Foster fully admits that it’s gotten more traction since his Pecha Kucha and was kind enough to allow me to talk to him while gushing about his work. The Instagram account is poetic, and breathtaking, but Foster finds that the world is different now, too. “This habit of mine has caused me to look at things differently, obviously. I now see trash and decay as beautiful and interesting, but I also find myself really looking at the light of the day. The fresh light of early morning or the soft glow in a late afternoon are spectacular in Providence; it has the ability to give everything a golden tone that has a magical quality about it. When you see the houses lit up on the East Side just as the sun is going down over the city it is no wonder Poe, Lovecraft, Chris Van Alsberg and even Shepard Fairey found inspiration here.” And while it may have started as a hobby and spread to a social media account, Foster encourages us all to do something that I think we’re out of touch with: fall in love with where we are, as we are. Find the beauty in the dirty parts of life, and above all, find a connection with where you are – no matter who you are – and never stop exploring. On the Dotted Line: RI likely unaffected by delay in federal pandemic relief President Donald Trump signed the combined $900 billion pandemic relief bill and $1.4 trillion omnibus funding bill around 8pm on Sunday, December 27, after almost a week of issuing implied threats that he might not do so. The delay already allowed critical unemployment insurance (UI) provisions to lapse the prior day, although the bill provides that the programs would be restored retroactively should such a gap occur, so that recipients will receive the same amount of payments. The two main UI programs at issue extend the time of eligibility beyond that provided by state programs and make gig workers and freelancers eligible when they otherwise would not be. While some states warned that delay in approving the bill might interrupt the weekly flow of payments to beneficiaries, RI expects to accommodate the extension of benefits with no trouble within a few days margin of safety. In response to our inquiry, Department of Labor and Training press liaison Margaux Fontaine on Wednesday, December 23, told Motif, “Since payments will still go out next week [for the prior week] regardless, we have some time.