Interview with Scott Wolf

For more than four decades, Scott Wolf has transformed opinion and policy research into effective communication and legislative strategies for progressive policy organizations, media outlets, elected officials and political candidates. Since 1999 Scott has been Executive Director of Grow Smart Rhode Island, which is now the largest and oldest smart growth statewide organization in New England.

Scott was also a two time Congressional candidate, a senior staffer for RI Governor Bruce Sundlun, and a public opinion and market research pollster. Earlier in his career, Scott played a substantial role in the Democratic Party’s national research and communications efforts and ran his own political and public policy consulting firm.

He is a 1975 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University, a longtime member of the Smart Growth America Board, and a 17 year member of the Providence Zoning Board.

1. Passion for urban planning and concepts like walkability are on the rise in younger generations. What made you interested in smart growth?

I've had the opportunity my entire life to live in cities -- from the small city of Pawtucket, where I was raised; the more medium sized city of Providence, which I've called home for 35 + years; and fairly big cities such as Washington D.C. and Seattle. The diversity of people, neighborhoods, activities, and opportunities for policy innovation found in cities energizes and fascinates me -- and their collective decline in the 1970's and 80's concerned me greatly. Beyond my passion for urban revitalization is an equally intense passion for expanding opportunity for all people, a passion inculcated in me initially as an 11 year-old by my mother, who took me at that tender age to a State House hearing on a fair housing bill.

Smart growth also appeals to me because, notwithstanding its big tent, moderate style, it's in many ways a revolutionary movement seeking to fundamentally change and improve the economically and environmentally wasteful and unhealthy dispersed, autocentric, development patterns which have dominated and defined North America's metros for the last 75+ years.

2. Rhode Island is currently in a housing crisis; what do you think brought us here, and what do you think will take us out of it?

There are multiple causes for our housing crisis and therefore we need an “all in" comprehensive approach to solving it. A key contributor to our housing crisis is the widespread resistance to dense development, reflected in outmoded, counterproductive zoning rules that too often prohibit small unit, multi-family housing in places which have the services and infrastructure to support such development. As a result of this somewhat "NIMBY" mindset, along with other regulatory and financial factors, we simply haven’t been building anywhere near enough units of housing, particularly affordable and workforce housing, to meet the demand. That demand in Rhode Island is mainly triggered by continuing declines in average household size.

Some extra demand is also being triggered by the widespread discovery of Rhode Island as a great place to live, work, and play, especially by affluent people from our nearby mega metros of Boston and New York.

There are other more subtle but significant causes of our housing crisis, including not having sufficient planning staff at the local level to deal with complicated multi-family housing development proposals. Moreover, as is usually the case with any major public policy challenge, there’s a funding issue, even though our key State governmental leaders have recently been supporting a lot more investment in affordable and workforce housing. Despite these advances, RI State Government is still spending a lot less per capita on housing than most of our northeastern neighbors.

So, the solutions to our housing crisis include more funding, land use and permitting reform, enhancing the capacity of local officials to plan and implement significant housing development projects, and myth busting to overcome the deeply entrenched negative stereotypes about dense housing development in appropriate, mixed use, location-efficient neighborhoods.

3. Grow Smart is gathering support for establishing a RI Main Streets coordinating program. What is this and how would it help Rhode Islanders?

Grow Smart Rhode Island's Main Street RI initiative is an effort to improve the capacity and impact of local groups and individuals working to strengthen the economy and quality of life of our many and varied Main Street, Downtown, and commercial districts.

Despite Rhode Island's small size, many of those working on Main Street and Downtown revitalization are not having the opportunity to compare notes with their colleagues around the state nor getting the technical assistance and best practice guidance which could significantly boost their efforts to bring more visitors, customers, and residents to their beloved locations.

That's why we seek to team up with the leading national experts on strengthening Main Streets and Downtowns, Main Street America, a national nonprofit which has been providing organizational guidance, technical assistance, research, and hands-on training to state and local Main Street organizations for more than 40 years.

Rhode Island is one of only nine states without a State Main Street coordinating program, and that’s despite the fact that we are the second most urbanized state, with a lot of untapped economic and housing potential in our numerous Main Street districts. To better tap this potential, we have already received financial support from Commerce RI, Rhode Island Energy, and the RI Department of Health. We are seeking additional support through a funding proposal recently introduced in the House and Senate. Rep. Arthur Handy is the lead House sponsor for this proposal, H 5477,with strong backing as well from Rep. Cortvriend and several others. Senator Lori Urso is the lead Sponsor for the same measure on the Senate side, S 0174, and has secured 19 co-sponsors.

I encourage anyone interested in supporting our Main Street RI work to contact our Deputy Director, Jillian Finkle, who can be reached at jfinkle@growsmartri.com.

4. Grow Smart and Preserve RI have been long-time partners in the field, how would you describe the relationship between smart growth and historic preservation?

Because Smart Growth is all about using our physical resources more efficiently and creatively to benefit people, our movement and the historic preservation movement are inextricably and "historically" linked. As advocates for location efficient development, which provides people with an opportunity to access many of the services and amenities of daily life without significant car travel, we prioritize increased rehab of often centrally located historic buildings. That's why we have championed the State Historic Tax Credit program (HTC), for all of its 23 years of existence. We are very proud of this effort, because the HTC has facilitated the redevelopment of more than 300 historic rehab projects around the State, catalyzing more than $2 billion in local investment, along with production of thousands of housing units (albeit still not nearly enough), about 20% of which have been subsidized affordable units.

Preserve Rhode Island has been a long-standing partner in our work to promote, defend, reform, and periodically recapitalize the HTC. We are pleased this year to be co-leading with Preserve RI a major legislative campaign to reform and strengthen the HTC.

5. What is your favorite historic place in Rhode Island? Why?

This is a virtually impossible question to answer because there are so many historic places in Rhode Island which inspire me. While well-known historic places such as the Newport Mansions, the Slater Mill, the Arcade and the State House are among my favorites, I also derive great pride and positive energy from a lot of the state's lesser-known historic places, many creatively rehabbed and reused.