1. What is your vision for biking and walking in our community?
My vision is for Newport to be a city where residents of every age, ability, and neighborhood can safely walk or bike to school, work, our parks, downtown, and other destinations throughout the city. Walking and biking should not simply be recreational activities—they should be safe, practical transportation options.
When I first answered Bike Newport’s candidate questionnaire before serving on the City Council, I talked about the gaps I saw on streets such as Malbone Road, Rhode Island Avenue, Bridge Street, and Admiral Kalbfus Road. I heard from residents who told me they would walk or bike more often if they felt safer doing so. After serving on the Council, I believe that even more strongly today.
Newport has already done a great deal of the planning. Our Comprehensive Land Use Plan establishes a goal of creating a comprehensive multimodal transportation system for all users. Keep Newport Moving, our Transportation Master Plan, gives us a framework for creating a safer and better-connected transportation network. We now also have Newport's Vision Zero/Safe Streets work to help identify where serious safety risks exist and how we can address them.
My vision is to turn those plans into a connected system that people can actually use.
That means filling sidewalk gaps and maintaining the sidewalks we already have; creating safer and more visible crossings; calming traffic in residential neighborhoods; expanding safe bicycle infrastructure; improving connections between neighborhoods; and ensuring that children, seniors, people with disabilities, pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, and drivers are all considered when streets are designed or reconstructed.
This is also about equity. The safety of our streets should not depend on which Newport neighborhood you live in. A child walking to Pell School deserves the same consideration as a pedestrian downtown. A resident in the North End should have safe walking and biking connections to the rest of Newport. And someone who cannot or chooses not to own a car should still be able to safely move around our community.
During my first term, I have tried to bring that philosophy to the decisions before the Council. I have supported initiatives addressing Malbone Avenue sidewalks, school-zone speed limits, Maple Avenue traffic calming, Bridge Street traffic and parking improvements, Newport's Bicycle Friendly Community application, and traffic-calming concerns on Memorial Boulevard.
Those may appear to be individual issues, but collectively they represent the larger goal: designing Newport around people and their safety rather than assuming every trip needs to be made by car.
Newport is a compact city. That gives us an incredible opportunity to become one of the most walkable and bikeable communities in Rhode Island. We should embrace it.
2. What steps will you take to achieve your vision?
My priority for a second term is implementation, accountability, and funding.
We have plans. Now we need to execute them.
First, we need to make transportation safety part of our regular capital planning. Sidewalks, bicycle infrastructure, crosswalks, traffic-calming measures, ADA accessibility, and other pedestrian improvements should be incorporated into our Capital Improvement Program and annual budgeting process. We should also aggressively pursue state and federal transportation and safety grants so that we can accelerate projects without placing the entire burden on Newport taxpayers.
Second, I’d like to see us prioritize projects based on safety, connectivity, and equity. We have identified sidewalk gaps, dangerous intersections, school routes, high-speed corridors, and missing bicycle connections and need to develop a transparent priority list for addressing them. Residents should be able to see what projects are planned, where they stand, and when they are expected to be completed.
Malbone Avenue is a good example. Safe sidewalks and bicycle connections there are not simply an infrastructure improvement—they connect North End residents and families to Pell School, Broadway, downtown, and other parts of Newport. That is exactly the type of connectivity envisioned in Keep Newport Moving.
Third, we need to follow through on Vision Zero and Safe Streets. I support using traffic data and crash information to identify problem areas and implementing appropriate solutions such as traffic calming, safer and better-lit crosswalks, improved signage and visibility, speed-management measures, and street designs that naturally encourage drivers to slow down.
I have supported school-zone speed-limit measures and traffic-calming efforts on Maple Avenue and have raised concerns about Memorial Boulevard because I believe we should be proactive about dangerous conditions rather than waiting for another serious accident before taking action.
Fourth, we need a truly connected bicycle network. A bike lane that abruptly ends or forces a cyclist onto a dangerous road is not a functioning bicycle network. Newport should continue working with Bike Newport, RIDOT, RIPTA, our Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, Middletown, Portsmouth, and regional partners so Newport's bicycle infrastructure connects with the broader Aquidneck Island network.
Fifth, we need to reduce the number of unnecessary vehicle trips into the most congested parts of Newport. Tourism is essential to our economy, but millions of visitors traveling through a small historic city creates transportation challenges for residents. I continue to believe we should explore satellite parking, stronger transit connections, bike-share opportunities, improved bicycle parking, and park-once strategies that allow visitors to get around without moving their cars from destination to destination. Open-street and pedestrian-focused opportunities should also be part of that conversation.
Finally, we need greater accountability for implementation of our transportation plans. I would support regular public updates to the Council on Keep Newport Moving, Vision Zero/Safe Streets, Green and Complete Streets, and bicycle and pedestrian projects—what has been completed, what is funded, what is underway, and what comes next.
One thing I have learned during my first term is that adopting a good plan is only the beginning. The Council's responsibility is to provide the oversight, funding, coordination, and persistence necessary to make sure those plans result in tangible improvements for residents.
Bike Newport and the Bicycle and Pedestrian commission have been invaluable partners in advocating for transportation equity, educating the public, and pushing Newport toward safer streets. I want the City Council to match that advocacy with action.
At the end of my next term, I want us to be able to point to completed sidewalks, safer intersections, calmer neighborhood streets, new bicycle connections, and fewer crashes—not simply additional studies and plans.
That is how I would measure our progress, more Newporters should feel comfortable choosing to walk or bike because they feel safe doing it.