Dave Talan

Jewish Rhode Island: Thank you for agreeing to this interview! To start, can you tell us about experiences that shaped your attitude toward public service?

Dave Talan: I’m a lifelong Providence resident, aside from two years in the Army and five years at the University of Rhode Island. I went to Providence schools and then URI, degree in chemical and nuclear engineering. I got into the computer field and went to Community College of Rhode Island to get my computers degree. My first job after the Army was a chemical and nuclear engineer at Texas Instruments in Attleboro. Most of my jobs were in the computer field at Rhode Island Hospital and the Department of Labor and Training.

I’m a community activist. I’m in my 16th term as president of the Reservoir Triangle Neighborhood Association, going back 45 years since we started the organization. We have the largest body of water in Providence, Mashapaug Pond. We’ve developed four parks along its shorelines, preserving them as open space.

We work with the police and fire departments. We’ve adopted the two neighborhood schools, Reservoir Avenue and Alvarez High School. We help people to know their neighbors and neighborhood better. Providence has about 25 neighborhood associations working together, so I know people in all parts of the city.

I’ve been a coach in Elmwood Little League for 52 years, all eight different age groups. Currently, I coach 11- and 12-year-old boys. I’ve worked with thousands of kids. Little League, we help them develop as ball players and into good members of the community. I coached one player now in the major leagues, Jeremy Peña from the Houston Astros, who was MVP in the World Series three years ago.

I’m on the board of the John Hope Settlement House, a longtime Black community organization serving the whole community. I was a Boy Scout leader, and I’ve been involved with Jewish organizations. I’m on the board of Temple Torat Yisrael and the URI Hillel Foundation. I served on the Community Relations Council in the Jewish Alliance. Currently, my big activity is the Rhode Island Coalition for Israel, which is a group of Christians and Jews working together to support Israel and oppose antisemitism. We are a little more aggressive than the Jewish Alliance, because the Alliance doesn’t want to offend anybody. We don’t really care who we offend if we say what needs to be said. Our current project is opposing Question 7.

I have government experience. When the state took over the city schools, I was one of 45 members on a committee to help plan, so I’ve been involved with the schools. I’ve served as administrative assistant for two state representatives, Mary Ross, the first and only Black Republican woman elected to the Rhode Island legislature, and now for Ramon Perez. He’s a Democrat, even though I’m the cochair of the Republican Party in Providence. He’s a supporter of Israel, has been there many times and is probably the biggest supporter of Israel at the Statehouse.

I served 12 years on the Providence Board of Park Commissioners, which oversees 120 city parks, ballfields, playgrounds and Roger Williams Park.

JRI: I was going to ask about experiences that familiarized you with Providence’s diverse communities, but you touched on that already.

Talan: I pretty much answered that. One question people ask me is whether I’m qualified for mayor. I’m qualified with my experience to step right in and be the mayor. I’ve got the experience in the boards, with the state legislators and the city, community experiences with the Black organization, as well as some other Jewish organizations, Hispanic groups, too. The Little League I’m involved in is 90% Hispanic. Thirty years ago, I went to CCRI to learn how to speak Spanish to better communicate with the parents. When I ran for the school board two years ago on the South Side, I gave my presentation in Spanish. I rang 9,000 doorbells, and I gave my presentation in Spanish at 6,000.

JRI: You mentioned Question 7, which would press the city to divest from Israel.

Talan: People read it and think, “Genocide’s a bad thing. I’m going to support this.” But read the fine print, which is not on the ballot. Genocide is determined by some UN agency that scours the entire planet and only finds one country guilty: Israel, for hitting back after 1,200 Jews got slaughtered by Palestinian terrorists.

I oppose Question 7, and I’m running against someone who strongly supports it.

I’m involved in educating people on that. I talked to a lot of people who say they support it. I explain to them what it’s really for, opposing Israel, as the Rhode Island Current story showed. When I educate people on what this really does, they say, “I had no idea, and now I’m against it.” Morales knows exactly what it is, and he still supports it. That’s one of the reasons why Mayor Smiley is not endorsing Morales. I think Mayor Smiley is a better Jew than most of us who were born Jewish. Question 7 is very personal for him, and he takes offense at it, as I do.

I get calls from people saying, “Hey, I’m a Democrat, I supported Smiley, and I want to help you out now.”

Aside from school policy, I’m almost in 100% agreement with the mayor. It’s one of the reasons why I’m counting on his people holding their nose and voting for a Republican.

I support Mayor Smiley ordering the Providence police not to work with ICE. That makes all of us safer. Providence has a very good police force. As good as the police force is, they rely on people reporting what they see. If people are afraid to report what they’ve seen to the police, because they think the police will turn them over to ICE, it makes all of us less safe. I don’t think ICE is run as professionally as the Providence or state police are. They’ve arrested innocent people, tried to cart them off, so I can understand why people are afraid of ICE. You need some common sense. If they arrest a murderer or rapist, I’ve got no problem with turning them over to ICE rather than letting them free on bail.

One thing I disagree with Morales on: he has talked about having the police arrest ICE agents. Having armed police officers arrest armed officers from another agency, that’s kind of dangerous and scary.

Question 7 is probably illegal; some say it’s a violation of state law. It’s unenforceable, because most city investments aren’t in specific companies. They’re in mutual funds, all sorts of companies. Many major companies have factories in Israel, so it’s almost impossible to find a fund that doesn’t have some companies dealing with Israel. Really enforcing it would cost millions of dollars to the pension fund. That would be devastating to the city pension fund. You don’t have to be Jewish to be against this.

At RICI we’re doing demonstrations, being public in our opposition to it.

JRI: What is your plan for education?

Talan: I would go back to the neighborhood school model. I don’t want to force. I want the parents to have a choice, which right now is not the case, to send their kids to an elementary or middle school in walking distance.

Nine thousand kids are bused in Providence, out of only 19,000 kids in public schools. Nearly half the kids are taking the bus, even though 90% to 95% of the kids live in walking distance to a school.

When parents register, the first questions should be, “Where do you live? Here’s the school that’s walking distance. Would you like your child to go there?” If they answer “no,” then fine, we move on. If they answer “yes,” we tell them about some of the things that are available at other schools: dual-language programs, special needs, next door to a community center so they can go after school until the parents can pick them up. If none of those things matter, the Providence schools have a common curriculum; they’re teaching the same things on the same days. There’s no reason to be going to a different school.

There are 9,000 kids riding a school bus. That could go down to 4,500 under my plan, saving $10 million a year, the same amount the mayor raised taxes last year, totally for the schools. Beyond saving money, parents would get to know each other, make friends that way, more easily get involved in the PTA. If they don’t have a car, which is the case for 50% of Providence families, they could walk to PTA meetings and get involved. Communities can adopt schools, like my neighborhood association. It would improve the biggest reason for poor education outcomes, absenteeism.

Another thing is to support kids going to non-traditional schools. Twelve years ago, of 32,000 school-age kids, 24,000 went to traditional schools and 8,000 went elsewhere, primarily parochial schools. Today, of 30,000 kids, 19,000 going to traditional schools, with 11,000 outside the system, 8,400 going to charter schools. Of the 19,000 going to traditional public schools, 4,000 are on a charter’s waiting list.

Twenty percent of the kids in the public schools are on a list for a charter. It would probably be more if they knew they didn’t have such a poor chance.

Parents know what’s best for their kids. As mayor, I would listen to what they are telling us. It would help them if the charter schools expanded. We’re building new schools. In two years, there will be seven empty school buildings. Charters could take those over. They are willing to fix them up at their own expense. Otherwise, it’s going to cost millions of dollars just to maintain empty buildings.

Morales opposes any of that. He has no interest in helping the charters or private or parochial schools, so basically half the kids in Providence are of no interest to him. They’re very much of interest to me.

JRI: Moving on from education, could you describe your environmental policies?

Talan: Providence is only 18 square miles, so anything we do is not going to make a difference, and some measures are expensive. If you can do something that doesn’t cost extra money, like if you’re building a new school and you want to put solar panels on top at no extra expense, I’m for that. I don’t want the city doing things that cost money and aren’t going to make a difference.

One thing the city can do is plant trees. Parts of Providence are heat islands. During the summer, they’re 15 degrees warmer than the wealthier parts of the East Side. The East Side has a lot of trees, whereas parts of South Providence paved everything over. Trees make things cooler and absorb carbon dioxide, replacing it with oxygen. I’d love to plant more new trees. That’s something that would actually make a difference.

Much of what’s talked about with the environment is extreme. In the early 1800s, people said we needed to stop population growth because we couldn’t raise enough food. Then we discovered better ways to grow food and feed people. I believe the same thing will happen with the environment. Scientists are working on solutions.

One type of energy production that doesn’t produce any greenhouse gases is nuclear. It would put no greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

When Obama and Biden were in office, they supported solar energy and wind energy, but they shut down new gas, oil or nuclear projects. Trump has been kind of the opposite. I think they’re all wrong. We need to do all the above, and in the meantime, continue doing research. I believe by the end of the century, we will have developed ways to remove greenhouse gases, and people will look back and say how backward we were for trying to shut everything down.

JRI: That’s all the questions — thank you for your time!

Talan: Thank you!

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