(soft music) (wind whooshing) (waves crashing) - [Pamela] Tonight, what happens when climate change threatens Rhode Island's history?

- You can't run away from it.

The truth is that a lot of historic properties are in extremely vulnerable places.

- [Michelle] Then, a local educator with an unconventional approach.

- I didn't feel like we were serving the whole student.

Yes, we were gearing them towards academic success, but we were not helping that student want to see tomorrow.

- And what's next for Rhode Island's Public Transit Authority with Ted Nesi.

(bright music) (bright music continues) Good evening.

Welcome to "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

I'm Pamela Watts.

- And I'm Michelle San Miguel.

We begin tonight with climate change and how the global problem is taking a toll on historic treasures.

- In danger from storm surges are landmarks from the Statue of Liberty in New York to much of Boston's Cradle of Liberty to a quarter of National Park Service buildings.

Here in Rhode Island, severe weather is encroaching on some of the state's most historic and iconic structures.

As part of our continuing Green Seeker Series, we look at efforts being done to better understand the problem and stem the tide of destruction.

(wind whooshing) Many of the country's historic landmarks are in peril.

According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, sea level rise is causing flooding and coastal erosion.

At the core is climate change, extreme weather such as hurricanes and nor'easters increasing in frequency and severity.

- We're on this point on Aquidneck Island.

It was always called Rough Point, and that's the reason why the house's name is Rough Point, but it is in an extremely vulnerable position because of storms.

- [Pamela] Storms resulting in tough times at Rough Point.

Frankie Vagnone is president of the Newport Restoration Foundation, stewards of this 1890s estate.

It's a Gilded Age summer cottage, originally a home of Vanderbilts and later famed tobacco heiress Doris Duke.

It's filled with riches such as Van Dyck portraits and a Tiffany silver swan centerpiece.

But the Bellevue Avenue mansion and the cultural heritage it holds are all at risk.

- Now what we have are climate change issues, which are increasing the storm intensity, the winds.

Normal wear and tear and weathering of this house has been kind of exponentially multiplied.

So we're getting winds at such level that the seawater's being pushed through the stonewall, through the mortar, through the interior of the wall, through the plaster.

- [Pamela] It's evident in the elegant music room where Doris Duke's debutante ball was once held.

Alyssa Lozupone is director of preservation.

- What you're seeing on the walls is hand-painted Chinese wallpaper.

And this was one of the primary areas where we started to see water infiltration.

We started seeing damage on the wallpaper itself.

So in this area, we actually removed a panel of the wallpaper.

- [Pamela] That wallpaper is currently being conserved.

- While it was offsite, we opened up the wall and thought this is a great opportunity to start exploring what's happening behind the wallpaper.

- And what's happening?

- Cracked granite and brownstone, things like that are all things that let water into the building, and then it just finds its way into the finishes and all these beautiful features that you see.

(wind whooshing) - [Pamela] Repairing the masonry and replacing the roof is phase one of Rough Point's ongoing restoration.

Phase two will focus on the solarium, where there is a clear, fragile line between outdoors and indoors.

- This was meant to be a space where you could enjoy the view, and now we're seeing some of the damage that the proximity to the water is doing to the building.

- [Pamela] Plaster is falling, so furniture is covered.

The bronze doors and windows need repair.

- How do we restore these?

And how do we continue to protect them moving forward from increased wind and increased saltwater?

- [Pamela] To answer that, the nonprofit is doing something unusual.

It's pulling back the curtain, becoming transparent about climate change calamities.

Signage throughout Rough Point is prominent.

They're being very forthright about this.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- And why is that so important?

- Our visitors want to know the truth.

They wanna know the reality of preservation.

So instead of, for instance, covering up falling plaster with a plastic sheet, I've suggested we take the plastic sheet down, we interpret it, we show our visitors that these are the real effects that are happening on our building, and of course it's not just our building.

So it's really pushing, pushing the margins of where preservationists and museum thinkers are goring, and climate change is happening to us and these things need to be discussed.

- [Pamela] Some of that discussion is happening through the Restoration Foundation's global initiative called Keeping History Above Water.

There are international conferences with experts aimed at balancing preservation goals with the reality of rising tides.

- Traditionally, you always wanna replace something that's rotted with the same material.

Well, today, we're dealing with issues where some of those materials may be extinct, they may be in rainforests, they may not actually be able to withstand the new climate changes.

So you need to start thinking about new technologies.

You can't run away from it, because the truth is that a lot of historic properties are in extremely vulnerable places.

- [Pamela] For example, Hunter House, here in the Point neighborhood of Newport, sits just a dozen feet away from Narragansett Bay, and it is a significant structure.

- It started the preservation movement in Newport, the city as well as the county, and that begins in the 1940s.

- [Pamela] Leslie Jones is curator and director of museum affairs for the Preservation Society of Newport County.

That organization saved the house once from demolition and now is trying to save it from wreckage by climate change.

Built in 1748, it is a national historic landmark boasting some of the finest examples of Georgian architecture, with hand-hewn paneling and angelic details.

And that's not all.

It sheltered some famous allies during the Revolutionary War.

- It was home to Admiral de Ternay, who led the French Navy.

So he could see out the windows and his fleet in the harbor.

And with that, it played a significant role in our fight for independence.

The "Gazette Francoise," which was the first French language newspaper printed in the colonies, was printed in this house.

- Nearly 250 years later, that history could be vanquished.

While seaside structures are traditionally prone to water damage, climate change is hastening the deterioration.

What's been happening here at Hunter House?

- A lot, actually, and it's affected our whole approach to how we care for the building.

So this is called efflorescence, and it's a salt deposit.

- So all of this white is salt from the ocean?

- All this white is salt.

Well, it's salt coming through the salty air, through the saltwater that actually rises up through the water table when flooding does happen in the basement.

- [Pamela] The subterranean cellar has been specifically designed so water can flow through, with special pumping pipes on chipped stone and dehumidifiers.

Jones says they've always had a hurricane plan.

It is now morphed into a resiliency plan.

- Because it can happen at any time of the year, whether it's flooding or high winds or any kind of moisture infiltration too.

I lead the efforts for the evacuation of Hunter House when necessary, and that's a collaborative effort that is rehearsed, it is annually reviewed, and it's essentially the process of moving things out of this house into a secure location.

- However, Jones says many of the moves are just temporary mitigation.

She says it's just a matter of time until more drastic measures may be taken, such as changing the character and context of the home's location.

- Is there any thought of ever putting the house on stilts, moving the house?

- Sure, yeah.

We are looking at the examples that our neighbors are doing.

There are many people in this neighborhood who are elevating their houses.

It's certainly something that our consultants, engineers, and architects have advised could be a potential action for us to take on.

- Does that hurt your heart (Leslie laughs) as someone who's a preservationist to think it's not going to be the way it was originally?

- I think it gives us purpose, not sad or scared, but more so let's be proactive rather than reactive.

Because the whole reason why this house exists is because it has existed through a linear timeline.

It has been lived in by generations of people that have electrified it, installed internal bathrooms and plumbing.

So the house has changed and morphed, but now it's time for us to save it.

- [Pamela] Back at Rough point, Frankie Vagnone says they are working on another innovation for both tourists and townspeople.

- What we've decided to do is to turn this wing into action centers.

- [Pamela] The action centers will occupy former guest bedrooms on the second floor now under renovation.

The idea is to promote preservation through education.

- This room will hold a large model of Aquidneck Island, with projections from the ceiling which will be talking about climate change, sea level rise.

- [Pamela] He hopes it will transform the museum into a center for school children, the community, and visitors to learn more about the threatened erosion of history, - You have to ask yourself what the value and relevance of a historic site is to us today.

They're vessels through which you can teach contemporary issues.

Climate change is something that we all have to pay attention to, even in a rarefied house just like this.

We have no choice on the matter, just look out the window.

(wind whooshing) (waves crashing) (bright music) (bright music ends) - Up next, we introduce you to a Rhode Island educator who says he's found a way to make learning fun by putting students in the driver's seat.

And his lessons go well beyond academics.

He is on a mission to spark a joyful rebellion, one that he says became increasingly necessary during the pandemic.

- There's one, there's one.

- [Michelle] Roberto Gonzalez wants to help students explore subjects they're passionate about.

- Battery, battery, battery.

- Battery.

- [Michelle] For many of his students, that passion coincides with one of his: science.

- [Roberto] Everybody see I got the wire in here?

- Yeah.

- I'm gonna give it a little twist.

- [Michelle] These students gathered at the Central Falls High School library are learning how to make a small robot out of a toothbrush.

- A really simple project where we're using a power source, we're using a motor, we're using the toothbrushes, and then they get to customize them.

- [Michelle] The group meets once a week after school to work on these projects.

They don't have to attend, but they want to.

(students laughing) - Wednesdays we do engineering days, so we're, like, learning how to make circuits, we're learning how to make robots, doing AI and coding.

- I love hands-on stuff.

I could never be a kid that could sit, like, sit still or stand still, so it's like working with my hands and being able to do stuff, I find it interesting for myself.

- We've learned a little bit of wiring.

If we wanted the wires to really stay together, we might get into soldering.

What's soldering?

- [Michelle] In 2013, Gonzalez was working as the technology center director at a local youth organization when he decided he wanted to do something to address the gender gap in the STEM fields, science, technology, engineering, and math.

- There was a large gap between girls who were leaving programs with science degrees, but the jobs, the incoming jobs, were going to boys.

Over 50% of the girls were getting the degrees and less than 30% of the girls were getting the jobs.

Do you think the bananas conduct electricity?

- [Students] Yes!

- [Roberto] Alright, try it.

Show me.

(electronic humming) - Using his degree in sound engineering, Gonzalez created a nonprofit called STEAM Box.

He works with several schools in Rhode Island, developing science and technology-based programming.

This is more than STEM.

This is STEAM, not STEM.

Why STEAM?

- Here's a little secret.

STEAM is a little redundant with STEM.

You can't have STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math, without the arts.

Who does the design work?

How does that, how does any of these things get designed?

So it's already there, but it's just severely underappreciated, as we know, when the arts are the first few things to get cut out of schools.

I think STEAM is dynamic.

I think anything can kind of qualify under STEAM.

- [Michelle] Gonzalez works with students to create projects based on their interest.

Together, they've constructed arcade cabinets, built geometric domes, and even made a go-kart using artificial intelligence.

(explosion booms) They've also designed special effects videos.

He says students learn best (students screaming) when they're engaged and taking ownership of their work.

And proving the sky's the limit, they've even launched a weather balloon to the edge of the atmosphere to capture a photo of the earth.

- Once that thing reached space, took its photos, spun around a little bit, and parachuted back down to Earth, our students had to use the math that they learned and figure out the rotation of the Earth is so that it wouldn't come straight down and the wind's gonna pull it this way.

And we had to go into Connecticut.

Our students put an X on the map and they made me drive them to this spot, where I'm not expecting to find anything, but we did.

We searched for a while, but we actually found their device.

(audience clapping) STEAM Box is offering these students technology to follow their passions.

Technology is offering these students more power than any of us have ever had.

And with great power comes great responsibility.

- [Michelle] When Gonzalez created STEAM Box, he says one of his primary goals was helping students master content.

But that changed during the pandemic.

- I didn't feel like we were serving the whole student.

Yes, we were gearing them towards academic success.

Yes, data shows that they're more likely to attend school on a day that STEAM Box is in the school.

But we were not helping that student want to see tomorrow.

And it seems like an extreme thought a student wanting to see tomorrow, but it dawned on me that that was a very real thought that a lot of our students had, right, whether or not they were interested in coming to school, getting out of bed, motivated to do anything.

There are things, traumas and anxieties that you have experienced- - Yes.

- And you wanna help other people avoid those traumas and anxieties.

- [Michelle] It inspired Gonzalez to launch a podcast called "Joyful Rebellion," a platform where students can talk about mental health issues.

- We focus on joy a lot because that's our end goal, that's our result, that's where we wanna get to.

And I certainly look at it as a bit of a revolution.

And it takes a rebellion, right?

Like, and rebellions are built on hope.

- Certain parents might think you're crazy if you need, like, therapy and stuff like that.

- My dad did not believe in mental health in teenagers or people around my age.

And I was like, "Well, what do you mean I can't be depressed, I can't have anxiety?"

He's like, "You're too young."

And I was like, "What's that supposed to mean?"

- [Michelle] Students appear to often welcome the opportunity to discuss mental health.

They say hearing what their peers went through during the pandemic, and continue to experience, reminds them they're not alone.

- That's very common nowadays, hiding your emotions, hiding what it is that you actually feel.

I used to think like that a lot.

Actually, before STEAM Box, I used to, I'm not gonna open up to nobody 'cause I'm not gonna be looked at as weak.

And after STEAM Box, I can say that I've opened up more and I've connected with people and I have matured in a way because I've heard other people's experiences.

- I feel like what this pandemic has showed us is that this mental health thing really comes from the lack of social that everybody has had during the pandemic because there's many people who stay alone and stay, like, in their head.

And that's the bad thing.

They don't have nobody to speak to.

- Growing up in a Latino household, for me, in my generation, like, if you needed therapy, like, you suck.

- [Michelle] Gonzalez wants to destigmatize mental health and help them explore what they're passionate about.

He sees himself in many of the students in the program.

- Somebody from the community, like myself, since I'm running a lot of these programs in Providence, to have somebody from Providence, from that Broad Street area, to lead a program like this, it's just, I've walked a mile in their shoes, and I think it really helps students be able to relate.

Representation matters, and that's something that comes up often in our programs.

I wanna show you guys how to make 3D models and how to do 3D printing.

- [Michelle] Gonzalez says he's inspired by the students in STEAM Box and wants them to pick up the mantle and help write the failures of his own generation.

- I feel like my generation hasn't quite hit the nail on the head with solutions and significant progress away from doom.

I have to work with this generation, hoping that this generation might be able to provide some of those answers, or at least look forward to it with more solutions available.

- Roberto Gonzalez was named the Rhode Island PBS Digital Innovator in 2016, an award given to one educator in each state whose ideas opened new worlds for their students.

Finally, tonight, on this episode of "Weekly Insight," Michelle and WPRI 12's politics editor Ted Nesi have the latest on the signature scandal surrounding Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos's run for Congress.

They also discuss the future of Rhode Island's Public Transit Authority, RIPTA, after allegations of a hit-and-run incident forced their CEO, Scott Avedisian, to resign.

- Ted, welcome back, it's good to have you.

Let's start with the departure of the now former CEO of RIPTA, Scott Avedisian.

He resigned after police in Warwick, where he used to be mayor, say that he crashed into another car at a McDonald's drive-thru and then drove off.

This is quite the fall from grace for someone who's been in public office in Rhode Island for a long time.

- Yeah, Michelle, I mean, people should remember Scott Avedisian was seen as one of the, you know, bright rising stars in the Rhode Island Republican Party for many years.

A lot of us thought he would someday seek higher office.

But he wound up staying on as mayor for 18 years in Warwick, never took that step to seek higher office.

And then in 2018, Governor Gina Raimondo asked him if he wanted to be the leader of RIPTA, and he took that job and he's been there until this fiasco.

- And he was involved in another car crash back in 2022, a rollover crash in which he suffered injuries, did not face charges.

This time around, he was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with damage.

And two drivers pointed out that Avedisian appeared intoxicated at the time of this crash.

- Yeah, I think those comments by the other drivers were pretty devastating for him politically.

Also, the fact, Michelle, that in the police report, police said they went to Avedisian's home after he allegedly left the scene, they found the engine of his RIPTA vehicle, which is allegedly in the crash, warm.

And then when they knocked on the door, no one answered.

I just think all of those facts really hurt him in the court of public opinion.

- And it's telling that he chose to resign and accept a settlement.

I thought this quote from a RIPTA board member was interesting.

Norman Benoit said, quote, "Many would have invoked their contract right and fought this and tried to drag things out."

He added, "Scott took the high road to his credit."

What do you make of that?

- Well, I think, you know, I can see that argument.

I also just think this was not probably survivable for him politically after everything that had come out about the accident and the questions about his behavior.

And then I think you have to look at it in the larger context of the situation at RIPTA.

Remember, Scott Avedisian had no public transit background when Governor Raimondo recommended him for this job.

That was a complaint among some activists, transit activists, and RIPTA has been in crisis frequently throughout his tenure.

Right now, they've had a driver shortage, they're making service cuts, they have big deficits they're worried about.

And then there's just this larger disagreement, I would say, between transit advocates, who will have one vision for what RIPTA should be, and state leaders who don't necessarily share it.

So now I think the question is, will RIPTA's board go for some kind of national search for a transit expert, or will they pick another political insider to lead the agency?

- Sure.

We'll be monitoring that.

Let's turn to another scandal, this one concerning Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos and those disputed signatures that were collected last year when she was running for Congress.

The attorney general has now charged one man with falsifying nomination papers.

Someone else is also being investigated.

You've described this as a political purgatory for the lieutenant governor.

What do you mean by that?

- Well, well, you know, we should say first there's no evidence that the lieutenant governor herself had any knowledge of the signatures that were apparently forged or knew someone was doing that.

But that said, the headlines are brutal, right, for any public official to have your name attached to this kind of chicanery, which Rhode Island unfortunately has a long history of those kinds of things.

And so I think, you know, her fall from grace, we talked about the Avedisian, you can see it here too.

She was the front runner.

You remember, Michelle, in that congressional primary last year, through this into the summer, and then she came in fourth place to Gabe Amo in the end.

So she really took a fall in public opinion last year.

And so I think, you know, since then, we just, we haven't been seeing a lot of her.

She does go to events, but she's not doing long interviews.

Her profile, I'd say, is a lot lower.

- Yeah, many people thought at the time it was her race to lose, right- - 100% percent, yeah.

- And clearly that's changed.

So she has two years, she's up for reelection in 2026.

She has some time to repair her image.

You know, it's two years away, but she clearly has a lot of work cut out for her.

You're talking about how she's really not doing a lot of, you know, hard-hitting, long-term, long-form interviews.

You know, how do you think she can go about repairing her image over this year?

- Well, as you say, she has a lot of work to do.

She had at the end of 2023 only $2,000 in her campaign fundraising account.

Now, again, she has time, as you said, and she can rebuild that, but she's starting from a bad place in terms of, you know, showing she'll have the resources to mount a campaign next time.

I also just think her public standing took such a hit.

There was a internal poll late in the primary by Gabe Amo's campaign, one of her rivals, but still, it showed her favorable rating with the primary voters, this was Democratic primary voters, at 27%.

That is a bad place to be in your own party electorate.

So her advisors are hopeful, as you said, that with time, when she can get the criminal investigation of the signatures fully behind her, she can, you know, keep her head down, get to work, and sort of rebuild her standing with voters, and frankly, they hope, scare off any major primary or general election challengers, it remains to be seen.

- Ted, thanks so much for being here.

- Good to be here.

- And that's our broadcast this evening.

I'm Pamela Watts.

- And I'm Michelle San Miguel.

We'll be back next week with another edition of "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

Until then, please follow us on Facebook and X and visit us online to see all of our stories and past episodes at ripbs.org/weekly, or listen to our podcast on your favorite streaming platform.

Goodnight.

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