Tuesday, September 10, 2019

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

VOLUME CLIV, ISSUE 5

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METRO

JUMP bikes removed over safety, crime concerns City, JUMP hope to bring back program after improving safety, security of bikes

BY ISABEL INADOMI SENIOR STAFF WRITER Students returned to campus this fall to an empty bicycle rack, the docks missing their trademark red JUMP bikes.

The notable absence of the motorized bikes, owned by rideshare company Uber, follows the city of Providence and JUMP Bike’s decision to pause the bike program due to reports of misuse and public safety concerns.

“Safety is at the heart of everything we do, and after acts of vandalism on JUMP bikes, we have decided in partnership with the City, to temporarily remove bikes from operation in Providence,” wrote JUMP bike spokesman Harry Hartfield in an email to The Herald.

JUMP bikes came to campus in September 2018, and many students immediately took a liking to the motorized form of transportation, which was easily accessible through the Uber app.

Although some students were wary of the safety implications of fast-moving bikes through the crowded streets of

ANDREW BAKER / HERALD

JUMP bikes have been used in assaults and robberies in Providence, with perpetrators rigging the bikes to be used anonymously. Providence Police declined to comment on the JUMP bikes’ connection to the crimes.

College Hill, the bikes became common forms of transportation for quick and easy rides between activities as the year progressed.

But NBC 10 News reported that JUMP bikes have been used in connection to recent crimes in the city, such as assault and robbery. JUMP bikes are

rented through an app, but the people committing these crimes often rigged the bikes by disabling the payment and GPS systems so they could be used anonymously, according to the news outlet. The Providence Police declined to comment about JUMP bikes’ role in these crimes.

Public safety representatives are continuing to work with JUMP to find a solution to these safety concerns, wrote Victor Morente, spokesperson for Mayor Jorge Elorza.

Hartfield echoed Elorza’s statement on behalf of JUMP. “We remain committed to operating in Providence and plan

to work with the City on a solution that will hopefully allow us to return some bikes this fall.”

The city plans to work with JUMP in the coming months to collect the remaining bikes and improve security for when they return.

Kathleen Gannon, vice chair of the Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition, has been supportive of bike share programs in Providence. “We were excited to have a bike share come in,” she said, adding that the recent pause was “unfortunate.”

“We understand that Uber has a problem,” Gannon said. “They seem to have not delivered a product that is secure to the city of Providence and so they have to figure out how to solve this problem.”

For some students, the loss of JUMP bikes has meant they must seek out different means of transportation to get to and from class and explore downtown Providence.

Peter Harvie ’21, who previously used JUMP bikes a few times a week, “was a little bummed” by the pause in the program. Although students can still use scooter rideshares from companies such as Lime and Bird, Harvie added that he preferred the bikes to get around campus.

METRO

METRO

Summer burglaries leave students shaken

Sunrise Movement rallies for Green New Deal

BY MAIA ROSENFELD SENIOR STAFF WRITER Students living near campus this summer had an extra reason to sweat after a series of robberies swept through College Hill. The Herald spoke with four students who experienced breakins over the summer, all of whom expressed frustration and unease after the incidents.

Evie Hidysmith ’21 woke up around midnight on June 29 to a stranger opening her bedroom door. She originally thought the intruder was her roommate’s boyfriend, but she soon awoke again to a stranger shining a flashlight in her face and picking up her laptop.

“It took me a minute to realize what was even happening,” Hidysmith wrote in an email to The Herald. “I was so shocked, but I chased him out of the house and over our back fence while calling 9-1-1.”

Within five minutes, several Providence Police officers arrived at her residence.

Though she lost her Apple computer that night, Hidysmith was more concerned about her safety than the stolen item. “Waking up to a strange man in my room was quite terrifying and has made me rethink the safety I assumed I always had,” Hidysmith wrote. “It’s one thing to steal a few computers, it’s another to leave a house full of young women with constant paranoia and deep distrust in their community.”

Other students recounted similar experiences with summer break-ins of their off-campus homes. The week of Hidysmith’s burglary, four other burglaries were reported to the Providence Police in District Nine, which includes parts of College Hill. The Brown Police Department is responsible for crimes reported between Hope Street and South Main Street in one direction, and Wickenden Street and Olney Street in the other. Beyond this residents must rely on the Providence Police.

Summer in Providence is historically more dangerous than other times of the year. In months of warmer weather, homes are more vulnerable

Arts and Culture

Metro

Out of Bounds, IMPROVidence, Comic Sans alums put skills to the test in NYC Page 2

Roundup: T.F. Green halts transatlantic flights, Wyatt postpones board meeting Page 4

to break-ins because people tend to leave their windows and doors open, wrote Lindsay Lague, public information officer for the Providence Police Department, in an email to The Herald.

From the first week of June until the first week of September, 41 burglaries were reported in District Nine, according to Dan Clement, crime and information system specialist for the Providence Police. But that number is not abnormally high when compared to the number of burglaries in the last five years, he added.

“There were some weeks this summer where we had an above average number reported compared to previous years but overall there were actually less burglaries reported this year than last year,” Clement wrote in an email to The Herald.

Clement noted that “burglaries in a neighborhood are normally the work of one person or two persons working as a team.” This continues in an area either until the offenders are caught, or until the Providence Police Department increases resources to “make it uncomfortable for them to continue,”

SEE THEFT PAGE 3

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Several students recount incidences of stolen laptops from off-campus homes

Protesters demand Whitehouse, Raimondo support environmental resolution

BY SPENCER SCHULTZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER One hundred protesters spent over five hours at the offices of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) Monday, urging the Rhode Island politicians to sign their names in support of a Green New Deal.

The protest was organized by members of the Sunrise Movement, a national youth-led coalition advocating for legislative action to stop climate change, said Naomi Hollard, a training fellow for the Sunrise Movement. The Rhode Island chapter has been working since 2017 to encourage Whitehouse and Raimondo to take action on climate change, but this is the first time members from across the northeast region of the United States have gathered to do so.

Protestors spent about three hours at Whitehouse’s office. While Hollard

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describes Whitehouse as a “champion in the fight against climate denialism” with his sponsorship of environmental protection bills, he has yet to sign as a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal or take the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge, she said.

“I welcome the notion of a Green New Deal proposal aimed at tackling climate change and spurring economic growth,” Whitehouse wrote in an email to The Herald. But he has refrained from signing onto the bill out of concern of dividing the Democratic Party.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-M.A.) introduced the Green New Deal in February. The resolution proposes environmental and economic reform aimed at minimizing the effects of climate change. It also includes language that would reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. to zero by 2030.

Raimondo has not publicly expressed support for a Green New Deal on the state or national level. Sunrise activists sought to change this yester-

SEE SUNRISE PAGE 4

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

ARTS AND CULTURE

Recent alums make waves in New York comedy circles Veterans of student-run comedy clubs continue to collaborate, get laughs, practice crafts

BY ANNABELLE WOODWARD ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR It’s mid-September, the time of year that heralds fall-flavored lattes for most and, for a brave, funny few, the start of comedy club auditions.

Long-established University institutions like IMPROVidence, Out of Bounds, Starla and Brown-Rhode Island School of Design Stand Up Comics will hold auditions, and throngs of eager students will compete to fill the few coveted spots on each team.

The University has produced a number of alums who have gone on to achieve great comedic success, most notably actor Jon Krasinski ’01, “The Office” star who, in his 2019 Brown Baccalaureate address, credited his

experience with sketch comedy group Out of Bounds for “changing his entire life.” A number of recent University graduates have had success pursuing comedy and comedic theater in New York City after graduation.

One exciting New York sketch comedy duo, Katherine Dunham ’19 and Claire Sise ’18, recently collaborated with animator and RISD alum Lindsey DeMars to create “Welcome to Hell,” a two-minute animated sketch that will be screened at the widely acclaimed Brooklyn animation festival “Animation Block Party” later this month. Dunham said she and Sise became “wicked good friends” during their tenure with improv group Starla and Out Of Bounds.

They met DeMars through Brown-RISD Stand Up Comics and instantly knew they wanted to work with her.

“She’s a great friend of ours and has an incredible way of creating visual jokes through her animations.

We were so lucky to get to collaborate with her on this,” Dunham said. “Wel-

come to Hell” features the Devil interviewing one of Hell’s newest arrivals.

The sketch was also one of eight that Dunham and Sise wrote and filmed for their new sketch show, The Up&Up, which they are currently submitting to festivals. The cast and production crew consisted entirely of current and recently graduated Brown and RISD students.

Kimberly Saltz ’17, a former member of improv group Comic Sans, has performed several stand-up sets at Gotham Comedy Club in New York, a venue that helped launch the careers of world-famous stand-ups like Jerry Seinfeld and Dave Chappelle. The first time she performed in Gotham’s New Talent Showcase, she was informed a few minutes before her set of a last-minute change in the night’s lineup — she would follow national headliner Jim Gaffigan who was testing out material for his Noble Ape tour.

“It was like, oh, no pressure, just follow one of the most successful co-

medians in the world. And I did,” she said.

Now in her second week as a student at Georgetown Law, Saltz was a major player in Comic Sans during her time at Brown — the only student improv group that accepts members without audition. She didn’t try standup until the spring of her senior year, when Skorts — a student-run musical sketch comedy group for women and other marginalized genders — organized an informal show.

Saltz’s stand-up material is largely inspired by her personal life — examining life after graduation and dating in New York City. “A lot of people have told me I ruined Tinder for them. They can’t unsee the things I’ve said,” she said.

“There’s something empowering about taking moments that were uncomfortable and turning them into something for myself, something funny, something entertaining that we can all laugh at,” she added.

Brendan George ’18, a veteran of IMPROVidence, moved to New York the summer after his graduation and immediately started auditioning . He was cast in a small theater production just 10 days after starting his search, which was “a really encouraging start,” he said.

In addition to landing a number of exciting theater gigs since, George just finished shooting the first season of a dating reality TV show where he serves as a co-host. “It may never make it to television, but if it does, I can assure you that 90 percent of my lines are unscripted and improvised,” George said.

He credits his experience in IMPROVidence with shaping his personal and artistic perspective, as well as giving him a skill set that is a major asset in the New York theater scene.

“Even in the audition room, casting directors have told me point blank, ‘we called you in because you improvise,’” he said. George also performs stand-up in Brooklyn.

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THEFT FROM PAGE 1 he wrote.

Kate Felder, data analyst and assistant to the executive director of the Brown Department of Public Safety, wrote in an email to The Herald that “we are aware of the recent break-ins and we are working with detectives for the Providence Police to increase our patrols.”

Katie Rademacher ’19 opened the windows on the first floor of her home off of Ives Street to “try to get some cool air in the house” on the Fourth of July, she said. Rademacher was upstairs in her room and decided to leave the house around nine o’clock to watch fireworks. When she came downstairs, Rademacher saw a man she did not know standing inside her house, holding what she would later discover to be her roommate’s laptop. Before she had time to say anything, “he just very confidently turned around and walked out the front door,” she said. “It was all within the span of just a few seconds, and then he was out of the house and around the corner.”

“I didn’t even have time to process, ” Rademacher said. “I literally watched my house get robbed and did nothing about it.” Once the shock wore off, she went outside and called the Providence Police.

After finding out that her laptop had been stolen, Rademacher’s roommate, Julia Windham ’21, attempted to contact the Providence Police herself, visiting the station on Brook Street and the department headquarters downtown. The police never followed up with Windham or Rademacher, Windham said. The

ANITA SHEIH / HERALD

Forty-one burglaries were reported to the Providence Police in District Nine, which includes parts of College Hill, from the first week of June to the first week of September. That number is comparable to the rate of burglaries reported in this district in the past five years.

Providence Police did not respond to requests for comment on this case.

The experience of the break-in left Windham shaken. “Everything is locked at my house now all the time, which makes it stifling, but I feel safer that way,” she said. “It’s made me definitely

not so excited about living off-campus senior year.”

Nick Scott ’21 echoed this sentiment after his sublet near the fire station on Brook Street was broken into this summer. “I’m very deterred from living off-campus, mostly by this experience,”

Scott said.

Scott’s residence was broken into on a Saturday night in late June when nobody was home. An intruder entered the house through a broken window screen and stole a backpack containing a laptop and cash, according to Scott.

The Providence Police came by Scott’s house to check for fingerprints and once more to inform the residents that they hadn’t been able to find any information on the thief or the whereabouts of the stolen objects, Scott said.

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SUNRISE FROM PAGE 1

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

day, marching to the Rhode Island State House to conduct a sit-in at Raimondo’s office. While the main protesters remained in other parts of the building, a group of 20 directly entered Raimondo’s office and insisted on staying until the governor signed a pledge in support of the resolution. After being threatened with arrest on numerous occasions

tinued community engagement on this important issue.”

But Sunrise protesters critiqued Raimondo’s environmental record, charging that the governor has engaged in environmental racism against her constituents by not opposing the construction of a natural gas liquefication facility in South Providence, Hollard said.

The South Providence community is

in August and September, said Yesenia Puebla ’21. More than 500 individuals from across the country attended the summit, which was meant to prepare “the next generation of leaders for the fight against climate change,” she said.

Sunrise leaders trained attendees in political theory, public speaking and demonstration organizing, she added.

In particular, the summit focused on storytelling and resonance training,

during their nearly three-hour sit-in, the protesters inside her office exited the building peacefully, said Paul Luniewski ’22, who participated in the sit-in.

Despite her lack of support for the Green New Deal, addressing climate change is one of the governor’s top priorities, wrote Josh Block, Raimondo’s press secretary, in an email to The Herald. “Over the past few years, we have become home to the nation’s first offshore wind farm, created thousands of green jobs, led the nation in energy efficiency, invested in clean transportation and increased our renewable energy portfolio by 700 percent,” he wrote. “Still, we recognize there is more work to do, and we appreciate the con-

“thrown by the wayside and ignored because it’s people of color and a low-income community,” Luniewski said.

Though the Sunrise protesters were not able to meet with Whitehouse and Raimondo during the demonstrations, protesters will be back at the State House Sept. 20 during a nationwide climate strike.

“This is not the last time we’ll be at the State House, making sure that Raimondo understands the crisis we are in … and how pressing of an issue this is,” Luniewski said.

Yesterday’s protests marked the end of a weekend-long Sunrise training summit at Rhode Island College, one of four hosted throughout the nation

which helps “build strong connections through shared experiences,” said Maggie Lapp, a Philadelphia high school student who facilitated a training group during the summit. Building connections with other summit attendees will help strengthen the nationwide Sunrise Movement, she added.

In conducting nationwide training summits and pushing for a Green New Deal, the Sunrise Movement hopes to shift the conversation past climate denial, Hollard said. “Pushing for climate change and the fact that it’s real is done now. We know it’s real, we see it every day. Now it’s more of a question of pushing our leaders to take action,” she added.

SPENCER SCHULTZ / HERALD

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

One hundred protesters gathered outside the offices of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Governor Gina Raimondo (D) yesterday, urging them to support the Green New Deal.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | TODAY

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On the corner of Thayer and Euclid, Shake Shack casts the reflection of Spectrum India and the busy street where Brown students compete with traffic every day.

Q U OTE OF T H E DAY

“Waking up to a strange man in my room was quite terrifying and has made me rethink the safety I assumed I always had.”

—Evie Hidysmith ’21 SEE THEFT PAGE 1

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

METRO ROUNDUP

BY SOPHIE CULPEPPER

Wyatt Detention Facility postpones public board meeting The public board of directors meeting at Wyatt Detention Facility, originally scheduled for Monday evening, was postponed hours before the event over concerns about the large number of people expected to attend. The date of the rescheduled meeting has not yet been announced.

“In light of the large number of people anticipated, and the need for sufficient time and appropriate safety measures to accommodate members of the public who would like to participate, the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation is postponing this evening’s public board meeting,” wrote Wyatt spokesperson Chris Hunter in a press release.

The highly anticipated meeting would have been the first organized Wyatt board meeting since a detention facility officer drove his truck through protesters at the facility Aug. 14 and since Gilbert Delestre, 39, died in custody Aug. 25. The Providence Journal reported

that the board canceled its August meeting because the Board could not meet its quorum due to the absence of one of its directors.

Never Again Action Rhode Island, which organized the August activism, had planned another protest to coincide with the Monday board meeting.

T.F. Green to shut down transatlantic connections This Thanksgiving, students looking to fly across the Atlantic will not be able to take off from Theodore Francis Green International Airport. The only airline that currently conducts transatlantic flights out of Providence’s airport is Norwegian Airlines, but it announced this summer that it will cease its only remaining route — from Providence to Dublin — Sept. 14. Norwegian began flying out of T.F. Green in 2017.

The discontinuation of Norwegian services will leave the Providence airport with a single international destination option: Toronto, with seasonal service through Air Canada.

PVD After Dark Campaign launches to improve city nightlife safety, economy A new campaign led by Ward 12 City Councilwoman Kat Kerwin and School Board member Travis Escobar intends to address safety concerns following an increase in violence within the Providence nightclub scene.

The announcement of the new campaign comes after a violent summer in Providence. A shooting and two stabbings took place at three different locations in the city in August, and a man was stabbed to death in late June.

PVD After Dark is also focused on economic challenges to nighttime employment. It hopes to simplify the local business licensing system and stimulate the nighttime economy.

The campaign also aims to lobby the General Assembly to repeal a ban on live music in certain Providence neighborhoods.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

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SCIENCE AND RESEARCH

U. study finds vitamin A may reduce risk of cancer Medical school finds vitamin A-rich diet may reduce risk of skin cancer by 17 percent

BY RAHMA IBRAHIM STAFF WRITER Researchers at the Alpert Medical School’s Department of Dermatology found that diets rich in vitamin A are associated with a 17 percent reduced risk of developing the second most common type of skin cancer, cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

According to the National Institutes of Health, vitamin A plays an active role in the immune system, healthy vision and cell communication; foods high in vitamin A concentration include mango, liver and carrot.

The research team included a number of faculty in the Department of Dermatology, including the paper’s lead author Eunyoung Cho, associate professor of dermatology and epidemiology, Abrar Qureshi, chief of the department of dermatology at the Rhode Island Hospital and chair of the department at the medical school and Wen-Qing Li, assistant professor of dermatology and epidemiology. The team also included Jongwoo Kim, who was a visiting scholar from Korea at the time of the project, and Min Kyung Park, who was a post-doctoral fellow at the time.

The researchers used data collected by two observational studies done at Harvard: The Nurses’ Health Study — which has been collecting data from female nurses since 1976 — and The Health Professional Follow-Up Study — which has been collecting data from male health professionals since 1986.

Both studies were comprised of a comprehensive questionnaire administered every two years and included questions regarding a participant’s diet and whether they had been diagnosed with skin cancer.

The team began by collecting and extracting data on vitamin A intake and the diagnoses of the second most common type of skin cancer, cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. If a participant noted that they had been diagnosed with the target skin cancer, Qureshi would collect and analyze medical records and biopsies to confirm the reporting. This step was critical to ascertain that participants reporting positive diagnoses did in fact have the disease.

By adjusting for risk factors such as skin color, UV exposure and where participants live, “this research underscores that a healthy diet may protect against various ailments, in this case, skin cancer,” Qureshi said. “We’re not saying don’t wear sunscreen, but if you are out in the sun anyway then consider taking vitamin A.” Unlike the design of other epidemiological studies, which are case control studies and as a result tend to be retrospective, this study used a prospective investigation, Cho said. This meant that the researchers collected data on the participants before they developed the skin cancer, leading to a less biased study.

Though other studies testing the relationship between vitamin A intake and skin cancer incidences have shown mixed results, the researchers believe that their experiment was more extensive and used more thorough methodology.

Still, the study did have limitations, Qureshi said. “No study is perfect.”

Since the data used was collect-

ed using only health professionals as participants, it may not be representative of the general population. The study also did not have specific data

on the times of day the participants were exposed to the sun, which can be connected to skin cancer development.

In the future, the team hopes to ex-

pand on this research by incorporating a number of factors, such as whether taking vitamin A supplements may reduce skin cancer incidence.

EMILY GILBERT / HERALD

University dermatology researchers analyzed data from two Harvard studies to determine a possible link between vitamin A and reduced risk of a specific type of skin cancer, cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

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