Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera on housing progress, what’s next for schools, and why more Latinos are voting Republican

Political Roundtable

Central Falls broke ground on a new high school last month and millions of dollars have been raised for a new community center. But the one square mile-sized city, like the rest of the state, still has a way to go in addressing its need for housing, better jobs and higher performing schools. Can Mayor Rivera make more progress in delivering these needs? Rivera does not yet face any announced opponents for re-election this year and she’s an up and comer in Rhode Island politics. Does she plan to run statewide in 2026? And what does this Democrat say about how more Latinos are voting Republican? This week on Political Roundtable, I’m going in-depth with the mayor of Central Falls, Maria Rivera

Ian Donnis: Welcome to The Public’s Radio.

Mayor Maria Rivera: Thank you for having me

Donnis: How did you get interested in politics?

Mayor Rivera: That’s a question that I’m still asking myself. You know, I never had an ambition of running for office. I took a leadership class in 2014, and after I took that leadership class, There were many people who were reaching out to me asking if I should run, asking me to run for office.

It was a lot to take in, and I really had to think about it because I was a single mom, I was working full time, plus I was also back in school full time. So this was going to be a huge load on my shoulders, but after like six months I decided to run for office, and I ran for office and became a councilwoman.

Those first two years I just took everything in, right, just learned the process, learned the budget process, really understand the politics. I never grew up around anybody who was involved in politics. Two years after I became the city council president, which was very surprising, I was the first female and Latino city council president, and that was a unanimous decision. I didn’t have to ask anybody for the position.

Donnis: And when you ran for mayor and won in 2020, you became the first Latina mayor in Rhode Island. What are the top challenges that you’ve faced?

Mayor Rivera: You know, I had so many people reach out to me just congratulating me and saying, you know, you’re the first Latina mayor. It’s so exciting. And to me, that only meant I have to work so much harder. Right? Because I had to prove myself to people. That’s how I felt. I had to work so much harder, prove that I was able to accomplish the things that I have accomplished in this position and build on relationships. At the same time, there were many people that were probably doubting that I could take on this position, right?

Like, what does it mean to be a Latina in a position like this? But then again, I have a community that’s 70 percent Latino. It’s only important to have someone that’s representative of that community that understands that community to be in that position. And take care of the needs of that community.

Donnis: You prioritized housing when you became mayor, and Central Falls has seen the development of more than 200 new units of housing during your first term as mayor. This is in contrast to the sharp opposition we’ve seen in some other cities and towns. So, what have the keys been to moving forward with housing in Central Falls?

Mayor Rivera: You know, it’s no secret that housing, the homelessness issue and housing is one of the biggest challenges, not only in our state, but it’s also in Central Falls and in our nation. And I knew I had to prioritize housing, especially after the pandemic, Central Falls being the hardest hit community. We were asking residents to do something they couldn’t do, which was to isolate. When you have two and three families living in one apartment, everybody was being impacted with COVID. So I knew I needed to work on that. Central Falls is a very small community. It’s already very dense. There’s not a lot of space to build on, but I know I had to do something. So I identified properties in the city that were not being used. I contacted the owners and said, what are you doing with your property? You need to present me with a plan. If you don’t present me with a plan, can you sell it or can you work with the city or the city’s going to put you in receivership? And this is how we’ve been able to acquire some of these properties.

But the bigger challenge was that the city didn’t have funding to purchase these. So when I came into office, I had a housing summit. I spoke with a lot of people. It was like 200 people. on a housing summit via zoom. From this housing summit a report came out and we were able to work with the general assembly to get site acquisition funding for the city to be able to purchase some of these properties that allowed me to purchase these properties and then submit applications with Rhode Island Housing to continue working on these projects because what was happening before before I came in. You know for the last 10 years we were submitting applications to Rhode Island Housing with these properties, they didn’t belong to the city.

So these applications were being denied because they didn’t belong to the city. The properties didn’t belong to the city. Like, how do you submit an application for a project you want to do when you don’t even own the property? So this is why we had to work on the site acquisition. And we’ve been able to purchase some properties like that in the city.

This has worked. We’re working with One Neighborhood Builders. We’re going to have a groundbreaking ceremony pretty soon where there’s going to be 44 units of affordable housing. We just had a press conference for another unit where we received site acquisition where we’re going to have 30 units for women and children who are facing domestic violence, who are going through immigration issues, who have homelessness issues.

The important issue with that piece of property is that we’re working with them to really empower them. So that in two years, these women are going to be able to go out into the community and self-sustain themselves because we’re taking these two years to help them with workforce development and whatever wraparound services that they need.

Donnis: That site acquisition money, is that a change from when we talked back three years ago? I did a story on how Central Falls did not get any money from a 40 million dollar housing bond approved by voters statewide in 2016. And at the time you said that Rhode Island housing’s methodology was kind of against the interest of Central Falls because it favored projects that were near completion. So is this site acquisition money something that resulted from your conversations out of that?

Mayor Rivera: Absolutely. This is where it comes from the housing summit that we had and having conversations with the governor, with the speaker, with the Senate president and the members and explaining to them, like, this site acquisition is important for communities like Central Falls because I have a 20 million budget. There’s no way I can take out what I have, funding to purchase these properties to then focus on projects.

Donnis: There was a groundbreaking last month for a new high school in Central Falls. Tell us about that. When will it be complete and what does that mean for the city?

Mayor Rivera: Yeah. the high school is, that’s going to be a game changer for the residents, for the students of the city of Central Falls. Having a new high school, it means a lot to our community. We have the oldest high school in the state, right? So, working so hard with everyone to get this past the finish line to finally have a groundbreaking means that the residents, the students of the city of Central Falls are going to have a space where they’re going to be able to go to and feel comfortable, right?

Where they’re not going to have shattering ceilings. Where they’re going to have, you know, a good library. They’re going to have a gym, they’re going to have so many different brand new things that are going to help them have that sense of pride that they deserve. You know, how do you go into a classroom? I don’t know if you’ve gone into the old high school, but it’s falling in pieces and it’s embarrassing and it’s not healthy for our kids.

Donnis: Speaking of schools, you’ve talked about working with former New York City mayor, businessman and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg to improve Central Falls schools. Where does that stand?

Mayor Rivera: You know, when we started having the conversation about a new high school, I know we had to do something more, right? We have the lowest student outcomes in Central Falls for reading and math. And I know we had to change something. Having a new building is not what’s going to change the outcomes, which is why I worked really hard to start the office of education strategy and I hired a chief education strategist to do an overall analysis of what’s happening in the schools. What are these gaps that we have to tap into so that we can help our teachers and so that we can help our students, right? We’ve been able to talk to over 700 teachers, students, teachers, community leaders, to listen to them, to ask them, you know, what is missing in your classroom? What does your classroom look like? And the stories, it’s impactful, right? We’re going to be doing a share out June 8th. I think it’s time that people know, what is happening in the classrooms. Our teachers are working really, really, really hard, but it’s hard for them to be able to do this work if they don’t have the resources. So I was able to raise almost a half a million dollars for us to be able to do this work.

Donnis: Let me stop you there because our time is short. I want to cover a few more questions. We’re talking here with Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera. You’re an up and comer in Rhode Island politics. Is there any chance that you will run statewide in 2026?

Mayor Rivera: That’s the one million dollar question that I get from so many people. You know, my focus right now is what I’m doing in Central Falls. There’s a lot happening in Central Falls with education. You know, with housing, there’s so many different projects we’re working. Quality of life is so important for me.

We’ve worked very, very, very hard to make sure we work on the relationship between the police and the community, which has lowered the crime rate. We have the lowest overall crime rate we’ve had in over 20 years. This is my priority right now. I’m not closing the door and saying, you know, I’m not going to run for another position in the future. But right now my focus is in Central Falls and making sure that I finish what I started.

Donnis: You were one of the top vote getters to be a delegate at the Democratic National Convention this year after Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and State Senator Sandra Cano of Pawtucket. The New York Times came out with a poll this week showing that President Biden trails Donald Trump in a number of key battleground states. As a Biden supporter, what do you think the president needs to do differently to build his support?

Mayor Rivera: I actually think as leaders, as delegates who are supporting the president, we need to be speaking about what the president has done for our communities. You know, the perfect example, this is the first time our communities get funding through, the ARPA funding. It comes directly to us. I’ve been able to build homes for the residents of the city of Central Falls. We’re going to have an event next week for two families in the city of Central Falls to have these homes. This is thanks to the funding that we received from the president. There’s so many things that, you know, he has done for our nation that it’s up to us to educate people and explain to them why he should continue being our next president. And as leaders and as elected officials, we need to come together. to start working on this.

Donnis: Latinos and Latinas had traditionally voted Democratic, but we see that Latinos are voting more for Republicans in recent years. Why do you think that is?

Mayor Rivera: You know, it’s, that’s a huge concern for me, and I’ve been having this conversation with many other elected officials recently, because I see it on social media, how many Latinos are looking to vote Republican. I think it’s our responsibility to talk to them and explain to them why it’s important for them to vote for the president to continue in office.

Donnis: Why do you think they, that more Latinos are voting Republican?

Mayor Rivera: I think we need to educate them. You know, I think it’s about education and explaining to them, this is why you should be voting for the president. Sometimes, as Latinos, we’re not heavily engaged, Latinos are, especially in Central Falls, they’re not heavily engaged in politics. We need to talk to them about why it’s important for them to vote for the president. And sometimes, you know, they listen to someone tell them, nope, you should vote Republican for, for whatever reason. It’s up to me as the leader of that community to educate and talk to the residents of the city and explain to them. And sometimes all it takes is a simple conversation for them to say, yes, I now understand.

Donnis: I’ve saved the toughest question for last. You have some great restaurants in Central Falls. I recently enjoyed a visit to Tuxpan Taqueria. What is your favorite restaurant there?

Mayor Rivera: That’s the other million dollar question that so many people ask me. I will never say what my favorite restaurant is because we have so many amazing authentic restaurants, but I can tell you what’s my favorite dish at every restaurant. And I can tell you that with Tuxpan, it’s the chicken quesadilla.

Donnis: Muy rico.

Mayor Rivera: Muy rico. Yes. Muy, muy rico.

Donnis: Thanks so much for joining us. The mayor of Central Falls, Maria Rivera.

Mayor Rivera: Thank you for having me.

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When it comes to partisan politics, Exeter is one of the most closely-divided communities in Rhode Island. Back in 2020, Donald Trump won the town by less than one percentage point over Joe Biden. Then in 2022, Democrat Megan Cotter ousted state Representative Justin Price, a Republican who was in Washington during the events of January 6th. Price now tells WPRI that he plans to try to regain his old seat. You can read more about that in my TGIF column, posting around 4 this afternoon at the publics radio-dot-org and on what used to be known as Twitter at IanDon.

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