To the Editor:
While I applaud Ethan Canfield ’28 for the civic-mindedness of his recent column on the race for Providence’s Ward 2 City Council seat, I find his case for David Caldwell as the affordability candidate thoroughly unconvincing.
Canfield applauds Caldwell’s opposition to rent stabilization, but his claims of the policy’s harmful effects on affordability lack rigorous support. He can muster only two case studies of rent control regimes, one of which is oddly cited twice in two different summary forms. An unscientific opinion piece cited by Canfield also focuses on one of these cases. By contrast, a broad review study of rent stabilization measures found — contra Canfield and Caldwell — that these policies can reduce the displacement of incumbent renters and do not hinder new construction. These findings were confirmed in recent research projecting the effect of rent stabilization on Minneapolis’s housing market.
Canfield is also incorrect in his contention that only Caldwell and Axel Brito ’26 have taken clear positions on rent stabilization. Labor union Local 6516 endorsed Jill Davidson ’89 because of her strong support for rent stabilization. The union represents more than 1,000 graduate, postdoctoral and undergraduate workers who have experienced the astronomical rise of rents in this city firsthand. As executive director of Local 6516, I can speak on behalf of the union to say we trust Jill to deliver relief to residents who, for years now, have dreaded increases in the range of hundreds of dollars per month. She is by far the candidate best positioned to make housing in Providence more affordable.
Sincerely,
Michael Ziegler GS
