(gentle music) - [Pamela] Tonight.

The man who once lived secretly in Providence Place Mall reveals how he got away with it and became a movie hero.

- Most of our actions always happen in broad daylight.

That's the best time to do things because that's when crime doesn't happen.

- [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.

- [Pamela] And finally, Governor McKee's proposed cabinet pay raises, with Ted Nesi (dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) Good evening.

Welcome to "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

I'm Pamela Watts.

- And I'm Michelle San Miguel.

We begin tonight with a sneak peek at a documentary about Providence Place Mall and the man who lived there for years.

- At movie theaters across major cities this week, the film premieres about the legendary secret mall apartment.

It is one of the most improbable episodes ever to come out of Rhode Island.

A local artist found a hole in the mall that made history and now Hollywood.

- Not to downplay it, but it was just our life.

- [Pamela] Life lived undercover by artist Michael Townsend and friends, squatters beneath the very feet of shoppers.

The scene of the crime, Providence Place Mall, where a modern day epic escapade unspooled.

Townsend says he cased the place when it was under construction in the late 1990s and... - When the mall was being built, I saw a space that I could not figure out what it would be used for.

We went looking for that anomaly in the architecture, and we snuck ourselves in there and we took out our flashlight.

(dramatic music) There it was.

- [Pamela] What it was, a hideout.

Beginning in 2003, ringleader Townsend and seven accomplices became mall roaming renegades with a den they could retreat to, a hole in the wall, or more accurately, a hole in the mall, reinforcing Rhode Island's reputation as Rogue's Island.

Townsend is a Rhode Island School of Design grad, urban explorer and ingenious interloper.

He creates tape art, temporary graffiti murals.

Outlines, he says, were inspired by those silhouettes police trace of murder victims.

But Townsend's greatest claim to fame may be his secret mall apartment.

How he pulled it off is now the subject of a new documentary with Townsend in the starring role.

- It seemed like a very absurd fantasy and perhaps a great challenge.

- [Pamela] The mall was part of a whole downtown revitalization project in the late 1990s called The Providence Renaissance.

Townsend was living and working in art studio apartments at a nearby mill.

- Shortly after, a developer comes in and says, "I'm gonna knock down your home."

- [Pamela] Townsend says that displacement prompted the mall encampment.

- We have to dive into the intentions behind the crime to really understand it.

I guess the simple answer would be we lost a home, we gained a home.

In the act of gaining the home, we had to do a little bit of trespassing.

Okay, a lot of trespassing.

(Pamela chuckles) - [Pamela] Townsend's defense: it all started innocently enough.

- This was an idea about, sort of, getting to know the mall better.

And, okay, we'll go spend seven days there.

- Was it an art project?

- It was a, let's just call it a reconnaissance mission, or a deep exploration, a deep dive into the mall.

Our first night demanded that we find a place to lay our head.

I remembered that space.

- [Pamela] Townsend reveals they broke in through an unlocked door here at the back of the mall, still a gritty city landscape near the train tracks today.

(door clatters) (suspenseful music) The intruders discovered a serpentine labyrinth of staircases and hallways led to their illegal layer.

The perpetrators fully furnished it and managed to smuggle in three tons of cinder blocks to build a wall with a locked door.

They hung out, off and on, for four years.

As for facilities... - The mall's open super duper late.

Like, that movie theater's open 'til, like, 1-2 a.m. sometimes.

So you've got, there's a very short period of time that you do not have access to bathrooms.

- [Pamela] The space was outfitted with lights, TV, a PlayStation, all using an extension cord to siphon electricity off the mall.

- I had a habit that whenever we were there for any amount of time, and we knew we were using electricity, I would always go to where the mall offices were, and I would put a $20 bill in an envelope that said, "Thank you for the resources."

And I would slide it under the door.

It was a homestead.

We had successfully reached the point where we could relax and just spend time together or time by ourselves.

- Even though you could get caught at any moment?

- Yeah, it's relaxing with a hint of danger.

- [Pamela] It wasn't all mischief during those years.

They were volunteering to teach tape art to cancer patients at Hasbro Children's Hospital, and in New York making tape art honoring the fallen after 9/11.

As for those curious about the notorious... - So the apartment in the mall had this big gaping space that looked down into a storage area.

You would come up this steep metal staircase.

- [Pamela] The documentary had access to 25 hours of Townsend's home video taken on a tiny digital camera.

- There was no sense that it would ever be used for anything or edited in any way.

We just wanted to make sure that we had a record of it.

It's super voyeuristic, and it captures a lot of our very, very casual and intimate conversations we're having with each other.

- And how were you able to elude the authorities for all those years?

- We spent a lot of time in the mall, so we understood the rhythms of where people were walking, where the cameras were.

Most of our actions always happened in broad daylight.

That's the best time to do things because that's when crime doesn't happen.

- [Pamela] But this gang's luck ran out when two junior security guards found the locked door.

Townsend was arrested, spent a night in jail before pleading no contest.

- I will say the Providence Police did find it hilarious.

They were deeply amused by it.

That judge was just shakin' his head.

He's like, "This is not a criminal act."

He's like, "I'm gonna give you a misdemeanor trespassing."

And he said, "Keep your nose clean for six months."

- [Pamela] He managed to do that.

But Townsend is neither rehabilitated nor remorseful.

- It's a sort an art righteousness that kicks in where you say, "Okay, this is the right thing to do.

This is for a good reason.

It is not harmful to these spaces.

It's an act of beautification.

It's an act of stewardship."

- Townsend says today he has other such stewardship projects sprinkled around Providence.

This handmade wooden hammock suspended above the river outside the mall is a concealed sanctuary where he says he slept a couple of nights.

Did you ever think that this story would continue on for decades now?

- No.

People continue to tell each other the story, so therefore it's fallen into the space of folklore.

- [Pamela] And it became the stuff of urban legend.

- Oh, sexy.

- Kinda crazy fun heist movie.

- But despite bids to make a movie or TV show, Townsend refused to release his story until he met documentarian Jeremy Workman at an art event.

Unbelievable story when it happened.

Unbelievable story now.

What do you make of all this?

- It's just this bonkers story.

I thought he was like punking me.

I thought he was doing a prank on me when he told me about this.

- [Pamela] The director says he believes the clandestine clubhouse caper resonates beyond Rhode Island.

- At it's root, it's just super fun.

It lands in that beautiful safe spot between super adventurous and really bratty.

- It's a story that just, kind of, always seems to be relevant for time period to any demographic.

You know, it's a story about gentrification and standing up to corporate interests.

It's a story about art.

- He says it's also a story that triggers childhood memories of living in a tree house or building a fort.

He brought the idea to actor and filmmaker Jesse Eisenberg who became executive producer.

In a full circle moment, management of Providence Place, which is struggling financially, has explored the prospect of putting some apartments in the mall.

Another irony, the man once forever banished from Providence Place was welcomed back 18 years later in March of 2025 for the local premiere.

One more surprising part of the documentary, I found myself making a cameo from long ago in the opening scene.

Artists set up an apartment inside Providence Place Mall going undetected for years.

- One of my favorite clips of all time is with you as a newscaster being, like, "This is an amazing story."

So that was really something that really, I felt, like, captured the moment.

- You think she's got a shot at an Oscar?

- Oh sure, best supporting actress, you know?

- Up next, we take another look at a story we first brought you last year about the work of 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's on a mission to spark a joyful rebellion, one, he says, became increasingly necessary during the pandemic.

- Here's one, here's one- - [Michelle] Roberto Gonzalez wants to help students explore subjects they're passionate about.

- [Roberto] 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?

- [Student] Yeah.

- [Roberto] 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.

- 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 can 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, eh, 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] All right, try it.

Show me.

(object humming) (music notes sounding) - 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 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] Gonzales 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.

(objects rumble and clatter) They've also designed special effects videos.

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

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

- [Roberto] 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 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 applauding) Steve 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've experienced, and you want to 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 want to 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 could 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 de-stigmatize 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 right 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.

- On tonight's episode of "Weekly Insight," Michelle and our contributor, WPRI 12's politics editor Ted Nesi discuss the return of Rhode Island's Senate president to the State House.

They also dive into a proposed ban on assault weapons.

But first, why a top lawmaker is cautioning Governor Dan McKee against giving out pay raises.

- Ted, welcome back.

Governor Dan McKee has proposed offering pay raises to several cabinet members, which has been met with criticism by both Republicans and Democrats.

Even though we're not talking about a lot of money, at the end of the day, they're saying it's really about the optics.

- Yes, I mean, Michelle, it's less than $100,000 in a $14 billion budget.

So we should always be clear about that.

It is in that sense a rounding error.

But what you hear from House Speaker Shekarchi, Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz, people like that, is it just the optics aren't good at a time when the state's facing a roughly $250 million budget cap, looking at cuts, or at least, you know, belt tightening in government.

This isn't the time for this.

- And one of the cabinet members who stands to get a raise is Peter Alviti, the state's transportation director.

As we've seen play out over the last 15 months, he has faced a lot of heat over the handling of the closure of the Westbound Bridge.

And frankly, a lot of people are still wondering how he has a job.

So of course, the fact that he stands to get a 2% bump, bringing him to $192,000, is being met with controversy.

We should point out, other cabinet members, most stand to get a 5% raise.

Now, your colleagues at Channel 12 recently spoke with House Speaker Joe Shekarchi at the State House about these proposed raises.

Let's hear what he had to say.

- I understand the governor's position that it's about retention and recruitment of top level talent, and I can understand that.

But our concerns are this particular year is not a good year.

This particular year we're dealing with a great number of uncertainties regarding the state budget and even more uncertainties regarding the federal budget.

And there's a strong possibility that we'll have a significant cut in federal aid, and we don't know how we're gonna make up that cut.

- And Ted, we've seen this before where governors propose pay raises, and then you have lawmakers saying, "We don't have the money."

- Right.

In this case, once again, the Providence Journal's Katherine Gregg was the one who saw this unannounced hearing had been posted where these raises have to be formally proposed and vetted, give the public a chance to weigh in.

This has happened before.

And when that's happened, McKee and his predecessors have at times tweaked these proposals.

Maybe they spread it out, maybe they changed some of the numbers.

But then of course, Michelle, you can't get away from the political context here, which is that Speaker Shekarchi is contemplating a run for governor himself, even though Governor McKee says he wants to run again in 2026 next year.

And so it's interesting to me to see Shekarchi out front and kinda directly criticizing one of the governor's initiatives, which he hasn't always done.

He's often given the governor some wide latitude.

That's interesting too.

- Speaking of leaders at the State House, I wanted to talk to you about Senate President Dominick Ruggiero.

We've talked here on "Weekly Insight" in the past about his health.

He recently returned to the State House.

So how is he doing?

- Well, just to remind viewers, who probably remember at this point, Ruggiero was diagnosed with cancer over a year ago now, and his health has certainly been in question all throughout that time.

He's frequently been out of sight.

And then earlier this year, he was there for the early parts of session, didn't look himself necessarily, but he was there.

But then after February 4th, he was gone again and it emerged he'd been hospitalized for pneumonia.

He got out of the hospital, but then he was recovering at home.

His aides said he might come back.

He didn't.

Then he finally did March 25th preside over the Senate session again.

That was the first time since February 4th.

He says he's taking it day by day.

And really the question everyone has is, is his health really improving?

And will he be able by the end of the session to exercise his old authority in negotiations with the House?

- And his return to the State House is interesting because we have been hearing these, there have been hearings play out about a proposed assault weapons ban.

In the past, he has been a roadblock preventing the assault weapons ban from passing.

So it'll be interesting to see, ultimately, can he move the needle forward on this?

- Yes, Ruggiero had an A rating in the past from the NRA, which wasn't super unusual at the General Assembly.

There have always been Democrats on both sides of the legislature who were in favor of gun rights had a good rating from the NRA.

But then late last year in interviews, Ruggiero signaled he might be changing his opposition to this, or at least his opposition to allowing a vote on the floor for the bill, which would be a big change.

- We should clarify.

Just because he allows a vote on the floor does not mean that he would endorse this legislation.

- Exactly.

- He can say, "I want this to be voted on."

But he can also prevent it from being voted on.

- Yes, and he can vote no even if he allows a vote.

That's what his predecessor, Teresa Paiva-Weed, did on same-sex marriage over a decade ago.

You already have Governor McKee and Speaker Shekarchi in favor of this.

You have lots of rank and file Democrats who favor it.

But I still find it a little hard to judge where it's going, Michelle, because both sides on this argument are so well organized and so fervent.

We saw competing rallies at the State House for the hearings, the red shirts and the yellow shirts.

And then I think that level of passion from the public sometimes makes rank and file lawmakers nervous about taking a vote.

So it's gonna be very interesting how this plays out through June, the end of session.

- Good to see you, Ted.

Thank you.

- Good to be here.

- Finally, as many of you know, Rhode Island PBS and The Public's Radio are now one organization.

Pamela recently sat down with our president and CEO Pam Johnston to talk about the merger and future community-led projects and reporting.

- You have hit the ground running.

You've only been here less than a year, and already we have a major media merger that is changing the landscape of local news.

Can you give us more details on that and what it means to Rhode Islanders?

- Yeah, it's really exciting, and it's really important time.

Listen, local news has never mattered more than it matters right now.

And to have had the opportunity to have blended both Rhode Island PBS and The Public's Radio, not only in name but in location, is really important.

We are bringing together our talent, our technology, our teamwork to tell big stories in new ways.

- And we're doing that right now with the "Washington Bridge Breaking Point."

Tell us a little bit more about what your vision is.

- Yeah, this is a great example of the way in which this merger is showing up to tell big stories across all of our platforms and land with power.

So we're telling stories on the radio and on television and online, and we're going to be continuing to tell this story over the course of perhaps a year, so that we can go really deep and nuanced and begin to understand what's on your minds about the bridge.

And importantly, what we're doing here that is different and special is we are inviting and asking our audience to become part of this project.

We wanna hear from you.

We wanna hear your questions.

We wanna do this journalism alongside you.

That is actually at the heart of public media.

- And one of the ways you're doing that is with a survey.

And you can see on our screen ways that you can participate and, you know, get your voice heard.

- Absolutely.

But you'll see from us that is different from what you see, probably, from your typical news is the way in which we are going to really reach out and listen to you and work with you and begin telling stories with you at the start.

- And there's a lot more coming down the road.

We have a new name, a new identity.

Anything that you can tell us at this point?

Couple months down the line, but again, same idea.

You matter, our audience matters, our community matters.

There's another survey online where we get to, we're asking you to let us know what you want to see from us and what ideas you have for our future.

Please take the survey and help us define our future.

- We have some creative and meaningful stories ahead and we're looking forward to that, so.

You'll come back again, won't you?

- Absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

- Thank you.

And that's our broadcast this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

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 YouTube, and you can 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.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music fades)