Where are Providence’s Missing Students?
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In January, the Providence Public School District (PPSD) and the RI Department of Education (RIDE), which oversees the district, proudly shared updates on their “Newer and Fewer” school building renovation plan. The crux of the $500 million plan is to replace or renovate the district’s [...]

13
Mar
Providence’s Urban Forest
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Providence Counts assembles facts and figures from a variety of sources to illustrate different aspects of the city. Exactly like our wealth, Providence’s trees are spread very unevenly across our city. The scarcity of trees by neighborhood is closely correlated to income, race, rates of [...]

28
Feb
Courtesy of WUNC
Providence’s Teacher Shortage
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Providence Counts assembles facts and figures from a variety of sources to illustrate different aspects of the city. This week we look at teacher turnover in the Providence Public School District. The number of teachers resigning has steadily increased over the last five years and [...]

21
Feb
Providence’s streets, with state-controlled roads in red.
Cars rule!
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Providence Counts assembles facts and figures from a variety of sources to illustrate different aspects of the city.  In this week’s Providence Counts, we acknowledge that, like it or not, automobiles continue to define our city. Even though Providence is a compact 21.6 square miles [...]

14
Feb
Unable to enter the Board of Education meeting, teachers filled the hallway outside the fifth floor conference room.Photo: Jonathan Howard
PPSD Teachers Struggle to be Heard by the RI Board of Education
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It was cold and dark as hundreds of Providence Public School teachers from all over the district streamed into downtown Providence a week ago Tuesday. They came to attend and, they hoped, influence, the January 30 meeting of Rhode Island’s Council on Elementary and Secondary [...]

07
Feb
Providence Neighborhoods image: courtesy of City of Providence
High, Low and Average: Providence Neighborhoods
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Providence, as a whole, celebrates diversity – of ethnicity, origin, language, culture. The city consists of 25 defined neighborhoods and thousands of blocks – each one different from the others. The Providence Planning Dept. maintains a wonderful resource for exploring our differences and similarities, its [...]

24
Jan
Photo: Tim Mollholder/Unsplash
Help Providence Counts Count Providence!
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Please help us expand our data image of ourselves by contributing to Providence Counts. Here’s what you can do: Suggest data topics for us to research (links to online sources of data make your suggestion much more likely to be pursued.) Submit a list of [...]

17
Jan
New business creation is booming in Providence. Photo: Unsplash
Business Growth
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New business formation in Providence has boomed since 2014. That year, 299 new for-profit enterprises listed Providence as their principal place of business. Last year, 1,119 hopeful entrepreneurs registered new Providence businesses with the RI Secretary of State – and the numbers were even higher [...]

10
Jan
Photo: Jonathan Howard
What work do we do? Occupations in Providence
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We get up every morning and go to work. Well, almost half of us do. According to the US Census, about 48% of Providence residents are over age 16 and engaged in work for pay. The federal government defines 867 different kinds of work – [...]

03
Jan
image courtesy of Providence Public Schools District
Less Conflict, More Collaboration: Zurier Commission Presents a Vision for Providence Schools
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RI Senator Sam Zurier’s (D – Providence) quest to nurture a kinder, gentler and more productive relationship between the Providence Teacher’s Union (PTU) and district leadership appears quixotic on its face. But given where we are, it seems like a long shot worth taking. Observers [...]

03
Jan