“You should get a grant.”

by Jon Howard and Nini Stoddard

Providence’s nonprofit organizations provide essential services and sustain our social and cultural life.  Nonprofits provide low-cost health care services, housing and meals for low-income neighbors. They offer us access to books, music, theater and visual arts. They nurture, educate and enrich our young people. They [...]

Providence Water:  Below and Above Ground

by Bob McMahon

While Providence is known as the City of Seven Hills, it’s important to recognize that it is also a City of Seven Rivers.  Protecting those rivers and Narragansett Bay is tough in this era of drastically increasing storms and rainfall.  These numbers tell the story [...]

Bridges

by Nini Stoddard

On December 11, 2023, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) announced it had “closed the west bound side of the Washington Bridge due to the finding of a critical failure of some bridge components… Depending on the severity of what RIDOT finds in its [...]

Hunger in RI – Bad and Getting Worse

by Jonathan Howard

The number of Rhode Islanders facing “food insecurity” has doubled over the last four years, according to the Status Report on Hunger for 2024, released by the RI Community Food Bank (RICFB) on Monday. Nearly four in ten Rhode Islanders faced hunger in the last [...]

Providence Place Mall in Receivership

by Nini Stoddard

December 4, 2024 – is the date of the scheduled hearing for the Providence Place Mall. The Mall was placed into receivership, the state equivalent of bankruptcy, by a Providence County Superior Court judge on 10/21/24, at the request of a group of private lenders, [...]

PVD Votes – Harris Wins in a Landslide!

by Jonathan Howard

If it was up to Providence voters, Kamala Harris would be the incoming President, with massive Democratic majorities in the US House and Senate to back her up. Of course, in the real world, American voters chose Donald Trump and provided him with majorities in [...]

Sott’Acqua: A Tale of Two Cities Underwater

by Nora Barré

Splendor of Florence returns to celebrate the renewal of a 25-year-old Friendship Pact between Providence and Florence, Italy. The centerpiece of this year’s festival is Sott’ Acqua: A Tale of Two Cities Underwater, a photo exhibit of iconic photos of the 1966 flood in Florence [...]

Service Calls to City Hall

by Jonathan Howard

Every day, dozens of Providence residents contact our city government with requests for information and service covering everything from rat control to noise to speeding on our streets. Our biggest problem based on 311 calls? Getting rid of stuff – or the ways that other [...]

Providence Cemeteries

by Nini Stoddard

Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, will be celebrated this year on November 1-2. On this traditional Mexican holiday, it is believed that the souls of the dead return to visit their living family members. In Providence, family and friends might celebrate [...]

RISD Museum

by Nini Stoddard

The city (and state’s) foremost art museum was founded in 1877, in part by the RI Women’s Centennial Commission. It features 9 collections: Costume & Textiles; Asian; Ancient Egyptian; Decorative Arts and Design; 18th-19th Century American; European; Ancient Greek and Roman; Modern and Contemporary; Prints, [...]