Getting Serious About Providence’s Housing Crisis

by Seth Zeren

It’s no secret that Providence is in the midst of a housing crisis. In 2012, the median home sold for around $200,000. Today that number is nearly $500,000, far more than the median household can afford. From 2018 to 2023, average apartment rents increased 50% [...]

RIPTA Bus Hub in Kennedy Plaza: This Group Wants it to Stay!

by Barry Schiller

The future of RIPTA’s downtown Providence bus hub remains unresolved, even though it has been discussed at least since 2014 when voters approved a $35 million bond to fund “enhancements and renovations” to transit hubs throughout the state. Kennedy Plaza, previously Exchange Place, is the [...]

Hope Scholarship Shows Promise at Rhode Island College

by Alexander Castro

The Hope Scholarship at Rhode Island College (RIC) seems to be living up to its title by producing small gains in the school’s lagging enrollment, the first annual review of the program shows. Less than a year into the program, RIC has seen higher retainment [...]

The Historic Newport Navy Sex Scandal of 1919 Resurfaces in an Immersive Musical Documentary Experience

by Ruthie Wood

Newport, February 1919, Chief Machinist’s Mate Ervin Arnold is transferred to Naval Station Newport. Arnold has severe arthritis, and he almost immediately checks into the hospital for medical attention. There, he overhears snippets of a thriving underground subculture within the Navy: drinking, partying, drugs, cross-dressing, [...]

Community Members Share Concerns About Future of John Hope Settlement House

by Keating Zelenke

Editor’s Note:This story was originally published by the Providence Preservation Society, which is shifting to include local news coverage. Read more here and subscribe to the PPS Newsletter. As the sun was setting on August 27, about two dozen people from a variety of neighborhoods on the West Side [...]

State to Keep Control of Providence Schools for Three More Years

by Alexander Castro

Javier Montañez, superintendent of Providence Public Schools, and Angélica Infante-Green, commissioner of the Rhode Island Department of Education, are seen speaking to reporters after a meeting of the state’s K-12 council. Councilors voted unanimously to affirm Infante-Green’s recommendation that a state takeover of the capital [...]

Providence Unsung Heroes:  Meet Dave Talan of the Elmwood Little League

by S. J. Jackson

On a sunny early summer Saturday morning in1975, one of Dave Talan’s neighbors on Santiago Street in the Reservoir Triangle neighborhood on the southside of Providence asked Dave if he would come with him to the J.T. Owens field over in the Huntington Industrial Park [...]

Primary Candidates Speak

by The Providence Eye

Next Tuesday, September 10th, there will be three contested elections on Providence voters’ ballots: US Senate, State Representative District 12, and State Representative District 9. We asked all the Democratic candidates to answer the following question: What is your most important legislative goal and how [...]

History Under Our Feet: Unearthing Providence’s Past

by Ruth Marris-Macaulay

Did you know there was a prison under the Providence Place Mall, an early customs house below Hemenway’s Restaurant on South Water Street, or a red-light district beneath the Providence train station?  In the winter of 1981-1982, architectural historian Myron Stachiw worked on a site [...]

A Stellar Tribute to Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: Sylvia Ann Soares’ Captivating Performance

by Judith Clinton

In an evening that will be remembered for years to come, Sylvia Ann Soares delivered an awe-inspiring performance of her one-woman show, “Defiance! Art and Life,” at the RISD Museum Auditorium. The portrayal of Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, an artist whose life was marked by immense [...]