Birders Flock to Swan Point Cemetery During Spring Migration

by Leslie Bostrom

  Every May my friend, Miriam Locke, visits from California, and one of the places we go birding is in Swan Point Cemetery on Providence’s East Side.. A few years ago, we were standing in bright warm sunshine with our binoculars focused on a blue-headed [...]

Free College and Job Skills at CCRI in Providence

by Art Norwalk

After more than a decade as a firefighter and EMT, and then as a woodworker for several more years, Raymond Paulhus decided he wanted more out of life and work. So, he went back to school in South Providence at the Liston Campus of CCRI [...]

What Providence’s Proposed Zoning Changes Would Mean for Your Neighborhood

by Olivia Ebertz

The City of Providence’s Planning Department has released a new map showing proposed changes in growth and density in the city under its draft comprehensive plan. According to the city’s Planning Department, the proposed changes are meant to accommodate more people. Over the last Census [...]

RIDE Has a Plan to Tear Down Mt. Pleasant High School?!

by Dexter Vincent

Mount Pleasant High School (MPHS) is a storied neighborhood landmark with an uncertain future. The Depression-era structure, built in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, is a “monumental…building in the Collegiate Gothic mode…relatively scarce in Providence,” according to the Providence Preservation Society. Now the Providence [...]

If Education Needs a Revolutionary Idea, No Need to Look Too Far

by Roseanne Camacho

In the late 1990s Len Newman was 50, an experienced and successful teacher of English in Central Falls, when he saw a notice enlisting teachers for the Brown Summer High School. He thought he could do that. He did not expect that the summer would [...]

Providence’s Write Rhode Island Grows Literary Community from the Ground Up

by Taylor M. Polites

Rhode Island’s literary legacy stretches from 17th-century founder Roger Williams to Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri today, with connections along the way to literary titans like Margaret Fuller, Edgar Allan Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft. Today’s literary community continues to be vibrant and home grown, [...]

Historic Preservation and Affordable Housing: Possible to Have Both? 

by Sarah Gleason

The three historic houses demolished in January on Angell Street on the East Side of Providence got considerable press attention. The vacant space in what had long been a quiet residential area will likely be filled with a multi-story structure, similar to those going up [...]

At Home with the Providence Housing Authority- the Largest Landlord in the City

by Rick Brooks

Deborah Wray arrived in Rhode Island from California in the midst of the blizzard of ’78.  Like many, she found herself snowbound and unable to travel.  But unlike many, Deb was charmed by the glistening snow, and she decided to stay in the Ocean State.  [...]

Providence’s Lack of Plastic Bag Ban Enforcement

by Emily Smith

On January 1, 2024, The Plastic Waste Reduction Act went into effect, making Rhode Island the twelfth state in the U.S. to ban single-use plastic bags. This may not seem like news, as 18 of Rhode Island’s 39 jurisdictions, including Providence, already had existing bag [...]

Where are Providence’s Missing Students?

by Jonathan Howard

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 [...]