Will Barriers to Voting in Providence Affect This Year’s Turnout?

by Eric Halvarson

Over 50% of Providence voters showed up to polling places for the 2024 election, but half as many showed up for the last round of midterms in 2022. As voters register for this year’s midterms, voter turnout in Providence is shaped by factors like competitive [...]

Let it Linger? A Slow Snowmelt Replenishes Local Watertables but Releases Pollution into Waterways

by Eric Halvarson

In Providence, only a few lingering snowbanks serve as reminders of the major storms this winter. As city residents say goodbye and good riddance to the snow, the snowmelt will continue to make a big impact on the local environment. The slow drip of the [...]

A Place to Begin Again at Beautiful Day

by Margaret Rizzuto

A bowl of pasta moves slowly down the table as someone laughs and another person searches for the right English word.  On Tuesday evenings at Beautiful Day in Providence, the kitchen quiets down, and the long tables begin to fill. Staff, trainees, volunteers, and visitors [...]

As City Council Crafts Rent Stabilization, Mayor Smiley Proposes “Housing Stabilization”

by Eric Halvarson

A rent stabilization ordinance is moving through the City Council, and Mayor Brett Smiley is watching closely. Smiley has promised to veto the policy if it passes the Council, but City Hall hearings on the proposal are drawing hundreds of people to testify. “Residents waited [...]

The Costs of Extreme Weather: Providence Spends Triple Amount Budgeted for Snow Cleanup in 2026

by Eric Halvarson

Last month’s blizzard dropped a record 37 inches of snow in the capital streets, and City leaders spent far beyond this year’s budget to clear the streets. The City of Providence paid $3.8 million dollars to handle the record-breaking Blizzard of 2026 in February, surpassing [...]

Happy Land : The Historical Novel Being Read Across Rhode Island

by Diane Josefowicz

Approaching 40 with a surly teenager, an estranged mother, and an imperious grandmother with an urgent problem, Nikki Lovejoy-Berry, the burdened protagonist of Happy Land, is—in a word—unsettled. What she learns over the course of this graceful novel is that she’s never going to feel [...]

Funds from 6/10 Illegal Dumping Settlement to Go Toward Youth Dental Care

by ecoRI News

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published by ecoRI on March 18, 2026. Republished with permission. Four nonprofits will receive some $8 million in grants to provide dental care for underserved Providence children through the Rhode Island attorney general’s 6/10 Children’s Fund at the Rhode Island Foundation. The money [...]

Oil Spilling Out of Pipe in South Providence Holds Up Public Street Park Funding

by Eric Halvarson

In South Providence, a stormwater pipe is leaking oil into the bay and draining momentum from efforts to clean up the neighborhood’s only public right-of-way to the shore, located on Public Street. “We were doing a cleanup down there and noticed that there was this [...]

Providence Safe Stations Offer 24/7 Access to Addiction Recovery Support

by Daneisha Rodriguez

At the start of 2018, the Providence Fire Department launched Safe Stations, a program designed to provide 24/7, free walk-in access to services for people struggling with substance abuse.  Providence Fire Department’s Chief of Emergency Medical Services, Zachariah Kenyon, proposed the program in late 2017 [...]

Brown ACLU Raises Alarm Over Connecting Cameras to Providence Police Surveillance Hub

by Eric Halvarson

Despite operating over 1,200 cameras on Brown University’s campus, authorities struggled to find video footage of the gunman who attacked the school in December. The Barus & Holley building where the shooting occurred only operated two exterior cameras, and during a prolonged manhunt, authorities knocked [...]