Nowadays, it’s easy to get news about politics in Washington or typhoons in Asia, but Providence is a city of neighborhoods and disparate communities. We need news about ourselves! We need, I’d even say, we hunger, for information about our schools, our government, our cultures. We love this city, and a big part of loving is continually learning about it, and about ourselves.
Ironically, in this time of overflowing information about any subject in the world, it’s still hard to figure out why things are the way they are right in our own neighborhoods, right around the corner. As a result, we live in our own private worlds and we feel overwhelmed and powerless. Because so much is onscreen, rather than in person, we no longer know what we have in common. Without exaggeration, I’d say that at this moment our way of life–our ability to participate along with others through vote, voice, or action–is at stake.
So, enter The Providence Eye. Our idea is to fill that gap, and in so doing, talk not only about problems in the city (of which there are many) but also about people who are working on solutions.
Each Wednesday, we’ll update our news site, in both English and Spanish, with original reporting, listings, and information about Providence. We are crowdsourcing all of this—asking someone who looks out their window every day and sees the Armory to write about its past, present, and future; a teacher with a lifetime of experience in special ed classrooms to write about services for neurodivergent learners; a doctor to explain the impact of the new Medicaid policies on our health care system. We want to harness the collective wisdom and lived experience of our city to help us understand ourselves. Effectively, The PVD Eye is written by, and for, us.
The Providence Eye is ambitious. We hope it will help us engage in our communities and civic life: ask questions and provide follow up on complicated issues, bring us together through common knowledge; and just plain let us know what’s going on this week…. That’s a tall order for a grassroots weekly, so bear with us as we grow. We hope that together, The Providence Eye will always be open and watching, and will not blink from the truth.
Thanks for joining us, and we look forward to seeing you here.
