For the entirety of 2015, I drove a taxi from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. throughout Providence on behalf of Economy Cab Company. It was a gap job while I formulated my next move, sandwiched between 15 years in hospital security, then 10 years (and counting) on the campus of Brown. Admittedly, taxicabs have enthralled […]
Two years ago in these pages I wrote “PPSD in Peril” to mark the five-year anniversary of the state assuming control of the Providence Public School District and my general take on it. Rereading it now, I came off a tad cynical about the bureaucracy, the theater, and the posturing behind it all. Now, the […]
Wards 2, 9 and 12 all report the same. Mendez wins in each! It appeared that Providence was perfectly poised to usher-in its first female mayor in history. The polls were closed and final results for each of the fifteen wards were starting to trickle in. There was a sense that something monumental was occurring, […]
Rich Laliberte (Motif): Can you tell our readers about your journey, from youth and how it brought you to this moment in local politics? Yulyana Torres: I was born here in Providence to two Dominican immigrant parents who are also educators in the Providence Public School system. I was very fortunate to grow up around […]
Theodore “Teddy” Jennings lived to the remarkable age of ninety-eight. For the entire second half of that, he resided in the same Victorian-style home nestled in the West Elmwood neighborhood of Providence. He married three times, outliving each magnificent woman and madly in love every time. He was even-keeled, kind and energetic to the end, […]
Semi-camouflaged along the banks of the Providence River, yet nestled neatly at a main hub of Wickenden Street is a newcomer to the PVD literary scene. The Creative Capital has had a longstanding love affair with indie bookstores. Many of us still remember when Cellar Stories downtown was the go-to for used selections galore. College […]
Hate laced lead projectiles pierce through a peaceful Providence. A rush to usher innocents towards shuttered confinements that smell of fear. Ivy League opulence left tarnished by trauma. A city in mourning. A community canvassed. A campus locked down. An inexhaustible entourage of law enforcement enveloping the East Side. A grisly demise for a miniscule […]
Recent news has been grim about the future of medical care in our capital city. Dire finances have essentially endangered two of our local institutions: Roger Williams Medical Center and Fatima Hospital, threatening the closure of both. It is important to note that this would effectively halve the number of hospitals in Providence for general […]
Providence 2045: Over the last twenty years only one company has emerged as the leader in self-driving taxis; Cab-E. Traditional taxicabs have long-since gone extinct. Tesla has recently crumbled under the weight of its founder’s sheer lunacy. Amazon has focused all of its attention on colonizing Mars. Even Uber and Lyft have faded from the […]
“The indigenous Taino were ill-prepared for the arrival of Spanish settlers. There were not war-like people; they were welcoming and trusting. Many were eradicated and most survivors simply cowered before the advanced weaponry of the Conquistadors. A few brave warriors dared to defy the occupation, however. Guarionex was a cacique, a trusted leader in his […]