Before earning the moniker the “Creative Capital” (or even “PVD” for that matter), Providence struggled to rebrand itself as the Renaissance City through the 1990’s. Prior to this, there was little to no nightlife to speak of Downtown. Some of us reading this are old enough, and Rhody enough, to remember those days. Once 5pm […]
Leo hated taking flag down fares; it was the sheer unpredictability of how the ride could turn out that made him anxious. This was not New York, where a partition separated driver from customer. This was PVD, where because of simple proximity, a fare was privy to your world, and vice versa, for however long […]
In a city bursting at the seams with culinary standouts, it’s difficult not to fixate on the tried and true institutions, the cliches and must-trys of PVD’s restaurant scene. We all know who they are; they’ve been written about extensively, both within these pages and in other local publications. They occupy prime real estate in […]
In 2021 and 2022, RI recorded 435 and 434 overdose fatalities respectively. 2023 saw a partial decrease of 7.3% to 404. This statistic can be misleading, insinuating that the futile “war on drugs” we have been waging since the ‘80’s is slowly being won. But overdoses and illicit drug use are two very different beasts. […]
By the time the final flurry had fallen, a towering twenty-three inches of snow blanketed the city of Providence in a vast sea of white. The winter of 2005 came a close second to the state’s largest blizzard. The only past occurrence even comparable was the blizzard of ‘78, when a record-breaking twenty-eight inches had […]
While PVD is far from a concrete jungle, we do have our fair share of triple-deckers and cramped quarters. Tree-lined sidewalks are in no shortage, despite what neighborhood you’re in, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t feel like a metropolitan maze sometimes. This is when we need to remind ourselves that the creative capital […]
While New England winters can sometimes seem to drag on for an eternity, take my word for it, they do not. They do eventually end, and an eager populace will eventually spring back into spring. But during those dire Decembers and frigid Februarys, it’s important to note that our gorgeous capital city offers a host […]
As we approach the five year anniversary of the Providence Public School District relinquishing control of its oversight to the Rhode Island Department of Education, the state of affairs seems more dismal than ever for this institution. Promising signs of slow progression and silver linings dot the landscape, but the gears of bureaucracy grind slowly. […]
In this season of gift-giving, it is important to note that, while PVD is known as an arts mecca, there is no shortage of shopping sanctuaries nestled among the cliches of capitalist consumerism. Hidden in plain sight are unique retail experiences in this urban oasis of urbane artists and free thinkers. Some bear a local […]
I worked for Flor all through my teenage years. She paid me well too, for the mundane errands, like delivering groceries, but also for the Santeria work that I had come to admire and respect; not for its sound reason or logic, but for its rejection of societal norms. The imagery and the lore behind […]