The Providence Eye

10/08/2025

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released data tracking rising sea levels and coastal floodings in the Providence area. As global warming continues to drive extreme weather conditions—notably causing an upsurge in rainfalls and flash floods—NOAA estimates that the mean water level in recent years will be virtually tripled by 2050.

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released data tracking rising sea levels and coastal floodings in the Providence area. As global warming continues to drive extreme weather conditions—notably causing [...]

10/08/2025

In the face of recent policy shifts by the Trump administration to walk back federally protected reproductive rights, abortion access, and legal rights for the LGBTQ+ community, a coalition of Providence-area feminist organizations are standing against these threats through creative, community-focused programming.

Read more at https://pvdeye.org/the-art-of-resistance/

10/01/2025

The Providence Sustainability Commission, which serves as an community advisory board on matters of sustainability and climate policy for the City, has welcomed a new member, appointed by City Council.

Dawn Sumner, a lifelong Providence resident and retired police dispatcher, was inspired to get involved in community meetings during the early years of the COVID pandemic, when she became involved in the South Providence Health Equity Zone.

“The world’s a horrible place. COVID? Horrible. But those people that will help you— I have no choice but to help back,” said Sumner, who is not intimidated by joining the city government for the first time. “I have a loud mouth. I can be opinionated. I’m the one that says things that people won’t.”

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Last Monday, Providence’s Sustainability Commission welcomed its newest member: Dawn Sumner. A lifelong city resident, Sumner never considered the role community played in her life. But after receiving help during [...]

09/26/2025

David Morales had all of the things you might expect at a Tuesday night birthday party: pizza, wings, pretzels and friends. Except after singing “Happy Birthday,” the crowd gathered to watch Morales, a Democrat Rhode Island state representative, give a campaign speech at Narragansett Brewery.

During his birthday speech, he railed against the sitting mayor, Brett Smiley, for raising taxes twice in the past three years, expressed outrage at ICE raids in the city, and protested the cost of housing. He called for the 200 supporters there to share this message through every neighborhood: “Providence is for all of us.”

Reporting by Andrea Gutierrez and Eric Halvarson.
Photo by Andrea Gutierrez.

Read more: https://pvdeye.org/david-morales-launches-mayoral-bid/

09/24/2025

With Go ‘Head, Fix You A Plate, home, specifically Jazzmen Lee-Johnson’s home, becomes the heart of a journey. Alongside co-curator Persephone Allen, Lee-Johnson and collaborating artists Becci Davis, Jordan Seaberry, and Dominique Sindayiganza, reveal layered stories of Black home life, building on and contributing to the collective memory of a people. What does home signify culturally and what does it mean in the most personal and particular? The work goes beyond nostalgia, exploring “the universal need for spaces of self-expression, cultural tradition, pleasure, rest, and dreaming, while reckoning with the complexity of how to be at home in the United States amidst inherited and lived experiences of racism, violence, oppression, and incarceration.”

Image: Interior view of Dining Room with work by Jazzmen Lee-Johnson, Jordan Seaberry, and Becci Davis. Photo: Dominique Sindayiganza.

Read more: https://pvdeye.org/go-head-fix-you-a-plate-at-as220/

09/23/2025

Almost 60% of all methane released from landfills comes from rotting food scraps. In , one community member is on a one-man mission to supply neighbors with everything they might need to transform food scraps into compost, from materials to on-call advice. 👨‍🌾👩‍🌾

🔗 Read More: https://pvdeye.org/composting-101-with-stewart-martin-of-providence-gardenworks/

✍️ Story by Tyson Birch
📸 Photo by Stewart Martin

Stewart Martin of Providence Gardenworks is a one-man operation, supplying everything one might need to transform food scraps into compost, and he’s on call for any questions you might have [...]

09/13/2025

With Rhode Island’s system strained to the breaking point, long COVID patients grapple with complex, mysterious, and disabling symptoms — and find meaning supporting each other and working for disability justice.

🔗 Read More: https://pvdeye.org/caught-between-crises-long-covid-patients-struggle-to-find-healthcare-in-rhode-island/

✍️ Story by Rachel Swift

With Rhode Island’s healthcare system strained to the breaking point, long COVID patients grapple with complex, mysterious, and disabling symptoms — and find meaning supporting each other and working for [...]

09/09/2025

Between the relentlessness of the 24 hour cycle, rampant misinformation, and the influence of social media algorithms, staying informed today can be overwhelming.

Join us Wednesday, October 1st at 6pm at Knight Memorial Library for a conversation with acclaimed Providence-based journalist Philip Eil about the current state of news media, how we got to this complex and chaotic moment, and what media consumers can do to maintain a healthy information diet. 📰

This event is intended as a dialogue — and Phil is always seeking community input, as a board member of The Providence Eye — so please bring any questions you have about journalism and today’s information landscape.

🔗 Learn more & RSVP ⬇️

Between the relentlessness of the twenty-four hour news cycle, rampant misinformation, and the influence of social media algorithms, staying informed today can be overwhelming. Join us for a conversation with [...]

08/27/2025

This week, Governor McKee and RIPTA CEO Chris Durand announced a new plan to limit cuts to RIPTA services as a result of the $32.6 million budget deficit; however, the new plan does not avoid reductions altogether.

No routes will be outright cut in the new plan, but passengers are worried about how their lives will be impacted by less frequent buses, fewer days of service and shorter bus routes.

🔗 Hear from passengers about how they feel about the potential cuts at: https://pvdeye.org/every-route-a-story-providence-ripta-riders-express-fear-and-outrage-over-cuts/

✍️📸 Reporting and photography by Eric Halvarson.

08/26/2025

For their first assignment, our Community News Fellows hit the streets of to ask people "How would RIPTA service reductions affect your daily life?" 🚍

🔗 Read their responses: https://pvdeye.org/how-would-ripta-service-reductions-affect-your-daily-life

🗣 Now it's your turn — how would a reduction in Rhode Island Public Transit Authority services affect your life? Share your voice in the comments below.

✍️📸 Reporting and photography by Andrea Gutierrez, Eric Halvarson, and Jessamy LeBeau.

Krysten, 56, Retired “I won’t be able to come out as often as I do. The only reason we went out to Smithfield is because it was on the bus [...]

08/18/2025

Before 2003, RIPTA had been on an ambitious plan to revitalize its key routes; however, when gas prices skyrocketed as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Rhode Island Public Transit Authority's funding became jeopardized, as it relies largely on the gas tax.

In real terms (inflation-adjusted), RIPTA's share of the gas tax is today less than two-thirds of what it was in 2010.

One reader argues that this spring, the Governor presented a budget that clearly underfunded the agency, and the legislative leadership only made half an attempt to remedy the deficiency, leaving the agency primed to make devastating service cuts. 🚍

🔗 Read More: https://pvdeye.org/ripta-funding-and-the-iraq-war
✍️📸 By Tom Sgouros