The Providence Eye

11/21/2025

In supporting Providence local news, you help us work towards creating a more expansive and accessible community bulletin board in which the city's residents can share information, learn, and become engaged.

Can you pitch in $5 today to help get us closer to our end of year fundraising goal?

Thank you for considering supporting our work into our third year as a hyperlocal, nonprofit news site. 👁️

11/19/2025

The swim classes are part of an inaugural, five-week program administered by Providence Recreation.

Tuesday night, Batastini Recreation Center is bustling with energy in the early evening hours. The building hosts after school activities with amenities that include basketball courts, a playground, and a swimming pool. The swimming pool is the busiest of the amenities on Tuesday and Thursday nights...

11/15/2025

In the 20th century, the population of the New England Cottontail Rabbit began to decline for a multitude of reasons, including habitat loss and competition with other animals. It is the only rabbit species native to New England, and in 2006 officially became a candidate for a spot under the Endangered Species Act. However, after efforts from across the northeast to improve population rates, it was determined by the U.S. Fish and WIldlife Services that the rabbits did not need a federal endangered listing.

In 2010, Providence’s very own Roger Williams Park Zoo began to dedicate resources to a zoo initiative—the New England Cottontail Rabbit Repopulation Project. The project has a homebase at the zoo and works alongside many partners, including the University of Rhode Island.

Editor’s Note: Providence Counts is a feature of our weekly publication that tells a story through numbers, listing facts and figures from local data sets or organizations. In the 20th century, the population of the New England Cottontail Rabbit began to decline for a multitude of reasons, includi...

11/13/2025

Before moving to RI from LA, Hugo Pierre Martin has worked as an actor and voiceover artists in film, TV, video games, and more. Now, he has turned his creative pursuits to an existential vampire audio series based here in the Ocean State.

The series, The Diaries of Netovivius the Vampire, is part Proustian take on Twilight and part love letter to Providence.

Rhode Island is home to a wealth of talented actors, including French–American actor and bilingual voiceover artist Hugo Pierre Martin, newly transplanted by way of California. Before starting a new creative pursuit in Providence—namely, his audio series The Diaries of Netovivius the Vampire —...

11/12/2025

Three years after a city tax agreement dedicated at least $120,000 annually to a community benefits fund for projects in South Providence and Washington Park, residents are struggling to follow the money.

Three years after a city tax agreement dedicated at least $120,000 annually to a community benefits fund for projects in South Providence and Washington Park, residents are struggling to follow the money. Neighborhoods near the Port of Providence are calling for a more transparent and democratic pro...

11/08/2025

Food columnist Margaret Rizzuto reviews vegan restaurant PiANTA on Federal Hill, where chef and owner Michelle Politano brings real joy and confidence to plant-based cooking.

As someone who’s been a vegetarian for decades, I’ve had my fair share of plant-based meals, some okay, some very good even. But every so often, a restaurant reminds me that vegetables can absolutely steal the show. That’s what happened at PiANTA, a vegan restaurant in Providence’s Federal H...

11/06/2025

Despite RI pre-k programs aimed to provide funding for early childhood education, the most recent data on the Rhode Island Department of Education website showed that only 23% of 4-year-olds in Providence had access to the state-funded RI Pre-K program.

Applications that same year were 57% more than the number of seats available, and that’s an improvement over previous years.

It’s two months into the school year and Dina Quezada’s 4-year–old daughter is finally getting used to waking up an hour earlier. She knows many of the children in her class and is familiar with the routines from last year, when she was a 3-year–old pre-schooler at Beautiful Beginnings Child...

10/31/2025

Think you’ve heard everything about the Creative Capital?

Join The Providence Eye for an evening of live storytelling about our city. Featuring stories by Len Cabral, Xander Marro, Fallon Masterson, Sussy Santana, and Bill Harley.

All ticket sales will go towards our end-of-year fundraising effort. The price of your ticket will be matched by Newsmatch to double the impact of your donation!

12/11/2025
6:00 - 7:30pm at Roger Williams Park Casino

Providence-based storytelling fundraiser event

10/29/2025

Due to the ongoing government shutdown, SNAP benefits will halt starting November 1st until the government reopens. Hundreds of thousands of Rhode Islanders rely on SNAP benefits — including many of our neighbors here in Providence.

Here’s some information you will need to know if you are a recipient or if you want to help support your neighbors who may be affected by the lapse in benefits.

Due to the ongoing government shutdown, SNAP benefits will halt starting November 1st until the government reopens. Hundreds of thousands of Rhode Islanders rely on SNAP benefits — including many of our neighbors here in Providence. Here’s some information you will need to know if you are a reci...

10/24/2025

Providence is halfway through a decade-long capital improvement plan to replace or renovate its aging and long-neglected stock of public school buildings to “new or like-new” conditions. Generations of current and past Providence Public School Department (PPSD) students and families know that a major district-wide school upgrade is long overdue.

But few know the scale, scope or impact of one of the costliest public construction programs in the history of Providence. The roughly $1 billion price tag exceeds the cost of moving Rt. I-95 in 2009.

Providence is halfway through a decade-long capital improvement plan to replace or renovate its aging and long-neglected stock of public school buildings to “new or like-new” conditions. Generations of current and past Providence Public School Department (PPSD) students and families know that a ...

10/22/2025

In operation since mid-August, investigators say the citywide surveillance inside the Real Time Crime Center provides rapid response times and investigation turnarounds. Critics argue that the system, which is dependent on hundreds of terabytes of data collection on city residents, puts local policing on the fast track towards dystopian monitoring.

Inside Providence’s new Real Time Crime Center, blue lights illuminate a dark room filled with desks holding computer monitors and a wall covered in screens. The screens reveal a map of the city covered in green dots. Each dot represents a police officer body camera moving up and down the city str...

10/17/2025

The Stormwater Innovation Center (SIC)’s recent “Rain Harvest Festival,” a vibrant celebration of science, art, environmental stewardship, and water awareness highlighted stormwater challenges and ways people can address them.

Attendees at the Rain Harvest Festival learned to avoid feeding the geese, recycle plastic bags, and grow native gardens which can help not only the local watershed, but also the health of puffins 130 miles off the coast of Cape Cod at Northeast Canyons & Seamounts Marine National Monument.

The Stormwater Innovation Center (SIC)’s recent “Rain Harvest Festival,” a vibrant celebration of science, art, environmental stewardship, and water awareness highlighted stormwater challenges and ways people can address them. Reducing water pollution and improving the resilience of city and s...