The Renaissance City, as Providence is known, is living up to its name. What was once a home to religious exiles, which then became America’s first industrial city, has reinvented itself again to become a center for arts and education. Providence is now home to a dense collection of theaters, restaurants and colleges.
New England’s third largest city has retained many of its old-world charms, though, including aged architecture and a tightly-packed downtown that makes getting around easy. The city has even maintained a bit of its industrial edge, keeping many manufacturing jobs around for its residents.
Layout of Providence
Providence is located at the northern tip of the Narragansett Bay, near the Atlantic Ocean. The Providence River cuts through the city and empties into the bay. The city is situated on slightly hilly, slightly marshy and slightly forested land.
Providence itself is home to only 178, 000 people, because it’s a tiny 20 square miles. However, that 20 square miles is packed with 25 distinct neighborhoods is part of a larger metropolitan area, including the cities of New Bedford and Warwick, of over 1.6 million people. Additionally, Boston, which is only 50 miles away, adds another 6 million people.
Positives of Moving to Providence
- Arts – Providence has become a cultural center, with a focus on theater, namely through the well-known Trinity Repertory Company and Providence Black Repertory Company, and an ever-changing array of public art.
- Density – Providence’s relatively small area makes walking easy, and it centralizes the city’s restaurants and arts, including its many theaters, for its residents. It also makes transportation easier.
- Manufacturing – Though it’s no longer America’s largest industrialized city, Providence still boasts a large role in the production of jewelry and silverware, providing a number of jobs to locals.
- Education – Providence is home to seven higher education institutions, including Brown University, Rhode Island College, and Johnson & Wales University, some of the nation’s oldest and proudest universities. The city is teeming with young, intelligent people.
Negatives of Moving to Providence
- Nor’easters – Providence is subject to harsh winters, especially when a blizzard-inducing nor’easter comes around. Even when that’s not the case, temperatures regularly drop into the 20’s.
- Economy – 22% of Providence’s residents live in poverty, and the city has a per capita income well below the national average. Jobs are not abundant, and good-paying jobs are even more rare for too many people.
- Crime – Perhaps as a result of poverty, Providence suffers from high crime in many of its neighborhoods, though numbers have generally decreased since 2000.
- Driving – Providence’s city streets were created when horse and buggy was the main mode of transportation. They are a tangled, aimless mesh that can be difficult for driving cars through. Add to that the fact that thousands pour into the small city everyday, and you have a traffic problem.
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