I will be attending Brown in the fall, but I am also from Rhode Island. I didn't grow up near Providence (although in RI, everything is pretty much near Providence) but I can say definitely avoid South Providence, and don't live on Thayer Street as it's pretty busy/loud most of the time.
Also, when I visited a lot of graduate students said if we needed help looking at apartments they'd be happy to do the actual viewing for us and send pictures/etc. if it wouldn't be possible to actually get to Providence to look.