Providence, RI

[andrewsmash]

Hey I'm new in North Providence RI and i'm looking for a place or area where i get the house renting on fair and reasonable prices also with that the area would be safe for living. Any suggestions and help would be appreciated.

[ahimsa000]

I'm going to be attending Brown in the Fall, just wondering about housing and if there is a need for a car (I'm from SoCal). I don't know that much about the public transportation system in Providence.

[TeaOverCoffee]

So out of curiosity, if a Muslim woman were to walk around the city with a scarf on her head, how would the people react? Obviously there will be stares anywhere she goes, but would they treat her like an outcast or actually speak to her like any other woman would be treated? 

[dr. t]

Hey, this thread's pretty dusty. Can anyone freshen any of the information? I'm looking for a nicer place to live and I have a decent budget; the wife is gainfully employed. Also, has anyone tried living in Boston and commuting to Providence or vice versa? How'd it work out?

[Page228]

I grew up near Brown and can field some questions about the East Side, although I haven't lived there in a couple years now.

Commuting between Boston and Providence five days a week by car would be a traffic headache. I knew people who did it by train, and that seemed okay. (I don't have personal experience in that though.)

Given that you have a decent budget, the East Side is a great place to live. Wayland Sq. or Wickenden street both have shops, cafes, and restaurants. (I like L'artisan cafe in Wayland Square.) Thayer street in the heart of Brown territory has shopping and restaurants as well, but is also far more packed with teenagers. These are all pretty close together, and living near any would give you easy access to the others.

Overall, the only reason I wouldn't go to school in Providence is that I grew up there and want to see other places. It's a very cool little city with plenty to do and a good amount of culture, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good spot to spend a few years.

Edited February 20, 2015 by ProfLorax

[dr. t]

Thanks for the tips. I'm a Boston native, so it will be a reduction in snow, if you can believe that!

[Page228]

Ah, I couldn't see your location on my phone. Sorry!

Boston definitely has better public transit than Providence, but Providence is far easier to drive. If you will have a car, make sure your new place has off-street parking. Providence, I believe, has added resident parking permits now (for a fee, naturally), but generally, there's no overnight street parking.

[thissiteispoison]

Hey, this thread's pretty dusty. Can anyone freshen any of the information? I'm looking for a nicer place to live and I have a decent budget; the wife is gainfully employed. Also, has anyone tried living in Boston and commuting to Providence or vice versa? How'd it work out?

 

I also grew up in Providence.

 

My dad does the Providence-to-Boston commute every day. It's awful by car. I wouldn't recommend it. If you're OK with taking the commuter train, it's not quite as bad, plus you can get some work done on the train. But it's still a long commute which is highly correlated with job dissatisfaction. 

 

The east side of Providence is really, really nice. I grew up pretty close to the Brown campus, but more toward the track/football stadium. Cute neighborhood, some stuff to do nearby. Probably pretty pricey. But the kind of place where it's great to raise a family. 

Providence changes a lot depending on where you go. Some places are pretty dangerous and some are, well, the east side. There's a lot in between. 

 

As far as OP's mafia concern, the only impact I've noticed is a disproportionately high percentage of Italian politicians and really, really awesome Italian food. 

[Randolph St. Cosmo]

Hi all - I went to Brown undergrad, and am considering heading back for my PhD (I'm accepted there and two other places), so I might have some things to add here, at least for those heading to Brown (or RISD? I don't know if MFA's troll these boards...).

The East Side, where Brown is located, is one of the most expensive locations in the Providence. It's also, compared to most other American cities, pretty damn cheap. Brown offered me the same stipend as two universities located in considerably more expensive locations, so if you're looking at a similar offer to mine, look at the East Side and look forward to a well-located, massive apartment.

 

A lot of grad students live solidly to the north of Brown (near the Brown football stadium, like the above poster once lived; from there up to the intersection of Hope/Blackstone is a good strip.) In good weather, that area's an easy bike ride to campus; more importantly, the (free) bus goes up and down Hope Street regularly. If you think you'd be working late nights at home, as opposed to in the library, AND you bike, then you could swing it without a car. For the record: most grad students have cars, and only use them to get to class occasionally, as the street parking around Brown is tight (possible, especially under a 2-hour time limit, but tight.) Cars are used more for evening excursions, when the buses aren't as good, and for groceries, shopping, errands, the like. 

 

Some grad students live further out, like in North Providence or Federal Hill, but you'd either be dealing with (a) finding parking near the University every day, or ( transferring buses. The Rhode Island bus system, for what you'd be using, is an every 10-15 minutes kind of deal (look up exact schedules!!). That's fine if you're not making a transfer. If you are, as you would from Federal Hill, your commute just got pretty frustrating. Remember that Providence is not a pleasant place to be outside for the firm majority of the school year.

 

Another weird thing worth throwing out there: a solid number of grad students bought property. This may sound a little crazy, but this is how it worked: Providence houses, especially in the East Side, are old-school multi-family buildings, usually with three floors, each floor being its own two-or-three bedroom apartment. (A staircase gives the apartments separate entrances.) There were a chunk of grad students, likely those with more financial means in some way, who bought houses close to campus and rented the other two floors to undergrads. If you're going to be there for 6 years... property's cheap, and you can definitely trick undergrads into paying you whatever you might want for rent, especially as you'll be a 'trusted' fellow student. If you might have the means to make such a purchase, heads up that it might be financially worth your while.

 

Brown's university-owned membership-only bar, the GCB, is amazing.

 

If folks have other questions, I guess I know more than most on the topic, so send them by!

[Jatan Buch]

Hey all,

I am moving to Providence this Fall as a graduate student in Physics, and I am looking for recommendations regarding apartments. It seems that the East side is preferred by students, but I couldn't find any forum where vacancies are listed by other grad students. Any leads in this regard will be appreciated.

 

 

[Eggleston]

5 hours ago, Jatan Buch said:

Hey all,

I am moving to Providence this Fall as a graduate student in Physics, and I am looking for recommendations regarding apartments. It seems that the East side is preferred by students, but I couldn't find any forum where vacancies are listed by other grad students. Any leads in this regard will be appreciated.

 

 

Welcome to Providence! I'm a current grad student and I found my apartment on Craigslist, which turned out well. But there is also this Brown-run website for apartment listings and I know some friends have had pretty good luck with it:

http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Auxiliary_Housing/Listings/

Lots of grad students also regularly post apartment and sublet listings on the Grad Student Listserv, which you can sign up for by looking at this page here: http://students.brown.edu/gsc/resources/mailing-lists/#subscribe 

Specifically, the "GSBB" ("bulletin board") listhost is the one where people post about apartments. I would recommend signing up for it in digest mode because then you just get a big summary of the e-mails at the end of the day, instead of all them throughout the day which can quickly clog your inbox. Good luck!

[Jatan Buch]

On 4/8/2016 at 11:24 PM, Eggleston said:

Welcome to Providence! I'm a current grad student and I found my apartment on Craigslist, which turned out well. But there is also this Brown-run website for apartment listings and I know some friends have had pretty good luck with it:

http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Auxiliary_Housing/Listings/

Lots of grad students also regularly post apartment and sublet listings on the Grad Student Listserv, which you can sign up for by looking at this page here: http://students.brown.edu/gsc/resources/mailing-lists/#subscribe 

Specifically, the "GSBB" ("bulletin board") listhost is the one where people post about apartments. I would recommend signing up for it in digest mode because then you just get a big summary of the e-mails at the end of the day, instead of all them throughout the day which can quickly clog your inbox. Good luck!

Thank you Eggleston! Hope to run into you sometime once I am there.  

[NeuroMetro]

So, I will be attending beginning this Fall. My plan (partially because I have dogs) is to buy a relatively low-cost house, and if someone else does not hate my dogs, to sublet a room. Of course College Hill would be ideal, but most places there are over my ceiling of $175k (which to me is hilarious because where I live, you can't buy a condo for that). However, I am seeing listings just about everywhere else (Providence, Cranston, East Providence, Pawtucket etc.). As shopping from another city is difficult, I was wondering if there were any suggestions regarding which neighborhoods to target, and especially which to avoid?

[Eggleston]

On 4/29/2016 at 11:27 AM, NeuroMetro said:

So, I will be attending beginning this Fall. My plan (partially because I have dogs) is to buy a relatively low-cost house, and if someone else does not hate my dogs, to sublet a room. Of course College Hill would be ideal, but most places there are over my ceiling of $175k (which to me is hilarious because where I live, you can't buy a condo for that). However, I am seeing listings just about everywhere else (Providence, Cranston, East Providence, Pawtucket etc.). As shopping from another city is difficult, I was wondering if there were any suggestions regarding which neighborhoods to target, and especially which to avoid?

I know one person in my department bought a house or condo on the northwest side of Providence (I believe in North Providence or Smith Hill) and is happy with it. The East Side is definitely going to be the most expensive, whereas I believe there are more good deals to be had on the West Side (like in Federal Hill and off Broadway Ave), and in Pawtucket to the north. Check out the neighborhoods individually for safety though - here is a handy map for that: http://www.providenceri.com/police/crime-map 

East Providence is a good option if you have a car, because otherwise it's hard to get to campus from there (the buses don't run that often) and almost everyone lives in the East Side, so if you're in East Providence you'll be a bit isolated from department socializing. But it is very fast to downtown Providence and the campus via the highway.

[NeuroMetro]

@Eggleston Great advice, thank you!