Metro
The Cold Shoulder
A flawed system is endangering RI’s homeless
When Harry lost his home in October, he went to one of Rhode Island’s largest emergency shelters: Crossroads Rhode Island. He …
Archiving Activism
Creating a collective memory of radicalism in Providence
On the afternoon of Saturday, October 26, a group of educators, students, activists, and community members gathered in a basement room …
What Brown Could Pay
Brown’s property tax exemption and the crisis of public school funding
“How is it that a city—a small city—can continue to have public schools that fail repeatedly?” In an interview with the …
Making Ends Meet
Food Insecurity in Rhode Island
Rows of shelves, stretching from the floor to the high ceiling, hold hundreds of pallets of everything from canned beans to …
A Jury of One's Peers
How low jury pay limits court justice in Rhode Island
This was not the first time Senator Elizabeth Crowley had served on a jury, and, for the most part, she felt …
Great Streets, Mobile City
Envisioning an equitable transportation system for the creative capital
Zooming down College Hill last weekend on our bikes, a friend and I criss-crossed our way downtown, barely avoiding cars and …
Dispatches From Pronk
Last Monday, hundreds of Providence residents—artists, activists, students, misfits, puppets—danced the night away to the upbeat cacophony of Providence’s own What …
Clean Energy, Muddy Waters
Offshore windmills pose changes and challenges for fishermen
From a distance, the Block Island Wind Farm looks innocent. The blades spin in lazy circles, and at night, red lights …
Right & Wrong & Right on Red
A look at Frank Caprio’s courtroom reality show: Caught in Providence
Judge Frank Caprio has a knack for extracting narratives for his courtroom reality show, Caught in Providence, where Providence’s traffic violations …
The Bully Buster
Monica Huertas: Democrat for Ward 10
She stood amid overturned toy castles and idle trucks and talked canvassing routes, missed calls from constituents, and the newest batch …
Plants and the City
A new vegan restaurant’s place on College Hill
Approach the new pedestrian bridge on the Providence River on a weekend night and you might quickly be distracted by crowds, …
Rhode Island is Where the Wild Things Are
Coyote culture in New England sparks fear of infestation
Before announcing its plans to close all its US locations, Shiru Café severely limited its free options. This fact has nothing …
Treading Water
Can the ProJo stay afloat in the Ocean State?
Before ad revenue dried up, and before the financial crisis, and Facebook, and the smartphone, and Craigslist, the Providence Journal was …
Catering Contract Concerns
An open letter on catering workers’ contract negotiations
Since September 2018, Brown University catering service employees have been negotiating their contract with the University in an attempt to unionize. …
From Decrim To Recrim
Ten years of recriminalized indoor sex work in Rhode Island
Every Wednesday night, Bella Robinson parks her tangerine Nissan Rogue inside the faded lines of the lot by the McDonalds and …
Providence Bites
Providence Can't JUMP by Ella Comberg I risk hyperbole when I say that the first time I rode a JUMP bike, …
We're Not Gonna Take It
Contesting the state takeover of the Providence Public School District
In late June, the Providence Public School District was rocked by a devastating report that implicated everyone from teachers to governmental …
Caught in Rhode Island
An investigation into how court fees and fines trap low-income Rhode Islanders in poverty
When Roberto Torres appeared in District Court on February 14, 2019, and plead no contest to a reckless driving charge, he …
Mattiello and the Machine
Nicholas Mattiello and the centralization of the Rhode Island House
Nicholas Mattiello has been touted as the most powerful man in Rhode Island. This power stems primarily from his position as …
Waving the Flag
Competition and community at the Providence Gay Flag Football League
From a distance, the scene looks and sounds not unlike a standard fair-weather gym class. Players clad in mismatched jerseys dart …
A Friday For Our Future
An interview with the organizers of the Rhode Island Youth Climate Strike
At 11AM on Friday, March 15, hundreds of thousands of students around the world walked out of their classrooms. From London …
Sealing the Deal
Competing narratives of conservation in the Narragansett Bay
It was not ideal weather for seal watching. The wind coming off of Rome Point was strong and unflagging, pressing against …
Cleaning Up the Workplace
Fuerza Laboral pioneers the first worker cooperative in Rhode Island
Last December, in a spacious, carpeted conference room inside Navigant Credit Union in Central Falls, nineteen graduates of the second annual …
There's Still Something in the Water
The Public Health Crisis of Providence's Lead Pipes
The Providence Water headquarters in Lower South Providence is wedged between Mashapaug Pond—contaminated, still, from toxic waste emitted by the old …
A Tale of Three Cities
Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion in Seattle, New Orleans, and Pawtucket
Jails and prisons have become the United States’ largest housing complex and healthcare system for people with mental health and substance …
Building a Bigger Table
A look at Cohen v. Brown and legal battles over Title IX, in athletics and beyond
content warning: sexual assault Lifetime civil rights attorney Lynette Labinger is sharp and confident, sitting across from me in an ornately-decorated …
A Lawyer on Broad Street
Providence lawyer José Batista takes on police oversight
The mile-long boulevard of Broadway, in Providence, is a den of lawyers. Over 15 private law offices occupy the hodgepodge of …
"To Hell with the Stadium"
Can building trades and the left find common ground?
At a July 19 Providence City Council hearing, local progressive activists and local construction unions clashed. Chants and shouts from the …
#Blocked
Rhode Island politicians keep their constituents in the dark
Rhode Island politicians often struggle to keep their reputations clean, so maybe it isn’t surprising that when officials take to Twitter, …
Civic Disobedience
A class-action lawsuit in Rhode Island advocates for civics education
In 2015, only 23 percent of eighth graders in the United States demonstrated proficiency in civics, according to a national assessment …
Plugging the Drain
Getting Millennials to "#ChooseRI"
Rhode Island is worried about its size, and for good reason. Absent a mass migration to the Ocean State before the …
All In
Rhode Island legalizes sports betting
Ronny first came to what is now Twin Rivers Casino in Lincoln, RI—then a race track called Lincoln Downs—when he was …
Quilting the Statehouse
The Womxn Project organizes for the Reproductive Health Care Act
On the marble steps inside a packed Rhode Island State House on Tuesday, hundreds of protesters competed for legislative attention as …
Selling Out
Mayor Elorza's plan to privatize the Providence water supply board
The story of the Scituate Reservoir holds its own in the annals of Rhode Island history. A gruesome tale of eminent …
Best Rhode Island Tweets of 2018
An Indy Listicle
We never thought the day would come either. At the Indy, we pride ourselves on maintaining the kind of long-form, Leftist, …
Talking Heads
Sinclair and rising conservative influence in RI media
Last March, Frank Coletta and Alison Bologna, anchors at WJAR, the NBC affiliate station in Rhode Island, gave a speech on …
Week in Sad Food
1-800-BUTTERBALL “Alexa, how do I cook a perfect turkey?” This year, for the first time ever, you may have heard this …
Safety First — But Wait, There’s More
Juggling multiple interests in the improvements to Kennedy Plaza
Although plans to improve the downtown area have been a topic of conversation in Providence over the past decade, the City …
Artificial Sweeteners
Providence navigates urban development
Last week the Ordinance Committee of the Providence City Council voted favorably on a bill that would increase the building height …
No Vacancy
Worrisome real estate trends and the fate of Providence's abandoned properties
The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market in 2007 sent Rhode Island’s home prices plummeting and forced thousands of families from …