Literally moved to Rhode Island last year after living in the Baltimore area my entire life (30+ years). I work in the city and live south in Warwick. Traffic is much easier than dealing with the Beltway everyday. My same distance commute that I had in Baltimore is cut in half living here and that includes a 10 minute walk from where I park in Providence. But if you are north, west or east traffic in the mornings/evenings can be a bit heavy if heading towards Providence. The only bad thing is the roads are absolute pot hole filled everywhere up here.

As for crime, it’s a city so there is crime but mainly property crime. Violent crime I’d compare it more to like Dundalk, Middle River or Essex if that helps with a comparison to Baltimore. There are people from here who might make it seem like it’s hell with crime, but living in Baltimore and traveling to other cities I’ve seen what crime really can be.

Food scene is pretty dang good up here. I spent my first 2 months living downtown and there were plenty of options and still didn’t even try half the things I wanted to try from peoples recommendations. For a small city the food scene is more like a bigger city.

Climate i can’t say much but this winter has been abnormal and closer to a winter in Baltimore, minus an insane cold snap 2 weekends ago.

Overall it’s nothing like I expected and really love the state and the city of Providence. When it gets warmer I can’t wait to try quite a few new things outdoors and get out to a bunch of places to eat that I haven’t tried yet.