If you enjoy rich cultural diversity and don't mind the occasional instance of loud music and dirt bikes zooming by in the summer, Elmwood is a fabulous option. It's a predominantly Dominican working class neighborhood with significant Black, Southeast Asian, and White professional presence. It's bookended by Broad and Elmwood, which are busy, lively, and noisy thoroughfares. If you prefer a quieter setting, look west of Cranston Street in the Armory District. Still urban, still diverse, but much more gentrified and expensive. All have great access to a not so great public transit system. Providence is a very safe, walkable city, with the usual property crime (don't leave your car unlocked or valuables on the front seat) that you can expect in a city that continues to grapple with persistent poverty.

I just wanna say that for a Rhode Islander, that doesn’t sound like a doable commute at all. I see the situation by you’re in with the other considerations though.

I’m in the elmhurst area, I’ll be honest it seems like the most ideal situation (unless you have money to make it on the east side, wayland square or Blackstone area). In elmhurst, you have smith street bus lines that go right to downtown but they don’t run very late. I normally take the bus and Uber back home late if I go out but Ubers aren’t as expensive as they are in Boston or other big cities.

Smith street is a really popular for running with the Lasalle, Providence college running groups. Providence is actually a great running / biking city once you have a good understanding of the land.

Providence to Groton commute seems crazy to me.

If New London is too dull I suggest you consider Westerly.

I live in north providence and love it! In my mid twenties and like the quiet and safety of my neighborhood outside of the city. It’s too far to walk anywhere in pvd, but I’ve never had a problem with Ubers when going out on weekends.

It's a much easier commute than Boston.

Fed Hill/West End is what it sounds like you want imo. It's close to everything and very walkable. Elmwood tends to be louder, have more cars, and parts of it feel more run-down. The scene there is chill (lots of DR culture), whereas further north it's more Italian (e.g. Atwells is pretty much little italy). Elmhurst area is more like suburbs on the west side, which maybe you want to look into. Same with Silver lake but I haven't explored much down there. People on here like to make a bug deal about the crime in Prov, which admittedly seems worse around Broad st. But it's overblown, the crime rate here is very low, especially compared to what I hear about Hartford.

If you're looking for cons, realistically the thing that Providence has particularly bad is road rage and especially noise pollution. As for pros the food is phenomenal for how small the city is, and there's a couple really walkable neighborhoods. It takes 20 mins before you're in the woods, plus it's a satellite town to Boston so you have easy access to the full spectrum of nature - full city life without having to live in a giant city or out in a cabin.

I just left providence after living there for the past 20 something years. Commuting to Groton from Providence is doable, just be aware that it will be about an hour each way. The way there won’t be bad, but if your boyfriend will be commuting back into providence at rush hour (4-6pm times), the commute back will be longer. There will be traffic on 95 north starting in Warwick/Cranston. It’s not crazy like DC or Boston, but will add to the commute.

The west end of providence is younger. More your age range. Pretty progressive. Lots of restaurants on atwells, lots of cafes, bars, and recently breweries popping up. I lived in the federal hill area of the west end. Federal hill is the area on west end I would recommend. There is a climbing spot, where I would describe it as the “border” of west end and South side. I think it’s Rice Street. The west end area is also close to routes 95, 195, 10, and 6. East side is more money, however, is more green, has more parks, and I would say (opinion) better for running. Check out blackstone Blvd.

The west end area is gentrifying and prices are rising. There is limited housing. So start looking for places asap.

I noticed someone mention Westerly. Great little beach town with an Amtrak stop downtown. An older and more established crowd. Not sure of any climbing gyms.

When are you planning on relocating? What’s your price range for rent? Do you have pets? Feel free to pm me.

You are a true Rhode Islander. A 45 minute commute is nothing.

Don't live here and commute to Groton wtf

That's a very modest commute by the standards of a lot of areas. I used to work in New York City and live in New York City, a two-minute walk from an express train, and it took me 45-60 minutes to commute eight miles to work depending on wait times and delays. Even here, I used to work in Cumberland and most people came from the Boston suburbs and had commutes of about an hour.

Hello! I live in Elmwood, and I am a runner and a climber.

Public transportation in general in Providence is absolute shit. Strong advice for going out is biking. It’s a little far to walk anywhere good, and also short enough that it feels silly to drive. 10 minute bike ride gets you to the west end spots, 15 minutes gets you downtown.

There is a bouldering gym also within biking distance or short driving distance called Rock Spot. You can also drive 10-15 minutes in the other direction to go to CRG, which has rope climbing.

Roger Williams park is nearby and is great for running — getting there isn’t super nice but once you’re in the park you’re golden.

If I could pick anywhere to live in Providence it would be Elmwood! I love the neighborhood and it’s quiet/family oriented, not pretentious, and close enough to things that it doesn’t feel like a hassle.

If you two want to actually keep your relationship, then don't set them up for an hour and a half commute daily. And that's if there's no traffic. And there's traffic. Always. And folks who think that the left lane is for cruising on a two-lane highway.

As long as you pack a lunch or something

How about a change of clothes in case there's traffic?

Don’t forget ur portable generator jump start in case of an unplanned breakdown 😊

I work in Groton on the Navy base and live in PVD. It's a solid hour commute each way. It's a slog. You have to go really early to get your 8 hours in and beat the traffic. (I work 6:30 - 2:30, my alarm is set for 5am)

I'd strongly suggest looking for a place to live in CT if you can and go to PVD on the weekends. Is his job permanent? I'm only commuting because this is not a long term position.

It will be an hour, BTDT. Still doable to some, depending on frame of reference. In NYC, my commute was 1.5 hours each way and I thought nothing of it. I moved to Providence in 2002 and I was amused by headlines in the local paper lamenting the increase in commute time: 17 minutes. It was remarkable how quickly I adjusted to a short commute, though!

Elmwood is NOT a safe area, you do not want to be anywhere in South Providence and especially riding RIPTA back home at night will be super sketchy. Federal Hill (not to be confused with the West End, they are separate neighborhoods) is the best match of what you are looking for. I do think that the hour commute to Groton each way will get old very fast. Maybe live somewhere in between like Coventry, where you can still get a reasonable Uber ride into Providence for those occasional nights out.

The commute would be doable, but it’ll def be longer than 45min with traffic. Providence public transit is pretty meh, so you’ll still likely need to use Uber if you aren’t walking and busses don’t align.

Rhode Islanders in general are incredibly sensitive to “long” drives. Anything longer that 20min seems too far for many… that’s why a lot of comments say you are crazy to have your boyfriend do that commute.

I commute from PVD to Groton daily. It's really not bad at all; 50 minutes on a bad day, and 45 is standard to exit 87.

Being closer would be nice, but the city has its perks. But it's totally dependent on your rental budget and location. Wouldn't recommend Elmwood. West side, N Prov, East side are all pretty cool and have some great areas, but rent can get pretty up there, especially on the east side (note: not East Providence, the 𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑜𝑓 Providence)

Standard “Rush hour” from RI/Ct border to Elmgrove lasts about 15-20 min max and rarely “red” on google maps. Right now it’s almost exclusively the construction around downtown after Elmgtove. So unless you’re leaving work at 4:15-4:30, it’s not gonna be a daily issue!

>If I could pick anywhere to live in Providence it would be Elmwood!

Wow.

OP, do more research about the Elmwood neighborhood. Some people have provided disturbingly bad advice.

Lmfao. Yeah being a homeowner in Elmwood and a lifetime Providence native, I have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about.

Thank you so much for the advice!! I think we're going to visit soon and check out west end and federal hill! Our budget is about $2,000 a month since we're going to living together maybe so I'm hoping we could find something! We don't have any pets. We've never lived together so we're hoping to sublease for the summer first to make sure it work out haha. There's not much on apartments.com or other sites like that, but I joined the providence young professionals Facebook group (pending acceptance rn) and I am hoping that'll have some more options?

There’s also a Facebook group called Brown University housing, sublets, etc.. I didn’t go to Brown but you can still join the group and people are constantly posting summer sublets around this time of year! If you’re not looking to sign a lease yet in Pvd, this would be a good way to test run

When looking at the West End, it's very important to stay north of Cranston Street and east of Messer Street. The other parts of the West End are very rough.

I'm glad that it seems you've removed Elmwood from your search. It is objectively among the very worst areas in Providence (and all of RI). It is not "chill", you won't find "young professionals" there, and anyone telling you they'd rather live in Elmwood than anywhere else in Providence is either playing a cruel joke on you or is trying to sell their house in Elmwood.

Personally, I'd recommend the part of Federal Hill between Broadway and Carpenter Street / West Fountain Street..

Zero credibility.

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No way is he going to commute to Groton. https://www.theonion.com/i-95-diagnosed-with-highway-cancer-1819574370

I’ve lived in providence (east side, downtown, and fed hill at different times) and commuted to Groton. I commuted everyday for the first 3.5 years. I now work mainly remotely and commute to Groton 1-2 times a week. The commute is long but it’s easy. I listen to a lot of podcasts. The Groton area is very dreary and as a “young professional” I’m very glad I lived here instead. A lot I’d my co-workers constantly complained about living the SE CT area. All that being said, I was very much nearing the end of my rope with the ~2 hr a day of commuting. I was considering leaving my company rather then moving closer to Groton. I’d say the key to this commute to make sure you live pretty close to a 95 exit in providence. So far the commute from Fed Hill has been the easiest out of the 3. The Broadway exit is before the worst of the traffic on the way home.

From what I’ve heard from co-workers that live towards New Haven and Hartford is that the traffic is generally worse in that direction.

I also like climbing! For gyms in the area there is the RockSpot in fed hill that is just bouldering and a RockSpot in Lincoln with top rope and bouldering and well as a central rock gym in Warwick. I’ve been to all 3 and they all are pretty nice with different pros and cons. There isn’t much climbing around Groton, central rock-Warwick or RockSpot-peacedale are the closest and still like 45min away.

TLDR: the commute is not fun but doable. The benefits of living in providence have been generally worth it for me but I wouldn’t plan on doing it forever.

I’ve done this commute for the last 3 years (let me guess, he’s working at EB). It’s definitely doable, but it eventually gets old and gassing up twice a week can get a little depressing. Definitely PM me and I can give you recommendations about the different neighborhoods to avoid the “traffic” (I’m originally from outside NYC so the traffic honestly isn’t horrible but can be annoying at the end of an hour commute)

Download the hotpads app. There is a decent amount of stuff posted there.

I found my current place on Craigslist actually and it's been great. You definitely have to be careful there though. Don't pay any application fees or anything like that before seeing the place in person

You’re better off in New Haven.

You won’t have any form of public transportation after a night out as RIPTA ends before midnight, and you genuinely wouldn’t want to be drunk and on a RIPTA bus with the locals who use it as a hangout spot.

You’re honestly better off living in Westerly. You’re commute will be less, and the actual quality of life will be dramatically better.

Yes he's signing a year long contract for work. No idea whether he'll wanna stay longer than that! I am also hoping for his sake commuting so far isn't a long term thing, but we're pretty young and not ready to live a suburban life yet. This makes us feel better!!

I commuted to Wayland square from westerly RI. Consistently 53 minutes. You might consider westerly as a place to live, cheaper housing, short commute, close enough to NY, BOS, PVD etc.

Maybe not the same, but similar, group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/providencehousing

This is ridiculous fearmongering.

There are parts of Elmwood which have higher populations of poor people, thus have higher incidence of certain types of crime. Like most other neighborhoods in which this is the case, if you are minding your own business and not Involved in buying or selling drugs, etc, nobody is going to bother you.

Also this is not all of Elmwood. My street and the one mile radius around me is full of 300-500k houses and families. It’s gorgeous and well maintained and there are kids and families out walking around all of the time.

You’re just as likely to get mugged walking around the east side late at night as you are on the south side.

The reason to live on the west end is that it’s closer walking distance to places you might want to go out. But it’s also increasingly expensive. You can easily spend Boston or NYC money to live there. And personally, I wonder why I would do that it I can live for 30% less a few minutes down the road.

>You’re just as likely to get mugged walking around the east side late at night as you are on the south side.

disinformation

https://www.areavibes.com/providence-ri/federal+hill/crime/

https://www.areavibes.com/providence-ri/elmwood/crime/

Federal Hill has significantly higher crime rates than Elmwood. As does downtown, and Fox Point.

https://www.areavibes.com/providence-ri/fox+point/crime/

https://www.areavibes.com/providence-ri/downtown/crime/

Lol, I always hear/see this when this sort of topic comes up but I feel like that's one of those things where maybe the Rhode Island mentality actually makes more sense. Spending an hour and a half sitting in a car every day should not be considered normal or okay.

That's almost 10% of your waking day, that's definitely not nothing.

You're trying to present facts to a shut-in who spends their time keeping the hobby of trying to frame Providence as some third-world center of random violence. It's an alt. The old account was Material-Fabulous and now this account suspiciously follows the same MO since that account has disappeared. If you disagree with them, some account called orangefan whatever will sometimes jump in to defend them. That account follows a similar format as this account, probably another alt.

I’m a petty and simple man. This person left a comment about crime statistics and then deleted it or edited it such that it’s no longer there after I left mine. Regardless of their troll status, this is a win that I will celebrate for weeks. Doesn’t matter if I’m the only one in the world who cares.

Hey I'm all for the cause.

Hey!

I'm actually considering a move to Elmwood. Would love to hear more about your day to day experience in that neighborhood. I'm familiar with downtown, and the the neighborhoods east and west but that's about it.