Freelance writer & artist. I primarily create international nonprofit content & publicity. I'm also an adjunct professor of comparative religion, teach meditation & serve as a nondenominational crisis counselor.

"Blurry" by Puddle of Mud

Thankfully, I stopped visiting long before that era of politics. I am glad you had a safe haven out there!

I remember the day my kids were playing out at one of the nature reserves & a well-off woman approached to chide me about my children getting dirty. Her kid was a toddler wearing some uncomfortable designer outfit that cost more than all of our outfits combined. I watched her manhandle the child to keep him out of the sandpit.

Every time I visited, there was some variation of this type of nitpicking interaction with the affluent except at the private school one of my kids attended in Freeport. Before that school was a public school where some of the parents were Goldman Sachs & Fortune 500 types. It was even worse.

I am a pretty chill person, but some of the residents tested the limits of my patience with snobbery in ways I have not experienced elsewhere. lol

Nice! I moved there in 2000 ("small-town girl in the big city" aesthetic) & left for a while after 9/11. I returned for several stints over the years for work. I've only ever resided in Brooklyn or Queens. I've worked and volunteered in those areas of Manhattan, though.

But I will say that I commend you a great deal for living on Long Island, especially during COVID. I hope it was okay out there. Too many areas on Long Island give me either a "Blue Velvet" or a "Black Hole Sun" vibe.

Hope to see you around. :)

Oddly enough, I take Uber in all other cities except Providence. It just occurred to me. lol

When did you relocate from NYC? And what part (if you don't mind my asking).

I grew up in the South in a small town like what you describe. I initially moved to NYC, then ended up in Providence on/off for years. I have not regretted the decision. Because of family, I made the mistake of moving back for a while to North GA. Um, I ended up relocating again in 2021 because the level of crazy there is even worse than I remembered.

People say you need a car in Providence. It depends on what your actual lifestyle is. Having moved here from NYC where public transit is everything and lived down south where a car is paramount, I've only owned a vehicle here a few times. I've lived in Cranston, Providence, and East Providence. It gets more challenging to be without wheels the further away from downtown you reside since Kennedy Plaza is the main bus hub.

The only thing that might be off-putting is the cold. It was -10 degrees last night, for example. Beautiful when it snows, though. People are generally friendly. The ocean is right there. They even have a bus that goes to all the beaches. Yes, it has bad parts like any other place in the country. But I have traveled a great deal.

I am not a fan of Philadelphia or Baltimore because I feel they have way more urban problems than Providence does. Providence honestly feels more hopeful in terms of character and atmosphere, especially in the summer and fall. In autumn it's almost magical. And it doesn't remind me of NYC or the south whatsoever, which is awesome.

If you do decide to relocate to Providence, though, keep in touch. Feel free to message me privately if you have other questions.

Later.

So true! I am always asking them why they don't actually explore more. It's a short drive to just about anywhere.

I moved to Providence after initially living in NYC. Been here as a freelance writer & journalist on/off since 2001. I keep coming back to Rhode Island because it's my kind of quirky. People can be individuals without the drama, solitary without the angst, and creative without the ego. And any time you get down about anything here, you can just go to the ocean and chill with water that actually smells like ocean instead of pollution.

NYC can just make you a hard person. I had to do my time there as a creative to earn my stripes and all that, but I was extremely glad to leave. On Staten Island, they actually have sprinklers on the beach for the kids to play in because the ocean water is too polluted to swim in. The smells alone in parts of the Tri-state area during the summer are horror-worthy. Sometimes NYC seems just covered in a film of....something. So anybody saying Providence is grimy -- I seriously don't get it.