Recent comments in /f/providence

brick1972 t1_j5m9hdg wrote

Reply to Commute to Boston commuter rail by Annual_Account9238

I did Pawtucket -> Kendall for about 2 years, on a once or twice a week cadence. I took the train from Attleboro which limited me to the commuter rail.

On mobile but maybe later I will repost advice I gave the last time a similar question was asked. Here are some general thoughts on the negative side.

The problem with the train commute is you have to be there when the train leaves. If you miss the train it adds a lot of time. This used to be easier to deal with in PVD with Amtrak but they have reduced service. Anyway, because of this large change in time (30-60 minutes depending on when you are going) with a missed train, you have to make damn sure you are at the station when it leaves. This means if you have a 10 minute drive to the station +/- 5 minutes, you have a 15 minute drive to the station. You will quickly learn not to take chances.

I regularly had 8 AM meetings. This fucking sucked. I'm just going to be straight up with you. My timing was such that taking the 6:34 train from Attleboro would get me to the office at 8 AM if everything went right. I couldn't rely on that so guess what - 5:34 train it is. My boss gave me a 15 minute late pass on days I commuted which was enough cushion but some meetings I had to be there on time.

Same thing coming home. You have to be absolutely militant about leaving the office on time. No last second conversations to talk about that one email. The red line has some variance, though you are going against the commute (I think you are going to Andrew based on your post) so it should be a bit more consistent. Still, it is often a bit late. So same deal. 6 minute headways again now so I would give 15 minutes from arrival at Andrew to arrival at the CR platform as a worst case and again, you have to plan around the worst case.

the upsides are that it is hella better than driving, the train can be relaxing sometimes (though the rush hour trains are stuffed between Canton or Sharon and S.S.). It is more reliable than people credit. I like the way they pour a Guinness in the pub in South Station which made missing the train more tolerable. To be honest, the worst thing was timing the transfers and how packed and miserable the red line was. If I could have walked from South Station to the office it would have been much better. And, it might be better now, I was commuting during the MBTA self-destruct sequence of 2021 and early 2022.

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Julia_Seizure t1_j5m90af wrote

Reply to American Wire Residential Lofts, Regency Plaza, US Rubber Lofts ect. Are any of these places better than the others or worth it? by UnlikelyAd7598

I lived in US Rubber Lofts when it first opened, 2016-2018. The first year was good since only half the building was open and there was a lot more parking. Our neighbor was a single guy in his 30s who sailed every weekend. The second year was much worse since we had an awful neighbor who loved to play old town road on repeat all day and night, and the walls are really thin. The constitution looked nice, but was really cheap.

The apartment was beautiful and I liked that we had a washer dryer in-unit. I found the other tenets to be more college aged (we were late 20s) so they were rowdier and left the common spaces a mess on a Friday or Saturday. The gym didn’t justify the higher rents and we never used the other amenities. I disliked the parking situation, I often had to park really far from my apartment, which made groceries a pain. There was also a string of tire thefts at that time.

2018-2021 we lived in a triple decker on the east side. It was almost half the price and much nicer. We found that through a friend.

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Dr-Stink-Stank t1_j5m7ku6 wrote

Reply to American Wire Residential Lofts, Regency Plaza, US Rubber Lofts ect. Are any of these places better than the others or worth it? by UnlikelyAd7598

I live at Grant Mill and love it here. Relatively quiet area. Can’t really hear much through the walls, ceiling or floors. The management and maintenance are great. $3k is more than enough for a 2 & 2. They had a nice 3rd floor corner unit with lots of windows and a view of downtown come available last month, not sure if it’s spoken for yet.

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nygrl811 t1_j5m7j3w wrote

Reply to Help me plan a fun night out by kylie_m_m

Jewelery District:

  1. Tiny Bar for cocktails.

  2. Xaco Taco/District/Somo are all excellent food options on the same block. Or go 4 blocks over to Bayberry Garden.

  3. Nick-A-Nees the next block over satisfies the live music and dive bar requirements (not sure about the darts though).

All are within a block of each other except for Bayberry. Parking is tricky but doable, or there are several bus lines in the area.

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ReadySetDodgeball t1_j5m6yqu wrote

Reply to American Wire Residential Lofts, Regency Plaza, US Rubber Lofts ect. Are any of these places better than the others or worth it? by UnlikelyAd7598

I lived in American Wire from 2014-2016. All in all it was a good place to live, we loved the exposed brick and wood floors. We never really used the lounge areas or gym but would occasionally see people having small get togethers in there. My biggest complaint was that the walls are pretty thin! We heard a little bit of everything from time to time but that all depends on who your neighbors are.

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Zealousideal-Bus5806 t1_j5m3abc wrote

Reply to Commute to Boston commuter rail by Annual_Account9238

Hi, I've lived in Providence and worked in Boston for about 8 years.

Will you be driving to the commuter rail from your house or getting dropped off? If driving/parking, I'd recommend parking in the new Pawtucket/Central Falls station or in Attleboro where the parking is much cheaper than Providence.

3x a week is not too bad. When the train is working, it works fine. It's comfy and roomy, and it's easy to do work on the train if you have hotspot. Not uncommonly, there are delays of about 10-15 minutes. It's less common to encounter a significant delay of 30 minutes plus. I'd recommend taking the "express" trains that skip a couple of the stops between. One example is the 7:40am train out of Providence.

If you are getting dropped off and depending on how flexible your schedule is, you can buy Amtrak tickets in advance that are only $9 for certain times (I think there's like a ~3:20pm out of South Station) and it takes about 36 minutes to get to Providence. There are fewer cheap Amtrak options in the a.m., but you can take Commuter Rail one way, and the Amtrak the other. The Amtrak is really nice if you can swing getting picked up in Providence (it doesn't make intermediate stops between Boston except for Route 128).

Good luck!

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diskimone t1_j5lyxtd wrote

Reply to To patron or not to patron by [deleted]

I know some people who have worked for them, and it ended poorly, and I know some people who have worked for them and they love it. It's the same as any place. I definitely don't think they have a worse reputation than a lot of bar owners in Providence.

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Jtownusa t1_j5lx6au wrote

Reply to Best Banh mi sandwiches in Providence? by asteroid_b_612

PHO ZAP ZAP! They have two banh mi options: cold and "bbq" The bbq is not really bbq, they just mean they serve it hot. (Not spicy hot but physically hot.) It's one of the best banh mi sandwiches I've ever had and I've eaten a lot of Vietnamese food.

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zebrawithflowers t1_j5luywb wrote

Reply to Providence Police and Black/Other Ethnic People by blvckhcpe

Not black or ethnic, so I'll let others speak instead, but what you experience may depend on where you might go to school.

For example, there were racist incidents at Providence College against one of the members of campus security: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/04/26/metro/providence-college-coalition-rallies-support-black-public-safety-officer/

There have also been stories about profiling of students and other workers of color at the school.

That said, most of my interactions with Providence Police have been with people of color.

Good luck finding a place that is a good fit for you, and best of luck in college!

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