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Regarding the food: If you like Thai food, Pakarang on S. Main St. in Providence is thee best Thai I have ever had!
You're right about Mexican food too. I am visiting my folks down in FL for Xmas and we just got back from Mexican. They DON'T make it like that in Rhody!
That having been said, I think Rhode Island cuisine is supremely good. Even decent BBQ can be found - the only thing lacking for me is the Mexican cuisine.
.....and if you love Italian cuisine don't venture too far from RI (actually all of southern NE) as down here Olive Garden is considered fine Italian cuisine!!!
Tracey, would you mind expanding a bit your point about loving or hating RI culture?
Thanks!
Well, I guess I mean that at least the friends, family, colleagues, etc that I know/knew either thought Rhode Island was a great place to raise a family and had been there for generations...or they griped about it, and often ended up leaving. (representative of the love/hate posts you see the vast majority of the time on this board!)
With the exception of some family and 1 or 2 friends, the vast majority of people that I am still close to elected to leave Rhode Island. It makes sense that I would be closest to like-minded people, I guess.
If you mean the definition of what people love and/or what people hate about Rhode Island, you can read through a few pages of posts on this board and get a sense of what I mean - I think in general that attitude is accurately represented on this board. The people that love it love the beauty, safety, diversity, food, people, family-friendly aspect of it. The people that hate it complain about the weather, people, high cost of living, and "smallness" of it.
FWIW, I love Rhode Island weather, and really miss it. I hate that it's 65 degrees here in Austin today (I'm not being sarcastic. It's wrong to be this warm a few days before Christmas!) And I agree about the diversity of Providence, but I agree with a pp who said that outside of the city, it's not very diverse. What I didn't like is that I felt like in order to give my kids an excellent public education, I had to sacrifice diversity. I love that I have my kids in one of the top ranked public districts in Texas right now, but it is VERY diverse.
What bothers me is when people get defensive and immediately discount anyone that is critical of Rhode Island - as either not being "qualified" in living there long enough to have an accurate opinion, or unfairly slamming the state. I totally get why people love Rhode Island - I do. But I also know many longtime/lifelong Rhode Islanders who really don't like a lot about the state, and I think to dismiss that opinion as being "overly critical" or "unfounded" is wrong. It's their experiences and opinions...just like I think anyone that loves the state and sings its praises is completely valid in his/her opinion.
That was probably more of an answer than you needed!!
I think Ice Wolf did a great job of summarizing the pro's and con's of R.I. living.
Here's some spin on it from another life long Rhode Islander.
If you're thinking of moving to Rhode Island make sure you can say "yes" to the following statements:
(2). I know the winter is long, cold, wet, and gray (to most people), but that doesn't bother me, I'm warm blooded.
As a person who constructs data maps for climate marketing……I can tell saying winters are very gray in Rhode Island is scientifically and factually baseless and just BS (sorry to say). The map below shows winter sun in the USA. Rhode Island gets “MORE” sun in January than about 45% of the USA.
Providence, Rhode Island - receives as much January sunshine as a wide array of areas across the USA …places like Northern Nevada/Northern Utah, East Texas (Dallas, Houston), North Georgia (Atlanta), Oklahoma City…etc. In fact, wide areas of the USA – places like most of the West Coast (northern California, Oregon, Washington), the northern interior states (Minnesota to Maine), and much of the interior upper South (Kentucky, Tennessee, Northern Mississippi, Alabama..ect) receive less sun than the Rhode Island in January!!!!!!!
In fact if you live in North Carolina – unless you live in far southeastern areas (Wilmington, Fayetteville) you receive no more sunshine in North Carolina than you did in Rhode Island.
Sorry, don’t shoot the messenger - but those are the facts…
As a person who constructs data maps for climate marketing……I can tell saying winters are very gray in Rhode Island is scientifically and factually baseless and just BS (sorry to say). The map below shows winter sun in the USA. Rhode Island gets “MORE” sun in January than about 45% of the USA.
Providence, Rhode Island - receives as much January sunshine as a wide array of areas across the USA …places like Northern Nevada/Northern Utah, East Texas (Dallas, Houston), North Georgia (Atlanta), Oklahoma City…etc. In fact, wide areas of the USA – places like most of the West Coast (northern California, Oregon, Washington), the northern interior states (Minnesota to Maine), and much of the interior upper South (Kentucky, Tennessee, Northern Mississippi, Alabama..ect) receive less sun than the Rhode Island in January!!!!!!!
In fact if you live in North Carolina – unless you live in far southeastern areas (Wilmington, Fayetteville) you receive no more sunshine in North Carolina than you did in Rhode Island.
Sorry, don’t shoot the messenger - but those are the facts…
Not to worry "messenger"..my gun is holstered...lol .
BUT, think about this. Here in North Carolina we get to go outside, and stay outside for longer periods of time, all year round thus taking advantage of the sun and ultimately absorbing more vitamin C than we did when we were in RI.
Folks,the state has a $600 MILLION deficit and only will get worse. The time to complain about taxes was decades ago, it to late. Debt needs to be paid and guess who will have to belly up to the bar. The problem is that RI'ers have always agreed to pork ridden spending bills and have never refused the crap that gets lavished on ourselves every time a ballot initiative is presented before us. As for a job market - where? Unles your idea of employment is working the Autocrap counter. Let's face it the only waterfront property most people will ever have in this state is in their bathtubs. You can't pay the property tax on your Autocrap paycheck. And for those who get teary eyed and weak in the knees over Buddy and the other cronies try operating a buiness in this state - the romance soon disappears. I know I'm a real letdown and my post will go over like a lead balloon - but the facts are the facts. If this place is so great why are we loosing population? Why are we loosing educated professional and technical graduates and business people? When was the last time a major manufactuing facility open here in RI? Now for the solution. Divided government, fiscal responsibility, end entitlements, and significantly lower the taxe rates - if not abolish most of them.
...the deficit is in the range of $400 million. Not that that makes it ok. But your statement was innaccurate.
I am on vacation in FL, their deficit is more than twice ours. Not that it absolves Rhody, but I often hear people who complain about our state talking about moving to FL.
Well property taxes here are going up, and the deficit is even bigger.
I should add that FL is an overwhelmingly Republican State (on the State level) and have been cutting taxes for years. That is what got them in the deficit.
Rhody slipped further into debt when our DINO (Democratic In Name Only) Legislature decided to reduce the Capital Gains Tax.
Simply lowering or raising taxes is not the answer. There have to be taxes, but they must be responsibly applied and diligently spent. Unfairly burdening some while cutting taxes for others, and then applying it all into a "General Fund" is not the answer.
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