runawayjim

providence plan has good crime stats for the various neighborhoods.

the east side should be safe enough. if you're planning on living alone, it is more expensive though. the city is pretty dog friendly, i see lots of people walking around with dogs all the time. that's quite the commute from CT to providence...

so i'll be going to bowling green ohio in june for a conference. i'll have half a day on sunday to do whatever i want... any suggestions? i won't have a car. there's trips to cedar point and put in bay, but i am not going on those (cost too much extra that i'd have to pay out of my own pocket). i might be able to get a ride to toledo... also, i'll have a couple hours in detroit on a tuesday morning before my flight leaves for providence. anything to see/do within walking distance of the airport or cheap public transit ride?

i had a VW convertible with a ripped top. i sat on a garbage bag most days.

was the scooter fun in the rain?

in the 3/4 mile trip to work, i saw an accident... head on collision. the idiot turned into the left side of the road and hit the car at the light head on (either htat or drove straight across and ended up on the left side and hit the other car head on, but it wasn't that bad). either way, it was a really stupid accident, probably a result of people talking on the cell while driving... i wish they would restrict that in RI!! it's worse here than anywhere i've seen.

it's easier to get out of the way on a scooter than on a bike. the scooter can at least stand a chance with traffic (considering they can usually go a max of at least 40mph and move at the same speed as traffic, which is tough to do on a bike in the city).

i find the MGM expansion interesting... they're already the biggest casino in the world... do they think that adding more will bring that many more people? unless it's better than mohegan, it'll bring people in for a few months and they'll go back to the sun. the only other thing that will help is having something to compete with the arena at mohegan sun, which is something foxwoods does not have (although i'm not a fan of the arena, the top section is like sitting on the edge of a cliff). so i guess you know my opinion. aside from the fact that foxwoods is such an eye sore (probably the biggest eye sore in CT, aside from maybe bridgeport), it's just not as nice a casino as mohegan. i haven't been to foxwoods in years, so i haven't seen any of the chains (although i love hard rock cafes). i have friends who used to live about a mile or 2 from mohegan sun. we used to frequent it, in fact you could see it from their apartment deck. it's a really nice looking building (the hotel that is) and the casino is nicely themed and classier than foxwoods. poker is the only redeeming quality about foxwoods. the chains at mohegan are nice and they're not the chains you see everywhere (although johnny rockets and ben and jerry's are relatively common). the food is good at most of the places and even the bars are decent (i've been known to hang out at the dubliner, the "irish" pub).

i don't know about jen or you, but i'd feel safer on a scooter tahn i would on a bike with the way some people around here drive... RI needs to ban talking on cell phones while driving.

it's against the rules (see #6)

is that roger williams park (the one by north main)?

no rain at the end of the week... that's always a good thing.

the leaves are starting to come... some trees bud earlier than others.

jen's tree site

how about links for the radio station websites, the hotels (that have their own sites), and how about the jewelry district association and jen's tree people?

yes, you can get her discounts. that's probably your best bet. at the very least you can explain to them that the place is across the street so you probably don't need a tow, and they'll send someone over with a real jack to swap your tires around.

another idea is filling the least damaged tire with air and putting your spare on the other one and driving over slowly. that's what i'd do. it's not worth the money. do you have AAA? you'll have to wait for them, but they'll tow you for free (the standard AAA membership gives you 5 miles of free towing).

any chance they have an extra spare that they could throw on it for you so you can drive it over? or they could send someone over with a jack to check it out (since that's all they'd do anyways).

my fiancee used to travel to work in boston taking the commuter rail (see www.mbta.com). that's the best way to do it. i think it's like $6 or $7 each way, but monthly passes and i think 10 trip passes are available with a savings. don't bother with amtrack, it's like $20 each way i think. the commuter rail starts in providence, but also stops at south attleboro (which is where my fiancee took it), which has cheaper parking (if you need parking). it's about an hour from providence to south station on the train (maybe a little longer). it sure beats driving during rush hour, which can take at least an hour and a half.

a lot of landlords do trade a reduced rent for yard work and stuff. i've gotten discounts on my rent for helping with that stuff. the issue is that the only people who really get that kind of discount are the people who stay in one place for a long time and develop a relationship with their landlord. i love my landlady, she's awesome. she doesn't do the best job of keeping up with mowing the lawn and keeping the grass looking nice, but she's done a great job keeping my apartment running well (she lives next door, so she does have a stake in the neighborhood). it really depends on the tenant. i bet there's just as many tenants in the city who really care as their are owner occupants who just don't give a crap.

would the downstairs tenant have a certain liking for a cabbage and vinegar side dish?

if i had an extra $250 a month, i'd buy. however, the extra $250 i have is to enjoy myself (after all, i do have a fiancee in philly... another fun city) and eat.

ummmm... that's a pretty gutsy statement saying that renters don't build neighborhoods. think about what your'e saying there. first of all, most renters live in areas that are predominately rental units (college hill, a lot of fed hill and a lot of the armory as well, nevermind most of elmhurst). granted the college kids don't do anything for neighborhoods (which is a very stereotyped blanket statement that i probably shouldn't have said). but i work for a living. i work in the neighborhood in which i live. i don't know if elmhurst has an active neighborhood association, but i'd join it if there was one (can't find any information online about it). i have no responsibility to providence to buy a house here. maybe i can afford one, but i can tell you that if my mortgage and tax payments were more than my rent, i definitely could not afford it (my rent is $700 if you were wondering). i don't think there's a house for sale anywhere within an easy commute of providence that i can afford. maybe once my loans are all paid off or when i'm part of a 2 income family (basically sometime in late 2008 when i'm married), i'll be able to afford to buy (either that or when i win the lottery). until then, i'm very content "throwing away" my money by renting. i don't have any responsibilities to care for the upkeep of the house i live in other than what i do in my apartment, which involves keeping it clean and sanitary and fixing any small problems are within my limits (if it costs more than maybe $30, it's not worth me fixing). i'll end up leaving my apartment better than it was when i moved in because i really like it. i pick up trash on my street when i see it. i keep my area clean. i shovel the sidewalk in front of my house when it snows (and a ways down the street too because my parking area is 2 lots away). i'm sure i know many more people who own homes that are just as "bad" for their communities as renters. i have no intentions of leaving. if i could afford to buy, it wouldn't be in providence, and i want to live in providence. i like the city. no, that's wrong. i love this city. i'll do what i can to stay int he city or as close to it as possible. right now that means renting. i've been in my apartment for over a year. i'll be here for at least another year (that's when my fiancee moves back from philly and we'll need a bigger place because this is just a small 1br). and then we'll stay in that apartment until we decide we have enough money to buy. until then, i'll be renting, and i'll be perfectly happy "throwing away" my money. that being said... if you can find me a house that i can buy with no down payment and have my monthly payments be only $700 (including diving my property taxes by 12 months), by all means, let me know.