Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - August 1, 2025

HOT

Rafael Medina, Super Photographer

Rafael Medina didn’t always know he wanted to be a photographer.

Growing up in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Providence, Medina said he started taking photos in earnest in his 20s.

“I always liked photography; I was always just too insecure to try it,” said Medina, who told GoLocal that visiting his sister out west - and her husband who had a professional camera - sparked his interest.

Now, as “RafeaksPVD” on Instagram, he has honed his street photography portfolio, along with a growing base of followers - and colleagues. Recently, Medina was a host for his first “meet-up” with budding photographers in Providence.

“A lot of street photographers do them in other cities, where people just get together and go out and shoot,” said Medina. “Initially we thought about hosting a talk; but something like this, it’s just better to go out and do it.”

And for Medina, his focus right now is on the community - and he is about to publish his newest book featuring a wide array of local street photographers' work.

“I’m in the process of trying to do more things to bring people together,” said Medina. “And there’s a lot of talent out there that I want to showcase.

Photographer: Cole Harper/ GraphiCole Photography

HOT

South County Habitat for Humanity Celebrates 135th Family Served

Last Wednesday, South County Habitat for Humanity (SCHH) gathered with more than 50 supporters to celebrate the completion of a home renovation project in Kingston and to welcome the future homeowner and her family. SCHH marks a milestone of having served 135 families through its affordable homeownership programs over its 35-year history. 

The home being dedicated was previously owned by a SCHH family for more than twelve years, who recently moved on to accommodate their growing family. Originally completed in 2012, the home was funded through the generous support of the University of Rhode Island (URI) community as well as state programs, including Building Homes Rhode Island (BHRI). 

Recently, the home underwent renovations carried out by volunteers, including significant contributions from members of the URI  Habitat for Humanity Student Chapter.

In just a few weeks, the home will be sold to the future homeowner through a USDA 502 loan. She and her two children will soon have a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home - with a monthly mortgage payment designed to not exceed 30% of her gross monthly income.

During the ceremony the homeowner remarked, “I’m just filled with so much awe and gratitude for this organization and all the work you do… and because of that my kids will be able to remain in their school system, because this is the town we’ve been living in, this has become our community, and so my kids don't have have to change schools, which is amazing… I can finally take that next step and be able to afford to purchase my own home. This is our first time moving into a home together that is truly ours, so I am just eternally grateful.”

HOT

New Eats

A popular food truck now has a brick-and-mortar location in Providence.

Anna’s Vesuviano is now open at 114 Doyle Avenue on the East Side, Wednesday through Sunday nights.

And according to owner Anthony Giordano, the wood-fired pizzeria has quite the back story:

In the 1920’s Brooklyn was a place where wood was not easily available, bakers from Naples like Anthony Perro innovated by using bread ovens and coal as it was abundant and cheap. The end product is a well-done, uniformly cooked, crispier pizza. Perro was infamous for his hand-stretched mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes from home, and keeping it simple. During this time, pizza was not a popular, normalized part of New York's food culture like it is now. It was a great risk opening a pizzeria in a part of New York that didn't have pizzerias. READ MORE

PHOTO: Tim Mossholder, Unsplash
 

HOT

Redwood Library Raises $5M, Reaches Campaign Goal

The Redwood Library & Athenaeum announces this week that it has reached its endowment campaign goal of $5 million, bringing to a close an effort that began in 2019 but was interrupted by the pandemic and restarted in 2023.  

"The campaign’s success culminates many years of preceding planning involving staff, board, Library members, shareholders and supporters that outlined for the Library’s multiple stakeholders the institution’s future as a multi-disciplinary athenaeum and its needs both physical and financial, as well as to make clear the campaign’s ultimate purpose: to further the financial stability of the Nation’s first purpose-built library," said the Redwood in its announcement. 

“We are grateful to all of the contributors, large and small, local to national, who have helped bring this campaign to a happy close. That said, despite this milestone achievement, the work towards long-term sustainability never ends. We will always need to raise annual operating monies and expand our donor base to fulfill an ambitious vision equal to our times,” affirmed Redwood Executive Director Benedict Leca.

Now with a total endowment of approximately $17 million to fund the upkeep of its historic buildings, the enrichment, preservation, and promotion of its remarkable collections, and the mounting of its varied programs of lectures, concerts, and exhibitions, the Redwood will continue to strive for ever smaller endowment draws that characterize sustainable institutions.  

“I am thrilled by the overwhelming response from such a caring community, which proves how much the Redwood is valued both in Newport and across New England,” stated Redwood board president Janet Alexander Pell.

NOT

Rollover, Rollver

Brown University has been known as a bastion of progressivism — considered to be the most left-leaning of the so-called “elite” schools.

But the agreement announced on Wednesday between Brown and the Trump administration scores big wins for the MAGA movement.

Education journalist Jacques Steinberg of The New York Times, once wrote, “Brown is the Ivy League’s iconoclast, with no required courses and a reputation for attracting fiercely independent, unconventional students.” 

Now, they are under the thumb of the Trump Administration.

The agreement signed by Christina Paxson’s administration in some ways takes Brown back to the previous century. It requires Brown to offer single sex housing.  

READ MORE
 

NOT

Mayor Hopkins Can't Get It Done

This was a great week for kids in Cranston to go to the pool and cool off during the excessive heat.

Oh, wait. In six years, Hopkins has been unable to build a pool. The excuses are simply pathetic.

NOT

GoLocal's New Platform Rollout

Not as smooth as we would have hoped.

Back to the coding.

Stay tuned. We will do better.

NOT

Violence in Providence

GoLocal has broken the stories over the past three days about a series of violent incidents across Providence.

The four major events included the shooting of two 16-year-old boys, two police officers injured in separate incidents, a 65-year-old man stabbed, and multiple arrests.

Here is a breakdown of 70 hours of violence, from Wednesday night at nearly midnight to Saturday afternoon - READ HERE