Yeah I grew up in the area, but I haven't lived there for a few years, so shit's obviously changed.
As far as places, there used to be a bunch of spaces for shows and what not, but I'm pretty sure a lot of the cool ones got shut down. There's still as220 (
AS220.ORG ) which generally has good things going on. There's a food not bombs I think, at least there used to be. It used to be in Newport, but I think it moved to Providence, if it's still around. There's Armageddon Record Shop which has some cool shit. I think it's partly owned by one of the guys from Dropdead.
Check out Thayer St. while you're up there. It's up on College Hill near the Brown and RISD campuses. A lot of stores and shit, but if you're into panhandling, I'm pretty sure that's the place to do it. Not sure exactly what the laws are, so you may want to look into that. There used to be some decent dumpsters around there by Au Bon Pain, but I don't even know if that exists there anymore.
On the east side (where Thayer st./college hill is) there's an abandoned train tunnel that runs under college hill with an old train bridge permanently stuck up. I know a few years back on one end they sealed up the entrance and put in a parking lot, and I think they might have sealed up the other entrance. It's worth finding out though, cause it seemed like it was always a battle for the city to keep the thing sealed up. That's fun to explore.
As far as people, they're there, I'm not sure who still lives in the area. But if you're out and about there's a good chance you'll run into someone. I do feel weird dropping names on the internet of people I haven't talked to in years who may or may not be in the area. But there are good people there. Or at least there were.
Try and find Prospect Park, it's located on college hill as well, and it offers some really nice views of the city.
But yeah, find people to show you around cause there's definitely some cool things going on there, I'm just out of the loop at this point. Wish I could help you more.
