Greater City Providence
5th Birthday Candle

Making Providence a greater city for 5 years

5th Birthday Candle

Photo (cc) AndrewEick

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the first post made on Greater City: Providence.

Greater City: Providence was created as a way to catalogue what was taking place at the Providence Tomorrow Charrettes and ensure that an urban perspective was heard and had a place to be discussed. While Matt, Bret, and I and others had been discussing the charrettes and how we wanted to approach them and just generally having an outlet for discussing urbanism in Providence for a while, October 8, 2006 marked the birth of this site and its first post.

Over the years the site has evolved into what it is today, a place to spread news and print commentary about the urban condition in Providence. We’ve published 1,743 posts, have received over 6,500 comments from readers on those posts, and have had over half a million page views.

We reach a wide audience in the city and beyond and it is always a joy when we’re out and about and someone tells us they read the site. Even more of a joy is when someone reads something on the site and it prompts them to act on an issue. We’re proud that we can prompt citizens into action and influence the decision makers to respond to issues.

We want to thank you all for reading, some since day one, and others who find the site every day. Knowing that people are reading and appreciating the site makes us continue with it. We hope to be at it for another 5 years.


While we have your attention, allow us to remind you all the ways you can connect with Greater City: Providence in addition to this site.

Jef Nickerson

Jef is Greater City Providence's co-founder, editor, and publisher. He grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Boston; Portland, Maine; and New York before settling in Providence. In addition to urbanism, Jef is interested in art, design, and ice cream. Please feel free to contact Jef if you have any question or comments about Greater City Providence.

3 comments

  • Half a million? Based on both the quality of the posts and the amount of feedback you’ve received, I would’ve thought the number much higher.

    Anyway, congratulations. Here’s to an even greater half-decade.

  • The stats are in no way comprehensive, the half million is most likely over the last two years. The first few years were very up and down, and the stats have always been unreliable at best.

  • Jef and others desrve appreciation for starting and maintaining this site. While I mainly follow transportation issues, and this site has done much to promote interest in, information about, and ideas about this topic, I also enjoy reading the variety of topics posted here. Thanks