They are giving options, considering how quickly it is to get to certain places. The poster can always just ignore and keep it moving...you also have that option.

Because Providence is an incredibly small city. The person posting might not know that Cranston and Warwick and even parts of Massachusetts are only a 10 minutes drive away. In a major city, a 10 minute drive would still keep you within the city limits.

God forbid people give additional options on the bordering locations of a 190k city.

Someone recommending a place that's maybe 10 minutes outside of the city IS helpful. information

If someone really only wants an answer that falls within the incredibly small city limits, they're more than welcome to just clarify that in the first place.

that all presupposes that the person asking for advice has a car though. if they live in a city that’s not necessarily the case, so giving someone options outside the city would be unhelpful.

plenty of posts say “in providence” plainly in their post heading and people ignore it.

You could always get off Reddit and stop worrying about trivial things, such as recommendations to cities that outskirt providence

It’s Reddit. Half the comments aren’t going to be helpful anyway.

And like someone else said, if an earnest piece of advice doesn’t work for the person asking, they can just ignore it. But maybe the one comment will be helpful to several other people reading the post.

“wow, I need a ring cleaned too, and I live in Warwick! This is great advice”

RIPTA goes all over the state. Taking a bus from Elmhurst to Silver Lake for example takes longer than going to Cranston or Johnston

so because the expectation is that half of the comments aren’t going to helpful we shouldn’t strive to do better? 🆒

You know that's not a magic forcefield at the city limits, right? Almost nobody is stuck here.

Calling more suggestions unhelpful is idiotic. People are setting a radius. More suggestions keeps posts relevant and increases the likelihood of other suggestions.

If you're looking for a specific good or service, more options is better than less especially when the best options might not be the closest one.

to say that almost nobody is stuck here is erasure of a great number of this city’s residents without reliable transportation.

So people who use bikes, rideshares and public transportation can't get outside the city? Damn, score one for car owners, I guess. That's great news for the 80% of the households in Providence that own a car.

I don't think it's some undue burden for the person asking strangers to help them to specify some limitations if they want.

Shitting on people who are earnestly offering help to strangers is stupid. This post is stupid.

But then we'd be deprived of delicious irony like the same poster recommending a place in Cranston in this sub literally yesterday.

ah yea, all those safe bike lanes out to Cranston.

and the post in which i made that suggestion did not specifically mention providence in any way. your reading comprehension is, shockingly poor.

Let's say you want a good or service that just isn't available in Providence, but there's a couple of options within 10-15 miles in Cranston, Warwick, Johnston, Attleboro, and Seekonk.

Would you prefer

• Nobody answers or a bunch of "I don't knows"
• Being told you can't get that good or service
• Being told the options that do exist, even though they're a little further away

Nah dag, the Bus lines stop immediately at the Providence border. I, for one, have absolutely never taken a bus off of Reservoir in Cranston and made it into Providence /s

well then you would specify that in your post wouldn’t you? and it seems as though this is not ever the case, it’s just commenters leaving their preference rather than answering the question.

BuT iTs In ThE pRoViDeNcE sUb!!!!!

This thread is pure r\providence gold

I consider "Providence" to really mean "Providence Metro Area" in most situations.

God forbid I have to go to Pawtucket

I asked a pretty direct question. Which option would you prefer?

Any "recommendations" post is asking people their preference. For fuck's sake, that's what a recommendation is

Cause providence is tiny and has minimal options

i’ve been pretty direct this entire time that i’m speaking plainly about posts asking specifically for providence recommendations. either you’re being intentionally obtuse or you truly don’t understand my meaning. so of your options, i would prefer the second then. if i were asking for something specifically in the city and the good or service was unavailable here i would want to be told that, because it would be the correct information.

I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy

The entire premise of this thread is intentionally obtuse so it's pretty fucking laughable. Look at the response from every person that isn't you. Not the majority of people. Every. Single. Person.

Multiple people have made the same points and you've been given a handful of reasons why those recommendations are not "unhelpful" at all.

Reddit Karma is a little silly but when every followup effort you've made is getting multiple downvotes and people pushing back get the opposite, it's not you doing a poor job explaining yourself. You just made a bad point and nobody agrees with you.

then why are you continuing to belabor your point, especially when i do an adequate job of responding to your questions? if i am being clear then why are you asking me follow up questions when you feel as though i haven’t addressed your points? i couldn’t care any less about the downvotes, internet points are not my intention of being on this board.

Idk, I think the Providence Metro Area is kinda implied with those types of questions. Even if not, a relevant suggestion outside of the OP's boundaries can still be helpful for others.

Like the 🚨Thai Food Emergency🚨 post for yesterday...OP did say "in Providence", but the not-technically-Providence suggestions are better for me.

I don't think you've really addressed anyone's points. You've just sidestepped them or ignored them. It's weird because you're caping for....nobody?

Anyone who asks where to buy widgets in Providence and gets told "Oh, try Widgets, Widgets, Widgets on Bald Hill Road" can say "Thanks, but I don't have a car so that might be a little tricky for me. Is there anywhere much closer?" then someone old can chime in how there used to be a Widgets R Us downtown but it closed down when the landlord sold the building and now it's luxury condos or some shit.

The net result is helpful. People know where things are and where they aren't. The answer either is or isn't useful to the original poster and the people who read it.

Nobody is harmed except for the owner of Widgets R Us but they closed down in 1996, so he's probably dead by now.

And the only person upset by all of this is you.

You don’t have a lot going on in your life at the moment, do you?

I came here hoping the thread was about the movie Outside Providence.

Very disappointing.

Providence is actually a mid sized city. Not as big as Boston or Chicago, but its not “tiny” by any stretch.

without reliable transportation something in Elmhurst is not more accessible to someone in Washington Park than something in Cranston just because its in Providence. Its a small state something in a neighboring town might in fact be more accessible to many people without cars. If anyone really has the inability to travel far they will likely state the neighborhood rather than the city in their post.

if they live in this city that doesn't mean they are far from a neighboring city. the neighboring in many cases would be closer than another random neighborhood in providence.

10-15 miles even is an exaggeration for many of the surrounding towns. The airport is less than 10 miles from almost every part of providence.

right, what if that poster has no way to get to garden city, OP just erased that person by assuming they have a car.

I've stopped recommending it out of respect to the original poster.

I think this person meant by area, not population. Providence is definitely tiny by that stretch.

#150 on the 150 largest cities in the US by land area is St. George Utah and they're 4X larger than Providence.

well, i just spat out my water. on my monitor.

I’m carless in Fox Point. I don’t mind recs outside of Providence. If I want it bad enough, I’ll go with a friend or rent a Zip Car.

That presupposing everyone in Providence as a way of watching a movie.

Chronically online post

When I lived on Mass Ave in PVD, the best pizza recommendation I ever received was a four minute walk, in Cranston. My recommendation request was very strict geographically, PVD only, but someone wasn’t listening and had to make a Cranston recommendation. I love people who don’t listen.

You’re a jerk dude. Figure it out.

>Nah dag, the Bus lines stop immediately at the Providence border.

Haha, you know what do exactly that though? Those rental e-scooters! A friend spotted a flock of them parked right on the edge of Cranston, on the Prov side 😆

Insufferable post. Stfu who cares

I also want to note that I frequently search the sub for recommendations when I'm looking for stuff, and I hope others are to so the same questions aren't being asked a million times, so just because the original poster may have a magnetic boundary that keeps them directly in Providence, doesn't mean that all users do. This is a place for Providence discussions, it's not a Providence exclusivity club.

I will always die on the hill defending Providence in r/Rhodesland against the idiots who go off about Providence being unsafe etc. But on the flip side, Providence is not the end all and be all of our state. Sometimes other near by towns and cities have great things too.

Exactly depending on which bus line they live on, getting to Mt. Pleasant might be more difficult than Pawtucket. And honestly if someone's got such specific circumstances, they'll normally put that in the post so recommendations can take that into account. There's no erasure here, this sounds like someone's butt hurt for something they don't actually experience and are trying shame everyone else for it.

It does, OP is butthurt because they're the inverse of the garden city crowd. Instead of the crazy suburbanite belief that nothing good exists in Providence bc /crime/, OP believes nothing good exists outside Providence. Both mentalities drive me crazy.

Yeah that safe bike path that goes through East Providence/Barrington/Warren/Bristol. The only people who are trapped in Providence are those who choose to be. RIPTA isn't great, but it's not non-existent.

I mean, the one way streets can be a pain in the ass 🤣🤣

I don’t have a car and use RIPTA, there are plenty of routes that make getting around Pawtucket, Cranston, East Providence, Central Falls, etc. just as accessible as most places in Providence.

Washington Secondary trail is one of the safest bike paths in the state and cuts right through Cranston

Living in the West End, many things in Cranston are closer or the same distance to me than the equivalent in Providence city limits, including libraries.