LazuliHandcrafted are Newport based (they have a shop there), but also ship, and primarily make gold jewelry. It’s gorgeous work!

Regency Plaza apartments might work? I’m not sure about if they have wheelchair accessible units but they may.

They do have parking available (not sure about van accessible parking), and it’s a landscaped complex with fairly nice sidewalks so probably good for walking the pup. You’d be right in the downtown area where the sidewalks are at least better than the rest of the city.

Units are kind of dated and a expensive but a one bedroom should be well below your max budget.

I’m from Michigan and I can vouch for the fact the most miserable RI winter is still considerably more mild than the average Michigan winter. Bring your usual winter gear and you’ll be absolutely fine. As others said, you might not even need to bundle up - it’s been a weird one.

I was just talking about this the other day to someone who doesn’t live here! It’s great, I never worry when I end up somewhere unfamiliar.

You’re not wrong about any of this and I very much appreciate you providing a counter narrative to “spring sucks”.

But like, the WIND. There is so much wind in spring particularly. That’s the thing that kills me. We have a lot of spring days that would be temperate enough to enjoy sitting around outside and then the wind makes that impossible.

I think a key character trait for a lot of Rhode Islanders is talking down about the state. I get it. When you’ve lived somewhere for a long time it’s hard to see the good, but there really is so much good.

Also: if you do decide to leave for some reason, there’s a very small painless airport. I love TF Green.

Location! An absurdly high density of cool things within a 6 hour radius.

Beautiful beaches, parks, and general nature things to enjoy, close to more beautiful beaches (the Cape), a walkable capitol city with a top tier food scene and interesting events, easy travel to more events in Boston and New York, easy travel to Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine for awesome nature, camping, and hiking, when you’re bored of that Montreal is also a pretty easy drive and so is Philly.

Seasons! We have all four.

Summer here is awesome. Fall here is awesome. I find winter here to be awesome too (I love that it snows just not constantly and the temperatures don’t get super low for long). Spring here kinda sucks but 3/4 is pretty pretty good!

It’s impossible for me to pick a favorite place, but really long story short is everything I could possibly want is within a days drive and I think that’s amazing. Con: cost of living, but that’s because it’s so desirable.

There are colleges in those towns. URI students live in Narragansett and Bryant students live in Smithfield. That’s why those ordinances exist, people move to a college town and then get mad it’s a college town for some reason. But it’s true Brown has a lot of pull. I’m just saying, it very well pass.

It might pass, Narragansett and Smithfield have enacted similar ordinances already.