Trying to get a feel for East Greenwich (Providence, Cranston: fit in, low crime)

[kristenethom]

I am currently looking for areas in RI. I know that the schools in East Greenwich and Barrington have the best schools. I am looking for community that has down to earth people and not super competitive schools and have heard both positives and negatives on both Barrington and East Greenwich. We are a middle class family and not super wealthy. Are there average families in these communities? Also, are they accepting of differences. My children are biracial.

[Hollytree]

Both Barrington and East Greenwich are about 96% white according to the 2000 census. I would guess that is still about right since they are both relatively affluent communities- middle to upper middle class with a goodly percentage of wealthy. Are you considering buying a house? Have you checked prices and taxes? If I were you, I'd worry more about that than about the kids getting along. Kids are kids- if your kids are friendly, they'll be accepted.

[GermanSpy]

There's a reason some people call the Shaws grocery in Barrington the "All White and All Wealthy.". While there are certainly a couple middle class people tucked away in Barrington I would question the existence of diversity in that area. I don't have much insight about East Greenwich. Have you considered Warren or East Providence? Warren is very down to earth but the school system is lacking so do consider that. East Providence is quite diverse so you might find people very accepting there.

Good luck.

[traceyr13]

There is very, very little diversity in Barrington (I taught and lived there for 8 years), but it's a great school system. I can't recall any open racial discrimination while I was there (students seemed very conscious of the "whitness" of the school, and slurs or intolerance were definitely looked down on by the general student population), but I can understand your concerns about your children possibly feeling self-conscious or notice the lack of other biracial students. To be very honest with you, in the years I was there, I could usually count on 2 hands the number of minority students per grade level, and by that I mean anyone other than Caucasian.

With that being said, it's an excellent system, so if that is your first priority, I would consider it. I don't know as much about the demographics of East Greenwich, but it is also considered an excellent district.

[ProvGuy]

East Greenwich is a little less white-bred than Barringtion I'd say (anecdotally atleast). East Greenwich has a little downtown that is walkable and full of restaurants and stores too, whereas Barrington has more of a strip-mallish town center. Like everyone has said, they both have the top schools in the state. In my experience with the town schools that have majority white students, the minorities were usually seen as "cool" just because they were different than everybody else. I doubt your kids would have trouble in either school system. If you do want some diversity though and decent schools you can try Cranston.

[Rnrboy]

Is it just me, or did the original poster never actually say that their kids were not caucasian?? haha

[Hollytree]

RNRBoy- It is "just you" . The OP said her children were bi-racial.

Also provboy- it's "white bread" not white bred!

And by the way, "white bread" is a racial epithet used by blacks about whites. If it were a slur about blacks- would you use it?

It means the kind of white person who eats egg salad sandwiches with mayonnaise on white bread- get it ????

[ProvGuy]

I don't mean it in a racist way, I mean that the town is less "all white" than Barrington is.

[Hollytree]

I know you didn't
I'm just supplying the origin of the term....


So many people use phrases without understanding the connotation.

For example- "more bang for the buck" refers to prostitutes.
"That sucks" refers to a sexual act and yet people use it frequently in casual conversation

[ricitykid]

Hi, I live in EG. Let me sum up EG for you, after living here for five years now. I'm not white and I come from an average middle class family. East Greenwich is a town that is stereotyped as wealthy, which is true for some people but isn't true for others. However, most residents of EG are above middle class. The Job market here in EG isn't too great, there's Semiconducter ON here and Stanley Bostich but that's all. Most people here are professionals, either involved in medicine, law, or bussiness. If you're doing this move only for your kids, I'd reconsider it. EG is supposed to have some of the greatest schools in the state. The schools here aren't the greatest, the math curriculum sucks here and all the schools are really old. The schools are poor and taxes are rising again, in order to get money for the school. I struggled when I first move here since a majority of the people were are elistist and WASP-ish. They are not open-minded and are very conservative. I didn't recieve a very warm welcome. It took some time for them to warm up. Not to mention, the percentage of caucasian people in this town is very high. You won't see very many people of different races here. I attend the high school and most of the kids I know are rich, unmotivated, spoiled and like to smoke, drink, and smoke some weed in their spare time. If you absolutly feel the need to move here, I won't suggest moving downtown, because the houses there are older and their value isn't as high as some of the other areas in EG. But, I wouldn't move into the rural part of EG, which is far away from downtown that has basically a mix of the newly constructed extremly expensive housing complexs and older houses. I live in this area and it is not fun. The roads are in terrible shape and the ride from here to town or anything in town is far away. If you need to buy a house, I'd suggest buying one around the high school or the elemantry school Hanaford since the houses are nice and are reasonably priced and the value of the houses there are good.
But since you say, your a middle class family, I think you might find it hard to fit in. I had a really, really, hard time myself. The kids here are very narrrow minded and I still have some horrible memories of being picked on here in the elemantry school because I was middle class and I didn't wear brand name clothes. The taxes here are also extremly high, more than most parts of RI.
I won't suggest moving here, even though a few pointers are that the schools are better than most of the public schools in RI, the down town area is beautiful with an overview of the bay and it gives you this retro-ish and historic feel and the houses are nice and the EG community is a safe one with extremly low crime rate. Not to mention, EG is rich with history.

But I honestly, think your kids won't be happy here. I'd suggest staying where you are? That depends, where are you currently located? and I'd send your kids to a private school such as LaSalle or Bayview or Bishop H school.