I'll Stop the World and Melt with You

Monday, March 2, 2026 | Edition #13

GOOD MORNING, WARWICK. Welcome to March — a month that welcomes madness, one too many pints of Guinness, and 7:00 PM sunsets for the first time since early September. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty glorious to me. Despite a few flurries yesterday and a cold start to the week, we are officially entering full melt mode. At this point, we’ll take “above freezing” and call it tropical.

Here’s what’s going on in your city.

Now that I’ve got you humming a classic ’80s pop bop, we can set the scene. After committing what most people would classify as a heinous act against humanity last week, Mother Nature is finally easing up. The three feet of snow that buried us on Monday, February 23 is melting quickly, and aside from a few stubborn cold days today and tomorrow, highs are creeping into the 50s this week for the first time in months.

The past week has been a full-blown cleanup operation for residents and the DPW following last Monday’s “Blizzard of 2026.” It has taken days to clear sidewalks on busy streets, and many side roads remain narrow and difficult to navigate — because when you get buried like we did, there are only so many places to put all that snow. The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management even gave municipalities the green light to dump excess snow into nearby waterways.

WJAR reported that the snow depth in the Warwick area shrunk from 39” on Tuesday to 17” on Sunday. With temperatures climbing and snowbanks shrinking by the hour, the city is shifting from excavation mode to melt mode — a welcome sign that winter’s icy grip may finally be loosening. I think it’s safe to say that Punk-sutawney Phil owes us 10 straight years of short winters after this historically snowy month of February.

Warwick’s airport district is gearing up for yet another glow-up. Developers are proposing a 297-unit apartment complex near T.F. Green Airport and the MBTA station, complete with retail space, garage parking, and enough upscale finishes to make every listing read like a luxury resort brochure. The project — dubbed Skye City Centre — would target commuters and frequent flyers who can easily walk to catch a plane, a train, or a rented automobile — or skip the travel entirely and watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles instead (still a certified 10/10).

If approved, initial construction could wrap by winter 2027, adding hundreds of new units to a housing market that currently has about as much availability as a beachfront parking spot on the Fourth of July. Love it or hate it, the Airport Road skyline is clearly not done growing.

Are you smarter than a Greenwood Elementary 5th grader? Let’s find out.

Q: Can you name the iconic American clothing brand that got its start right here in Warwick, founded at a mill on the banks of the Pawtuxet River?

Hint: 🍇 (Yes, grapes)

The answer can be found at the end of the newsletter.

Located in Gateway Plaza next to the Hoxsie Dave’s Marketplace, The Blue Collar Barbershop is the kind of place that reminds you what a real barbershop is supposed to feel like. Owned and operated by longtime Warwick resident and seasoned barber Alan Ferla, the shop blends old-school atmosphere with modern styles — meaning you’ll walk out looking current without feeling like you just visited a tech startup.

Ferla sharpened his skills at Louie’s Barbershop in Conimicut before opening his own shop, and it shows. Step inside and you’ll find classic chairs, good music, easy conversation, and the kind of atmosphere where people actually talk to each other instead of staring at their screens. No sterile salon energy here — just sharp fades, clean lines, and the occasional piece of life advice thrown in for free. Holding down the second chair is talented up-and-comer Zack Brehmer, giving the shop a strong one-two punch.

Appointments can be booked through the Booksy app, and walk-ins are welcome when chairs are open — because sometimes a haircut isn’t scheduled, it’s requested by your wife after one too many “you’re not going out like that” moments. Look Good Feel Good is their motto — check them out today!

The Blue Collar Barbershop | 1613 Warwick Avenue, 02888

🚀 Did You See that Last Night? — If you glanced south or southeast last night around 10:00PM, you may have spotted a bright streak cutting across the dark sky — a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral. The launch was visible across much of Southern New England, briefly turning an ordinary Sunday night into something out of a sci-fi movie. If you missed it, don’t worry — your neighborhood Facebook group probably has 47 blurry photos of it.

🙏🏼 Carrying a Legacy Forward — More than 20 years after the Station Nightclub fire, a local scholarship fund created in memory of victim Mike Fresolo continues to support students and keep his story alive. The effort was launched by a close friend who missed the show that night and has since turned that survivor’s guilt into an annual benefit helping dozens of families — proof that one life can continue to make a difference long after it’s gone.

🏠 A Slow Start on the Market — Home sales across the state limped to their slowest January since 2011, with just 429 single-family homes sold — not because buyers disappeared, but because there’s barely anything to buy. Inventory remains stuck at a painfully low 1.7 months of supply, pushing the median price to $499,000 (up 7.3% from last year), which is great news if you bought in 1998 and less great if you’re currently browsing Zillow for emotional distress. Condo and multifamily sales also slipped, but prices kept climbing anyway.

🏒 Hendricken Tops Pilgrim in Emotional Season Finale — Bishop Hendricken’s boys’ hockey team edged Pilgrim 2–1 in a regular-season finale that carried far more weight than the standings, as both teams paused for a pregame moment of silence honoring victims of the recent Lynch Arena shooting in Pawtucket. Hendricken completed the season sweep behind strong goaltending and timely scoring, but the night served as a reminder that some games are about more than hockey, with rival schools united in support of those affected.

⏰ REMINDER: Springing Forward — Next weekend we turn the clocks ahead one hour. Don’t be that guy or gal who waits six months to change the microwave clock. A week from today, the Sun will set at 6:44 PM — meaning evenings that don’t feel like midnight at dinner time are finally back.

Trivia Answer: Fruit of the Loom 🍇 — The brand was born at the B.B. & R. Knight Mill in Warwick’s Pontiac Village, where in the 1850s a local artist began painting fruit onto bolts of cloth to help distinguish them — and the fruit-labeled fabric quickly flew off the shelves. In 1871, Fruit of the Loom became one of the first trademarks ever registered in the United States, and by 1912 the company had grown into the largest cotton manufacturer in the world.

Keep this nugget in your back pocket — It’s gotta be worth at least one impressed head nod from your uncle.

That's it for today. Have a tip, a story suggestion, or a scientifically proven cure for Route 37 traffic on Fridays? Hit reply.

Stay safe, Warwick ☕

The Warwick Wake Up | Keeping Warwick in the know in 10 minutes or less.

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