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A Portuguese Heritage District: A Proposal for New Bedford
New Bedford, Massachusetts, the old ‘whaling capital of the world,’ as we know from Moby Dick, is looking to redevelop its downtown and waterfront. When I was a kid growing up in the North End of New Bedford in the 1950s, the city was in decline and the idea that people from Boston or Providence would drive to downtown restaurants in New Bedford was laughable. But it’s happening now. Now the city is revitalizing with its booming fishing industry (mostly scallops), tourism (anchored by the Whaling Museum) and with employment as a hub of the offshore wind industry.
There is a lot going on in urban redevelopment. A second round of proposals for the New Bedford State Pier Redevelopment Site have recently been made. Those proposals are useful but there is nothing BIG and they have no unifying theme. Also, just this month, the organization New City America proposed a Downtown New Bedford Business Improvement District to the city council. The South Coast Rail Project will connect (actually re-connect) New Bedford with Boston later this year.
One underutilized treasure the city has it its large and vibrant community of Portuguese Americans. The community got…
