THE BOSTON GLOBE reported on Sunday that New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell could derail the long-awaited South Coast Rail project by threatening to file a lawsuit challenging the legality of an MBTA eminent domain taking of five pieces of property in the city. According to the Globe, New Bedford officials even sent a draft legal complaint […]
New Bedford
Posted inEconomy, Government
Mayor moves to ease residency rules in New Bedford
WITH ROUGHLY 15 percent of non-school municipal jobs in New Bedford vacant, Mayor Jon Mitchell is pushing to do away with residency requirements for most management positions. New Bedford, like a number of cities and towns across the state, has residency requirements for municipal employees but they are not uniform. Most union city workers are […]
Posted inEconomy
How foreign private equity hooked New England’s fishing industry
BEFORE DAWN, Jerry Leeman churned through inky black waters, clutching the wheel of the fishing vessel Harmony. The 85-foot trawler, deep green and speckled with rust, was returning from a grueling fishing trip deep into the Atlantic swells. Leeman and his crew of four had worked 10 consecutive days, 20 hours a day, to haul […]
Posted inEducation
New Bedford charter school at center of 2019 battle poised to hit enrollment target
THREE YEARS AFTER a proposed compromise plan for expansion of a New Bedford charter school collapsed in the face of opposition from teachers unions and their legislative allies, the school is on track to complete its enrollment ramp-up this fall under a larger expansion that loomed as the backup plan. It’s a development that city […]
Posted inEducation
Charter school proposal roils South Coast
IT’S BEEN MORE than five years since the debate over charter schools in Massachusetts came front and center in the form of a high-profile ballot question that would have raised the state cap on the independently run, but publicly funded, schools. But the decisive rejection of the measure by voters in 2016 has hardly settled […]
Posted inUncategorized
New Bedford makes offshore wind play
AS COMMUNITIES up and down the East Coast jockey for economic opportunities from the emerging offshore wind industry, New Bedford is trying to stay ahead of the pack by doubling its capacity to provide staging areas for the construction of wind farms. The South Coast community is already home to the state-owned New Bedford Marine […]
Posted inEducation
How New Bedford boosted its graduation rate
IN SEPTEMBER OF 2013, two months after her arrival as the district’s new school superintendent, Pia Durkin paid a visit to New Bedford High School one morning not long after the start of the school day. Durkin said there was a student heading out of the building just as she was walking in. She tried […]
Posted inEducation
Why I opposed New Bedford charter school plan
THE PROPOSED charter school expansion plan crafted by New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, Alma del Mar charter school, and state education Commissioner Jeff Riley earlier this year was simply too risky for New Bedford. After reading the memorandum of understanding (MOU), which became public in March of 2019, I saw this as a bad deal. […]
Posted inUncategorized
Perfect port an elusive goal for East Coast offshore wind
NORTHEAST SEAPORTS ARE inadequate to meet the needs of the offshore wind industry, and ideas for filling that gap could create tension between the sometimes competing goals of those overseeing the burgeoning sector. “Developers have studied all the ports up and down the East Coast several times now. What we’re really looking for is large […]
Posted inEducation
Riley throws in towel on New Bedford charter plan
FOUR MONTHS AFTER he unveiled a novel proposal for a New Bedford charter school billed as a way to ease the acrimony that has plagued the state’s education sector, Massachusetts education commissioner Jeff Riley pulled the plug on the plan, which had only seemed to trigger a fresh round of the warring he sought to […]