In his annual state of the city speech, New Bedford’s longtime mayor Jon Mitchell expressed a strictly positive outlook for the city’s economy, despite the president’s plans to obstruct the offshore wind industry and deport an unprecedented number of undocumented immigrants.
New Bedford’s waterfront includes a pier where offshore wind turbines are assembled and a long row of seafood processing plants, which rely on immigrant labor.
But the mayor’s wide-ranging speech touched only briefly on what he called the “sound and fury” of federal politics. Instead, Mitchell emphasized his administration’s local efforts to “forge ahead” with beautifying streets, expanding port facilities, attracting new businesses, building more housing, improving schools and fighting crime.
Turning to the city’s recent accomplishments, Mitchell called attention to a new publicly owned pier for fishing and offshore wind vessels, renovations of existing fishing piers, and an expansion of the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, where Vineyard Wind is marshaling construction for one of America’s first offshore wind farms.
“We are rebuilding the port of New Bedford at a blistering pace,” Mitchell said.
This story was reported by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.
