Article February 4, 2002 Issue

SEA CHANGE UNDERWAY IN NEW BEDFORD

W. B.

It was once a city of tattooed men in oilskin coats. New Bedford, Massachusetts, world whaling capital in the 18th and early 19th centuries, was the seaport the author Herman Melville sailed from in the 1840s. It's still a working seaport, 55 miles south of Boston, but now has 100,000 mostly land-loving residents.

Long a magnet for immigrants, many of New Bedford's first-wave newcomers were French-Canadians. Later came Portuguese, Cape Verdean, and Hispanic families to enrich the mix. Ethnic and racial diversity is reflected in the public schools. Many students are on an English-as-a-second-language (ESL) track.

The state's southeastern region historically has had harder economic hard times, and softer boom times. But that makes it the kind of urban center which attracts artists, entrepreneurs, and others looking for less expensive real estate and ocean proximity. There are signs of prosperity, but the city's poverty rate is still nearly twice the state average.

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