Climate Safe Neighborhoods
Explore Groundwork Southcoast's climate resiliency planning and advocacy work.
The Groundwork Southcoast crew poses for a picture during a work day at Riverside Park.
What do race and class have to do with the climate crisis? Which neighborhoods in New Bedford, Massachusetts are most at risk from extreme heat and flooding? What can residents and the local government do to make sure that all neighborhoods are safe and resilient to climate change?
As part of the Climate Safe Neighborhoods (CSN) partnership, Groundwork Southcoast is working with residents and stakeholders to understand the relationship between New Bedford’s historical housing and transportation policies and the current and predicted impacts of climate change. By comparing historical policies such as urban renewal to modern satellite imagery, we’ve found that there is a modern discrepancy between the ways in which New Bedford, MA and other cities and towns in Bristol county experience extreme heat and flooding.
Groundwork Southcoast is building the capacity of residents and other stakeholders to understand the risk posed by the climate crisis and the historical origins of that risk. Groundwork Southcoast is organizing and mobilizing residents of New Bedford to self-advocate for investments in their community that will protect them from extreme heat and flooding.
Scroll down for a guided tour of our analysis, focus neighborhood, and efforts to make Southcoast communities safer from extreme heat and flooding.
Left: Looking north at the intersection of Nye Street and North Front Street, an area with low tree canopy cover. Right: An example of a landscape with significant tree canopy on Lexington Avenue in Dartmouth.
What Does Race Have to Do with the Climate Crisis?
Throughout the Climate Safe Neighborhoods Partnership, we have centered our work in communities across the country on the historical practice of redlining and its connection to the modern day consequences of the climate crisis. Unlike many communities in eastern Massachusetts, New Bedford was never redlined. An iconic American city known for its historical dominance in whaling and cotton manufacturing, New Bedford’s built environment reflects a history of industry, urban renewal, and a shrinking population. Starting in the 1930’s and extending through the 1970s, New Bedford’s role in both whaling and cotton manufacturing waned, along with its population, as textile jobs were shipped to southern states and whale oil became obsolete.
Urban Renewal, Freeway Construction and Environmental Justice
As residents left for jobs in other cities, such as Boston, a surplus of vacant housing in New Bedford created areas targeted for urban renewal by state and local governments. Low-income communities were razed to remove “blight,” scattering residents across the city and eastern part of the state, destroying neighborhoods and replacing open space and tree canopy cover with modernized roadways that carried suburban workers across the county. The GIF below shows tree canopy cover, impervious surfaces, and surface temperature across Bristol County. As expected, densely populated cities such as Taunton, New Bedford, and Fall River, are hotter and have fewer trees than their suburban counterparts. However, a closer look at the data shows inequity even within these relatively hot and treeless areas.
A GIF animation cycling through Tree Canopy (NLCD 2016), Impervious Surface (NLCD 2016), and Median Surface Temperature (F) (Landsat 2015-2020). These maps demonstrate that exposure to heat is higher in urban areas.
One of the calling cards of urban renewal from coast to coast was the installation of highways and expressways that bisected communities and increased the amount of impermeable pavement, which in turn increased stormwater runoff and temperature. New Bedford has four major roadways cutting through its 24 square miles: the six-lane, north-south running Route 18; the four-lane Interstate 195; Route 6; and Route 140. While all of New Bedford is disproportionately hot and prone to flooding compared to more suburban communities in Bristol County, the wards that make up the North End Resilience District - 2B, 2D, and 2F pictured below - exist at the intersection between Interstate 195 and Route 18, and are nearly 19℉ hotter than the coolest wards that border the suburban community of Dartmouth. It is in this highly vulnerable neighborhood that Groundwork Southcoast is focusing its efforts as part of the Climate Safe Neighborhoods Partnership.
Median Surface Temperature 2015-2020 summarized at the ward level.
Aerial view of Acushnet Avenue looking northeast from Ashley Boulevard and Nye Street.
Acushnet Avenue
The Acushnet Avenue neighborhood in the City of New Bedford is a historic and dynamic neighborhood on the North End of town. It has historically been an immigrant neighborhood, especially for the Portuguese, Cape Verdean and most recently, Guatemalan communities. Historically, immigrants were drawn to opportunities in the whaling and textile industries. As those industries have come and gone, “The Ave,” as residents sometimes call it, has remained resilient despite the challenges the neighborhood and the community face.
Acushnet Mill Labor Strikes
Striking workers show solidarity by donating food and milk during the textile strikes of 1928.
These challenges include difficult economic conditions, disproportionate exposure to the impacts of climate change, and negative perceptions from other communities. Residents of Acushnet Avenue embody a never-give-up attitude and have a history of fighting inequity. The Acushnet Mill labor strikes of 1928 in which 25 to 30 thousand textile workers united to protest wage cuts, serve as an example of the fighting spirit that has persevered in the neighborhood no matter the challenge.
Right: The Acushnet River in New Bedford was a center of the American textile industry, and that industrial history has had major environmental and economic ramifications. This photo demonstrates a 1928 strike by immigrant textile workers in the neighborhood, who mobilized a force of nearly 30,000 protesting against proposed wage cuts. The strike and unionization was successful in reducing the proposed wage cuts from 10% to 5%, with additional protections against further cuts.
Pollution and Economic Disenfranchisement
Signs posted by the US Coast Guard in the Acushnet River warning residents not to swim or fish due to PCBs (1982).
Acushnet Avenue is situated along a section of the Acushnet River that was designated an EPA superfund site in 1983 due to decades of unregulated industrial pollution and dumping.[ 1 ] This former hub of the American textile industry is now one of the most economically disenfranchised sections of New Bedford. According to data provided in the Groundwork Southcoast Feasibility Study, 37% of residents make less than $25,000 a year.
Map: Median household income (ACS 2019)
Prominent Latinx Population
The neighborhood is also one of the most diverse areas in the city (54% white, 33% Hispanic or Latino, 5% Black and 5% other or more than one race). 50% of residents in the neighborhood speak Spanish at home. The neighborhood has a prominent Latinx population. In some census block groups the Latinx contingent makes up more than 70% of the total population. The neighborhood is also home to many brownfield sites while also lacking quality open spaces for recreation and gatherings. Due to this combination of circumstances, Acushnet Avenue should be recognized as a high-priority environmental justice area.
Map: % Hispanic or Latino (ACS 2019)
Community, Culture, Feasts and Festivals
The Summer Winds Kite Festival in New Bedford.
Despite these environmental challenges, Acushnet Avenue has always been full of culture, resilience, and community. Feasts and festivals are a regular scene in the neighborhood, especially the Madeiran Feast, which is hosted on protected feast grounds within the neighborhood. It is the largest Portuguese Feast in America, attracts over 100,000 visitors every year, and has run for over a century. Festivals like the Guatemalan Kite Festival and Restaurant Week also demonstrate community resilience and a deep sense of neighborhood pride. This pride has manifested in the “Love the Ave” initiative, and has led to that group dubbing the neighborhood the New Bedford’s “International Marketplace” that contains “a collection of cultures reflected in its many restaurants, businesses, services and opportunities.”[ 2 ]
Left: Portuguese dancers at the Madeiran Feast.
Riverside Park and the North End Resilience District
The North End Resilience District partnership tours Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford. This partnership includes multi-sector collaborations including the National Park Service Rivers Trails and Conservation Assistance Program, our regional planning agency SRPEDD, New Bedford Parks, Rec and Beaches, and the Community Economic Development Council to name a few.
The Acushnet Avenue neighborhood is home to Riverside Park, a capped, former brownfield that Groundwork Southcoast has worked on for years to transform into New Bedford’s first enclosed community garden. It is also home to many neighborhood-based initiatives and collaborations, including Love the Ave, the Near North End Neighborhood Group, and serves as the site of the North End Resilience District. As part of the Climate Safe Neighborhoods initiative, the North End Resilience District is partnering with Groundwork Southcoast to identify and address climate vulnerabilities in the neighborhood.
Left: Community volunteers helping at Groundwork Southcoast’s Urban Community Farm and Garden at Riverside Park, home of the city's first Resilience Zone. The site features 150 raised beds adoptable to residents, with explicit priority given to low income residents and people of color. The effort has transformed a former brownfield into a source of fresh healthy food and community cohesion.
Growing Momentum
Left: This photo is from the 1950’s featuring the Capital Theater, emblematic of the fascination of the times with Hollywood, the Silver Screen, and American opulence. Due to the boom of the textile industry, New Bedford was seen as a global destination. Right: This is the Capital Theater building today. Despite years of neglect, it remains a demonstration of the community resilience of the neighborhood. The Community Economic Development Council has purchased the building with intent to turn it into a thriving community center for the neighborhood.
In the last few years, momentum has continuously grown in the neighborhood through new and emerging partnerships, community change efforts, and movement-building between organizations and residents. The Capitol Theater, an icon of the Ave’s economic heyday in the 1920’s, has recently been purchased by the Community Economic Development Center, and will be converted into the neighborhood's first community center with a plethora of services for residents. Coalitions like Love the Ave and the Near North End Alliance, in partnership with Groundwork Southcoast, have increased efforts for neighborhood revitalization, including the improvement of pocket park green spaces and in partnering with local businesses to beautify Acushnet Avenue through community cleanups. The Cape Verdean Association will also open its new Island Park soon, adding additional space for recreation in the neighborhood that will transform vacant, blighted land into accessible green space. This momentum highlights the same energy of resilience the neighborhood has always possessed, and will lead to a bright future for the Acushnet Avenue Neighborhood.
Left: The Groundwork Southcoast Green Team paints a "Love the Ave" mural demonstrating solidarity with the Acushnet Avenue district.
Coordinator Profile
Eric Andrade, Groundwork Southcoast's Community and Climate Director.
Eric Andrade was born and raised in the Flint neighborhood of Fall River, a first generation American son of hard working parents who emigrated from the Azorean Islands of Portugal. He graduated from Bristol Community College in 2012, and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2014. From 2014-2018 he was a Health Promotion Coordinator for Mass in Motion Fall River, working on addressing root causes of public health issues. Before coming on as Programs Manager for Groundwork Southcoast, he served as the Board President, and was involved in the feasibility study and launch process for the organization.
His current role at Groundwork Southcoast is as the Community and Climate Director, where he helps coordinate a number of initiatives including Climate Safe Neighborhoods, Resilience District work, while also overseeing organizational systems and data management. Eric is very passionate and committed to advancing equitable social justice causes, especially at the intersection of public health and the environment. He believes reclaiming and transforming open spaces to be truly accessible to all is central to creating a more equitable and environmentally just New Bedford.
Get Involved
Tackling climate change in a way that benefits everyone has to be a community-led effort. Join the movement to become part of the solution! Email Eric (eandrade@groundworksouthcoast.org) today to learn more about how you can get involved.
