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Mayor Jon Mitchell celebrated New Bedford’s progress in port development, transportation, schools, housing, and public safety, while noting continuing pressure on city finances in his State of the City address on Wednesday.
Starting his 14th year in office — a longer consecutive tenure than any mayor in city history — Mitchell served the lunchtime crowd in the New Bedford High School gym a lengthy menu of achievements and plans for new initiatives.
“I am proud to report to you that New Bedford is stronger than it was a year ago,” Mitchell told the crowd of some 500 seated at round tables for the 50-minute speech.
“There’s a whole lot going on in our city,” said Mitchell, 55, noting that the Port of New Bedford is being rebuilt at a “blistering pace.”
During 2024, he said, the North Terminal was completed, work started on North Terminal II as “dozens of berths were dredged, municipal fishing piers underwent multimillion dollar renovations, and the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal was expanded. Ordinarily, we’d go years between major port projects like these. This was just last year.”
At the same time, more work on transportation projects has occurred than at any time since the 1960s, Mitchell said. These include early planning and near-completion of the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge, the New Bedford Regional Airport tower and terminal, the pedestrian bridge over JFK Boulevard and South Coast Rail stations linking the city to Boston.
Mitchell said the city is making strides upgrading school buildings and restoring student attendance from pandemic slumps.
Just about every school building more than 20 years old has completed or will soon start renovations, he said, including heating systems and roofs.
All city elementary schools are on pace to match pre-pandemic attendance, but the higher grades are lagging behind. Mitchell acknowledged anxieties that children may be experiencing, but he urged parents to do more to ensure their children go to school.
Following on the plan Mitchell unveiled in 2023 to boost housing stock and curb increasing rents and home prices, he said more housing units were completed in 2024 than any year “in recent memory.”
Public Information Officer Jonathan Darling said before the speech that 200 housing units were built or neared completion in 2024, permits have been approved for another 200 and about 900 more are in the planning or permitting process.
Mitchell said the city has taken several steps to clear “barriers to housing construction,” including putting most of the permitting process online, and lifting the requirement for Planning Board approval for certain types of housing.
In the spring, he said the administration will propose new ordinances lowering minimum house lot size and parking spaces required in multi-family neighborhoods.
Still, Mitchell repeated a point he’s made before: increasing housing supply “is not a problem New Bedford can solve on its own.”
He again called on suburban communities to revise regulations constraining home building. He said he does not like the idea of giving the state more control over local zoning, but that may be necessary to spur construction of more affordable housing in surrounding towns.
Mitchell said efforts to boost the ranks of police officers — including a signing bonus, dropping the employee residency requirement and raising salaries — is paying off. The current roster of 230 sworn officers is up from the low of 199 and edging closer to a full staff.
Police spokeswoman Holly Huntoon said Wednesday that a full complement would be 259 sworn officers.
Crime has continued to fall in keeping with a decade-long trend that has seen violent crime drop by 58%, property crime by 54%, Mitchell said.
City hiring has also included the first director of data management, as the city moves toward what Mitchell described as more data-driven local government.
The approach, Mitchell said, “will enable us to deliver better services and manage costs. In a city that is constrained for resources, the better decisions we make based on data, the more efficiently we spend taxpayer dollars.”
Local finances “remain in an ever-tightening vise,” Mitchell said, due in part to state aid that has lagged since the 2008/09 finance collapse. As he has mentioned in budget messages before, Mitchell pointed to key spending drivers: employee pensions, health care, and the state’s minimum school spending requirements.
Mitchell closed with a salute to a citizen effort marking a 20th anniversary: Operation Clean Sweep, founded by Lynn Coish and now led by Russ Wotton. Volunteers in the April to September campaign have put in about 31,000 hours and picked up nearly 250,000 pounds of trash from city streets and public spaces.
The volunteers, Mitchell said, “remind us all that when you love where you live, and act on that love, you can make it an even better place, and improve yourself in some small way, too.”
Email reporter Arthur Hirsch at ahirsch@newbedfordlight.org
Editor’s note: This story was modified on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, to clarify that Mayor Mitchell has the longest consecutive tenure of any mayor in city history, not the longest overall tenure.
Projects need to include terminals for regional maritime transportation connecting Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard to New Bedford and the South Coast train to Boston as well as other wonderful services available in New Bedford. A competitive Regional Maritime Transportation System needs to be developed NOW to relieve the burden on the Bourne and Sagamore bridges. The current steamship authority servicing the islands is obsolete. Environmental and financial costs can be reduced by an updated modern Regional Maritime Transportation System with New Bedford as the logical hub of operations!
Lynn Coish is amazing and her dedication for the betterment of the community and planet is inspiring. I’m glad she and her work were recognized- well deserved.
Mayor Mitchell is good person and a good speaker, but after more then ten years as mayor our city’s budget has doubled, he has continued to expand city government, growing city departments, creating new city owned buildings, and creating more city positions. The failure of Mayor Mitchell’s administration to curb spending, stop the expansion of city government, and not be able to bring new companies to contribute to our tax base is a failure that this city can no longer afford. The taxpayers of New Bedford deserve better.
Gentrification
Getting rid of poor people.
Is the money well spent?
What should be cut?
Police…
I was in the room for this speech and I’m not sure if the Light was in the same room as me. This was a nearly hour-long resume reading from a Mayor that has done more to expand the police department and apparently plant some trees than address the rampant addiction crisis (the City currently is sitting on $2M for this), curb increased attacks on our immigrant neighbors, improve primary care access (you cannot get an appointment at GNBCHC until at least July 2025), and clean up parks that are not Buttonwood (Ashley Park and Jones Park haven’t seen the Mayor or a cleanup since he showed up with a shovel for a picture). It was also cute to hear the Mayor lay the very real problem of truancy at the feet of overburdened parents instead of highlighting the complex social and economic issues that keep kids from getting to school as well as outdated bus routes that negatively impact communities of color. This speech was an uninspiring stale mess from a Mayor that I feel is completely out of touch with a changing city outside of the confines of the downtown and who has clearly overstayed his time in office. Looking forward to something better. And soon.
Bravo TF, well said.
Who do you see doing a better job?
One of the City Council members?
If not them them who?
TF?
Someone running against the Mayor on a platform that lifts up people, listens to their needs, and actually moves this City forward. The entire City Council should be fired too. It’s primary season after all!
All city departments need “spring cleaning”. ALL!!!!!!!!!
City Council?
Police?
Fire?
What makes you think their replacements will be any better?
Spin the wheel?
Oh Jon, so proud of the police, well they left because of non support. You weren’t there for the old crew, don’t take credit now. Thank you police, fire, emt’s and the call center staff. You all are the best. It’s too bad the benefits improved after so many of you loyal men and women left.
Now they are the best?
They were always the best and will always be the best. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. How dare you disregard the employees of the past. Many in this city wouldn’t be her without them.
School issues are not being addressed. They are being swept under the rug. Students are suffering. Parents are keeping their children home. You think making a better building is going to bring kids to school. Not! The bullying and the non support of administration has to be addressed first. This never went on when Mr. Longo was Superintendent. He was a man students respected.
What is the solution?
More cops in the schools.
Mr. Longo retired 16 years ago
The Times They Are a-Changin’
We all know that things were at there best when we came of age.
Make America Grate Again.
Go back.
The last 13 years of the NBPS system has been years of plunging downward. Failing students, non support of administration, poor standards of grades. Nothing to be proud of. Who’s watch was that, Jon. Who’s watch is it now, Jon. Nothing at all to be proud of, matter of fact, embarrassed to be a resident.
How much will it cost to bring our schools to where you think they should be?
City money?
State money?
There will be no Federal money for at least four years.
The NBPS system is the responsibility of the School Committee, elected by we the people!!!
86% percent of the NPBS is supplied by the state (follow the money).
Nothing at all to be proud of, matter of fact, embarrassed to be a resident.