Talk:New Bedford, Massachusetts

December 2021 Proposed Updates for New Bedford, Massachusetts
Hi, I have some suggestions for a few improvements to the lead section for this article about New Bedford, MA. I work for the city of New Bedford and therefore have a conflict of interest, so I can’t make these changes myself. Could an independent editor please review these proposed changes? Since you answered the last REs and are familiar with this article, I am alerting you as well. I do think it’s best if someone without a COI review updates. If you instruct me to implement specific REs here, and that will make it easier for you, I am happy to help.

1. The existing lead section for the New Bedford article does not conform to best practices for articles about cities, as can be seen by looking at Featured Articles for similar-sized American cities such as Hillsboro, Oregon, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Providence, Rhode Island The FA leads for city articles briefly highlight different parts of the article (history, demographics, etc), unlike here. Please delete the current one paragraph lead and replace it with the following three paragraphs, which incorporate pertinent content from the original. Most of the content and sourcing is already in the existing article.

1 New first paragraph. I have modeled this after the Providence, Rhode Island article since it is the closest in terms of both geography and history to New Bedford. Please delete the current first paragraph and replace it with:

New Bedford (Massachusett: Accushnet ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American people. English colonists bought the land on which New Bedford would later be built from the Wampanoag in 1652, and the original colonial settlement that would later become the city was founded by English Quakers in the late 17th century. The town of New Bedford itself was officially incorporated in 1787.

2. New second paragraph. In keeping with the structure of the lead section of the Providence article, I propose that the lead should have a new second paragraph concerning the city’s 19th century history. Much of the article’s current History section focuses on this period. Please delete….

During the first half of the 19th century, New Bedford was one of the world's most important whaling ports. At its economic height during this period, New Bedford was the wealthiest city in the world per capita. New Bedford was also a center of abolitionism at this time. The city attracted many freed or escaped African-American slaves, including Frederick Douglass, who lived there from 1838 until 1841. The city also served as the primary setting of Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby-Dick. From 1876 to 1900, New Bedford served as the initial home port for the Revenue Cutter School of Instruction, the precursor of the United States Coast Guard Academy.

3. New third paragraph. Again in keeping with the structure of the lead section for the Providence FA, I suggest a third paragraph for the lead section of this article that provides information about New Bedford in the present day:

As of the 2020 United States Census, New Bedford had a population of 101,079, making it the state's sixth-largest city and the largest of the South Coast region. The city is also known for its high concentration of Portuguese Americans. New Bedford remains known for its fishing fleet and accompanying seafood industry, which as of 2019 generated the highest annual value of any fishing port in the United States. The city is also home to the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

4. In the Economy section, the Fishing subsection contains information that is now out of date. To update this, I propose replacing the second sentence in the current subsection (which begins with “From 1999 to 2018, New Bedford has been the highest-valued port in the nation…”) with the following sentences:

From 1999 to 2019, New Bedford has been the most valuable commercial fishing port in the United States. In 2019 the port’s catch was worth a total of $451 million.

5. In the Economy section of the article, I propose replacing the third sentence in the current Fishing subsection (which begins “While volume is below that of other major ports...”) with the following sentence, which provides up-to-date information about the importance of scallops to New Bedford’s fishing industry:

Although New Bedford only brought in the 14th largest total volume of fish among American ports in 2019, its catch was still the highest-grossing because scallops accounted for 84% of the port’s annual fishing revenue.

Thank you for your consideration. Hudson2276 (talk) 16:51, 10 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Hudson2276, I have only looked very briefly at these changes, but since you are open about your CoI, and since the changes don't seem to be controversial, or over-promotional, I don't see why you cannot make these yourself. I am actuaaly European and have little knowledge of the norms of articles about US places. Pincrete (talk) 15:06, 11 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Pictogram voting keep.svg Go ahead: I have reviewed these proposed changes and suggest that you go ahead and make the proposed changes to the page. Yitz (talk) 04:56, 14 December 2021 (UTC)
 * (Some of the above requests weren't marked as approved, so I marked them as such because they look good to me.  Spencer T• C 23:16, 2 January 2022 (UTC))


 * Hi, I’ve completed these implementations. I also have a conflict of interest as an employee of the city of New Bedford. Please let me know if there are any problems with the implementation of my changes.HazelStanley99 (talk) 20:48, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

Famous people
Isn’t Aaron Lansky from New Bedford? 108.20.26.12 (talk) 22:11, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

Hideous Lead Image
This was done unilaterally by an unknown user with no consultation with the talk page. This picture is absolutely terrible and in no way accurately reflects the city. It's an historic, densely populated city of 100,000, not a highway rest stop. I will change this soon. Trilobright (talk) 23:45, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

Cheryl Araujo (Big Dan's Bar) Rape Victim.
I was wondering why Cheryl's story is not mentioned anywhere on the New Bedford Wikipedia page. Her story was made into a media sensation and reported both within the US and internationally (Canada and as far away as Japan) in 1983-84 when she was raped and the trial that followed. While this situation did cast a negative light on the Portuguese community at the time it still deserves at least a mention on this page as Cheryl did grow up and live in New Bedford for the majority of her all to short life...? This case was also the inspiration for the 1986 motion film "The Accused" starring Jodie Foster, which she won her first Best Actress Oscar for.

Thanks for your time and thoughts on this matter...

KNP1701C KNP1701C (talk) 02:43, 16 May 2024 (UTC)