Talk:New Bedford, Massachusetts/Archive 1

Economy
For now, it is best we keep the Economy section where it is. Until we have more details on the modern economy we have no need to move the historical part to the History section. Give the article until it has expanded enough, and then we will have need to split the section. -- LGagnon 23:10, Jun 24, 2005 (UTC)


 * Counter-proposal: How about I build a new Economy section with current data?


 * I decided to just sub-section everything under Economy, and added a bunch of data from the MassGov site, along with a link to the new New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park -Harmil 14:27, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Feast
The article says, "New Bedford tourism centers around fairs and festivals including Summerfest, the traditional Blessing of the Fleet, and the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament (the largest Portuguese cultural celebration in the nation)."

My Stepfather, who works in a Portuguese market in New Bedford disputes this, saying that the festival in Newark, NJ is much larger. Does anyone know where we got this fact from, and if it's current? Are we measuring in terms of attendance? Number of city blocks? Funding? -Harmil 22:25, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

i have been blocked
i am not a member (or user, if thats what its called) of Wikipedia, but i use it all the time. why have i been blocked? all i did was include 1 sentence after the name of the current mayor, wherein i detailed the current election, stating he would probably soon be replaced by (other candidate's name) due to (other candidate) finishing 1st in the primary elections.


 * If you can post here, you haven't been blocked; your edit was removed because Wikipedia doesn't try to predict current events before they happen. When/if the mayor is replaced by the other candidate, then the article should be updated.  If you do get actually blocked from editing articles, it might be because it appears that you have an AOL IP address and other anonymous users might be vandalizing Wikipedia articles from the same IP.  In that case, you should probably create an account so you won't have to worry about that again. —Cleared as filed. 22:00, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

City seal
There seems to be something wrong with the picture of the city seal. It isn't showing in the article. -- LGagnon 01:09, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Other details and errors
I put the names of all of the city's city councilors right next to the mayor, but this was deleted, I don't understand why, they essentially make more decisions then the mayor and are an important part of city government. Also, there is an error that says the city is governed by a Board of Selectmen, which is incorrect- it is a mayor-council government. I have tried to change this, it doesn't work for some reason- I'll try once more. I'm not going to put up the city councilors again until someone answers this for clarification of where to put them or why not to.


 * The template is the problem, not what is written in it; please do not change it here as you did again because it won't have any effect. There are manual ways to change this, but it is best that you take your problem to Template:Infobox Town MA and ask them to change things a little or at least help with this situation. -- LGagnon 00:45, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Transportation section updated to reflect reality as of May, 2006; all info checked on current Web sites. A few redundant sentences were removed. -- 68.239.62.208


 * Can you back up your edits with cited sources? They're a little too specific to be taken at face value. -- LGagnon 12:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Citations now up for my edits as of October 27, 2006. No citation for New Bedford Regional Airport info, as there is a link to Wikipedia article on this topic with references. No citation for current ferry service info because independent sources are all outdated (e.g., sources list only one Cuttyhunk service, or say that there is still slow ferry service to MV). I probably put in too many citations, so feel free to clean it up. Still needed: citation for history of ferry serivce, but I did not make this assertion, and can find no citations to back it up. -- 68.239.62.208

"Self inflicted"
Can we substantiate the "self inflicted" comment with regards to the shootout listed under Crime? -Harmil 05:09, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
 * seems like a good place to start. It was widely reported in Massachusetts shortly after the suspect died. Haikupoet 05:17, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Famous Natives
Hi folks,

I started this section a few months back, and have completely revised it. It is amazing to see how many influential people have come from our city. It's definitely a good way to boost city pride! Let me know if you have any suggestions. -- dyoken 19:31, 2 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I noticed that "natives" seems to imply that the individuals were born in New Bedford. Although the introduction to the section explains that this is not necessarily the case, I wonder if it would be better to rename to something a little more general to include people who were born elsewhere. I couldn't think of any really great alternatives...perhaps something like "Famous New Bedford residents"? It might be helpful for me to take a closer look at similar sections in other Wikipedia articles. Any suggestions?--GregRM 02:15, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Adding More Information
I am an employee of a local newpaper website an I have an active account. Everytime I go to add a link to a subject so that your readers can find out more information, I get a message saying that the links were removed. Why does this keep happening and is there a different way for me to be adding information to your website? -LAuger
 * I assume you are talking about edits like this. These edits don't conform to our standards - they push people out to other sites rather than putting the information in the article.  If there is good information available that is encyclopedic for this article please summarize it and add it to the article.  In such a case the link might be a good source to use as a reference.   Be a little wary of using only one source though - that can lead to point of view issues and unbalanced articles.  Happy editing. -- SiobhanHansa 18:22, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Request for links on New Bedford, MA page
Dear New Bedford, MA page editors/administrators,

My name is Tracy and I work for The Standard Times website (SouthCoastToday.com). There are a few stories that are posted on your page that has information relevant to information that we have on our site as well. We have actually gone to the extent of creating specific pages for each of the events listed below. I wanted to request that we can add a link as a reference for these specific stories and or add an External Link. If you could please take the time to go through each of the listed subjects below to see if this is something that I can add our reference to or external link to and/or add more information to the stories so that we can cite it.

The following stories are:

1) Foxy Lady shooting (under the crime section) - the link to the page that we have created for this event is... http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPECIAL03 On this page, we also have specific articles of the event and updates as well. Since there is only one sentence of the event on Wikipedia, I can add more information from one of our articles and cite it below.

2) Immigration Raid in New Bedford - there is currently a statement about the Immigration Raid on the Wikipedia page but we also have much more information on this event on our site at http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPECIAL21 . Is it possible that we can either cite ourselves as a reference for this story and/or add more information about the event and cite?

3) Train expansion into the area - The MBTA has been stating for years that they will be expanding into the New Bedford area. Please see our link to our page for this event as well... http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPECIAL31 Here we have on going articles of this transition and the views of local people. There is a mention of the expansion in the transportation section, but can we add ourselves as a reference link for this story?

4) Passionada - Passionada was filmed right here in New Bedford and we have created a page just for this film and all of the information that was put together on the filming of this throughout the town. The link for the page is http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPECIAL14 It is mentioned under the Entertainment part of the New Bedford page. Can we possibly have a reference link for this section. We can also site some of the information that we have on our page in order to have the reference link. Please let me know.

New Information / Link:

1) Every year New Bedford puts on a "SummerFest" and we have a page created on our site for this event. The page link is http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPECIAL37 . Is it possible for me to add a small write up of this event on the New Bedford page and add a link in either the References section and/or External Links section?

If someone could please get back to me when they have a second that would be appreciated.

Thank You for your time. --Tracys49 17:18, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

"Current Socially Active Residents"
There appears to be a disagreement as to whether the "Current Socially Active Residents" section is appropriate for this article. IMO, little to none of the entries in this section are notable enough for the article, and the whole section could probably be axed. The "Notable residents" section is already a bit too long as it is (again, IMO). I've tagged the section with to hopefully get some additional eyes on it. --AbsolutDan (talk) 23:05, 28 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm removing the section, it's nothing but a magnet for non-notables. If you can provide a compelling reason to include these folk, please do so here. --AbsolutDan (talk) 05:15, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

EL housekeeping
I've removed some external links. If you feel any should be re-added or further ones removed, please discuss here. Thanks --AbsolutDan (talk) 00:49, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Removed Residents
Felix' book was also made into a play by a local NB woman and has been performed by the Zeiterion.
 * Charles Reis Felix, author of "Through a Portagee Gate," a memoir about growing up in New Bedford as the son of immigrant Portuguese parents, and other books, should be ***added*** to the List of Notable Residents. http://www.charlesreisfelix.com/

Several items have been commented out in the Notable Residents section. I'm moving them here so they will be more visible and can be discussed. The comments are not my own but those of the person(s) who commented the items out. --AbsolutDan (talk) 00:42, 12 February 2009 (UTC)


 * While well-liked in the city, Eddie Nicols was not a nationally known figure. Many people would fall in this category, so including her would require us to include a lot more people than are listed here.
 * *Eddie Nichols: Prominent businesswoman and activist. Eddie specialized in ballons and being New Bedford's premier historian on Hetty Green.


 * Come on folks, we're talking about major contributors to the national conscious and spirit. Weathermen are interesting folks, but I'm not sure I'd classify them at that level.
 * *Mike Cejka: Former resident, now popular, long time television meteorologist at WIVB-TV in Buffalo, NY.


 * Come on folks, we're talking about major contributors to the national conscious and spirit. Weathermen are interesting folks, but I'm not sure I'd classify them at that level.
 * Andre Bernier: First person to ever appear on The Weather Channel when it went on the air on May 2, 1982.


 * This should be noted elsewhere in the article, but isn't a "notable resident"
 * *Berkshire Hathaway: The most highly valued publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, and owned by Warren Buffet, was headquartered in the city until it was bought out by Mr. Buffett and turned into the most successful holding company in the U.S.

Timeline of New Bedford, Massachusetts
What is missing from the city timeline article? Please add relevant content! Contributions welcome. Thank you. -- M2545 (talk) 16:43, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111110090142/http://www.whalingmuseum.org/library/amwhale/am_arctic.html to http://www.whalingmuseum.org/library/amwhale/am_arctic.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120123010127/http://mblc.state.ma.us/advisory/statistics/public/repmunicpie/index.php to http://mblc.state.ma.us/advisory/statistics/public/repmunicpie/index.php

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Hermano Vieira Square
Hermano Vieira Square, is named for Hermano “Eddie” Perry (Perreira) Vieira, a native of New Bedford, a local soccer player, who served in the Tank Corps in WWII, and who earned a Purple Heart for his service and who later died as a result of his wounds. Senator John F. Kennedy visited this site to honor Private Eddie Vieira. (Can add photo of site & Senator JFK visit as covered by the newspapers.) Wickedcoolturtles (talk) 23:48, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

IMG_6398.PNG Purple Heart recipient Hermano “Eddie” P. Vieira, for which Hermano P. Vieira Square is named, is buried at Saint John’s cemetery in Nee Bedford, Massachusetts. Wickedcoolturtles (talk) 23:53, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

IMG_6398.PNG Purple Heart recipient Hermano “Eddie” P. Vieira, for which Hermano P. Vieira Square is named, is buried at Saint John’s cemetery in Nee Bedford, Massachusetts. Wickedcoolturtles (talk) 23:54, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I'd oppose that per WP:NOTMEMORIAL. 10s (if not hundreds) of thousands fighting men and women have earned the Purple Heart over the years. He certainly wouldn't be notable. He's certainly not the only person, even from this community, that died as a result of an injury sustained in a war. That information is not significant enough for inclusion and without reliable published secondary sources to back up everything said, I will continue to object. Even with sources the most I'd consider is a parenthetical mention in a referenced bit about the park, mentioning that it was named after a WWII vet, and only with reliable secondary sources. I'd oppose any inclusion of a photo of any non notable individual. John from Idegon (talk) 00:55, 19 July 2019 (UTC)


 * , I broke this entirely new subject off the 12 year old thread you added it to originally and gave it an appropriate header. I've archived most of the threads on this page. John from Idegon (talk) 01:49, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

Request for Comment New Bedford “Crime” section
Should the all the individual crimes listed in the New Bedford, Massachusetts section be deleted? Hudson2276 (talk) 15:16, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Don’t delete
 * Delete and replace with a sub-section focused on crime statistics.

The city’s crime rate, including violent and property crime decreased by 38% from 2011 to 2020 with 4456 incidents in 2011 and 2171 incidents in 2020. The FBI reported a violent crime rate in New Bedford, Massachusetts of 640 per 100,000 residents in 2019, compared to a national average of 366.7 per 100,000 residents. An FBI report in 2020 showed burglary and breaking and entering dropped about 52% from 969 crimes in 2011 to 465 crimes in 2019.
 * Delete and replace. Please note that I have a conflict of interest because I work for the city of New Bedford, Massachusett | (population 95,000(2019)). By listing many individual crimes, the New Bedford, Massachusetts section does not adhere to the best practices of including only relatively recent crime statistics, as can be seen in WP: Featured Articles for similarly small cities like Hillsboro, Oregon, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Providence, Rhode Island. Even FA articles about major cities, such as Boston, San Francisco and Cleveland, only feature relatively recent statistics and broad statements about trends rather than individual crimes. The reason seems obvious: listing individual crimes within an article about the entire city would soon overwhelm the article with breaking news, contrary to WP:NOTNEWS. For discussion purposes, here is a proposed replacement sub-section for Crime, which would be placed within the Demographics sections, modelled after the FAs for smaller cities Hillsboro, Oregon, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Providence, Rhode Island.Hudson2276 (talk) 15:16, 29 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Delete and replace with a sub-section focused on crime statistics.Thelostone41 (talk) 19:01, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Delete and replace, I feel like having recent crime statistics would be better for the article. Jebbles (talk) 11:50, 30 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Delete and replace; it's becoming a dumping ground for whatever crime people think to add to it. --Hammersoft (talk) 12:16, 30 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Delete and replace; Hudson2276 makes a sound argument why the section should be replaced and using the FBI crime reports (Uniform Crime Report) is a reliable and accurate source of crime data that can be used to compare crime in New Bedford with other areas of the country. In addition, the FBI Crime Report comes out annually and has been published since 1930 (see https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr). Though there are limitations to the report, it is one often used in criminal justice as it adheres to generally accepted methods of statistical reporting. Jurisdicta (talk) 01:01, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Delete and replace; with the WP:PROSELINE writing style right now, it feels like the page as is violates WP:INDISCRIMINATE. Unless it's shown why this is particularly useful information to know about the town, the section adds very little to the article. — Wingedserif (talk) 02:19, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Delete and replace Yes, seems to be a long list that is likely to expand, without restraint - yes, violates WP:INDISCRIMINATE Deathlibrarian (talk) 03:41, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Delete and replace with a subsection focused on crime statistics. BristolTreeHouse (talk) 15:47, 1 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Delete and replace. as Wingedserif says, it's simply an INDISCRIMINATE collection acting as a dumping ground giving it an WP:OR-ish tone (much of it is uncited). WOW, someone really loves New Bedford! Pincrete (talk) 12:17, 2 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Delete and replace A Subsection focused on crime statistics will be good. Sea Ane (talk) 22:43, 8 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Delete and replace, per several editors above. Idealigic (talk) 23:35, 8 August 2021 (UTC)

Section Order
Sections should be reordered per WP:USCITY. I fixed some, I'll leave it to other editors to move more sections. • Sbmeirow  •  Talk  • 20:03, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

Request Edits August 2021
I work for the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts. I’d like to suggest improvements to the New_Bedford, Massachusetts subsection of “Government”. The current second and third sentences of the first paragraph are out of date and incomplete. The second sentence, about council and mayoral terms, is uncited and does not explain that the city charter was changed in 2019 to double the mayor’s term from two to four years.

In the third sentence, the language describing who is the “current” mayor is from 2011, and doesn’t address subsequent terms and elections. This paragraph also lacks information about other high-ranking positions in city government, including the city council president, as can be seen in Good Articles about cities such as Albany, New York. The suggested new language, replacing sentences two and three, is as follows:

Government

City Council members serve two-year terms. In 2019, following a change in the city charter, the mayoral term was doubled from two years to four years. The council and mayoral positions do not have term limits.

Former assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan F. Mitchell, defeated State Representative Antonio F.D. Cabral in the 2011 mayoral election. Mitchell was re-elected to his fifth consecutive term as mayor in the 2019 election, defeating challenger Tyson Moultrie.

In 2021, Joseph Lopes was re-elected to a second consecutive term as president of the City Council.

Thank you for your consideration.Hudson2276 (talk) 17:14, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

Done - Hopefully correctly, Hudson2276, I'm not a CoI expert, but since these were uncontroversial changes, I don't think there would have been a problem in you doing them yourself on a WP:BRD basis ie discuss if anyone objects. Pincrete (talk) 09:08, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Implement RfC
Since the RfC is now closed and unanimous, can someone please implement it? To make it easier, I wrote a paragraph with language modeled after three WP:Featured Articles of other cities, Hillsboro, Oregon, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Providence, Rhode Island. As I disclosed above, I have a conflict of interest, so I can’t be the one to edit the article. Here is the proposed replacement sub-section for Crime, which would be placed at the bottom of the Demographics section.:

Crime The city’s crime rate, including violent and property crime decreased by 38% from 2011 to 2020 with 4456 incidents in 2011 and 2171 incidents in 2020. The FBI reported a violent crime rate in New Bedford, Massachusetts of 640 per 100,000 residents in 2019, compared to a national average of 366.7 per 100,000 residents. An FBI report in 2020 showed burglary and breaking and entering dropped about 52% from 969 crimes in 2011 to 465 crimes in 2019. Thank you.Hudson2276 (talk) 17:04, 19 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Hudson2276 I have implemented the new section, as it appears and was supported and voted on in the RFC.I hope I have interpreted where it was supposed to go (in the demographics section, at the bottom?) Deathlibrarian (talk) 01:22, 20 August 2021 (UTC)


 * I propose a rewrite (though the general idea seems pretty sound for me). Changes: included statewide comparisons; wrong calculations by author of the local newspaper (recalculated per WP:CALC).
 * According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there were 640 reported violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2019, compared to a national average of 366.7 per 100,000 people and almost double the statewide average of 327.6 violent crimes. It was also among the cities with the highest crime rates in Massachusetts, according to 2019 data. The city’s crime rate, including violent and property crime, has declined by more than half from 2011 to 2020, with 4456 incidents in 2011 and 2171 incidents in 2020, which was in line with the statewide reduction of crime during that period. Some crime rates, however, did not decrease as fast as statewide - though the FBI reported a 52% fall in burglaries and breaking and entering from 2011 to 2019, the city's decrease in these was less pronounced than in Massachusetts as a whole. Szmenderowiecki (talk) 18:17, 19 August 2021 (UTC)
 * hi Szmenderowiecki - The RFC that was voted for (wtih support) included the suggested wording, so I have inserted it.If you want to insert a new, different section, we will probably need to get consensus on that, but for the meantime at least, I have inserted the wording that was included with the RFC Deathlibrarian (talk) 01:26, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for adding the new material with crime stats. But the first part of the RfC consensus is still not implemented -- to delete the existing Crime section with the long list of individual crimes, New Bedford, Massachusetts, in lieu of the new language you already inserted. Right now, the article has two Crime sections. Would you please be able to implement the deletion as well? Thank you. Hudson2276 (talk) 14:04, 24 August 2021 (UTC)