Love The Ave Sabor y Ritmo

A Community Block Party on Acushnet Avenue

Saturday, Sept. 14 | 5-8:00 p.m.

Some people think summer ends after Labor Day. The Love The Ave New Bedford TDI District team knows it doesn’t! In fact, September is the best time for locals to get together and celebrate their community.

That’s why we’re hosting a block party! On Acushnet Avenue, no less! With the help of our friends and partners. 

On Saturday, September 14 from 5-8:00 p.m., The Ave will be closed to traffic but open to people from Nye Street to Bullard Street – in front of the magnificent St. Anthony of Padua Church – for Love The Ave Sabor y Ritmo. 

Some of the spaces we had so much fun in last summer – like the Nye Street pocket park where the Keith Francis sculpture “Love Locks” now resides and the community parking lot which once again will be transformed into a food court – will be expanded into the street and up the stairs in front of St. Anthony’s beyond the parapet onto the patio as yet another space is activated for the community. 

The evening will pay homage to National Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated in September and everyday along this diverse commercial corridor in businesses and homes alike. (Sabor y Ritmo roughly translates from Spanish into Latin Dance Party.)

As a special enticement to move your booty on the pavement, Love The Ave Sabor y Ritmo will be hosting 3rd Eye Unlimited for a special performance of their Five Pillars of Hip Hop series. 

As mentioned above, there will be a food court in the municipal parking lot at the corner of Bullard Street and Acushnet Avenue. Unique vendors representing Hispanic heritage and New Bedford creative businesses will table. And, they’ll be music of course – including special performances to be announced on our Facebook page – and a surprise or two. 

This fun, free event has been coordinated by the New Bedford TDI District team with our friends and partners. Like the City of New Bedford, the Community Economic Development Center, Groundwork Southcoast, and the South Coast Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, in addition to 3rd Eye Unlimited. 

So don’t believe the rap; summer ain’t over ‘til you’ve had a chance to Love The Ave. Bring your friends, bring your families, bring yourself to the Love The Ave Sabor y Ritmo, a Community Block Party on Acushnet Avenue this September 14th and enjoy one last blast of summer the way it was meant to be enjoyed: outside under the stars with pavement beneath your urban-loving feet! 

After all, we’re New Bedford. And we do neighborhoods right! 

LEADS ON SOUTH COAST

We’ve got great news regarding a new initiative happening from New Bedford to Fall River – one that features one of our very own: MassDevelopment’s Transformative Development Initiative (TDI) New Bedford District Fellow Adelsa Mendes has been selected as a member of the inaugural LEADS South Coast Fellows members.

After many months of planning, a coalition of regional partners led by Leadership SouthCoast in August announced the launch of the LEADS Fellowship for high-impact leaders in the South Coast. The nine month Fellowship is delivered in partnership with faculty from Harvard Business School and serves as a  platform for advancing and connecting diverse, cross-sectoral leaders in pursuit of making positive systems-level change at the local and regional level.

In addition to TDI Fellow Adelsa Mendes, other cohort members include Joshua Amaral, Director of Housing & Community Development, City of New Bedford; Sarah Athanas, Founder of Groundwork Coworking Space in New Bedford and Fall River; Tracy Silva Barbosa, also a (TDI) Fellow for the Attleboro TDI District; Jeff Glassman, President and Chief Executive Officer, of DarnIt! Inc. in New Bedford’s north end; and many others. (Find them all here.)

The coalition of regional partners includes:

• EforAll
• Latinas of the South Coast
• One South Coast Chamber
• New Bedford Regeneration Committee
• South Coast Community Foundation
• South Coast Hispanic Chamber
• UMass Dartmouth
• United Way of Fall River
• United Way of New Bedford
• Vineyard Offshore
• Viva Fall River

EYES ON THE AVE

On Tuesday, August 20 New Bedford TDI was thrilled to be part of the unveiling of the new “Envision Resilience” mural on the Sawyer Street wall of the North End Stereo building located at 1200 Acushnet Ave in New Bedford. 

Installed by artist David Andrews, curator of Gallery X’s recent “Cultural Mosaic” exhibit and co-founder of “Wampanoag Social,” the mural depicts a graphic designed by Ethan Moyer, a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA).

The graphic illustration is a call to action, telling the story of a community working together to be imaginative and adaptive in the face of a changing climate and rising sea levels. It’s one of several outcomes of the Envision Resilience Challenge, a multi-university design studio and community engagement initiative, focused on hopeful climate futures developed by philanthropist Wendy Schmidt through Remain, which took place in New Bedford and Fairhaven between 2023-2024.. 

Check out some photos from the event in the slideshow below, taken for New Bedford TDI District by Justin Botelho. 

LISC in New Bedford

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Massachusetts held a meeting in the New Bedford TDI District on Monday, Aug. 12 at the Community Economic Development Center (CEDC). The well-attended meeting allowed many TDI District businesses to learn about becoming candidates for the LISC’s Growth Capital Fund. This is designed for established businesses with revenues between $250,000 and $3 million that are owned by underrepresented and under-resourced entrepreneurs who are looking for financing for a strategy they are pursuing to grow their business, including job growth. We look forward to this meeting yielding results that we can share with you in a future newsletter.

Movie Night

“Despicable Me 3” under the stars: About 400 enjoyed a movie night in Riverside Park on Friday, August 16. New Bedford TDI District was pleased to work with the CEDC and Broken Glass Projection Mapping to bring the flick to the park for this successful – fun-filled – evening!

MAPPING ACUSHNET AVENUE

The magazine South Coast Almanac has a special event upcoming on Saturday, October 5 that we want to give you a heads up on -. “Mapping Acushnet Avenue to begin a career: John Bullard’s hometown.” Here’s what you need to know: 

“Before he transformed the waterfront district by working @whalenewbedford, before he was Mayor of New Bedford, before he went to work in DC, John Bullard chose New Bedford’s Acushnet Avenue in the North End as the inspiration for his graduate project in architecture/urban planning at MIT.

“Join us to walk through the district with Bullard as we discuss his book (Hometown) with him, check out the exciting new public art adorning the area, the international (and delicious) flavors found on Acushnet Avenue, and the history and vitality of the North End.

“The walk will be a slow ramble, less than 2 miles, around the North End of New Bedford.”

The event is free but South Coast Almanac asks that people pre-register so that they have a head count for refreshments. Learn more and register here. 

SMALL BUSINESS MATCHMAKER

The U.S. Small Business Administration is hosting an in-person Access to Capital and Small Business Resources Matchmaker event at the Fort Taber Community Center in south end, New Bedford on Tuesday, September 10th from 9am-12pm. This free event is an opportunity to network and learn about the resources available for small businesses to start, grow and expand. There will be pastries and refreshments available during networking.

Register at this link.

NEWS OF INTEREST

El Patio de Comidas: “Summer-long celebration of Central American cuisine provides a launch pad for local businesses” – The Public’s Radio took note of Patio de Comidas in Riverside Park in a feature story. They wrote, “Hundreds gather in New Bedford’s Riverside Park on Saturdays throughout the summer to enjoy Latin American food from local vendors who got their start through the Patio de Comidas initiative. The series, which also features music, dancing, and local goods, concludes on Saturday with a grand finale: the Festival Tipico de Guatemala.” Read the full story here. 

New Bedford credit union removes roadblock for immigrants – The South Coast Federal Credit Union in New Bedford, in collaboration with the Community Economic Development Center, is making it easier for immigrants to open accounts by eliminating the requirement that customers have a Social Security number. Find out more here.

Enhanced First-Time Homebuyer Program –  The City of New Bedford, through its Office of Housing and Community Development, has allocated American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to provide assistance with down payment, closing costs and interest rate buydown to eligible New Bedford residents purchasing their first home. This helps address housing affordability challenges, particularly for low-and moderate-income households impacted by COVID, facilitating access to homeownership and promoting economic recovery. See if you qualify here.

• The New Bedford TDI District is a diverse and vibrant neighborhood in the central economic corridor of the city’s North End. This distinct neighborhood is characterized by its linear commercial spine of small business storefronts on the ground level of one- and two-story tenement structures along with ethnic restaurants, cafes, bakeries, churches, and social clubs. The supporting dense neighborhood is comprised primarily of multifamily housing for legacy Portuguese-descent residents and Latino, Hispanic, and Central American immigrant populations. At the forefront of priorities for the New Bedford TDI Partnership is place-based economic development that focuses on small-business development, entrepreneurship, and public realm improvements with an arts-and-culture-based approach. Adelsa Mendes is the TDI fellow for the New Bedford TDI District. You can reach her at [email protected]