By Steven Froias
Special to Love The Ave
Over the past several years, many people have asked those of us involved in the Love The Ave partnership some version of the same question – “What’s this all about?”
The short answer is that the Love The Ave campaign was created about a decade ago from a partnership between North End’s Community Economic Development Center and MA Smart Growth Alliance’s Great Neighborhoods program. It sought to help propel the commercial corridor’s revitalization forward by giving The Ave a new identity. And that effort has since been embraced by many other partners in subsequent years, including most recently by MassDevelopment’s TDI District program.
Now, here’s the long answer. This answer is rooted in the history of urban redevelopment, particularly as it’s played out along Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford. So, let’s go “back to the future” and explore some history from the 20th century to understand how we came to Love The Ave in the 21st century.
Back to 1979
On Sunday, March 4, 1979, The Standard-Times ran this headline across its local news section: “North End business revival starts.”
At the time, Acushnet Avenue—like downtown New Bedford and many urban cores—was beginning a steep decline. Suburban malls were on the rise, drawing shoppers away. Foot traffic slowed, retail vacancies multiplied, and once-busy storefronts went dark. In the era of peak “big government,” local, state, and federal agencies mobilized to try to stop the bleeding and preserve these important economic and cultural hubs.
The article began:
“The North End of New Bedford has started on the comeback trail since it won a $500,000 Community Development grant last year. It’s been a slow start, some say, but a definite and deliberate one.
“The first visible sign of the revitalization of Acushnet Avenue comes with the imposing name of North End Commercial Improvement Project. At first, the office was home to just an administrative assistant and her desk.
“In July, the project got a director. Donald Silva of 444 Brock Ave. signed on for a $12,000 annual salary.
“Last summer, new light dawned on Acushnet Avenue as sodium vapor streetlights replaced old lighting along the 2½-mile strip.
“Plans for new parking facilities on the lower end of the avenue are almost ready for execution…”
“Private investment has been spurred by public money. Thirty-four merchants have agreed to renovate their storefronts with the promise of 25 percent (up to $2,000) reimbursement.”
Fast-Forward to Today
In 2025, lighting is still a recurring theme. The sodium vapor lamps are long gone, replaced by LEDs—but demand for better lighting remains.
And those parking lots? They’re here. Today, three municipal lots serve The Ave:
- At Coggeshall and Route 18
- Behind Cotali Mar restaurant
- Across from St. Anthony of Padua Church
The Love The Ave TDI Partnership has put them to good use, hosting elements of events like Love The Ave Wednesdays and the Sabor y Ritmo block party (returning September 13). Chalk up a win for the North End Commercial Improvement Project.
Still, despite the optimism of 1979, the revival faltered. Not for lack of effort, but because of a cultural shift—toward the malls, then big-box stores, and eventually online shopping—that drained vitality from commercial districts nationwide, including New Bedford’s North End.
Some businesses endured. Folco’s Jewelers and Mimo Restaurant (est. 1977) both survived those lean years. Folco’s even hosts a mural that helped spark today’s Love The Ave movement! But too many succumbed and the North End entered a precipitous decline.
Donald Silva’s Lasting Insight
Donald Silva, that first project director, understood the challenge wasn’t just parking or lighting—it was identity. The North End’s “individual flavor,” he was quoted in the story as saying, was its strength, found in its ethnic restaurants and rich history. The problem? No one was marketing it. His wish list—block identifications, awnings, new sidewalks, signage, and the professional branding of Acushnet Avenue and the North End—reads like a blueprint for what came decades later.
That’s reflected in the streetscape project, accomplished in the 21st century, which today gives Acushnet Avenue from Coggeshall Street to Sawyer Street distinctive blue street signs, blue-colored amenities like benches and trash receptacles, and an attractive new sidewalk and bike lanes. This was accomplished after streetscape planning in 2010 began to develop the idea that The Ave was the city’s International Marketplace. And, over the course of the Love The Ave decade of achievement, grants have continued to help storefronts improve their appearance, from new signage to, yes, awnings. (More is on the way…stay tuned for a big announcement soon!)
The Slow-Burn Renaissance
The investment by MassWorks into the streetscape, followed by the creation of the Love The Ave initiative, traces its genesis to a change in attitudes. In the late 1990s, something shifted. Across the country communities began questioning what was lost when malls and big-box chains replaced neighborhood business districts. Slowly, a renaissance began—starting downtown, radiating outward.
In New Bedford, the revival reached Acushnet Avenue thanks to a coalition of partners: the Community Economic Development Center, the New Bedford Economic Development Council, the Office of the Mayor, and—most recently—MassDevelopment’s TDI District initiative. Lacking the sheer mass of retail that existed in the 1970s, it was critical that these organizations pick up the slack and both support legacy small businesses and foster entrepreneurship along The Ave and in the North End generally.
When TDI Fellow Adelsa Mendes arrived with the TDI District, she went straight for the heart: Love The Ave. Instinctively, she knew that this branding effort was important to maintain, nurture and grow, and so incorporated it into what became a TDI Partnership that reflected the community. Without even realizing it, she embraced Silva’s old insight—flavor, identity, history—and recognized that real change required the buy-in of the business owners and residents by providing them with a voice and an identity.
That’s why Love The Ave isn’t just about storefront grants or façade projects. It’s about community events, shared pride, and creating spaces where neighbors gather. Because that’s the true strength behind smart development and shared prosperity.
Now & Next
Today, the North End does indeed have an identity all its own. “Love The Ave” lives on social media, on T-shirts, in posters—and soon, on street banners. The street has taken on a new vitality within that unique space. It proudly can boast the largest concentration of both Portuguese and Central American restaurants in New Bedford – which does indeed give it “flavor.” It also has retained or is attracting new, unique retail establishments to burnish its appeal as a destination.
It may have taken decades, not only years of effort but time for a cultural shift in society-at-large to manifest itself, but one thing is clear: in the long run, no good effort goes unrewarded. And our Love The Ave Partnership is part of this dynamic neighborhood’s future – as well as its history.
We think Donald Silva and members of the North End Commercial Improvement Project would be proud to Love The Ave today.