Economic development in Fall River: understanding our challenges
By Carole Fiola
As a state representative, my primary obligations are working on legislation in the State House and serving the 40,000-plus constituents of the 6th Bristol District, and I am honored to do so. Sometimes, when an issue arises in one portion of the city, it needs to be addressed because it represents a problem that has the potential to alter the city as a whole. I take pride in working toward our region’s economic improvement.
In April, Gov. Deval Patrick petitioned an economic development bill titled “An Act to Promote Growth and Opportunity.” It was referred to the Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee, upon which I sit. Like many of my fellow representatives, I found this piece of legislation to be a prime chance to stimulate development in the Sixth Bristol District and the SouthCoast.
With this in mind, I successfully filed an amendment to the bill in June that focused on the advancement of SouthCoast cities, co-sponsored by my fellow delegation members, state Reps. Paul Schmid and Alan Silvia. It called for not less than $100,000, in conjunction with Bristol Community College, to conduct a study on the causes of chronically high levels of unemployment and poverty and chronically low levels of educational attainment within the cities of Fall River and New Bedford and develop a comprehensive strategy to address these issues. I feel that it is important for us to take a serious look at what social and economic ills are in our communities and what we can do to mitigate these problems.
I believe that it is important to better understand why Fall River has chronically high unemployment levels when hundreds of jobs in the area are going unfilled. I believe it is important to understand why Fall River seems to be shouldering more than its share when it comes to provision of low-income housing. I believe it is important to understand why 20 percent of Fall River’s population is living in poverty and what is attracting more people living below the poverty level to our community.
I want to better understand what state and/or federal policies are contributing to these factors and identify ways to spread the challenge of low-income housing accommodation throughout the state. I want to identify ways to lower the percentage of Fall River residents living in poverty and look to retrain people for work and adjust the welfare system so it makes more economic sense to find a job as opposed to receiving public benefits.
Concurrent to this process, I, along with my legislative colleagues, state Sen. Michael Rodrigues and Reps. Silvia and Schmid, also want to work to change the plan approved by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development that calls for additional low-income housing rental units at the former Watuppa Heights site. The 2002 state legislation originally authorized the construction of 26 single family homes, all of which shall be made available to families with incomes failing at or below 80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI) and half of which shall be made available to families at or below 50 percent of AMI.
Whether it is the development of more low-income housing for Watuppa Heights or the development of more low-income housing in the city’s North End, I believe that the city of Fall River has carried more than its fair share of low-income housing. In my opinion, we must look at this issue holistically as to its impact on property values, public safety and impact on the school system and existing social service agencies.
In order to continue to move this city forward, we must collectively work together to develop a properly balanced community. We must identify our assets and liabilities and develop a product that is attractive to all income levels, nationalities, and races. We must focus our political and private and public sector development efforts on initiatives to attract the upper and middle class back to our city. We must properly balance the percentage of upper, middle and lower income residents in the city.
Although these initiatives may not be realized overnight, we must continue to invest in education, public safety, and infrastructure to develop our product — the city of Fall River. I am working hard to do my part in Boston along with my colleagues, and I am confident that with patience and cooperation from our residents, and teamwork from our community leaders and state leaders, we can achieve these objectives.
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