Today’s Providence Journal has an excellent editorial noting the re-emergence of commercial shipping in New Bedford due to a recent dredging project and the city’s efforts to promote marine commerce.  The editorial argues that Providence should be doing the same thing rather than pushing plans for condominiums and hotels that threaten existing working waterfront businesses:

New Bedford isn’t the only recently re-dredged port in the region, but it seems to be the one most aggressively courting new business. Revitalizing ports as working ports (i.e., shipping), with their well-paid workers, is much better for the economic health of such old ports as New Bedford and Providence than blocking them off with condos and other low-paying enterprises.