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This part of New Bedford is a busy commercial coorridor around Acushnet Avenue, with many "mom and pop" stores. It is a walkable area, with dense population and multi-family houses (double and triple deckers). In this area people gather and socialize in Riverside Park and Brooklawn Park and in churches such as St. Anthony of Padua and Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Joseph's Catholic Churches, and the Feast Grounds (related to Immaculate Conception Church), and social clubs such as ethnically defined, Portuguese community such as the Medeiran Club, Portuguese Sports Association Club, etc. A number of storefront churches continue to emerge on Acushnet Avenue.
In this part of New Bedford, it is the "gateway" of the gateway city of New Bedford. Generations of immigrants have settled in this part of New Bedford: French Canadian, Portuguese, Azorean and Medeiran Portuguese, and more recently the Mayan Kiche Guatemalan community, and other Central American communities (ex. Honduran, Salvadoran), and more newly arrived Cape Verdean immigrants. Currently both the Guatemalan and Portuguese communities are influential in the community.
Members of this area of New Bedford, esp. the Central America community are employed in seafood processing and in tire recycling and warehousing. Manufacturing and the service industries are also major employers. Environmental concerns include the Acushnet River being a PCB contamination site from manufacturing along the river. The site has been dredged, and is still a part of a flood zone. Because of the dense nature of the neighborhood and the older housing stock, cooling has been an issue in terms of keeping a densely packed area cool - overheating is an issue putting residents at risk.
This area of New Bedford has suffered many years of dis-investment and lack of attention by elected officials. Key institutions like healthcare and banking institutions have dis-invested from this neighborhood. There are ongoing issues of blight and neglect in city services in the neighborhood. There is a lack of representation among elected officials to reflect the composition of this neighborhood, both locally and at the state level.
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